Craig Palmer, President and CEO
Joining Gracenote at the beginning of 2003, Palmer brings over 20 years of high technology experience working with successful business-to-business software companies, including Aspect Development, a leader in Supply Chain Management acquired by i2 Technologies in 2000 for over $9 billion; as well as Cadence Design Systems and Hewlett Packard.
Prior to joining Gracenote, Palmer was Chairman, President and CEO of eWanted, an Internet startup company with an online consumer marketplace of over 750,000 users. From 1994 to 2000, Palmer held several vice president positions for Aspect Development, where he helped the company achieve a successful Initial Public Offering in 1996, and was instrumental in growing the company from $2 million in annual software revenues in 1994 to over $100 million in 2000. Aspect was acquired by i2, the leader in Supply Chain Management in 2000. From 1989 to 1994, Palmer held a range of senior marketing positions at Cadence Design Systems as it grew to become the leading Electronic Design Automation (EDA) vendor. Prior to Cadence, Palmer spent seven years in marketing at Hewlett Packard, working for the division that spearheaded the company's launch into the Unix workstation marketplace.
Palmer holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin.
Palmer has spoken at numerous financial events, as well as Global Wireless Forum and Jupiter's Plug-In.
Dale (Ty) Roberts, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer
Ty Roberts is widely recognized as one of the inventors of enhanced CD technology and is accredited with producing the industry's first enhanced CDs. He joined Gracenote in November of 1998 after the company acquired ION, a multimedia and music technology company that he founded in 1993. Roberts serves as Gracenote's chief technology strategist, providing technology direction and overseeing the creation of products and services that leverage the power of the Gracenote database to deliver information services.
While at ION, Roberts produced the recording industry's first enhanced audio CD titles, including David Bowie's "Jump" and "Headcandy" from Brian Eno. He was the company's lead technologist and innovator in adding multimedia content to traditional audio CDs. ION was also widely recognized as a leading provider of enhanced CD production tools utilized by recording and multimedia development companies. In September 1993, Bertlesmann Music Group created the first interactive record label after acquiring a 50 percent interest in ION. Prior to founding ION, Roberts was a founder and senior manager of LightSource, a software development company that produced multimedia and graphics editing software. Previously, he was a senior engineer at Pixar, where he created several award-winning, Apple-based music applications including "Studio Session" and "Jam Session." Roberts is Gracenote's representative to the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI), an organization that is chartered with establishing standards for digital music and music playing devices.
M. W. Mantle, Chief Operating Officer/Senior Vice President of Development
Mickey Mantle joined Gracenote in July 1999, bringing over 30 years of experience managing the development of hardware and software systems, as well as award-winning digital media. He oversees all development, operations, and support associated with Gracenote's digital information services for music and media.
Prior to joining Gracenote, Mantle was a contributor to many legendary computer graphics products produced by Evans & Sutherland and Pixar. One of these products, Pixar's RenderMan™ software has been used extensively to create stunning special effects for movies such as "Beauty and the Beast," "Jurassic Park," "Star Wars Episode I/II," "Toy Story," "A Bug's Life" and "Monsters, Inc.," among many others. RenderMan™ has become a widely acclaimed standard for high quality 3-D graphics in the industry.
In late 1997, Mantle joined International Microcomputer Software, Inc. (IMSI) as Vice President of Research and Development/Chief Technology Officer, overseeing product development and an International technical staff that created award-winning products such as "TurboCAD," and ArtToday.com. From 1991 to 1997, Mantle managed technology initiatives for Broderbund Software as its Vice President of Engineering/Chief Technical Officer, and contributed to the development of many successful and award-winning products such as "Myst" and "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego."
Jim Doehrman, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Joining as Gracenote's first CFO, Doehrman came on board in June 2004. He previously served as CFO for the $400 million claims services division of ADP, a provider of claims management software, where he completed a reengineering of the Company's worldwide financial operations and systems, and oversaw a strategic integration of a European acquisition; all in less than eight months. Doehrman previously served as Chief Operating and Financial Officer for Versata, a provider of automation software for developing and managing data-intensive business applications. In addition to directing all corporate financial strategy, Doehrman was responsible for running Versata's European operations, sales, professional services and marketing. Previously, he was at the financial helm of Octane, a provider of Web-centered customer relationship management (CRM) software, where he helped manage the company's merger with E.piphany, now a leading CRM solutions provider, and subsequently, became E.piphany's Chief Adminis trative Officer. Prior to joining Octane, Jim, as CFO, led a successful initial public offering for IDG Books (publishers of "Dummies" books); which leveraged his more than 15 years of prior financial and operational experience with companies such as Viacom (Simon & Schuster); Federated Department Stores and Arthur Andersen & Co., in both domestic and international roles.
Akifumi Kodama, President, Gracenote Japan
Aki (Akifumi) Kodama brings extensive experience in setting up Japan KK subsidiaries and developing multimillion-dollar businesses with his broad knowledge of the Japan consumer software and broadband market. Having established Japanese subsidiaries for three major companies before joining Gracenote, Kodama's expertise in establishing and operating Japan KK organizations for multinational companies will be a tremendous asset to Gracenote Japan. Kodama has established subsidiaries and served as President for Xpeed Networks KK, Maxis KK, and 3DO Japan. He also served as Senior Vice President of Electronic Arts Square K.K., after the sale of Maxis to Electronic Arts in 1998.
Kodama's career spans over two decades, with demonstrated ability in building successful organizations in Japan. A graduate of KEIO University specializing in New Media and Mass Communication, his experience and background in both technical and entertainment industries will contribute much to Gracenote's opportunities in Japan.
Steve Scherf, Co-Founder & Chief Architect/Vice President of Service Development
Steve Scherf and business partner Ti Kan created the CDDB compact disc recognition service as a hobby in 1995 in order to get personal computers to display information about the CDs they were playing. To their surprise, the service became overwhelmingly popular, prompting them to found CDDB LLC in 1998. Later that year the company was acquired by Escient LLC, and the name was changed to Gracenote. After the acquisition, Scherf took on the role of Chief Architect for all Gracenote services.
Scherf has since been the driving force behind nearly every fundamental Gracenote technology, cementing his position as one of the main pioneers of media recognition. Scherf personally designed and built the lion’s share of the current incarnation of the Gracenote service, a modular system that is extremely flexible, scalable and massively redundant, and is capable of easily incorporating new services as the need arises. He architected, designed, and developed the technology behind other Gracenote online products, such as Link, Discover, Music Enrichment, the MusicID® search engine, and others. In addition, Scherf has assimilated a number of third-party recognition technologies into the Gracenote suite, such as Mobile MusicID, re-implementing and improving them from the ground up. His pioneering work in media recognition also forms the basis of Gracenote’s embedded offerings.
Prior to co-founding Gracenote, Scherf worked as Unix kernel developer for such companies as Altos Computer Systems, Acer America and Stratus Computer, delving into file systems, I/O performance, SCSI subsystems, networking and fault tolerance. Scherf graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1988 with a B.A. in Math and Biology.
Jim Hollingsworth, Senior VP of Sales and Marketing
Bringing over 25 years of experience in the consumer electronics industry, Hollingsworth leads Gracenote's global marketing throughout the Americas, Asia and Europe.
Joining Gracenote in 2004, Hollingsworth was previously President of ReplayTV a subsidiary of Denon and Marantz Holdings. Prior to D&M's acquisition of ReplayTV, Hollingsworth was Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Marketing, where he oversaw four major product lines (RIO Digital Audio, GoVideo, ReplayTV and Diamond Multimedia). Previously, Hollingsworth was Vice President of Marketing, Computer Products at Sony Corp., and was integral in the launch of the VAIO line of PCs and Peripherals. Prior to that, he spent two years at StarSight Telecast (now Gemstar, Inc.), where he was responsible for licensing StarSight's technologies to the consumer electronics industry. He began his career with nine years at Sony Consumer Electronics and an additional three years at Panasonic, where he held roles in sales and marketing.
Ross Blanchard, Vice President, Business Development
Ross Blanchard oversees all marketing activities including, brand strategy and development, product marketing, strategic business development, and corporate communications. He also plays an integral role in developing new partnerships for Gracenote, spearheading strategic business relations. Prior to Gracenote, he was Director of Marketing for Valley Media, the world's largest distributor of music and video products, where he was responsible for marketing and advertising activities on behalf of record labels, targeting the online, independent and mass-merchant retail segments. Previously, Blanchard was the Northern California Sales Manager for RED Distribution, the independent distribution arm of Sony Music Distribution, where he helped establish artists including The Offspring, Train, 311, and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony.
Blanchard holds an MBA from the UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business, and holds BAs in Business Economics and Political Science from UC Santa Barbara.
Stephen White, Vice President Product and Content Management
Stephen White joined Gracenote in 2001 and brings 13 years of demonstrated experience leading teams in the creation, development, and sales of innovative technologies and products. White manages the company’s product and content management teams in the execution of the company’s strategic product vision.
Prior to his current role White lead sales teams at Gracenote working with leading media software and services provider customers such as Apple, Yahoo, Real Networks, Napster, and America Online.
Prior to joining Gracenote, White was the VP of development for streaming music start-up Echo.com which was one of the first companies to combine group content streaming and community features such as instant messaging and chat rooms into a streaming audio client.
White holds a BA in Afro-American Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Peter DiMaria, Sr. Director of Product Strategy
Peter DiMaria leads Gracenote's product management and planning efforts, bringing 14 years experience in the digital music and interactive entertainment industries. Prior to joining Gracenote, DiMaria was Director of Product Management and Strategy for Listen.com, Inc., developers of the Rhapsody music service. While at Listen, DiMaria championed the company's move into personalized digital music services and directed the strategic analysis, acquisition targeting and product conceptualization that led to much of Rhapsody's information-rich "anytime, anywhere" design.
From 1996 to 1999, DiMaria was a co-founder and Vice President of Planning & Content for Tunes Network, Inc., creators of Tunes.com, a pioneering music discovery web site. DiMaria was responsible for product management and music information architecture and helped Tunes launch numerous innovative services in the areas of personalization, music navigation and playlist generation.
From 1990 to 1996, DiMaria was Director of Business Planning for game publisher Electronic Arts, Inc. where he established and managed the company's product planning organization. DiMaria holds an M.B.A. in Strategic Management and Marketing from the Wharton School and a B.S. degree in Business Administration from U.C. Berkeley.
Melani Ross Di Napoli, Sr. Director of Professional Services
Joining Gracenote in 2000, Di Napoli heads up the company's Professional Services and Advanced Integration Services Best Practices Divisions. Gracenote's Professional Services team utilizes years of technical expertise to assist and support customers in developing real-world applications of Gracenote's technologies and services. This expertise provides Gracenote's customers with techniques that help them maximize revenue and product success, accelerate development, ensure a positive end-user experience, and expedite time-to-market. Di Napoli has also been instrumental in overseeing Gracenote's product management efforts over a time period when the company's products and services have quadrupled. Prior to Gracenote, Di Napoli spent four years at Autodesk, working in Project Management, where she was responsible for several AutoCAD releases. Prior to that Di Napoli managed web development and QA at WebSite Pros, who create web site automation tools for Atlantic Bell, and others.
Matthew Leeds, Vice President of Operations
Matthew Leeds joined Gracenote in October of 1999 and manages systems operations, technical and developer support, and quality assurance. Leeds also serves as Gracenote's Chief Privacy and Chief Security Officer. Prior to joining Gracenote, Leeds was the Director of Information Technology for Broderbund Software, where he oversaw client/server development, Internet commerce, internal help desk, telephony, and all LAN and WAN systems. During his tenure, Broderbund grew from 200 to 1,300 employees. Prior to Broderbund, Leeds held Director of Marketing positions at Infinity Software and Byte By Byte Software, both focused on the consumer software market. Leeds has written hundreds of articles on technology, for publications including; MacWorld, PC World, Network World, MicroTimes, Electronic Musician and AV Video. Leeds also serves on the Board of Directors of the Marin Child Care Council, a non-profit provider of subsidized child care.
Desmond Cussen, Vice President and General Counsel
Joining as Gracenote's General Counsel, Des Cussen came on board in July 2006. He previously worked at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP for approximately 12 years in their corporate and restructuring departments. Des was also general counsel to NextDoor Networks, a software company, from 1999 to 2001 and served as assistant general counsel to SMS.ac, a mobile community marketplace, in the first half of 2006. Des received an LL.B. degree from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland in 1988 and an LL.M. from Cornell University in 1989.