Jim Spencer, president and founder, has helped lead several successful Internet start-up and established online companies. Jim was VP of Content and Answers at Ask Jeeves (Ask.com) where he was responsible for all search queries and helped lead the company to a top 15 site on the Internet and through a successful initial public offering. Prior to Ask Jeeves, Jim was the GM of News and Information Programming at AOL (News, Sports, Health, Research and International) leading the content, business and partnership operations for one of AOL’s major business units. He also served as director of strategic partnerships at NBC for MSNBC.com, leading the design and direction of the MSNBC.com web site and the coordination of the newsrooms of NBC News in New York and MSNBC’s newsroom on Microsoft’s campus in Redmond, WA. Jim began his online career as GM of New Media at Multimedia, Inc. Prior to graduate school, Jim represented and distributed motion pictures including Academy Award-winning movies, foreign films and U.S. independent cinema. Jim earned his MA in journalism at the University of Missouri-Columbia and his BFA from New York University’s Film School graduating from both schools with honors.
Pam Maples, vice president of editorial, is an award-winning journalist with extensive experience developing innovative and creative approaches to digital storytelling. Most recently, Pam was managing editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch/STLtoday.com, where she integrated online and print news gathering operations. Under her leadership, the newsroom won several awards for online and video news, including from the Online News Association, and was a 2009 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in breaking news. Previously, Pam was assistant managing editor of investigations at The Dallas Morning News where she was a member of the reporting team that was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in international reporting. Pam was a 2006 Knight Fellow in Journalism at Stanford University and is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism.
Max Carratura, vice president of finance and business operations, brings to the Company over 11 years of experience in finance, business development, management and fundraising, including more than six years of investment banking experience at Banc of America Securities, LLC, where he helped raised nearly $1.5 billion of capital for companies in diverse industries. In addition to his financial strategy and accounting expertise, Max provides strong legal review, human resources, sales-team building and customer relationship management experience. Max’s latest work history has been primarily as CFO for early stage companies. Max received a B.S. in finance from Rutgers School of Business/Rutgers College.
Alexandra Wharton, vice president of marketing and community, has helped develop Internet marketing practices for the past 11 years. Her career began at The Well, the world’s earliest online community; she later joined the first interactive public relations practice at Cybernautics. At USWeb/CKS and MarchFirst, Alexandra delivered online audience development solutions for Apple, Levi’s, and American Airlines. She created thought leadership projects with Capgemini and Accenture for marketing executives at Fortune 500 companies at Montgomery Research. Most recently, Alexandra covered interactive marketing as senior writer for Revenue magazine. She graduated from Tulane University with a B.A. in English.
