Ryan Steelberg

Ryan Steelberg brings nearly 20 years of executive management experience in technology, marketing, business development and sales. He is considered one of the foremost experts in digital and online advertising. Since 1996, he and his brother Chad have raised more than $180 million in equity financing, managed 400+ employees and created in excess of $3.0 billion in shareholder value, through the successful founding, management, and liquidation of three industry impactful companies. In 2002, the Steelbergs founded dMarc Broadcasting, growing to service more than 4,600 US radio stations, bridging and integrating online and broadcast advertising systems. dMarc Broadcasting was acquired by Google, Inc. in February of 2006 for $1.238 billion in cash and performance incentives. Prior to dMarc, the Steelbergs co-founded AdForce in 1995, formerly the world’s largest centralized, independent ad-serving and management solution, and 2CAN Media (AdSmart), which grew to become the third largest Internet advertising sales organization. As the primary competitor to DoubleClick, AdForce (formerly traded on NASDAQ as ADFC) controlled more than 50% of the online ad-management market in the US, through such clients as Netscape, GeoCities, AOL and Goto.com, the precursor to Overture Services (later purchased by Yahoo!). AdForce was acquired by CMGi in 1999 for more than $500 million. 2CAN was sold to CMGi in 1999 for over $50 million. Named by the Orange County Business Journal as two of the county’s “50 Most Influential Businesspeople,” Ryan and Chad were finalists for Ernst & Young’s “Entrepreneur of the Year” in 2000. In 2006, Ryan and Chad Steelberg were named two of the “50 Most Powerful People in Radio,” by Radio Ink Magazine. Most recently, Ryan was named a recipient of the 2009 Sports Business Journal’s Forty under 40 Awards.