System1 : Who We Are

Founders

Innovating Advertising Technology since 2012!

Michael Blend

Chief Executive Officer

Michael Blend is System1’s co-founder and has served as System1’s Chief Executive Officer since February 2021, and Chairman of the Board since 2013. Prior to System1, Mr. Blend was President/COO of Leaf Group Ltd., which he joined when Leaf Group acquired his data company, Hotkeys, in 2006. Prior to Hotkeys, Mr. Blend was Vice President, Corporate Development for Jawbone from 2001 to 2003 and for Wedding Channel (acquired by The Knot) from 1999 to 2001. Mr. Blend currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Stephenson Global Pancreatic Cancer Research Institute and Wellful, Inc., and previously has served on the Board of Directors of leading digital marketing and technology companies, including Dynata, Data Axle, among others. Mr. Blend was also the Chairman of the Board of Stuff Media from 2016 until it was acquired by iHeart Media in 2018. Mr. Blend was the EY National Entrepreneur of the Year for Media, Entertainment & Communications in 2018, together with System1’s other co-founder, Charles Ursini. Mr. Blend received his JD from The University of Chicago and holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Duke University.

Chuck Ursini

President

Mr. Ursini is a Co-Founder of the Company’s predecessor business, and currently serves as a member of its senior management team. Previously, Mr. Ursini served as the Company’s first chief executive officer from its initial founding as OpenMail in 2014 until 2020, and also served as a Director of OpenMail/S1 Holdco until January 2022, when the business combination with Trebia Acquisition Corp. was consummated. Prior to System1, Mr. Ursini served in various roles at Leaf Group Ltd. (formerly Demand Media, Inc.) where he oversaw several business units including B.I., Analytics, Monetization & Optimization, and Demand Studios, and most recently held the position of Executive Vice President, Platforms. Prior to Leaf Group/Demand Media, Mr. Ursini was an analyst at Amazon, and started his career as a bond trader at Morgan Stanley and UBS. Mr. Ursini received a BBA in Finance & Accounting from Washington State University and his MBA from the University of Southern California.

Business & Tech Leadership

Brian Coppola

Chief Ad Operations Officer

Most recently, Brian was the SVP of Product at Amobee, which he joined via SingTel’s acquisition of Adconion Direct in 2014. Prior to Adconion, he lived in the Bay Area, building products at Yahoo! and several software companies developing digital advertising platforms. In his spare time, Brian enjoys playing tennis and spending time with his wife and two kids.

Tridivesh Kidambi

Chief Financial Officer

Tridi oversees the financial operations of System1. His past roles include EVP, Finance & Analytics of TV Time, CFO of Ez Texting, and VP, Finance at Leaf Group (NYSE: LEAF). Tridi holds degrees in economics and math from Claremont McKenna College, and an MBA from Claremont Graduate University's Drucker School of Management. In his spare time, Tridi loves to binge-watch reruns of Frasier and coach his childrens' soccer and baseball teams.

Avi Raju

Chief Product Officer

Prior to System1, Avi led product teams at Lucidworks and a variety of startups, with a background in software engineering for Fortune 500 & Retail 200 companies. Avi has a proven track record of launching products that grew revenue 10X and added 300+ customers, positioning offerings as leaders in Enterprise AI & Data Insights. Outside of work, Avi is passionate about adventure and travel photography.

Beth Sestanovich

Chief People Officer

Prior to System1, Beth served as Group Publisher & CEO of LA Weekly, where under her leadership, the publication won its first Pulitzer Prize. She also held senior management positions at CarsDirect.com and the LA Times. Beth began her career at IBM, spending 10 years in progressively larger strategic roles working with Fortune 500 companies. She holds an M.A. in Psychology from Pepperdine University, and a B.A. in Psychology and minor in Economics from UCLA. Beth recently climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, is an avid skier and scuba diver, and plays Scrabble competitively.

Chris Testa

Chief Technology Officer

Previously, Chris was VP of Engineering at Adly Inc. He also worked at Google and YouTube where he focused on distributed systems and helped file a patent on connecting AdSense ads into YouTube. He’s an active ham radio operator and amateur RF circuit designer. In his spare time he likes to hike, backpack, skateboard, and spend time with his wife and two kids. He received a B.S. in Computer Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Daniel Weinrot

General Counsel

Daniel has been our General Counsel since 2018. Previously, he was General Counsel at Leaf Group (NYSE: LEAF), a diversified digital media and marketplaces company, and Deputy General Counsel at Las Vegas Sands Corp (NYSE: LVS), a leading international developer of integrated casino resorts. Daniel started his career as a corporate associate at Latham & Watkins LLP. He received his J.D. from The UCLA School of Law ('99) and his B.A. from U.C. Berkeley ('95). When he is not working, Daniel enjoys skiing, snowboarding, hiking, camping, cooking and traveling with his family (which includes two kids and two Shichons named Arlo & Elvis).

Our values

Learn more

Why the name <span class='multi-block__logo'>System1?</span>

Why the name System1?

Our inspiration comes from groundbreaking prospect theory research by Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman and his partner Amos Tversky. Their findings distinguish between two modes of thought: System 1, which is fast, instinctive and emotional – similar to how users engage online – vs. System 2, which is slower and more deliberative.

Who we are

Founders

Innovating Advertising Technology since 2012!

Business & Tech Leadership

Our values

Why the name System1?