The Team

Management Team

Thomas August Gerace, Founder and CEO

In his most recent role, Tom Gerace served for two years as Senior Vice President, Marketing, for National Leisure Group (NLG), a $1.0 billion annual seller of travel. He had primary responsibility for developing brands owned by the company and for managing brands licensed by the company. Tom oversaw an annual marketing budget of $32.0 million. He also grew the company's Vacation Outlet brand by 60% CAGR and its licensed brands by 30% CAGR. In addition to day-to-day management, Tom created a single marketing organization for NLG, unifying retail, online, and telesales efforts. He also established systems for tracking the company's marketing through to point of sale.

Prior to joining NLG, Tom founded and served as President of Be Free, a publicly traded online marketing services company. Be Free transformed online advertising from pay-per-view (i.e. CPM Advertising, where advertisers paid a fixed fee every time their ads were shown) to pay-for-performance advertising (i.e. Cost-Per-Click and Cost-Per-Acquisition Advertising). Be Free's customers often recorded in excess of 20% of all sales through their Be Free marketing channels.

After Be Free's launch and financing, Tom served as Chief Marketing Officer through the company's initial public offering. As Chief Marketing Officer, he was responsible for creating new and existing products and services, mergers and acquisitions, corporate and product communications, and customer acquisition. Gerace was awarded two U.S. Patents (5,848,396 and 5,991,735) for profiling computer users and targeting advertising based on that profiling.

During his tenure with the company, Be Free raised more than $200.0 million and launched both U.S. and European operations with a staff reaching 340. Using those resources, Be Free acquired more than 300 leading online customers including barnesandnoble.com, Network Solutions, Verisign, Bertlesmann, Time Warner, AOL, IBM, Dell, Microsoft, Lending Tree, and eBay. The company also acquired a development-stage personalization company and used this acquisition to launch its second significant product line.

Prior to founding Be Free with his brother Sam in 1996, Tom was a senior business analyst at the Harvard Business School. There, he authored case studies including The National Information Infrastructure, The Internet, and The Encyclopedia Britannica. He also assisted with the creation of the curriculum for the "Managing in the Marketspace" course within the MBA program. In addition, Tom was responsible for the creation and development of electronic learning and communications technologies, which supported executive education at HBS.

Tom received a Bachelor of Arts in Social Studies, magna cum laude, from Harvard University in 1993. When he's not traveling, you will likely find Tom enjoying a new indy band, dining al fresco in his South End neighborhood or walking his vizsla Phineas. Tom serves on the Board of Advisors for Imagitas and on the Board of Visitors for the Fenway Community Health Center. He is also a director of the Open Gate Foundation.

John Mihalik, CTO

John Mihalik's career spans more than 15 years in the software engineering industry. John has lead the development and deployment of massively scalable web-based solutions, and brings an extensive knowledge of Internet application development to the company. He has had direct experience in architecting web solutions since the early days of Internet expansion.

John began his career in 1993 as a software developer for the Department of Environmental Protection in Pennsylvania. He later served as a software engineering consultant from 1996 to 1997. Later that year, John joined Be Free, Inc. as the Director of Engineering. There, he lead the rapid development of mission-critical technologies -- most notably the tracking and warehousing of billions of Internet ad impressions across multiple datacenters. In 2005, John joined Gather as Vice President of Development and was later named CTO.

John received a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh in 1990. His favorite pastimes include amateur radio, World of Warcraft, and camping.

Tyler Hoffman, CFO

Tyler Hoffman's 12 years of experience in finance and accounting began in the technology-assurance practice at Price Waterhouse. Tyler served a wide variety of clients including several venture-backed entities and publicly held companies with international operations. He served in several capacities including general assurance services, transactional due diligence, and forensic accounting.

Most recently, Tyler managed the accounting and revenue functions at Pegasystems (NASDAQ: PEGA), a $100M publicly traded software company as well as playing a key role in establishing Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.

Tyler joined Gather in 2006 as Controller and held various roles of increasing responsibility prior to being named CFO. Tyler is a Certified Public Accountant and received his Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Babson College. Tyler's interests include kiteboarding, cycling, and antique cars.

David Woodrow, SVP of Sales & Partner Services

David Woodrow leads the Partner Services team, which develops and executes social networking programs for Gather's clients and strategic partners. Prior to joining Gather in 2006, David spent over 10 years helping companies develop and manage online communities designed to meet key business goals. David worked with established brands including Borders, Starbucks, TiVo, Microsoft, Warner Bros., McGraw-Hill, and Kraft. During his 20-year career, he's held roles at IBM as a Senior Engineer and at Arthur Andersen as a manager in the Business Consulting Practice where he helped companies design and implement sales and marketing strategies. He's also the author of Maximum Sales Velocity: How to Build a World-Class Sales Organization.

David received an MBA from Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. When not Gathering, you can find David at the movies or off on his latest travel adventure.

Board of Directors

William H. Kling, Chairman of the Board: Mr. Kling serves as President and CEO of American Public Media Group (APMG). APMG is the nonprofit parent organization of Minnesota Public Radio (MPR), American Public Media (APM) and the sole shareholder of the for-profit Greenspring Company. Mr. Kling serves as CEO of all three companies.

Mr. Kling is the founding president of MPR and is responsible for MPR's two regional networks of 38 public radio stations and its national program production centers in Saint Paul and Los Angeles. MPR is the largest public radio entity in the nation outside of NPR in Washington D.C. American Public Media is the second largest producer of public radio programming after National Public Radio (NPR). Greenspring is the parent company for Minnesota Monthly Publications, a diversified magazine publishing company, and The KLBB Company, a commercial radio station. APMG is also the parent company for Southern California Public Radio (SCPR). SCPR operates radio station KPCC serving millions of people in the Los Angeles area.

Mr. Kling currently serves as a director of The Saint Paul Travelers Company, Wenger Corporation, and Irwin Financial Corporation and as a director of five fund Boards of The Capital Group - American Funds mutual funds. He is a member of the Board of Trustees for the JL Foundation in California. Mr. Kling was an incorporator and founding Director of National Public Radio and the founding Chair and President of Public Radio International. He also served as a trustee of the Minnesota Orchestra.

Mr. Kling holds a BA in Economics from St John's University and completed graduate studies at the Graduate School of Communication Arts at Boston University in 1966.

Senator Bill Bradley, Director: Senator Bill Bradley, 62, is a Managing Director of Allen & Company LLC. From 2001 to 2004, he acted as chief outside advisor to McKinsey & Company's nonprofit practice. He was a Senior Advisor and Vice Chairman of the International Council of JP Morgan & Co., Inc. from 1997 to 1999. During that time, he also worked as an essayist for CBS Evening News, and as a visiting professor at Stanford University, Notre Dame University, and the University of Maryland.

Senator Bradley served in the U.S. Senate from 1979 to 1997, representing the state of New Jersey. In 2000, he was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. Prior to serving in the Senate, he was an Olympic gold medalist in 1964 and a professional basketball player with the New York Knicks from 1967 to 1977, during which time they won two NBA championships.

Senator Bradley holds a BA degree in American History from Princeton University and an MA degree from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He has authored five books on American politics, culture, and economy. Currently, Senator Bradley hosts "American Voices," a weekly show on Sirius Satellite Radio that highlights the remarkable accomplishments of Americans both famous and unknown.

Thomas August Gerace, Founder and CEO: (biography listed above)

Jim Manzi, Director: Jim Manzi served as Chairman, President, and CEO of Lotus Development Corporation from 1984 until 1995, when the company was acquired by IBM. Since 1995, Jim has been involved in the creation and development of a number of technology startup ventures.

In 2000, Jim joined the Board of Directors of Thermo Electron, a scientific instruments company. He now serves as Chairman of the Board. Jim presently runs his own investment company that focuses on technology startups. He also serves on the Board of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, and is as an active member of the Council on Foreign Relations.