The Meet Group

Geoffrey Cook

Chief Executive Officer

Geoffrey Cook has been Chief Executive Officer since March 11, 2013. Since November 10, 2011, he was a director and Chief Operating Officer, appointed in connection with the merger of Quepasa and myYearbook. Geoff co-founded myYearbook where he served as Chief Executive Officer from 2005 until the merger in 2011. During his tenure at myYearbook, Geoff grew myYearbook to profitability and $30+ million revenue with 100 employees. Geoff previously founded EssayEdge and ResumeEdge while a student at Harvard University in 1997 and sold them to The Thomson Corporation in 2002.

David Clark

Chief Financial Officer

David Clark has served as our Chief Financial Officer since April 2, 2013. From November 2007 through April 1, 2013, Mr. Clark served as Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, for NutriSystem, Inc. Mr. Clark served as Chief Financial Officer for Claymont Steel from November 2006 to November 2007. Prior to joining Claymont Steel, Mr. Clark co-founded and served as Chief Financial Officer of SunCom Wireless, Inc. (formerly Triton PCS) from February 1997 to February 2006. SunCom was the first AT&T Wireless affiliate and served markets in Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. It went public in 1999 and was later sold to T Mobile USA in 2008. He also co-founded and served as Chief Financial Officer of Triton Cellular Partners until its sale in 2000 in a more than $1 billion deal.

William Alena

Chief Revenue Officer

William Alena has served as our Chief Revenue Officer since November 10, 2011. Bill was appointed in connection with the myYearbook merger. From April 2007 until the myYearbook merger, Bill served as the Chief Revenue Officer of myYearbook. From March 2002 to March 2007, Bill served as the Director of Internet Advertising at Scholastic Inc., a global children’s publishing, education and media company.

Frederic Beckley

General Counsel & EVP Business Affairs

Frederic Beckley has served as our General Counsel and Executive Vice President, Business Affairs since November 28, 2011. From September 2000 to December 2010, Fred worked at TruePosition, Inc., where his last position was Executive Vice President, Business Development and General Counsel. From August 1995 to September 2000, Fred held a number of positions at Verizon Corporation, including Senior Counsel, Business Development at Verizon Wireless. Fred began his professional career in private practice, at Dechert, Price & Roads from June 1990 to January 1993, and Pepper, Hamilton & Scheetz, from February 1993 to July 1995.

Catherine Connelly

VP Brand Strategy, Co-founder, myYearbook

Catherine Connelly has served as our Vice President, Brand Strategy since November 10, 2011. Catherine was appointed in connection with the merger of Quepasa and myYearbook. Catherine co-founded myYearbook with her brothers Geoff and Dave in 2005. Catherine is responsible for creating some of the most important applications on myYearbook and has been instrumental in driving the site’s growth by conceiving of the next popular features. Catherine graduated from Georgetown University in 2011.

Jeremy Zorn

VP Product

Jeremy Zorn has served as our Senior Vice President of Product since April 2018, previously serving as Vice President of Product since November 10, 2011. Jeremy was appointed in connection with the myYearbook merger. From May 2006 until the myYearbook merger, Jeremy served as the Vice President of Product Development of myYearbook. From June 2003 to May 2006, Jeremy held a number of positions at Thomson Peterson’s, where his last position was Director of Product for Essay & Resume Services.

Louis Willacy

SVP Human Resources

Louis​ ​Willacy​ ​is SVP of​ ​Human Resources. In this role,​ ​Louis​ ​leads the company’s efforts to attract, develop and retain the best talent.​ ​Louis​ ​has more than 10 years of experience in the field of Human Resources.

Prior to working with​ ​The Meet Group, Louis served as​ ​Head of People Operations and SVP Legal and Corporate Development at if(we), where he​ ​led if(we)'s people operations and facilities and​ ​oversaw all legal matters. Prior to if(we), Louis served as Chief Operating Officer and​ ​General Counsel​ ​of Ennovate Media, a media technology company based in New York.​ ​ He also served as Vice President, Business and Legal Affairs with The Deal, L.L.C., a financial news publishing company also based in New York.​ ​Louis ​began his career as a corporate associate with Dewey Ballantine LLP working on mergers and acquisitions and securities offerings. He is a graduate of Wesleyan University (B.A.) and Columbia Law School (J.D.), where he served as an Editor of the Columbia Law Review.

Jim Bugden

Chief Financial Officer

Jim has worked for internet and technology companies since 2000. He was the CFO of myYearbook from 2007 through 2012. He rejoined MeetMe in 2016 to lead a Corporate Development effort and serve as the GM of our west coast businesses. In 2017 he became our chief financial officer.

Prior to and in between his time at MeetMe, Jim led finance teams at venture backed technology companies such as Rent the Runway, Solve Media, Circulate and TurnTide. Jim also sat as CFO In-Residence for First Round Capital for 2 years. He's been played a key role in over $750 million of M&A and fundraising transactions. Jim earned his CPA during his 7 years with Deloitte where he primarily served public technology companies.

Richard Friedman

SVP Engineering

Mr. Richard Friedman has been Senior Vice President of Engineering at The Meet Group since February, 2017. Mr. Friedman has held various leadership tenures at MeetMe including CTO, VP Engineering, and Director of Engineering. Previously Mr. Friedman has been CEO of RedLine13, CTO at Stuzo Inc, Product Management at JBoss and its acquirer Red Hat, and various roles at Bluestone Software and its acquirer Hewlett Packard.

Kate Robbins

Creative Director

Kate Robbins is currently the Creative Director for The Meet Group, where she is responsible for guiding the company's design team in a multitude of creative projects and overseeing them through to production. Kate has been with the company since the early "myYearbook" days, and continues to be excited and motivated by it's continued growth. She thoroughly enjoys using her creative management skills and brainstorming talents, while being challenged daily to create functional and intuitive interactive experiences. Prior to joining the company, Kate served as the lead designer for a successful brand strategy and marketing design firm in South Jersey.

Florian Braunschweig

Managing Director LOVOO & GM Europe

Florian Braunschweig, Managing Director at LOVOO, serves as General Manager of The Meet Group Europe. Florian co-founded LOVOO, acquired by The Meet Group in 2017, in 2011, starting as Mobile-Engineer within the small team of eight founders. After building up a mobile engineering team and serving as the Frontend CTO, Florian was acting as Technology Evangelist for the whole company to develop the corporate itself as well as its public standing even further. By the end of 2016 Florian took over the lead as the COO of the company together with the former CEO of LOVOO.

Mike Johnson

Chief Accounting Officer

Mike Johnson has served as our Chief Accounting Officer since November 2017, previously serving as Vice President of Finance since May 2014 and Senior Controller for the Company from November 10, 2011. Mike was appointed in connection with the myYearbook merger. Mike served as Senior Controller of myYearbook from October 2008 until the myYearbook merger. Mike served as a Divisional Senior Controller for Activant Solutions from March 2007 to October 2008, and Director of Finance for Thomson Peterson’s from April 2002 to March 2007. Mike’s experience includes five years in public accounting, and industry experience in social media, software, manufacturing and transportation.

Kris Heidler

VP Data Science

Kris has spent the last 15 years developing high-value analytical solutions and data products for strategic decision makers. As a thought leader and team builder, Kris leads The Meet Group's data strategy in an effort to deliver the best experience to its rapidly expanding user base. Prior to joining The Meet Group, Kris was VP of Data Science at Jornaya where he built their data science function from the ground up, developing a team that became integral to product ideation, product development and delivery. In addition, Kris brings a broad range of experience leading data science initiatives and building teams at Merkle, 2U, Neustar and Booz Allen Hamilton.

Nick Hermansader

VP Advertising Operations

Nick Hermansader has been in the digital advertising space for his entire career. Following a short time at a digital advertising agency in Philadelphia, he joined myYearbook.com in 2008 as Traffic Manager. Later, as Director of Yield Management of MeetMe, he worked to scale revenue on meetme.com, launch advertising on the first versions of the mobile applications, and guided the strategy to grow revenue while traffic rapidly migrated from desktop to mobile in-app. Currently, as the Vice President of Advertising Operations, Nick leads the monetization efforts on all Meet Group properties.

Katie Taylor

VP Human Resources

Katie Taylor has been with The Meet Group since August of 2012. She thoroughly enjoys providing HR support to our fantastic and talented team. Katie holds a B.S in Psychology from St. Joseph’s University and has over 12 years of multi-faceted Human Resources and leadership experience. Katie is passionate about making people happy, creating a great work environment, and ensuring a well-run and organized system for all HR processes. Katie is excited to be part of The Meet Group's growth, and looks forward to continued success!

James Zhou

VP Technical Operations

James Zhou has served as our Vice President of Operations since June, 2015. From January 2009 to June 2014, James held a number of positions at News Corp, including Enterprise Cloud Architect for the North America Region, leading the effort to migrate the majority of traditional infrastructure into the cloud. Prior to that, James was the Director of Technical Operations at Beliefnet prior to News Corp acquisition. James also worked for various enterprises including Bose, Novell, and Raytheon. James received his MS from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 2006 and BS from Rutgers in 2001.

Matthew Eustice

VP Quality Assurance

Matthew has been with us for over 10 years and is helping to build The Meet Group to become the definitive portfolio for meeting new people. He guided the quality department from zero to fifteen full-time employees consisting of test and automation engineers. In his role, he is directly responsible for ensuring quality standards are achieved for The Meet Group's portfolio of mobile applications and web properties.

Leslie Arena

VP Investor Relations

Leslie Arena joined The Meet Group in 2017 as Vice President of Investor Relations. Prior to that, she worked at Angie’s List from 2014 to 2017, where her most recent role was Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications. From 2006 through 2014, she worked at Vonage as Vice President of Investor Relations and Competitive Analysis. In addition, Leslie has worked at AT&T, Comcast and Lucent in various roles including in finance, strategy and mergers and acquisitions.

Niklas Lindstrom

Chief Technology Officer

Niklas Lindstrom has served as our Chief Technology Officer since February 2017. Niklas co-founded Skout, Inc. and served as its Chief Technology Officer from January 2008 until The Meet Group acquired Skout in October 2016. Before Skout, Niklas worked for Metrotech Corporation as Project Manager, Engineering from January 2006 until January 2008, and as a Senior Software Engineer from November 2003 to January 2006. Prior to that he was a Senior Software Engineer for International SoftDevices Corporation from 2000 until 2003.

David Brown

VP Operations

For nearly 20 years, David has led service delivery operations for leading web-based retail, education, and social networking services. David joined myYearbook in 2006 to oversee content moderation, user safety, payment processing, customer service, and technical support. He continues to lead all of these efforts for The Meet Group’s portfolio of apps, working closely with product management & engineering teams to implement cutting-edge technologies to streamline customer operations. Prior to joining myYearbook, David held multiple positions in customer support and service delivery for Thomson Learning and CDNow.

Devin Dworak

VP Operations, if(we)

Devin Dworak served as the VP of Operations for if(we) from May 2016 until the merger with The Meet Group. Devin served as the GM of Product Operations and Revenue for if(we) from February 2013 through April 2015, Director of Business Operations from April 2007 through January 2013 and as Sr. Product Manager from September 2005 to March 2007. Prior to joining if(we), Devin held various positions in consulting and product marketing.

Victoria Diaz

VP Project Management

Victoria (Vickie) Diaz has served as VP of Project Management at The Meet Group since 2015.  From January 2009 until 2015 she served as project manager for the engineering group.  Vickie has over 20 years of project management experience including roles at Arbitron, Thomson Prometric, Thomson Peterson’s and Syntex Pharmaceuticals.

Lexi Peskin

Director of Safety

Lexi Peskin is the Director of Safety at The Meet Group, where she is responsible for member safety and law enforcement interactions. The safety team is responsible for 24-hour content moderation and proactive reporting to law enforcement. Prior to joining The Meet Group, Lexi was Counsel at Aramark, where she was lead counsel for the Corrections line of business. She started her career in private practice at Dechert, LLP and Blank Rome, LLP. She is a graduate of Boston University (B.S.) and the University of Virginia School of Law (J.D.).