Spring 2010 Commencement Speaker: Bill Gossman

Bill Gossman has been an active investor and company builder in the venture industry since 1997. He is currently an Executive in Residence at MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures. In this role he leverages more than 25 years of hands-on experience building and leading high-growth organizations primarily in digital media, social media and mobile. He is a pioneer in behavioral targeting and enabling media delivery to cell phones. He is currently the CEO of hi5.

He most recently served as CEO of Revenue Science (now Audience Science), the only company worldwide to offer both an audience technology platform and a targeting marketplace, recording billions of behavioral events daily and reaching over 385 million unique Internet users. The company now serves more targeted ads worldwide than any other company for clients including Financial Times, Gannett, Jumpstart Automotive Media, New York Times Digital, NikkeiNet, Reuters.com, The Guardian, Univison.com, and Wall Street Journal Digital.

Previously, he filled executive positions at MDV portfolio companies including CEO of Sabrix (acquired in December 2009 by Thomson Reuters) and CFO of nLight, each of which are now leaders in their respective segments. He also served as a Strategic Advisor to Quake Technologies, which was acquired by AMCC.

Bill co-founded @mobile, a wireless Internet software and services company, where he served as COO and CFO, and later engineered the company's $400 million merger with Software.com (Openwave Systems). Prior to OPWV (@mobile), he served in management and technical positions at Lucent, AT&T Wireless, Hughes and Northrop.

His technical interests span artificial intelligence, mobility, signal processing, and distributed systems. He holds 13 patents and has a Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University, a Master of Science degree from MIT, and an MBA from the University of Maryland.

Bill serves on the boards of Audience Science and Pelago, and is a personal investor and advisor to iLike (NWS), RealSelf and Kickball Labs. Additionally, he is a member of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), the Online Publishers Association (OPA), the National Advertising Initiative (NAI), and the Board of Visitors at the University of Maryland's Smith School of Business. He and his wife Cheryl are founders of the Center for Pediatric and Perinatal Simulation at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle.