Tapad Announces Founding Board Following Closure Of Telenor Acquisition

Technology And Business Leaders Join Tapad's Board as Company Charts Global, Unified Marketing Technology Path

News provided by

May 03, 2016, 11:59 ET

NEW YORK, May 3, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Following its $360 million acquisition by global telecom giant Telenor, Tapad has announced the members of its founding board. Joining Are Traasdahl, Tapad Founder and CEO, are a seasoned group of technology and business leaders including Jon Gravråk, Knut Giske and Matthew Kearney. Gravråk has been named Chairman of the Tapad Board.

"We welcome Jon, Knut and Matthew to our board," said Are Traasdahl, Tapad CEO and Founder. "They are established leaders and mentors who each possess a deep understanding of how to drive strong and sustained business growth. They will be instrumental in helping Tapad on its path as we shape the future of unified marketing technology and extend our reach globally."

Tapad CFO Jeff Driskill serves as the board's Chief Compliance Officer and Dave Fall, Tapad's SVP of Operations, is secretary to the board.

Gravråk is Chief Digital Officer/EVP at Telenor Group and the head of Digital Businesses, the global unit looking after Telenor's investments in digital business models. Previously, he was a Partner at McKinsey & Company, where he held multiple leadership positions in McKinsey's Telecom, Media and Tech practice. He has primarily worked with companies within the telecom, high-tech and private equity sectors, but has also served clients in media, e-commerce, retail and financial services. During his time at McKinsey, Gravråk worked with strategy and business improvements in more than 30 countries across Europe, Asia, Middle East, North America and Latin America.

Giske is Group Controller/SVP at Telenor ASA, heading Telenor's Financial Reporting & Controlling (FRC) department. He has held numerous board positions in the past decade, including Telenor Hungary, Telenor Montenegro & Serbia and Telenor Bulgaria. Giske is responsible for strategic financial business planning, facilitating investment and performance management within the Telenor Group.

Kearney is the Operating Partner for Dan Gilbert's PE fund Rockbridge, overseeing its media investments. He is also an advisor to the Telenor Board on advertising and media technology. He has extensive experience in TV, film and online. He has held senior positions at Carlton Communications (now ITV Plc), was CEO of Screenvision, one of the two major players in cinema advertising and launched the Daily Mail's MailOnline in the U.S. Prior to Rockbridge, Kearney was Executive Chairman of the Carlyle Group-backed Talent Partners.

With nearly 20 years in digital marketing and emerging media, Traasdahl introduced Tapad's first-to-market, unified cross-screen technology in 2010. He, along with Co-Founder and CTO Dag Liodden, grew the company to its current position as the leading cross-screen marketing solution for global brands and marketers. Prior to Tapad, Traasdahl founded Thumbplay, a mobile entertainment service that achieved more than $100 MM in revenues in less than three years before he exited the company (the company, later acquired by Clear Channel, is now iHeartRadio).

About Tapad
Tapad Inc. is a marketing technology firm renowned for its breakthrough, unified, cross-device solutions. With 91.2% data accuracy confirmed by Nielsen, the company offers the largest in-market opportunity for marketers and technologies to address the ever-evolving reality of media consumption on smartphones, tablets, home computers and smart TVs. Deployed by agency trading desks, publishers and numerous Fortune 500 brands, Tapad provides an accurate, unified approach to connecting with consumers across screens. In 2015, Tapad began aggressively licensing its identity management solution, the Tapad Device Graph™, and swiftly became the established gold-standard throughout the ad tech ecosystem. Tapad is based in New York and has offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Frankfurt, London, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, San Francisco and Toronto. TechCrunch called the powerhouse Tapad team "a hell of a list of entrepreneurs who created some of the most valuable online advertising companies of the last decade." Among Tapad's numerous awards: EY Entrepreneur of The Year (East Coast) 2014, among Forbes' Most Promising Companies two year's running, Deloitte's Technology Fast 500, Crain's Fast 50, Entrepreneur 360, Digiday Signal Award, iMedia ASPY Award, and a MarCom Gold Award.