Management Team

Executive Team

Vance Ikezoye, President and CEO

With foresight to the burgeoning ease of accessing digital media, Vance Ikezoye co-founded Audible Magic in 1999, recognizing the growing need for digital copyright tracking, monetization and management. As president and chief executive officer for Audible Magic, Mr. Ikezoye applies a wealth of technical, sales and marketing experience and holds several key patents. Mr. Ikezoye began his career at Hewlett-Packard, where he served in various sales, marketing and technical positions within the computer systems and medical products businesses over a 13-year period. From there, Mr. Ikezoye joined Trade Reporting and Data Exchange Inc., a venture capital funded start-up, where over five years he held the titles of vice president sales, marketing and international and business development. While there, Mr. Ikezoye developed major worldwide distribution channels and focused on operations that helped increase global revenues. Mr. Ikezoye holds a bachelor's degree in engineering from U.C. Berkeley and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School.

Jim Schrempp, Vice President of Product Investigation and Core Technology

Jim Schrempp currently oversees creative product and technology development for Audible Magic and holds several patents that are key to the company's core technology. Before co-founding Audible Magic, Mr. Schrempp was a 19-year veteran of Hewlett-Packard, where he managed system-software development for the company's $1 billion mid-range computer-systems business unit. Under his purview was the R and D team responsible for HP's proprietary relational database management system. He also oversaw the development of benchmarks that predict performance and provide tuning recommendations for new system hardware and software products. During his tenure, Mr. Schrempp also held other management-level positions within the commercial business computer systems organization. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

Jay Friedman, Vice President of Marketing and Customer Support

Jay Friedman is responsible for the marketing and customer support organizations within Audible Magic. With more than 30 years of experience working within the computer, software, and Internet markets, Mr. Friedman offers an extensive background in marketing, product management, business development, sales and business operations. Before joining Audible Magic, he was the co-founder of SonicSwap, an online music social networking company. Mr. Friedman began his career working first at Hewlett-Packard and later at Sun Microsystems in a variety of product management positions. Following this, Mr. Friedman joined Prognostics, a management consulting firm, where as senior vice president of operations he also served as an executive consultant to his firm's clients. Mr. Friedman later joined LiveWorld, a private-labeled, social networking company where he was senior vice president, sales and marketing, building the business by working with recognizable consumer brands in developing their online social presence. Mr. Friedman has a Bachelor of Science degree in math and computer science from UCLA and an MBA from Santa Clara University.

Rob Williams, Vice President of Systems and Operations

Rob Williams has more than 28 years of product development, customer support, professional services, and major account management experience. He has built teams from the ground up and has managed hundreds of employees across geographically dispersed organizations. Mr. Williams has lead product development teams at leading electronic commerce companies that powered some of the largest electronic exchanges around the world. More recently, he was vice president of product development at Neoforma/GHX, a leading provider of online applications and services to buyers and sellers of healthcare products. Previously, he was a vice president of product development at Commerce One, a pioneer in secure XML based electronic commerce exchanges. Mr. Williams began his career at Hewlett-Packard, following time spent focusing on electrical engineering and computer science program University of California at Berkeley.

Erling Wold, Chief Scientist

Erling has over 25 years experience in audio and video identification, audio signal processing, and network appliances. He is the principal inventor of Audible Magic’s digital fingerprinting and its search and retrieval technology. Prior to Audible Magic, Erling was Chief Engineer with Yamaha Music Technologies where he did research on the analysis and synthesis of audio, musical instruments, nanotechnology, distributed objects, and graphical user interfaces. He has been awarded many patents covering his work at the boundaries of computers and media. Erling holds a BS degree from the California Institute of Technology in EECS, as well as a Masters and PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, working on algorithms and computer architectures for sound separation, FFTs, and stochastic sampling. He has published a wide range of papers in Signal Processing, Computer Architecture and Computer Graphics. Erling is also a respected composer of operas and orchestral and electronic works that have been performed across the US and Europe, giving him a real world connection to the rapidly changing world of music publishing, recording and marketing.

Board of Directors

Timothy Tomlinson

As a co-founder and partner in the firm of Tomlinson Zisko, LLP, Timothy Tomlinson specialized in emerging technologies. Under his leadership the law firm grew to over 20 lawyers and was a full service provider of legal services to high technology Silicon Valley companies. In 2007, Greenberg Traurig, LLP, acquired Tomlinson Zisko and Mr. Tomlinson became of Counsel to Greenberg Traurig. Mr. Tomlinson's areas of expertise include mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, venture funding, corporate transactions and corporate finance. He is the author of numerous articles on insider trading, was a member of the ABA committee that assisted in the amendment of the SEC Rules relating to Section 16 of the 1934 Act and co-authored Tomlinson Zisko's Audit Committee Handbook. Mr. Tomlinson has served on the boards of several public companies, serving as Chairman or a member of their audit committees. He presently sits on the Board of Directors for VeriSign, where he also serves on the compensation and governance committees. Mr. Tomlinson holds an AB degree in Economics, an MA in History, and both MBA and JD degrees, all conferred from Stanford University. He is a member of the State Bar of California.

Robert A. Stengel

Rob Stengel is a principal of Continental Consulting Group, LLC, a media-consulting firm headquartered in Boston, MA. He advises media companies on acquisitions, business development, new network creation, and distribution strategies. Prior to forming CCG, Mr. Stengel was senior vice-president for programming and advertising for Continental Cablevision Inc. and its successor company, MediaOne Group. In that capacity he was responsible for business dealings with cable networks, broadcasting companies and networks, sports leagues, and the Hollywood studios. During his time at Continental/MediaOne, Mr. Stengel served on several boards of directors including E! Entertainment Television, Outdoor Life Network, Speedvision, The Golf Channel, The Food Network, and Music Choice network. More recently he has served on the boards of Resorts Sports Network (RSN), American Public Television, and DataTV Networks. He has served as an advisor to such media firms as ESPN, Comcast Corp, DirecTV, MTV Networks, Discovery Communications, Scripps TV Networks, and Turner Broadcasting. Mr. Stengel is a graduate of Tufts University.

Robert D. Williams

Robert Williams began his entrepreneurial career as the co-founder and associate publisher of The Real Paper, a weekly newspaper published in Boston in the 1970's. He then went on to found National Cable Advertising ("NCA") in 1981, which he later merged with Katz Media to create National Cable Communications in 1995. He oversaw National Cable's growth from inception to 14 offices with 225 employees and over $200 Million in annual sales. Mr. Williams co-founded National Public Broadcasting, now National Public Media, in 1997 where he served as president and CEO. In 2007, he co-founded eMediaRep, which provides digital advertising solutions to national marketers and Invitation TV, which develops and implements interactive television applications.

Rick Phillips

Rick Phillips is a global business leader and media and technology expert with more than 20 years of experience driving revenue growth and building asset value in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. He has repeatedly designed, built and reshaped both large global businesses and early-stage companies to accelerate growth and profitability. He has a strong interest in and acumen for building very early-stage companies. Phillips has been a senior executive at some of America's leading media and technology companies including Microsoft Corporation; Gemstar/TV Guide International, Inc.; MGM; Liberty Global; Liberty Media Corporation; and The Walt Disney Company. He is currently serving on the board of Huvi, a start-up that is developing secondary markets for all forms of media. Mr. Phillips holds an MBA from The Wharton School and a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard College.

Advisors

Justin W. Lilley

In 2003, Justin W. Lilley founded the TeleMedia Policy Corp., which specializes in policy consulting for domestic and international companies in the telecom, media, and e-commerce sectors, including cable operators, wireless carriers, record companies, video game companies, and more. Before he launched the TeleMedia Policy Corp., Mr. Lilley served as senior vice president for government affairs at Bertelsmann, as well as vice president for government relations for News Corporation. Mr. Lilley also served as Republican counsel and staff member to the House Energy and Commerce Committee. In his decade-long service, Mr. Lilley advised committee members and their staff on a wide range of telecommunications, media, copyright, and e-commerce issues. He also sits on the boards of directors for Singapore Technologies Telemedia and iMapData. Mr. Lilley has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Religion from Trinity College, a graduate degree in International Relations from the London School of Economics, and a law degree from Catholic University.

Dr. Daniel J. Julius

Dan Julius is the vice president for academic affairs and research for the University of Alaska. Prior to this he has held management-level faculty positions at colleges and universities across the United States. He has served as provost and vice president at Benedictine University in Illinois, as associate vice president for academic affairs for the University of San Francisco, assistant vice chancellor for faculty and staff relations at the California State University System, director of personnel services for the Vermont State College System, and as director of the Institute for Higher Education at Columbia University Teachers College. Dr. Julius has also served as a faculty member in the business and management schools of the University of California, Stanford University, the University of New Hampshire and Columbia University, lecturing on marketing, human resources, industrial labor relations and management. He additionally has served as a visiting faculty member in Canada, Spain, France, Switzerland, Malaysia, the Sultanate of Oman, Israel, and at several institutions in the Peoples Republic of China. Dr. Julius is an active participant in the higher education field, having served as president of two national associations, and as a member of numerous accreditation teams throughout the U.S. and in the Middle East. He continues to serve as a management consultant to companies engaged in business relationships with colleges and universities. Dr. Julius received an undergraduate degree from The Ohio State University, two graduate degrees from Columbia University and a post-doctoral fellowship from Stanford University.