Benjamin Chen
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Benjamin Chen is a 20-year veteran of high tech startups. Prior to Mochila, Mr. Chen was a founder of AppGenesys, a leading managed services web hosting provider for Fortune 500 clients, partnered with Intel, Softbank, JP Morgan, where he was Chairman, CEO and CTO.
Previously, Mr. Chen was the CIO and CTO at iXL, a strategic e-business consulting firm. At iXL, he helped grow the company from 100 to 3,000 employees worldwide and from $2M to $120M revenue per quarter. During Mr. Chen's tenure, iXL was known for delivering innovative technology solutions to the F500, included a $50M contract with Delta Airlines and $100M contract with General Electric. Other key customers included AT&T, CheapTickets.com, FEDEX, Sony (AiBO Launch), Tickets.com, and WebMD. Mr. Chen was part of the executive management team that helped take iXL public in 1999.
Prior to iXL, Mr. Chen worked at CBS Studio Center, as a technologist working on some of the first convergence of prime time television content and the internet. Mr. Chen also produced the 1996 Emmy Awards Cybercast, demonstrating the world’s largest number of internet video streams that year. Mr. Chen has also served on the advisory/boards of Teralytics and Exodus/Digital Island, a Cable and Wireless Company. He received a B.S. in international finance from the University of Southern California and is an avid martial artist with a Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do.
Danny Greenspun
Director
Daniel A. Greenspun is Chairman of Greenspun Media Group (GMG) and Vice Chairman of the Greenspun Corporation.
The Greenspun Media Group produces a number of newspapers and magazines including Vegas Magazine, Las Vegas Magazine, Showbiz Weekly, Las Vegas Life, Vegas Golfer, In Business Las Vegas, Las Vegas Weekly, the Henderson Home News, the Boulder City News, the Green Valley News, the South Valley News and the Ralston Report. GMG is the largest magazine publisher in the state. Greenspun is also the founder of Las Vegas’ premier travel company, Vegas.com. With the recent addition of LasVegas.com, the Greenspuns now control four of the strongest tourism brands in the world – Vegas Magazine, Las Vegas Magazine, Vegas.com and LasVegas.com.
Mr. Greenspun is also Vice President of the Las Vegas SUN, the daily newspaper owned by the Greenspun family. He sits on numerous family and corporate boards, most notably Las Vegas ONE, a 24-hour cable news channel, and KTUD, the UPN affiliate in Las Vegas.
With his wife, Robin, Mr. Greenspun owns the world renowned CineVegas Film Festival and is a partner in Stone Village Pictures, a television and film production company. Stone Village is Executive Producer of the NBC hit series Las Vegas.
Keith McAllister
Global Editor, Online, Thomson Reuters
Mr. McAllister is an award-winning media executive whose career accomplishments range from building Mochila to overseeing the largest electronic newsgathering organization in the United States. Mr. McAllister was chief executive of Mochila from September 2006 to November 2008. During Mr. McAllister's tenure, Mochila grew to become the world's leading source of high-quality rights-managed content and a leading provider of custom advertising and publishing solutions for premium brand marketers. Today, Mochila's network of content, distribution, and advertising partnerships includes hundreds of the world's best-known media brands.
Prior to Mochila, Mr. McAllister had spent almost 18 years at CNN. In his last role, he was CNN's executive vice president and managing editor of national newsgathering, an operating unit with 500 staff that provided news coverage, programming, and other content to CNN's many TV, radio, web, and wireless outlets. Mr. McAllister directed all news coverage, as well as nine bureaus, five beats (Political, Medical, Science, Travel, and Entertainment), and newsgathering relationships with CNN's 700 affiliated local stations and networks.
During Mr. McAllister's years in charge of domestic newsgathering, CNN US's ratings improved and CNN's status as the industry's leader in breaking and quality news coverage was enhanced. During that time, Mr. McAllister's division and its various units won a number of awards, including the Emmy Award, National Headliner Award, Edward R. Murrow Award, Peabody Award, Overseas Press Club Award, and Royal Television Society Award.
Mr. McAllister received a B.A. from Amherst College and lives in Brooklyn with his wife and three sons.
Leo Spiegel
Director
Mr. Spiegel is a Managing Director of Mission Ventures.
Prior to joining Mission Ventures, Mr. Spiegel was President of Digital Island, Inc., a leading provider of global e-business network and content delivery services. He joined Digital Island as a result of a merger with Sandpiper Networks, Inc., the world's first content delivery service provider for the Internet, where he was the Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer.
Prior to the Internet's phenomenal impact on business, Mr. Spiegel served as Senior Vice President and CTO of Donnelley Enterprise Solutions Incorporated, an information management firm specializing in systems integration, outsourcing and software development. He was the co-founder, EVP and CTO of LANSystems, a network utilities software developer and international systems integration firm which was sold to Intel Corporation and R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company.
Mr. Spiegel is a member of the Board of Directors for Akonix Systems, Greenplum, Proquo, Slacker, Rotohog, and Mochila. Mr. Spiegel is a graduate of the University of California, San Diego with a B.A. in Management Sciences. Mr. Spiegel is a member of the Dean's Advisory Council at the Rady School of Management at UCSD and Past President and current Board Member of the San Diego Jewish Academy.
Austin Westerling
Director
Austin joined Charles River Ventures in early 2000 and focuses on making investments in consumer and enterprise software & services. He is currently a Director of Secure Software, EnterpriseDB, Aveksa and Trusted Network Technologies. Prior to joining CRV, Austin advised a variety of technology companies on strategic, operational and financial issues at The Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
Austin also has experience with Analysis Group Economics/Integral, Inc. and the New England Consulting Group. Austin holds a double BA with distinction in Psychology and Economics from Yale University.
