Videoplaza - Monetising the New TV

Sorosh Tavakoli is founder and CEO. He has a background in broadcast media. Prior to Videoplaza, Sorosh was at MMS (the Swedish broadcast audience measurement body) where he led an extensive research project on the consumption of moving images. He has worked in a number of other media environments including public service broadcaster SVT and the VOD site SF Anytime. He holds a Masters degree from the Royal Institute of Technology and Stockholm School of Economics. Sorosh’s vision developed Videoplaza from our early days, and continues to drive the business today.

Dante is one of the co-founders of Videoplaza and VP of Technology. With a lifelong fascination for technology, Dante discovered the internet at high school and realized it was a game changer. On graduating, he went straight into developing dynamic websites. Over his 13 years of internet experience, Dante has worked as a programmer, architect, designer, and consultant, for a number of technology businesses; and for fun has built everything from simple guest books and communities to enterprise SaaS applications. Dante spends his time at Videoplaza looking for simple ways to do hard stuff within our platform, with the aim of creating as much client value as possible.

Rags is Videoplaza’s Chief Commercial Officer. Joining us from Brightcove, he was part of Brightcove’s founding executive team at a very early stage. Initially in the US, he focused on sales and business development, signing the company’s first clients. He then moved to London in '07 to open the UK office and to manage the EMEA roll out, ramping the operation up to 35+ people. Prior to Brightcove Rags was General Manager and then COO for Live365, a web 1.0 Internet radio network based in Silicon Valley - the first webcaster to reach profitability. Rags is a commentator on the video space and a frequent contributor to a number of publications including GigaOm. As CCO, Rags is responsible for the commercial success of the business and building out the sales, marketing and client relations functions across the Videoplaza footprint.

Michelle's career kicked off in banking (SBC Warburg, Credit Suisse) where she started as a market analyst. She left the financial world to start her own business, Boltblue, an early pioneer in the mobile Internet industry, ranked 13th in the UK Tech Track 100 in 2004. More recently, prior joining Videoplaza, she consulted for a number of fast growth Internet businesses in different spaces, from online games to furniture retailing. Michelle holds a BSc Finance and Economics from London School of Economics. As Videoplaza’s CFO, Michelle takes care of finance as well as HR and operations.

Jonas has spent 15 years in the mobile, telecommunications and digital media space, managing business, product and corporate development activities for large multinational organizations including Tradedoubler, Ericsson and Orange PCS; as well as for fast growing companies such as Spray and Formus Communications. Jonas joins Videoplaza from Tradedoubler where he held the role of Vice President Products and Technology and was a key member of the senior leadership team. As Chief Product Officer at Videoplaza, Jonas is responsible for driving forward the innovation and product roadmap for Videoplaza’s flagship service, Karbon.

Katy is VP of Marketing. The majority of her career has been spent in growing technology businesses, starting with Orange where she built products for the B2B market at national and international level. After a number of years in the mobile industry, she joined leading early stage venture fund, Eden Ventures, as an investment associate, and spent the next 3.5 years investing in software businesses, as well as working with Eden’s portfolio of investment companies, helping them to build products, channels to market and clear marketing strategies. Katy looks after the marketing programme, including communications, PR and brand.

Joakim is VP of Engineering, and is based in Stockholm at our development HQ. Joakim joined the team in 2008 from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, and he was part of the original development team. In the role of VP Engineering, he has been responsible for establishing and building our engineering department, including instituting clear agile development methodologies and hiring our growing team of developers. Joakim looks after our platform and ad-serving operations, as well as overseeing new product development delivery. Joakim’s attention to detail and experience keep our engineering team running like clockwork, and ensures that our technology scales as our business grows.

Maria is VP of New Business. She has spent the majority of her career in the online and mobile spaces. At Google, Maria looked after Google’s strategic partnerships for the SEEMEA region. Prior to that, she was Head of Business Planning for Upstream, a high growth mobile marketing business. Her mobile experience comes from her days at Orange where she focused on product management for the UK Orange Business Solutions team. At Videoplaza Maria is focused on building out Videoplaza’s presence at the heart of the video and new TV ecosystem, by building out strategic alliances and partnerships.

Hanna is Videoplaza’s Director of Talents. Hanna spent her early career working in finance and in-house HR with a global design company. She then moved into a boutique search firm where she worked with a range of blue-chip clients as well as start-ups. Subsequently she joined The Up Group, specialising in digital, technology and online business searches. Hanna holds a Bachelor degree in Political Science (Uppsala University, Sweden and Durham University, UK) and a Masters in Political Science (Uppsala University). Her focus at Videoplaza is on ensuring that we secure, keep and cultivate great talent across our team.

Sorosh Tavakoli is founder and CEO. He has a background in broadcast media. Prior to Videoplaza, Sorosh was at MMS (the Swedish broadcast audience measurement body) where he led an extensive research project on the consumption of moving images. He has worked in a number of other media environments including public service broadcaster SVT and the VOD site SF Anytime. He holds a Masters degree from the Royal Institute of Technology and Stockholm School of Economics. Sorosh’s vision developed Videoplaza from our early days, and continues to drive the business today.

Dante is one of the co-founders of Videoplaza and VP of Technology. With a lifelong fascination for technology, Dante discovered the internet at high school and realized it was a game changer. On graduating, he went straight into developing dynamic websites. Over his 13 years of internet experience, Dante has worked as a programmer, architect, designer, and consultant, for a number of technology businesses; and for fun has built everything from simple guest books and communities to enterprise SaaS applications. Dante spends his time at Videoplaza looking for simple ways to do hard stuff within our platform, with the aim of creating as much client value as possible.

Rags is Videoplaza’s Chief Commercial Officer. Joining us from Brightcove, he was part of Brightcove’s founding executive team at a very early stage. Initially in the US, he focused on sales and business development, signing the company’s first clients. He then moved to London in '07 to open the UK office and to manage the EMEA roll out, ramping the operation up to 35+ people. Prior to Brightcove Rags was General Manager and then COO for Live365, a web 1.0 Internet radio network based in Silicon Valley - the first webcaster to reach profitability. Rags is a commentator on the video space and a frequent contributor to a number of publications including GigaOm. As CCO, Rags is responsible for the commercial success of the business and building out the sales, marketing and client relations functions across the Videoplaza footprint.

Michelle's career kicked off in banking (SBC Warburg, Credit Suisse) where she started as a market analyst. She left the financial world to start her own business, Boltblue, an early pioneer in the mobile Internet industry, ranked 13th in the UK Tech Track 100 in 2004. More recently, prior joining Videoplaza, she consulted for a number of fast growth Internet businesses in different spaces, from online games to furniture retailing. Michelle holds a BSc Finance and Economics from London School of Economics. As Videoplaza’s CFO, Michelle takes care of finance as well as HR and operations.

Jonas has spent 15 years in the mobile, telecommunications and digital media space, managing business, product and corporate development activities for large multinational organizations including Tradedoubler, Ericsson and Orange PCS; as well as for fast growing companies such as Spray and Formus Communications. Jonas joins Videoplaza from Tradedoubler where he held the role of Vice President Products and Technology and was a key member of the senior leadership team. As Chief Product Officer at Videoplaza, Jonas is responsible for driving forward the innovation and product roadmap for Videoplaza’s flagship service, Karbon.

Katy is VP of Marketing. The majority of her career has been spent in growing technology businesses, starting with Orange where she built products for the B2B market at national and international level. After a number of years in the mobile industry, she joined leading early stage venture fund, Eden Ventures, as an investment associate, and spent the next 3.5 years investing in software businesses, as well as working with Eden’s portfolio of investment companies, helping them to build products, channels to market and clear marketing strategies. Katy looks after the marketing programme, including communications, PR and brand.

Joakim is VP of Engineering, and is based in Stockholm at our development HQ. Joakim joined the team in 2008 from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, and he was part of the original development team. In the role of VP Engineering, he has been responsible for establishing and building our engineering department, including instituting clear agile development methodologies and hiring our growing team of developers. Joakim looks after our platform and ad-serving operations, as well as overseeing new product development delivery. Joakim’s attention to detail and experience keep our engineering team running like clockwork, and ensures that our technology scales as our business grows.

Maria is VP of New Business. She has spent the majority of her career in the online and mobile spaces. At Google, Maria looked after Google’s strategic partnerships for the SEEMEA region. Prior to that, she was Head of Business Planning for Upstream, a high growth mobile marketing business. Her mobile experience comes from her days at Orange where she focused on product management for the UK Orange Business Solutions team. At Videoplaza Maria is focused on building out Videoplaza’s presence at the heart of the video and new TV ecosystem, by building out strategic alliances and partnerships.

Hanna is Videoplaza’s Director of Talents. Hanna spent her early career working in finance and in-house HR with a global design company. She then moved into a boutique search firm where she worked with a range of blue-chip clients as well as start-ups. Subsequently she joined The Up Group, specialising in digital, technology and online business searches. Hanna holds a Bachelor degree in Political Science (Uppsala University, Sweden and Durham University, UK) and a Masters in Political Science (Uppsala University). Her focus at Videoplaza is on ensuring that we secure, keep and cultivate great talent across our team.

Sorosh Tavakoli is founder and CEO. He has a background in broadcast media. Prior to Videoplaza, Sorosh was at MMS (the Swedish broadcast audience measurement body) where he led an extensive research project on the consumption of moving images. He has worked in a number of other media environments including public service broadcaster SVT and the VOD site SF Anytime. He holds a Masters degree from the Royal Institute of Technology and Stockholm School of Economics. Sorosh’s vision developed Videoplaza from our early days, and continues to drive the business today.

Dante is one of the co-founders of Videoplaza and VP of Technology. With a lifelong fascination for technology, Dante discovered the internet at high school and realized it was a game changer. On graduating, he went straight into developing dynamic websites. Over his 13 years of internet experience, Dante has worked as a programmer, architect, designer, and consultant, for a number of technology businesses; and for fun has built everything from simple guest books and communities to enterprise SaaS applications. Dante spends his time at Videoplaza looking for simple ways to do hard stuff within our platform, with the aim of creating as much client value as possible.

Rags is Videoplaza’s Chief Commercial Officer. Joining us from Brightcove, he was part of Brightcove’s founding executive team at a very early stage. Initially in the US, he focused on sales and business development, signing the company’s first clients. He then moved to London in '07 to open the UK office and to manage the EMEA roll out, ramping the operation up to 35+ people. Prior to Brightcove Rags was General Manager and then COO for Live365, a web 1.0 Internet radio network based in Silicon Valley - the first webcaster to reach profitability. Rags is a commentator on the video space and a frequent contributor to a number of publications including GigaOm. As CCO, Rags is responsible for the commercial success of the business and building out the sales, marketing and client relations functions across the Videoplaza footprint.

Michelle's career kicked off in banking (SBC Warburg, Credit Suisse) where she started as a market analyst. She left the financial world to start her own business, Boltblue, an early pioneer in the mobile Internet industry, ranked 13th in the UK Tech Track 100 in 2004. More recently, prior joining Videoplaza, she consulted for a number of fast growth Internet businesses in different spaces, from online games to furniture retailing. Michelle holds a BSc Finance and Economics from London School of Economics. As Videoplaza’s CFO, Michelle takes care of finance as well as HR and operations.

Jonas has spent 15 years in the mobile, telecommunications and digital media space, managing business, product and corporate development activities for large multinational organizations including Tradedoubler, Ericsson and Orange PCS; as well as for fast growing companies such as Spray and Formus Communications. Jonas joins Videoplaza from Tradedoubler where he held the role of Vice President Products and Technology and was a key member of the senior leadership team. As Chief Product Officer at Videoplaza, Jonas is responsible for driving forward the innovation and product roadmap for Videoplaza’s flagship service, Karbon.

Katy is VP of Marketing. The majority of her career has been spent in growing technology businesses, starting with Orange where she built products for the B2B market at national and international level. After a number of years in the mobile industry, she joined leading early stage venture fund, Eden Ventures, as an investment associate, and spent the next 3.5 years investing in software businesses, as well as working with Eden’s portfolio of investment companies, helping them to build products, channels to market and clear marketing strategies. Katy looks after the marketing programme, including communications, PR and brand.

Joakim is VP of Engineering, and is based in Stockholm at our development HQ. Joakim joined the team in 2008 from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, and he was part of the original development team. In the role of VP Engineering, he has been responsible for establishing and building our engineering department, including instituting clear agile development methodologies and hiring our growing team of developers. Joakim looks after our platform and ad-serving operations, as well as overseeing new product development delivery. Joakim’s attention to detail and experience keep our engineering team running like clockwork, and ensures that our technology scales as our business grows.

Maria is VP of New Business. She has spent the majority of her career in the online and mobile spaces. At Google, Maria looked after Google’s strategic partnerships for the SEEMEA region. Prior to that, she was Head of Business Planning for Upstream, a high growth mobile marketing business. Her mobile experience comes from her days at Orange where she focused on product management for the UK Orange Business Solutions team. At Videoplaza Maria is focused on building out Videoplaza’s presence at the heart of the video and new TV ecosystem, by building out strategic alliances and partnerships.

Hanna is Videoplaza’s Director of Talents. Hanna spent her early career working in finance and in-house HR with a global design company. She then moved into a boutique search firm where she worked with a range of blue-chip clients as well as start-ups. Subsequently she joined The Up Group, specialising in digital, technology and online business searches. Hanna holds a Bachelor degree in Political Science (Uppsala University, Sweden and Durham University, UK) and a Masters in Political Science (Uppsala University). Her focus at Videoplaza is on ensuring that we secure, keep and cultivate great talent across our team.