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Backed by TA Associates and Polaris, e-Rewards Closes $6.8M Round - cbl
By citybizlist Staff
BOSTON -- According to an SEC filing, e-Rewards Inc. has completed its $6.75 million mixed-securities offering with eight investors.
Founded in 1999, the Dallas-based company offers online marketing research, and measures the effectiveness of its clients' marketing campaigns.
In 2008, the company raised $60 million in minority investment from TA Associates, a Boston-based private-equity firm. E-Rewards also has attracted investments from Polaris Venture Partners in Waltham, Mass.; WPP plc, with U.S. offices in New York; WPP affiliate Brierley+Partners, in Dallas; and Sutter Hill Partners in Palo Alto, Calif. This January, e-Rewards closed on a $17.62 million equity round with five investors.
Principals named in the current Reg D filing include directors A. Bruce Johnston and Harry Taylor, both of TA Associates; Bryce Youngren, of Polaris; David Anderson and Harold Brierley, both of Sutter Hill; and Donald Carty, retired chairman of Fort Worth, Texas-based American Airlines and retired vice chairman of Dell Inc. in Round Rock, Texas .
Others named include e-Rewards executives: President and CEO Christopher Havemann, CFO David Mellinger, Chief Marketing Officer William Russo and COO Stephen Davis.
This $6.75 million round includes the value of options granted to buy shares of the issuer's common stock. If the options are not exercised, the issuer will not receive the amount indicated, according to the filing.
Reg D filing: http://tinyurl.com/25h736q
Also at citybizlist, see:
e-Rewards, Backed by Brierley+Partners, Closes on $17.6M - cbl
TA-Backed e-Rewards Buying Research Now
Bios from e-Rewards' Web site:
Christopher Havemann - President and CEO
Chris Havemann was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer on December 15, 2009, by the e-Rewards, Inc. board. Mr. Havemann has executive responsibility for the performance and development of the company.
Mr. Havemann commenced his career in the oil and gas industry in 1990 before moving to the Cable & Wireless Group in 1993, where he held business development and marketing strategy roles working in the UK , Spain , Italy and South Africa .
After completing his M.B.A. at London Business School , he worked for strategy consulting firm Marakon Associates before co-founding The Mobile Channel Ltd in 2000, a start-up seeking to develop permission-based, incentive-driven advertising solutions on mobile phones and PDAs. The company changed its business model in 2003 to focus on the rapidly emerging marketplace for online survey market research, and was rebranded as Research Now. Mr. Havemann led the successful IPO of Research Now on the London Stock Exchange AIM market in 2005, followed by the acquisition of North American rival OpenVenue (now Research Now Canada) in 2007.
Mr. Havemann recently won the London Stock Exchange AIM Entrepreneur of the Year award for 2009.
Nathan Runnicles - CFO
Nathan Runnicles was Chief Financial Officer of Research Now. Prior to joining Research Now in 2007 he was a Regional Finance Director at Fitch, a subsidiary of WPP Group plc, with responsibility for the Group's financial management and corporate development in Europe and the Middle East .
Previously, Mr. Runnicles led the corporate finance function of Cordiant Communications Group plc from 2001 until Cordiant's acquisition by WPP in 2003. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant (ACA) with PricewaterhouseCoopers in 1998.
Mr. Runnicles has a Bachelor of Science degree in economics and accounting from the University of Bristol .
David Mellinger - CFO Americas and EVP, Corporate Development
David Mellinger serves as Executive Vice President of Corporate Development and Chief Financial Officer for the Americas , and is an integral part of the senior leadership team, providing not only financial and strategic counsel for the company but also operational leadership.
Previously, Mr. Mellinger was the Executive Vice President and CFO of the Rapp Collins Worldwide technology subsidiaries Quantum Plus and its successor, Marketing Technology Group. In addition, Mr. Mellinger has held senior leadership positions with Pinnacle Brands, Perot Systems Corporation, INTRICO, Centex General Construction, and Arthur Andersen & Co.
Mr. Mellinger graduated magna cum laude from the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting and is a Certified Public Accountant.
William Russo - Chief Marketing Officer
Bill Russo serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer. Mr. Russo leads all marketing initiatives worldwide, carries global responsibility for the e-Rewards Opinion Panels, and oversees the e-Rewards Partner Relations team. Prior to e-Rewards' acquisition of Research Now, Mr. Russo served as President of e-Rewards from May 2005 through December 2009.
Mr. Russo brings more than 25 years of hands-on experience, with a background that includes a strong focus on building customer relationships ( CRM ), interactive marketing, market research, customer data analysis, strategic planning, and direct marketing.
Before joining the company in October 2000, Mr. Russo served as Vice President of Client Services for Epsilon and as Principal at RichardsRusso, a division of The Richards Group. Prior to those roles, Mr. Russo served as Senior Vice President at Brierley+Partners, a $200 million CRM / direct marketing services agency and marketing consultancy, where he was responsible for travel, service, and retail accounts from 1990 to 1998. Mr. Russo also spent over ten years in various marketing management positions in the travel industry with Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Fairmont Hotel Company, The Hertz Corporation, and Trans World Airlines.
Mr. Russo is a cum laude graduate of New York University - Washington Square and University College and holds an M.B.A. degree with honors from NYU's Stern Graduate School of Business.
Stephen Davis - COO
With 20 years of operational expertise, Steve Davis serves as Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President. Mr. Davis is responsible for all Technology and Operation functions worldwide.
Previously, Mr. Davis worked with SOURCECORP, Inc., a $450 million international business process outsourcing company, targeting information intensive industry segments. While there, he served as Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer for nearly six years and was responsible for Information Technology strategy development, product management, compliancy, operational improvement, and client implementation oversight.
Prior to SOURCECORP, Inc., Mr. Davis served as Executive Vice President and Division President of Michael's Stores, Inc., one of the world's largest specialty retailers, where he successfully launched the Michael's Direct Division. Mr. Davis also held various technology and management positions at IBM over a ten-year period, and ultimately led a region of IBM 's E-Business Division.
Mr. Davis graduated magna cum laude from Texas A&M University with a B.A. in management information systems.
Richard Stevens - Executive Vice President Sales, Americas
Craig Stevens is responsible for sales in the USA, Canada and Latin America. Mr. Stevens has been a key contributor to the company's development into one of the market research industry's largest online research services companies. For more than a decade, Mr. Stevens has helped both end-client and market research companies develop and incorporate online research methodologies into their service capabilities.
In his career, Mr. Stevens has influenced the development of standards and guidelines used by today's market research industry in conducting online market research, including his work with the Federal Trade Commission to establish online privacy guidelines that led to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) of 1998.
Mr. Stevens is a frequent speaker at industry events and participates in several organizations, including the Council of American Survey Research Organizations (CASRO), Marketing Research Association (MRA), and the Associations Collaborative Effort (ACE). Mr. Stevens also serves on CASRO's Board of Directors, Co-Chairs the CASRO Online Panel Integrity Task Force, and is a member of the Advisory Board of the University of Texas at Arlington 's Masters of Science in Marketing Research.
Mr. Stevens received his B.B.A. and attended graduate studies at the University of Texas at Arlington .
Martin Filz - Managing Director, Asia-Pacific
Martin Filz joined the company as Managing Director of Asia-Pacific in August 2009. He has over 15 years of experience in senior executive roles building businesses in multicultural and multi-lingual international environments.
Mr. Filz possesses a deep knowledge of business process, research methodology and technology having worked for companies such as Red Sheriff, Nielsen Netratings, and most recently, Capgemini pty.
Mr. Filz holds both a degree and Diploma in management.
Miles Worne - Executive Vice President, Commercial
Miles Worne joined the company in March 2009 and looks after strategy development, new markets, new product development and the management of the company's Valued Opinions panels and panelists.
Mr. Worne commenced his career in investment banking at NM Rothschild, before moving into consumer marketing with Cereal Partners (Nestle & General Mills). After completing his MBA at Columbia Business School , Mr. Worne worked for Bain & Company in London before joining Cadbury plc where he was a director in the Group Strategy Team.
Mr. Worne graduated from Edinburgh University with an M.A. in History.
Phil Rance - Managing Director Client Development, EMEA
Phil Rance joined the company in February of 2008 as Commercial Director, with responsibility for UK sales and business development. From November 2008 through December 2009, Mr. Rance served as Managing Director, Europe, responsible for sales and operations throughout Europe.
Mr. Rance has previously held senior positions in sales, and commercial and retail management at The Automobile Association (AA) and Bradford and Bingley. He started his career with six years in strategy consultancy, working for what is now PWC Strategy.
Mr. Rance has an M.A. in Russian and English from Oxford University .
Board of Directors
Hal Brierley, Chairman of e-Rewards, Inc.
Mr. Brierley began his entrepreneurial career in direct marketing some thirty years ago, when he co-founded Epsilon Data Management, one of the nation's leading database marketing firms and a specialist in Customer Relationship Management ( CRM ). In 1980, as a pioneer in the development of customer loyalty programs, he served as the one outside consultant for the design of American Airlines' AAdvantage, the first frequent flyer program.
In 1982, Mr. Brierley was elected Vice President of Sales and Advertising for Pan American World Airways, where he launched Pan Am's extremely successful frequent traveler program WorldPass. In 1983, Mr. Brierley was named Senior Vice President of Marketing for Continental Airlines.
Mr. Brierley resumed his entrepreneurial career with the launch of Brierley+Partners in 1985. At B+P, he has supported the customer loyalty program design efforts for over 200 of the world's leading consumer brands.
Mr. Brierley founded e-Rewards in 1999 and navigated it successfully through the post- dot.com meltdown. Over the following decade, as Chairman and CEO, he directed e-Rewards' sales growth to over $105 million in 2009, managed two rounds of late-stage venture capital placements, and its recent acquisition of Research Now.
In 2007, Mr. Brierley launched e-Miles, LLC, a parallel venture that rewards its members for receiving and reacting to commercial messages. Since its launch, e-Miles has enrolled nearly 2 million members and served over 2,000 advertising campaigns.
Currently, Mr. Brierley serves on the Executive Board of the Dallas Symphony, the Boards of the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts, the Dallas Opera, the Baylor Health Care System Foundation, KERA -TV, and the National Forest Foundation. He has also served as a member of the Board of Dean's Advisors for Harvard Business School .
Mr. Brierley received his B.S. with highest honors in chemical engineering from the University of Maryland and his M.B.A. with high honors from Harvard Business School , where he was a Baker Scholar.
David Anderson
Managing Director - Sutter Hill Ventures
David Anderson has participated in the start-up financing of a large number of highly successful companies across a broad range of industries. He currently serves on the Board of Dionex, a public company. His private company boards include Brierley+Partners, e-Rewards, Inc., and Concept Shopping. Sutter Hill has acted as a lead investor in each of these companies.
Past board seats include Palm Computing, Apollo Computing, Molecular Devices, Neurex, and Hybritech. Mr. Anderson was also responsible for the firm's start-up funding of LSI Logic, Quantum Corporation, Mentor Graphics, Linear Technology, and Biovest.
Mr. Anderson is a member of the Board of Directors of the MIT Investment Management Company. In the past, he served as a Director of the Harvard Business School Alumni Association and as a Trustee of the San Francisco Ballet. Additionally, he was a Director and President of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists, a founding member of Entrepreneurs' Foundation, and served on the Executive Committee of Crystal Springs Uplands School for many years. Mr. Anderson graduated with a degree in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1966, and received his M.B.A. from Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration in 1968.
Donald J. Carty
Retired Chairman of American Airlines and Retired Vice Chairman of Dell, Inc.
Donald J. Carty is the retired Vice Chairman and Chief Financial Officer of Dell, Inc., a position he assumed in January 2007. Before joining Dell, Mr. Carty retired in 2003 as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of AMR Corporation and American Airlines. He had served in that position since 1998. Prior to that, he served as President of AMR Airline Group and American Airlines.
Between 1989 and 1995, Mr. Carty was Executive Vice President-Finance and Planning for AMR and American Airlines, overseeing a broad range of strategic planning matters and a wide array of critical financial activities.
Mr. Carty had been American's Senior Vice President and Controller before leaving the airline in March 1985 to become President and CEO of CP Air in Canada . In March of 1987, he returned to American and was elected Senior Vice President-Airline Planning.
Before joining American, Mr. Carty spent seven years in various management positions with Celanese Canada, Ltd., Air Canada , and the Canadian Pacific Railway.
Mr. Carty is a graduate of Queen's University in Kingston , Ontario , and of the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. He is a recipient of an Honorary Doctor of Law from Queen's University. He serves on the Boards of Directors of Dell, Inc., Barrick Gold Corporation, Hawaiian Holdings, Inc., and Gluskin Sheff & Associates, Inc. Mr. Carty is Chairman of Virgin America Airlines, Inc. and Porter Airlines, Inc. He also serves on the Board of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Foundation. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of Southern Methodist University and the SMU Cox School of Business Executive Board. In 1999, Board Alert named him one of the year's Outstanding Directors.
In September of 2002, Mr. Carty was appointed by President Bush to the National Infrastructure Advisory Council where he served until the summer of 2005. In January 2003, he was named an officer of The Order of Canada .
John Deighton
Harold M. Brierley Professor of Business Administration - Harvard Business School
Professor John Deighton is the Harold M. Brierley Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School , where he has been on the faculty since 1994. He is an authority on consumer behavior and marketing, including particularly direct and interactive marketing. He is editor of the Journal of Consumer Research, and was the founding co-editor of the Journal of Interactive Marketing. He is a Trustee of the Marketing Science Institute, a board member of the Direct Marketing Education Foundation, and a Director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. Mr. Deighton's research has received a number of commendations, including the "best article" award of the American Marketing Association for an article in the Journal of Marketing, and he was named "outstanding educator" by the Direct Marketing Education Foundation. He has been a visiting scholar at the University of Tokyo, Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, and the Judge School of Business at Cambridge University. Mr. Deighton has taught in many of Harvard Business School's programs, as course head of the first year MBA course in marketing, and elective courses in business marketing, consumer marketing and interactive marketing. Currently he teaches the first year MBA marketing course, an elective course in Digital Marketing Strategy, and is course head for the Taking Marketing Digital executive course. Prior to joining the Harvard Business School he was on the faculties of the University of Chicago, where he received the Hillel J. Einhorn award for excellence in teaching, and the Amos Tuck School, Dartmouth College. Mr. Deighton's Ph.D. is in marketing from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and he has an undergraduate chemical engineering degree from the University of Natal and an MBA from the University of Cape Town.
A. Bruce Johnston
Managing Director - TA Associates
A. Bruce Johnston focuses primarily on investments in technology and related services companies. He is a Director of e-Rewards, Inc., and Monotype Imaging, and a former Director of CFRA Holdings, Ecometry Corporation, Expert Software, Fargo Electronics, Numara Software, Trident International, Webhire and several privately-held companies. Prior to rejoining TA in 2001, Mr. Johnston spent two years as President of idealab! Boston. Previously, he spent seven years at TA, making significant contributions to a number of successful technology investments. Before joining TA in 1992, Mr. Johnston was a General Manager at Lotus Development Corporation and a Software and Computer Services Research Analyst at The First Boston Corporation. Previously, he held sales and engineering positions with AT&T Communications. Mr. Johnston received a B.S. degree, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, in electrical engineering from Duke University (1981) and an M.B.A. degree with highest honors in marketing and finance from Pennsylvania State University (1982).
John McArthur
Dean Emeritus - Harvard Business School
John H. McArthur was Dean of the Faculty, Harvard Business School , from 1980 through 1995. He was a member of the Harvard Business School faculty from 1962, where he taught courses in corporate finance and related fields in several school programs while also engaging in research and course development in Europe and North America. From 1996 to 2005 he served as Senior Advisor to the President of The World Bank. He has held numerous corporate directorships, committee memberships, and consulting posts in business, government, education and health care organizations around the world over the decades. He has also served in numerous roles for the Mayor of the City of Boston. For many years, Mr. McArthur served as chair of the Brigham and Women's Hospital. Following the affiliation of Brigham and Women's and Massachusetts General Hospital, he was founding Co-chair of the Board of Trustees of Partners HealthCare System, Inc. He is currently chair of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, Vancouver, BC; the Center for Surgery and Public Health at the Brigham & Women's Hospital, Boston; the Development Gateway Foundation; Duke University Health System; e-Rewards; Ko Holdings, A.S., Istanbul; Reuters Founders Share Trust Company Limited, London; and Stemnion, Inc. Mr. McArthur has received numerous awards and six honorary doctorates. The John and Netilia McArthur University Professorship was established at Harvard University in 1997 and McArthur Hall was dedicated in 1999. In 2002, a group of Canadian alumni announced the establishment of the John H. McArthur Canadian Fellowship Program. A native of Vancouver, British Columbia, Mr. McArthur earned his Bachelor of Commerce degree in forestry from the University of British Columbia in 1957. At the Harvard Business School, he completed his MBA degree in 1959 and earned a doctorate there in business administration in 1963.
Harry Taylor
Principal - TA Associates
Harry Taylor concentrates on investments in technology-based growth companies. He serves on the Board of Directors of e-Rewards, Inc., IntraLinks, and Numara Software. Prior to joining TA in 2005, Mr. Taylor was an Associate at Stone Point Capital in Greenwich, Conn. He also worked at Goldman, Sachs & Co., where he was a Financial Analyst in the Principal Investment area and the Investment Banking Technology Group. Mr. Taylor received an AB degree, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, in economics from Hamilton College (1996) and an M.B.A. degree from the Harvard Business School (2001).
Geoffrey Westmore
Former Global Head of M&A at PricewaterhouseCoopers
Geoff Westmore has been the non-executive Chairman of Research Now since March 2001 and was involved in founding the business with Chris Havemann and Andrew Cooper. He has been a corporate finance practitioner for nearly 30 years and was a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers from 1983 to 2000. Mr. Westmore led PwC's UK Corporate Finance practice from 1995 to 1998 and thereafter was the Global Head of Transaction Services and M&A.
Since 2000 he has pursued a portfolio career, specializing in smaller, rapidly growing companies and in larger companies experiencing financial difficulties. He is currently Chairman of the Four Seasons Healthcare Group, one of the UK's largest providers of care homes and specialist hospitals, and The Bagel Factory, a food retailer in travel locations.
Over the past 10 years, Mr. Westmore has been a director of a number of companies including Avery Weigh-Tronix, an international weighing equipment business; Brunner Mond, a chemicals business which was one of the founding companies of ICI ; Danoptra Holdings, the UK's leading player in gaming machines; Le Meridien Hotels, a leading global upmarket hotelier; and Retail Decisions, an international payment card processing business.
Bryce Youngren
General Partner - Polaris Venture Partners
Bryce Youngren is a General Partner for Polaris Venture Partners where he primarily focuses on growth equity investments in the technology, healthcare, and business services industries. Before joining Polaris, he served as a senior associate at Great Hill Partners, a Boston-based private equity firm. At Great Hill he was responsible for sourcing investments in and serving on the boards of SmartMail Services (sold to Deutsche Post) and ManagedStorage (acquired by Front Porch Digital). Previously Mr. Youngren served as an analyst for Willis Stein & Partners, Bear Stearns & Co., and George K. Baum & Company. Mr. Youngren holds a B.A. in economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an M.B.A. from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Posted: July 12, 2010