The Team

We have amassed a team of industry veterans to lead and scale.

Founders

We continue to hire the best and brightest leadership to scale the organization with a critical focus on intellect and culture. Preserving the quality of our people is a number one priority, and this is the team responsible for doing so.

 

 

Jon Heller

Co-founder, Co-CEO
Silicon Valley

  • What I do now:Invent things, make them real, and help clients use them to make more money. From entire businesses to product features, I work with amazing people to think stuff up and make it really useful..
  • What I did before: I’ve spent over a dozen years operating media businesses and building ad technology in both the television and online worlds. I was the operating officer of the global DoubleClick Media Network, VP/GM of Yahoo’s ad networks, and COO of Visible World.
  • Why I love FreeWheel: I get to take all of the lessons learned from the first internet revolution and apply those scars and skills to the new TV revolution. And do it with my friends, the best in the industry.
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Doug Knopper

Co-founder, Co-CEO
Silicon Valley

  • What I do now: I lead a company that is changing the way the media world works – for the better. If I do my job right, people all over the world will get to watch their video whenever, wherever – and the people that make and distribute that video get paid, too. Pretty cool!
  • What I did before: I lived through the birth, death, and a couple of rebirths of the internet advertising world as General Manager of DoubleClick. And I spent too many years in the advertising agency world.
  • Why I love FreeWheel: This is the company that I've always wanted to work at. We're on a mission to succeed, working with the smartest (and most fun) people in the world, and interacting with the best customers in the industry. I love coming to work every day.
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Diane Yu

Co-founder, CTO
Beijing

  • What I do now: Transform ideas into reality on our world class platform to help our customers be successful.
  • What I did before: Spent ten years at DoubleClick running the engineering team and building the most advanced ad serving system of the time.
  • Why I love FreeWheel: Get to build the best engineering team from the ground up, create a brand out of a dream, and do it with the smartest people in the world, people I respect.
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JoAnna Abel

VP, Marketing
Silicon Valley

  • What I do now: You're reading it! I get to take this company to market, including corporate identity, brand strategy, product marketing, PR, event sponsorships, and sales collateral.
  • What I did before: I spent nearly ten years working for digital agencies in media and account management, and have since led teams at Yahoo!, Rapt, and Microsoft - my passion is leading marketing for start-ups.
  • Why I love FreeWheel: This job is a compilation of the best parts of every job I've ever had. And I work with people who make me laugh to the point of tears every single day.
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Maribel Becker

Director, Account Management
New York

  • What I do now: I ensure our clients are as thrilled to work with us now as the day they decided to sign on to use FreeWheel - ideally more-so!
  • What I did before: I moved into digital media through the agency world, and then went on to help agencies, advertisers and publishers make the most of third-party ad serving at DoubleClick and Google.
  • Why I love FreeWheel: The people I get to work with are so smart and fun - it's like the best set of Legos ever.
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Laura Burkhart

Senior Account Director
Los Angeles

  • What I do now: As FreeWheel's very first account director, my job is simple: keep clients happy.
  • What I did before: I spent the past ten years managing relationships at Jumpstart Automotive Media and DoubleClick. Before that, I spent six years in marketing and communications roles at KPMG LLP.
  • Why I love FreeWheel: I wake up every day thankful for our management (yes, really!): they are focused on keeping employees happy so we can focus on keeping clients happy.
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JiuQing (Jack) Deng

Chief Architect
VP, Engineering
Beijing

  • What I do now: I am the architect of FreeWheel's core systems - which is not as easy as it sounds.
  • What I did before: I joined FreeWheel two years ago from start-up, Roxbeam, where I was the architect and also managed a team of engineers for P2P-based video streaming solutions.
  • Why I love FreeWheel: My favorite part of FreeWheel is that every single line of code written here is for real business.
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Michael Evangelista

VP, Product Management
New York

  • What I do now: I am responsible for FreeWheel's ad server and forecasting systems.
  • What I did before: For four years at DoubleClick I managed engineering teams for DFA and DFP ad serving and back-end systems. Before that, I pursued my graduate studies in computer science at Purdue University under Professor Douglas E. Comer with a concentration in TCP/IP networking and systems.
  • Why I love FreeWheel: It's extraordinarily exciting to work at a company that is at the center of an industry, helping to reshape and revolutionize it.
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Brent Horowitz

VP, Business Development
Silicon Valley

  • What I do now: I oversee all partnership-related initiatives, working to establish and expand FreeWheel's relationships and integration within the video ecosystem.
  • What I did before: I joined my first internet company, CitySearch, in 1997 after a year as a ski bum and a stint at an investment firm, and I have been hooked ever since. Most recently I was in biz dev roles at Intuit and NexTag, but I have DoubleClick “1.0” to thank for bringing me to FreeWheel.
  • Why I love FreeWheel: Let me count the ways: ridiculously smart and passionate people, a suite of incredibly well thought-out products, and a company that will play a key role in one of the most powerful shifts that media and its consumers have ever experienced.
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Diya Jolly

VP, Product Management
Silicon Valley

  • What I do now: I am responsible for FreeWheel's partner management, data and analytics, and revenue management product offerings.
  • What I did before: I have spent my career in product design and management as well as business strategy development at Motorola, McKinsey, and most recently, Microsoft. There, I led a team to develop and launch an online video platform to serve streamed, live TV and premium on-demand content to PCs.
  • Why I love FreeWheel: How often does one get the opportunity to work with a ton of very smart people to redefine and help shape an industry undergoing enormous change?
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Kevin Liu

VP, Engineering
Beijing

  • What I do now: I manage a team of the smartest people in UI and video integration to keep them happy and challenged. This team continues to develop Ad Manager, renderers, MRM UI, MRM Analytics, BVI and our Open API platform.
  • What I did before: For two years I was the senior technical manager building Youku.com. Prior to that, I worked as an architect and R&D department manager in several internet and telco companies.
  • Why I love FreeWheel: At the beginning, it was our CTO - she was the boss I had wanted for years. By now, it is the dazzling team I get to work with and learn from every day. One more reason - it's obvious, but the imaginative business we're in.
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Alex Ng

VP, Operations
New York

  • What I do now: I am responsible for building a global video ad serving system and a world class operations team.
  • What I did before: I spent over ten years at DoubleClick where I built and managed the growth of the DART global network. 
  • Why I love FreeWheel: I get all of the support and freedom at FreeWheel an ops guy can only dream of. 
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Melissa M. Roberts

VP, Sales
New York

  • What I do now: I am the chief advocate for FreeWheel in the marketplace, delivering industry expertise and a leading technology solution to the largest media companies in the world.
  • What I did before: I have spent over ten years leading teams charged with taking the latest ad serving solutions into publishers and agencies, educating potential users, and closing deals.
  • Why I love FreeWheel: I am deeply proud of the platform and people. Hands down, I have the best job in the industry.
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Frans Vermeulen

VP, Client Business Services
New York

  • What I do now: Pleased to be able to run our client services and consulting teams.
  • What I did before: I was the second employee at aCerno where I ran revenue operations and account management - we were bought by Akamai in 2008.
  • Why I love FreeWheel: Without question, it is the people. Each brings true dedication, intellect, and most important, a serious sense of humor.
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Di Wang

VP, Engineering
Beijing

  • What I do now: It is my honor to lead FreeWheel's Core Engineering team working on ad serving, back-end reporting, and forecasting service platform.
  • What I did before: I was lucky to join FreeWheel on the very first day we opened the office in Beijing in July 2007. Before that I served for four years as CTO in a local network security company in China after receiving my BS and Masters degrees from Tsinghua University.
  • Why I love FreeWheel: I can't imagine a more exciting place to work - teamed up with a bunch of experts to build, scale, and operate a leading technology infrastructure in a fast-growing industry.
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FurWheelers

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FreeWheelers in Action

Industry events, team outings, office antics... we're always up to something, and sometimes there's evidence.

FreeWheel on Film

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