Tapjoy Attracts Leading Industry Experts to Establish New Board of Advisors

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 6, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Tapjoy, Inc. (www.tapjoy.com), a value exchange mobile ad network, today announced the formation of an advisory board consisting of seasoned executives from leading companies within the mobile, media, advertising and technology industries. The inaugural members include Peter Yared, CTO of CBS Interactive; Bernardo Hernandez, Head of Emerging Products at Google; Jeff Lanctot, CMO of Razorfish; Arjun Sethi, CEO of LOLapps; Shane Kim, former Microsoft executive and current Board Member at GameStop; Jim Elms, Lead of Global Strategy and Insights at UM; Matt Ocko, Managing Director of Archimedes Capital; and Tom Moss, CEO of 3LM.

"We've assembled some of the best minds in the industry to advise us on product development, strategic partnerships and overall corporate direction," said Mihir Shah, President and CEO of Tapjoy. "We are very honored that such a distinguished group of experts believe so strongly in what we are doing. Their guidance will be invaluable as we work towards our goals of growing our consumer brand, developing new products and services for the developer and advertiser communities, and expanding our business internationally."

Peter Yared is the Chief Technology Officer of CBS Interactive and was previously the founder and CEO of four e-commerce and marketing infrastructure companies that were acquired by Sun, VMware, Webtrends and TigerLogic. Mr. Yared's software has powered brands from Fidelity to Home Depot to Lady Gaga. He is the inventor of several patents on core Internet infrastructure, including federated single sign on and dynamic data requests. Peter began programming games and utilities at age 10 and started his career developing systems for government agencies. Mr. Yared regularly writes about technology trends for VentureBeat and has also written for BusinessWeek, AdWeek and InfoWorld.

Bernardo Hernandez is a Spanish tech entrepreneur and business angel who also holds the title of Head of Emerging Products at Google. At the age of 29, after 5 years as an analyst and portfolio manager in the asset management industry with companies like Fidelity and Putnam Investments, he started his first Internet venture, idealista.com, now the leading real estate online portal in Spain. Since then he has participated in other online start-ups, such as floresfrescas.com, planetaki.com, 11870.com and the leading social network in Spain, tuenti.com. His latest venture is StepOne.com, a company that helps Spanish businesses get established in the US.

Shane Kim worked for Microsoft Corporation for almost 20 years, most of which was with Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business division, most recently as its Corporate Vice President of Strategy and Business Development. Before that, Mr. Kim was the Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Game Studios, where he oversaw a team of approximately 1,000 programmers, designers, artists and producers developing a broad range of Xbox 360 and Windows titles. He also led the delivery of some of the industry's most renowned franchises including Halo, Gears of War, Fable and Forza Motorsport. Mr. Kim was elected to the Board of Directors at GameStop Corporation in July, 2011.

Jeff Lanctot is the Global Chief Media Officer of Razorfish, one of the world's largest digital media agencies, and works with clients such as Best Buy, Nike, Mercedes Benz and Microsoft. He previously worked as Managing Director of Advertiser and Publisher Solutions for Microsoft Advertising.  In his prior tenure at Razorfish, Jeff served as Chief Strategy Officer, and as General Manager of the agency's Northwest region. He began his career with Deloitte Consulting. He is a recipient of numerous industry accolades, including Advertising Age's Media Maven Award, MEDIAWEEK's Media All-Star award, and B2B Magazine's Best Brightest Media Strategist award. He was also named one of Media Magazine's 50 Most Influential People in Online Advertising and MEDIAWEEK's Top 50 Media Executives.

As CEO of Lolapps for 6waves Lolapps, Arjun Sethi is responsible for setting the overall product vision and strategy. Prior to 6waves Lolapps Arjun was the CEO and founder of Roflplay, a social startup which was acquired by Lolapps in July 2009. Arjun initially served as the Head of Business and Corporate Development and was named CEO in March, 2010. Previously, Arjun has held management positions with the Carlyle Group and has founded multiple startups. In addition Arjun has invested and lent his advice to many Valley-based companies including Facebook, Groupon and others.

Jim Elms is the Lead of Global Strategy and Insights at UM. Previously, he was the EVP, Director of Context Planning, at Grey NYC, where he directed blue-chip clients such as Procter & Gamble, Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Canon and Dairy Queen. Prior to that Mr. Elms was the EVP, Director of Insights and Delivery at Barkley, and he also served at Peter Mayer when the agency won a Gold Effie for their work with the New Orleans Saints and at Wieden+Kennedy, where he contributed to winning a Cannes Gold Lion in 2001.

Matt Ocko, Managing Director of Archimedes Capital, has nearly three decades of experience as a technology entrepreneur, operating executive and venture capitalist, both in the US and in China.  Matt has been a Partner of VantagePoint Venture Partners and was a founding General Partner of Softbank Technology Ventures.  His investments include Zynga, Facebook, Tango.me, Cotendo, XenSource (CTRX), SupportSoft (SPRT), Verisign (VRSN), Alantro (TXN), UltraDNS (NSR), Fortinet (FTNT), Akimbi (VMW), MetaWeb (GOOG), Kenshoo,  BranchOut, and Impermium.  Matt founded and was VP of R&D for Da Vinci Systems, a pioneering e-mail software vendor with over 1 million users world-wide prior to its acquisition. He is an inventor on more than 25 granted or in process patents, and still reads code.

Tom Moss is the Co-Founder and CEO of 3LM a mobile security and device management company that has been acquired by Motorola Mobility. Prior to starting 3LM, Mr. Moss was a member of the Android team at Google, where he was in charge of business development and strategic partnerships for Android worldwide. While at Google, Mr. Moss received a Founders Award, the highest employee award, given for extraordinary entrepreneurial achievement by a team at Google—in this case, the Android team.

About Tapjoy

Tapjoy is a value exchange mobile ad network whose unique Mobile Value Exchange™ model allows users to select personalized advertisements with which to engage for virtual currency or premium content.  Tapjoy helps unlock mobile joy by empowering more than 280 million mobile users who choose to watch videos, subscribe to services, install applications and participate in other types of advertisements in exchange for virtual currency they can use in their favorite apps.  Tapjoy's turnkey in-app advertising platform helps developers acquire cost-effective, high-value new users and monetize their applications, while its powerful advertising marketplace lets brand advertisers reach a global mobile audience spanning more than 10,000 applications. Tapjoy is backed by top-tier investors including J.P.Morgan Asset Management, Rho Ventures, North Bridge Venture Partners, InterWest Partners and D.E. Shaw Ventures. Headquartered in San Francisco, the company also has offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, London and Tokyo. For more information, please visit www.tapjoy.com.

Tapjoy and the Tapjoy logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Tapjoy, Inc. All third party logos and trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE Tapjoy, Inc.