System1 : Who We Are

Team

Executive Officers

Michael Blend

CEO & Co-Founder

Prior to System1, Michael was President/COO of Demand Media (NYSE: DMD), which he joined when Demand acquired his data company, Hotkeys. Michael has served on the Boards of leading digital marketing companies Dynata, Data Axle & Nutrisystem. Along with System1’s Co-Founder Chuck Ursini, Michael is the EY National Entrepreneur of the Year for Media, Entertainment & Communications. Michael is an avid surfer & mediocre karaoke performer, and he and his wife have two awesome children.

Paul Filsinger

President

Paul joined System1 with the acquisition of his company Qool Media. Previously, Paul was CTO of Geosign, the then largest digital media company in Canada. Paul has extensive experience architecting search, serving & digital marketing infrastructures. His career began at age 15 with Alphatech, a software & IT consultancy he sold in 2001. Paul is an avid skier, amateur race car driver, and has two sons with his wife of 25 years.

Tridivesh Kidambi

CFO

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.

Brian Coppola

Chief Product 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.

Jen Robinson

CTO

Jen oversees System1's world-class technology platform and engineering organization. Prior to System 1, she was Executive Vice President, Product & Technology at Zefr, a contextual advertising company powered by patented machine learning technology. Jen has spent the last decade building products that drive value for publishers and advertisers. Prior to Zefr, Jen spent 5 years as CTO at AwesomenessTV (now a ViacomCBS company). Jen holds an MBA from NYU Stern and a BA in Computer Science from The University of Chicago. She lives in Los Angeles with her wife and their two wonderful children.

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).

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.

Nathan Janos

Chief Data Officer

Previously, Nathan developed statistical model solutions for cross-channel/cross-device attribution and patented methods in TV attribution as Convertro's Chief Data Officer. Prior to that, he built SEM optimizations at Business.com and worked with Fortune 50 companies creating highly customized econometric models at MarketShare. Nathan has a B.S. in C.S. and Engineering from MIT with an emphasis on A.I. He enjoys sailing around the Channel Islands, fly fishing and swimming.

Business & Tech Leadership

Steven Ashby

VP, Product Management

Steven leads innovation and new product development at System1. Past roles include Chief Product Officer at Wattzon, SVP of Product & Chief Marketing Officer at Vendare Media (acquired), SVP of Product Management at Idealab portfolio company New.net (acquired), Chief Product and Marketing Officer at Wishpot (acquired) and Group Product Manager at Microsoft. He has led teams of product managers, software engineers, UI/UX, designers, marketing managers and business analysts. Steven enjoys soccer, cooking and spending time with his family.

Scott Birnbaum

SVP, Marketing

Scott has ten years of digital advertising experience managing buying teams, Ad Operations, Data Analytics and BI. He has a B.B.A. in Finance from the University of Texas at Austin. In his spare time he enjoys travel, golf and all things pop culture.

Matthew Bren

GM, Syndication

Matt has over ten years of experience in performance marketing and managing strategic partnerships in the education, finance, and e-commerce spaces. He has a B.A. in International Relations from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Matt loves traveling, cooking, and crossword puzzles. He is also an admittedly enthusiastic, but mediocre, gambler.

John Chipouras

GM, MapQuest

John joined System1 through the acquisition of MapQuest. John spent the four years prior running MapQuest's various products from a Product, Business and Technical perspective under Verizon and AOL. Prior to MapQuest John has owned and operated several successful business ventures, and he currently serves as an advisor to other technology start-ups. John is an avid climber. On the weekends you'll find him aspiring to live up to the picture of climbers portrayed in the movie Free Solo.

David Cummings

VP, Engineering - Publishing

David joined the System1 team in 2017 with the acquisition of Qool Media. As the SVP of Technology for the Publishing team, he has 13 years of experience in the digital media space. While executing upon technological strategies that are both flexible and scalable, he provides methodical leadership in an approachable manner. When he's not stuck behind a computer screen, he loves playing soccer (go Liverpool! YNWA), and spending time with his wife and three children.

Brent Drewry

SVP, Publishing

Brent is responsible for Publishing operations at System1. He has 25+ years of experience in senior operations and business development roles at start-up and Fortune 500 organizations across the Internet and Technology sectors. Brent is committed to volunteerism; he spent 5 years as a board director at Hospice Wellington, a palliative care organization; and was designated a Rotary International Paul Harris Fellow in recognition of service to the community. He is passionate about outdoor activities with family including cycling, running and skiing.

Adam Duritza

Chief Development Officer

Previously, Adam was Head of Video and Distribution Partnerships at Yahoo, overseeing 300+ partnerships and distribution to 1,000+ sites and platforms. Prior to that, he was Head of Yahoo Autos and Travel. Prior to Yahoo, he co-founded Spotlight Analytics, and led strategy consulting teams focused on value growth and M&A at Marakon Associates. Adam began his career as a software engineer at Thomson, and graduated from Northwestern University. In his spare time, he enjoys hacking together software projects, and spending time with his wife and young baby.

Kerstin Gibson

SVP, Strategic Partnerships

Kerstin joined System1 through the acquisition of Infospace in August 2016. Kerstin has over 11 years of experience managing the search distribution business and relationships with search engine partners. She holds a BA and an MBA from Seattle University. Kerstin loves to downhill ski, swim and travel with her husband and three silly little girls.

Mark Huerta

President, Publishing & Syndication

Mark joined System1 as an early employee, bringing Fortune 500 partner management experience in the social media space. Past strategic partnerships include GE, PepsiCo, P&G while at Offerpop (now Wyng) and Passenger (now Fuel Cycle). Mark holds a B.A. in Communications from the University of Pennsylvania. He enjoys vintage watches, old Land Rovers, and traveling the world experiencing local cuisines.

Craig Kelemen

GM, Applications

Craig heads up System1's Applications division, bringing almost 10 years experience in scaling user acquisition for software products. In his role as VP of Business Development at sterkly, he built and managed a team that drove over 100 million installs of various applications. Prior to joining System1, Craig was responsible for growth and strategy as the CMO of expressmed.com. Craig graduated with Distinction from the University of Victoria, Canada, earning a Bachelor of Commerce in Entrepreneurship. In his spare time, Craig loves to travel with his adventurous wife and two young daughters, and enjoys playing hockey and golf.

Tulika Kidambi

GM, HowStuffWorks

Prior to System1, Tulika ran the day to day operations of eHow.com, one of the internet's largest how-to/DIY sites, where she also oversaw business operations across the Business Intelligence, Analytics, Monetization & Optimization teams. Prior to eHow, she was a mortgage banker at Indymac Bank. Tulika holds a B.S. in Mathematics and Economics and an MBA in Finance from the University of California, Los Angeles. In her spare time, Tulika loves to suffer through HIIT workouts so she can indulge in all things chocolate and spend time with her husband and three kids.

Craig Ling

Sr. Director, BI & Analytics

Before joining System1, Craig was Director of Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence at Perk Canada and Manager of Demand Generation at Sortable. Craig began his ad tech career at Geosign, the largest digital media company in Canada at that time. Craig graduated from the University of Guelph with specialized honors in Computer Science. In his spare time, Craig enjoys alpine skiing, boating, martial arts, and spending time with his wife and two kids.

Stewart Marlborough

President, Consumer, Commerce & Travel

Stewart joined System1 in 2019 to lead the integration of MapQuest, and currently serves as President for Travel, Consumer Commerce, and Shopping. Previously, Stewart was at SVP at Endeavor where he was Head of Digital for IMG College. Prior to Endeavor, he spent several years at Demand Media, now Leaf Group. While at Demand Stewart grew and ran operations of Demand Media Studios. At the time of his departure he was Executive Vice President of Media, managing businesses for Cracked.com, Livestrong.com, International and Revenue Operations.. Born and raised in Scotland, Stewart holds a BBA degree from the University of San Diego and a J.D. from the University of San Francisco Law School. In his spare time, Stewart likes to ride dirt bikes, tinker in his garage, and is happiest when with his family in the mountains or near an ocean.

Ryan May

SVP, Publishing Strategy

Ryan joined System1 in 2019 with the acquisition of Concourse Media, a company he founded in 2011. Prior to Concourse, his career started in the Search Marketing field at Geosign before taking an entrepreneurial path where he launched a series of web applications, including Canada's then largest restaurant review portal, that was later acquired by Yellow Pages. In his spare time he enjoys running, golf and spending quality time with his wife and two daughters.

Stacey Monn-Vudrag

VP, Strategic Communications

Stacey joined System1 in 2019 and brings more than 15 years of experience spanning operations, strategy, business and corporate development. Previously, Stacey was Senior Director Corporate Development & Partnerships at Yahoo where she managed business operations. Prior to Yahoo, she held positions at Fox Interactive Media. Stacey has a B.A. in Sociology from the University of Pittsburgh and an M.A. in Social Research Methodology from UCLA. She enjoys collecting vintage poster art, exploring LA’s food scene and spending time with her husband and rescue dog.

Marko Nikolic

GM, WalletGenius/Agency

Marko joined System1 in 2019 and brings more than 15 years of performance marketing experience. Prior to joining System1, Marko founded and was CEO of Socialholic Network, an online media company that at its peak was seeing over 30+ million users a month. At Socialholic, Marko drove the company vision and oversaw the entire user acquisition and editorial teams. Prior to Socialholic, Marko founded Digital Beacon which was a performance marketing monetization provider for browser plugins. In his spare time, Marko enjoys playing golf, traveling and spending time with his wife and two boys.

Morgan O'Neill

Sr. Director, Dev Ops

Morgan joined System1 in 2014. He had been living in North Wales after attending the Universities of York and Bangor, where he studied physics and electrical engineering. He moved to Los Angeles to co-found ConfluenceLA, a startup focused on building better recommendation systems before joining System1. Morgan is known to have many hobbies, from woodworking to boat building to off-roading and mechanical keyboard-building.

Michael Schaffer

Sr. Director, Engineering - Search

Michael is a seasoned engineering leader with years of experience building applications and tools. He started his career as an intern at Go2Net when metasearch had just spun out of the University of Washington as a research project. He has been working on web search in one form or another for the better part of 20 years. He is passionate about building enthusiastic teams, creating a culture of collaboration, and delighting customers. In his spare time, you'll find him programming Arduinos to optimize the yields of his vegetable gardens.

Brandon Schnitzer

GM, Reviews

Brandon joined System1 in 2020 with over 10 years experience in the performance marketing and fintech, insuretech and lifestyle categories. In his most previous role, he was the VP of Business Development in the Fintech category at Natural Intelligence, a leader in comparison marketing based in Israel. When he’s not working, you can usually find him supporting his favorite sports teams (St. Louis Cardinals and Indiana Hoosiers), watching movies or traveling the world with his wife and son.

Christian Shum-Harden

Sr. Director, Engineering - Front-End

Christian manages the System1 Front-End team across multiple functional business units to deliver native and web advertising products aimed at scalable revenue growth. Previously, as Director of Front-End Engineering for the NFL, he delivered nfl.com, TV and mobile apps, and many business critical interactive components. As Lead Developer for Red Interactive he built sites for UFC, Ubisoft, BBC, Disney, Toyota, Bud Light, Hulu and others. Christian is a Virginia Tech alum (go Hokies) and loves family adventures with his wife and daughter.

Jennie Telehowski

VP, Product Management

Previously, Jennie served as Vice President of Product Management at Amobee, a digital marketing technology company. With over nineteen years of software and product development experience, Jennie was responsible for building technology that enables advertisers to connect to people through social media platforms. She also worked at Microsoft in product management for Outlook and at NYSE leading API development to connect financial firms to options trading platforms. She has been awarded patents in the areas of email and social communications. Jennie received a Bachelor's degree with honors in Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Chris Testa

VP, Engineering - Syndication

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.

Co-Founders

Michael Blend

CEO & Co-Founder

Chuck Ursini

Board Member

Prior to System1, Chuck was EVP, Platforms at Leaf Group (formerly Demand Media) where he oversaw several business units including BI, Analytics, Monetization & Optimization, and Demand Studios. While there, he worked with Michael Blend to help take the company public (NYSE: DMD) and grow it to a $1B+ market cap. Before that, Chuck was at Amazon, and started his career at Morgan Stanley and UBS. Along with Michael, Chuck is the EY National Entrepreneur of the Year for Media, Entertainment & Communications. Chuck loves college football (Go Trojans!), enjoys the beach and Led Zeppelin.

Our values

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Why the name System1?