hi5 Expands Leadership Team as Company Experiences Dramatic Growth
hi5 Expands Leadership Team as Company Experiences Dramatic Growth
Company Appoints Board Chair, CFO, Business Development and Marketing Executives
hi5 Networks, one of the world’s largest social networks, introduced an expanded leadership team to fuel the company’s worldwide growth.
The additions to the executive team come at a time of dramatic growth of the company’s core business. Monthly unique visitors on the popular hi5.com social networking service increased from 31 million to over 56 million in the first six months of this year – a 79 percent increase, making it the fastest-growing major social network in the world.
To support that growth, the company has hired a number of senior executives to develop key functional areas. To head up the company’s finance, human resources, and administrative functions, Jeff Stephens joined hi5 as chief financial officer. Previously, Jeff was senior vice president finance and administration and corporate controller at QuinStreet, Inc., a leading online marketing and media company, as well as corporate controller at Sonnet Financial.
To expand monetization initiatives and grow the company’s partner ecosystem, David Kim has joined as vice president, Business Development & Strategy. David manages partnerships, revenue initiatives, and strategic planning for the business. Prior to hi5, David was senior vice president at Harcourt Education, a division of Reed Elsevier, where he led strategy and business & corporate development and oversaw the sale of the division’s assets to Pearson and Houghton Mifflin, respectively, in 2007. David also worked with several consumer web companies while at The Boston Consulting Group and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Leading hi5’s mobile business strategy and partnerships is Noelia Amoedo who joins as vice president, Mobile. Originally from Spain, Noelia joins hi5 from Buongiorno, a worldwide provider of mobile value added services, where she was Managing Director of Buongiorno’s U.S. Division.
To continue in the development of a world class product, Ram Gudavalli, was promoted to the role of vice president, Engineering. Since joining hi5 in 2004, Ram has been instrumental in developing highly scalable technology and in helping to build a world-class engineering organization. Prior to hi5, Ram held engineering positions at Mixonic, a new media duplication, printing and fulfillment service.
To help build awareness for the brand and further drive adoption for the service. Michael Trigg joins hi5 as vice president, Marketing. Mike was previously co-founder of Truviso, a real-time data analytics company, and VP of Marketing at Spoke, a professional social networking site. Mike has also held corporate, product, and brand marketing positions at Epiphany, 3Com and MCI. To lead hi5’s public relations and corporate communications, Adriana Gascoigne joins as director of communications. Adriana was previously at Ogilvy PR, as VP of their 360 Digital Influence division, and launched a variety of web 2.0 companies at FutureWorks Media.
Finally, the company also announced the addition of Karen Richardson, an advisor to Silver Lake Partners, as an addition to the hi5 Networks board of directors and chair of the board. Richardson accompanies Jon Feiber, General Partner at MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures, and founders Ramu Yalamanchi and Akash Garg on the company’s board. Karen was previously CEO of Epiphany, Inc., a pioneer in customer analytics and web marketing software, and was head of sales during the company’s IPO in 1999. She also held senior sales positions at Netscape Communications and sales and marketing roles at Lotus, cc:Mail, and 3Com.
“We’ve experienced tremendous growth in the last year, and I’m thrilled we have assembled a world class team to capitalize on our market position,” said Ramu Yalamanchi, CEO of hi5. “The depth and diversity of experience of our leadership team is a huge asset and will help take our business to the next level.”
For more information on hi5’s management team, visit http://www.hi5networks.com/team.html
About hi5
Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, hi5 is one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing social networks. Our focus is to empower our users to build and maintain culturally relevant connections between friends and family online. With over 50 million unique visitors every month, hi5 is a top 20 website globally and the #1 social network in 25 countries across Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa. The service is available in 27 languages, delivering localized content and applications to users worldwide.
Anil Dharni
David Kim
Jeff Stephens
Ram Gudavalli
Karen Richardson
Mike Trigg
Noelia Amoedo
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