GumGum Leadership

Marcus Startzel is the Chief Executive Officer of GumGum, responsible for driving our growth through the adoption of the Mindset Graph, core display, video, and CTV, while instilling a customer-obsessed approach. Marcus is focused on continuing the company’s mission to empower advertisers to achieve better outcomes through understanding consumer mindsets.

Marcus is a three-time CEO with a successful background in scaling companies to $1B+ revenue. Before GumGum, Marcus held senior leadership roles at Amazon, WBX Commerce, AppNexus, Millennial Media, and AOL/Advertising.com. He is a former U.S. Naval Submarine Officer and qualified Nuclear Engineer.

He graduated with a B.S. degree in Mathematics from the United States Naval Academy with Merit, and lives in Maryland.

Katy Loria is a seasoned leader in media and ad tech, with over 20 years of experience building high-impact revenue and operational organizations grounded in client partnerships and team empowerment. At GumGum, she leads the global revenue organization to help advertisers drive better outcomes by aligning with the mindset and intent of their audiences.

Previously, as Chief Revenue Officer at FreeWheel, a Comcast Company, she led the team that scaled revenue beyond $1 billion. Prior to that, Katy served as Chief Revenue Officer at Screenvision Media and held senior roles at Paramount, where she developed integrated go-to-market strategies, deepened brand partnerships, and delivered multi-platform solutions across linear, digital, out-of-home, CTV, and programmatic environments.

Katy holds degrees from Indiana University and the University of Georgia. She is a recognized mentor and advocate for advancing women in leadership, serving on several industry boards and as a member of CHIEF, She Runs It, and the Alliance for Women in Media.

She lives in New York with her husband, college-aged twins, and more pets than anyone fully agreed to.

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Ken Weiner leads the engineering and product teams behind the industry’s top contextual platform for marketers and rights holders. An active member of the ad tech community, he holds an IAB Tech Lab board seat, is a member of the OpenRTB Working Group, and leads the LA AdTech Meetup for regional tech engineers and product managers. Weiner is also a frequent conference speaker and guest columnist for VentureBeat and Forbes. In 2015, he was named LA Business Journal’s CTO of the Year, and, in 2003, he was included in the InfoWorld 100 for his work on uPortal, an open-source web portal framework for the higher education community.

Before coming to GumGum, Weiner was the Director of Engineering at the lead-generation platform LowerMyBills.com, acquired by Experian in 2005. He has also worked as an open-source software consultant, a project manager and an instructor at Interactive Business Solutions, acquired by Unicon Inc. in 2003. Weiner received a B.S. from UCLA and currently lives in Los Angeles. Away from the office, he enjoys mountain biking, hiking, California native plants, jazz music and playing the saxophone.

Adam Schenkel is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of GumGum, where he oversees the company’s global operations and is responsible for driving organizational excellence, operational scalability, and cross-functional alignment in partnership with the CEO and executive leadership team. In his role, Adam leads Media Operations; DSP partnerships; Publisher Development; Creative Design; Ad Operations; Account Management; global strategic initiatives; and GumGum’s approach to Open Market trading and Supply Path Optimization. As COO, he also helps shape and execute company strategy, guiding operational frameworks that support GumGum’s long-term growth.

Previously, Adam served as EVP, Global Platform Strategy and Operations, where he led key pillars of GumGum’s platform evolution and marketplace strategy. Before that, as Senior Vice President of Global Commercial Development, he oversaw programmatic advertising, international markets, and business development. During this time, Adam also drove GumGum’s successful effort to secure MRC accreditation for both Brand Safety and Contextual Targeting, cementing the company’s leadership in contextual intelligence.

Since joining GumGum in 2013, Adam has been instrumental in shaping the company’s programmatic capabilities, founding its Programmatic Department and launching the industry’s first custom in-image programmatic offering to be transacted at scale in real time. He has also been an active contributor to industry standards as a member of the IAB Programmatic Council since 2014.

Prior to GumGum, Adam worked in reality television as well as celebrity licensing and endorsement at United Talent Agency. He holds a degree from Arizona State University’s W. P. Carey School of Business and currently resides in Calabasas, California. An avid sports fan, Adam enjoys playing golf and traveling when he is not working.

Patrick Gildea is the Chief Financial Officer for GumGum, leading the finance, accounting and legal departments. Patrick’s hands-on leadership style has allowed him to build high-performing teams to support scalable operations aligned with the vision of the business. Over the past decade, Patrick has led finance, HR, legal, strategy, corporate and business development departments that span from the start-up phase to high-growth global public companies with multiple successful strategic exits.

Prior to GumGum, Patrick help lead Joybird.com to a successful exit with La-Z-boy, served as the CFO of Gracenote, where he was instrumental in both its growth to a $250 million business that operated 5 divisions with more than 2,000 employees in 20 offices around the globe and in its sale to Nielsen Media in 2017. Patrick also served as the first CFO of M-GO, scaling the business and ultimately selling it to NBCUniversal to become FandangoNow.com.

Earlier in his career, Patrick was the Group Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Development at Blackhawk Network (NASDAQ:HAWK), ran corporate development at IC Media, where he helped raise three rounds of venture capital and sold the business to Citibank Private Equity. Patrick began his career as a CPA at Arthur Andersen, after graduating with a degree in Japanese from Sophia University and a B.S. in Accounting from the University of Southern California.

As Head of People Operations, Kelly Battelle is responsible for hiring, developing and engaging the industry’s best talent and for creating a positive, collaborative work environment where GumGum’s thinkers and doers can thrive. With more than 20 years of human resources experience, Battelle is a highly skilled communicator who takes pride in her ability to develop cross-departmental strategies that push our business forward and keep our team members engaged and thriving.

Battelle comes to GumGum from media giant The Walt Disney Company, where she served in the capacity of HR Business Partner. Throughout her career, she has served in a variety of other HR management and leadership capacities at a variety of small- and mid-sized technology and digital companies, including Razorfish and RealNetworks. She is an advisor on the People Tech Partners LA Chapter and holds a BA in Sociology from Washington State University and a Certificate in Coaching from The Coach Institute. When she’s not making GumGum a great place to work, she enjoys spending time at her family cabin in Big Bear with her husband, Tony, her daughters, Emily and Elise, and her kitty, Riley.

Grace Chang is the SVP, Finance for the global GumGum organization.  She leads enterprise Financial Planning and helps the company manage profitability and investment.  She also supports the CFO and Executive Leadership team by providing strategic financial guidance in all commercial areas.

Grace is a seasoned finance professional with extensive experience in the technology and entertainment industries.  Prior to GumGum, she held roles with Activision Blizzard, NBC Universal (Fandango), and The Walt Disney Company.

Grace received her undergraduate & masters degrees from The University of Texas at Austin.  She currently lives in Los Angeles, with her husband and 2 children.  When she isn't working, she loves staying active with her family and attending concerts and music festivals around the world.

Laura Foster is SVP of Global Marketing at GumGum, where she leads the team responsible for telling the story of mindset-based advertising to the world. Her job: make sure GumGum’s message is as sharp on the outside as the thinking is on the inside.

Before GumGum, Laura spent nearly a decade at Innovid, rising to VP of Product Marketing and leading the team through multiple acquisitions, a successful IPO, and some of the most consequential shifts in the TV advertising landscape. Earlier in her career, she held sales and strategic roles at Sizmek, building her foundation in ad tech up and down the West Coast.

Laura has been recognized as a Business Insider Rising Star of Adtech, a Chief Marketer Top Women in Marketing “One to Watch,” a member of LA TV Week’s 40 Under 40, and a Product Marketing Alliance Top 100 Influencer. She lives in Toluca Lake with her husband, daughter, and very spoiled goldendoodle.

Hailey Denenberg is SVP of Strategy & Business Operations at GumGum, where she leads global strategy, go-to-market execution, and business operations across the company’s media and data portfolio. During her tenure, she has helped shape GumGum’s strategic direction and differentiation through its unique Mindset approach, incubated and scaled new revenue streams—including launching the company’s contextual data business, and driven operational excellence across regions.

Prior to GumGum, Hailey was a Management Consultant at Deloitte, where she advised leading media and technology companies on ad tech strategy, operating model transformation, digital video go-to-market strategy, and large-scale modernization initiatives.

She holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a B.A. from UCLA. She lives in coastal Los Angeles and outside of the office is an avid tennis player, hiker, and pastry chef.

Rasmus van der Colff is the Principal Accounting Officer for GumGum and is responsible for the leadership, development and execution of the company’s global accounting function, including controllership, income tax, financial reporting and treasury operations.

Rasmus has extensive experience in the technology and entertainment industries at companies ranging from start-ups to global, publicly traded entities. Throughout his career, he has served in multiple accounting and finance leadership positions at PSI Services, Canoo, Guidance Software, THQ and Activision. His experience includes mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, capital raising and an initial public offering.

Rasmus is an inactive CPA and began his career in public accounting at KPMG in South Africa after graduating with a degree in Accounting from the University of Pretoria and an Honors degree in Accounting from the University of South Africa.

Peter has been at the forefront of shifting trends in the digital media industry for over 15 years: he led a team of digital specialists at behavioural planning agency Total Media and quadrupled revenue at audience data platform Eyeota before entering the brave new world of contextual advertising at GumGum five years ago. During that time, he has seen the business grow exponentially through both organic growth and acquisitions to now being the global leader in the space.

Allison Gietl is Senior Vice President of Sales for US East Coast and Canada. She is responsible for driving revenue through developing sales strategy, establishing and managing senior level client relationships and enhancing cross functional collaboration and partnerships. She guides her teams in identifying and securing new clients, encouraging their professional development while creating procedures and guidelines to ensure continual regional and national growth.

Joining GumGum 10 years ago as an individual contributor, she brought her unique background and experience in the social space working with BlogHer, one of the largest blogging communities for women during a crucial period of evolution.

Gina Smart currently serves Senior Vice President of Sales at GumGum, responsible for the strategic vision and omni-channel revenue growth for the US West Coast region.

Gina joined GumGum in 2013, utilizing her background in digital and track record of successfully monetizing contextual alignments to solidify GumGum's West Coast presence, and set the trajectory for the exponential growth that’s been attained in the years since. With her extensive experience at the company, Gina brings a unique perspective to her leadership role, allowing her to effectively understand how big picture strategies will impact day-to-day operations, foster cross-functional collaboration, and drive positive outcomes and experiences for partner brands and agencies.

Matt Coote is the Managing Director of GumGum Australia, leading the company’s growth in contextual intelligence and attention-based advertising. He oversees revenue growth, sales strategy, and agency partnerships, while representing GumGum at major industry events.

With over 15 years’ experience in media and technology, Matt has been at the forefront of much industry change - from driving the digital transformation of television at MCN to building Snap Inc’s Australian business from the ground up. His leadership is defined by a people-first approach, with a focus on building high-performing teams, commercial success and fostering strong client relationships.

An active supporter of industry initiatives, Matt works closely with UnLtd.. Based in Sydney, he balances his career with family life, cheering on the Geelong Cats and Canberra Raiders, and embracing the joys of fatherhood - even if that means the Frozen 2 soundtrack on repeat.

Kenzo Selby is the Managing Director of GumGum Japan, focused on building the business in the land of the rising sun. One of his favorite challenges is adapting GumGum’s suite of technologies to meet the unique needs of the Japanese market.

He built a strong career in ad tech at Teads, helping to establish its presence in Japan and eventually serving as Head of Sales, where he led the company to become the market’s largest rich media player. Before that, Kenzo worked at AOL with BeOn, its video syndication and viral platform.

Earlier in his career, Kenzo qualified as an accountant, earning a Diploma from the Institute of Chartered Accountants, and worked at EY as well as Ferrier Hodgson (acquired by KPMG, then the leading turnaround consulting firm).

Outside of work, Kenzo is fiercely competitive in board games and enjoys participating in group sports, even if his stamina doesn’t always keep up.

Mark Suster is a Managing Partner at Upfront Ventures, where he has led investments including Bird, Density, Invoca, Projector, Solve and Maker Studios (acquired by Disney in 2015.) Mark joined Upfront in 2007 after having previously worked with the firm for nearly 8 years as a two-time entrepreneur. Before joining Upfront, Mark was Vice President, Product Management at Salesforce.com following its acquisition of Koral, where Mark was Founder and CEO. Prior to Koral, Mark was Founder and CEO of BuildOnline, a European SaaS company that was acquired by SWORD Group. Earlier in his career, Mark spent nearly 10 years working for Accenture in Europe, Japan and the U.S.

Mark received a BA in Economics from the University of California, San Diego, and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

David is an operating partner at NewView Capital. He has started and scaled businesses across stages and industries. He holds deep product and strategy expertise, with more than 20 years of experience at hyper-growth companies and Fortune 100 organizations. Prior to joining NewView Capital, he served as the Chief Product Officer at SigFig, American Express Consumer Group, BOKU and AT&T Interactive. He also held product management, strategy and marketing roles at Tellme (acquired by MSFT) and PayPal, and co-founded a private school in Los Angeles.

David holds a BS in Managerial Economics from University of California, Davis.

With a reputation built on transforming businesses, creative innovation and driving people culture, Lisa’s storied career has taken her from banking to Barbie, movies to music, Transformers to tech. While getting her Masters Degree in International Finance at Thunderbird, Lisa took a marketing class and became passionate about what drives consumers, switching her focus and leading her to become, at that time, the youngest marketing manager at Mattel, overseeing the Barbie brand internationally. Parlaying her global marketing expertise, Lisa moved first to 20th Century as SVP Marketing International Fox Home Entertainment and then was promoted to EVP of the Global Partnerships Team, where her accolades included leading The Simpsons Movie's acclaimed marketing campaign, which won Ad Age's Creativity Award and Promotion of the Decade for its transformation of 7-Eleven locations around the country into Simpsons-branded Kwik-E-Marts. Lisa combined her background in toys and entertainment to help Hasbro bring its stable of intellectual properties to film and television with the launch of Hasbro Studios. When Yahoo came calling, Lisa joined the leadership team as SVP of Platforms and Partnerships. Among many firsts, Lisa launched Live 365, a first-of-its-kind live streaming partnership with Live Nation that inspired them to tap Lisa to lead Strategic Partnerships for the CEO which then transitioned into the CMO, Live Nation Concerts role.

As a consultant, Lisa’s clients have included Microsoft Store, Illumination Animation,The AllBright, Exploding Kittens and CAMEO. She is also on the boards of GumGum (an ad tech platform) and Bryn Pharma (an alternate to the EPI pen).

Chris is a Partner at Springcoast. He currently serves on the board of directors of GumGum and Overhaul. Before Springcoast, Chris worked as a Principal at Searchlight Capital where he focused on providing bespoke capital solutions to growth-oriented companies. Previously, Chris was a member of Goldman Sachs’ Special Situations Group, where he originated and underwrote proprietary growth equity investments, primarily in software and tech-enabled businesses. Chris holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Brown University.

Jon Sheets is an Executive Director with Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Jon worked at Headlands Capital where he was a Research Analyst on the small cap activist team; and at Medley Partners where he was a Senior Associate investing in private equity and hedge funds on behalf of Jim Simons’ family and related charitable foundations. Jon began his career in Raymond James’ technology investment banking group. He received his BA in Economics from UC Berkeley.