Russ Mann is chief executive officer and co-founder of Covario. Under Russ’ leadership, Covario has grown a high performance team of nearly 100 members in San Diego and San Francisco, with additional presence in New York, Chicago, Dallas, London and Tokyo. The team has expanded its client portfolio to include over fifty Fortune 500 and Internet 100 clients, and has won various awards and recognition from organizations such as AdTech, SES, AeA, Stanford’s “Always On,” OMMA’s “Mixx Awards” and the ABA’s “Stevies,” among others. Russ and the team are sought after commentators on the state of online marketing and have been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, the Washington Post and Marketwatch as well as in industry publications including Advertising Age, iMedia, ClickZ, SearchEngineWatch and Mediapost’s Online Media Daily. Russ also speaks at industry events such as AdTech, SES, SMX and investor conferences such as RBC’s and GCA Savvian’s annual media, technology and communications conferences.
For more than two decades, Russ has been at the cutting edge of digital marketing, advanced analytics and Customer Relationship Management technologies for enterprise-class organizations. Prior to co-founding and raising $21M in two rounds for Covario, he was part of the management team that sold Peregrine Systems to Hewlett Packard for $425M, sold HNC Software to Fair Isaac for $810M, took Homestore.com public for over $1.4B and also helped get ONYX Software to IPO. At each of these successful software companies, Russ worked in strategy, alliances, sales, marketing and product management.
Earlier in his career, Russ was a Strategy Consultant for the Braxton division of Deloitte, and lived in Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Australia for 5 years advising companies in a variety of industries. Russ earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Asian Studies from Cornell University, where he graduated magna cum laude. He is also an investor and advisor to MeetingSense, a SaaS meeting productivity company, and GilmanReed.com, a new online real estate company. He lives with his wife and 50 animals on a small ranch in Temecula, California.
Dema Zlotin, founder and vice president of strategic services, is responsible for strategic alliances and the development of new markets. In this role, Dema works with large customers to leverage technology to improve overall ROI through the improvement of interactive marketing processes.
Previously, Dema was president and co-founder of Silicon Space, Inc., a provider of custom, web-based enterprise software solutions for commercial and federal organizations. Dema’s professional history includes positions with Anderson Consulting and Price Waterhouse.
A member of the CMO Council, Dema has been the recipient of several prestigious awards and nominations including E&Y's Entrepreneur of the Year and the Starcom award, and he is a Jr. Fellow at the San Diego Supercomputer Center. Dema earned his computer science degree from the University of California, San Diego.
Steve Beal, Vice President of Development
Steve Beal, vice president of software development, is responsible for the innovative development, rapid iteration and quality assurance of the Covario portfolio of software.
Prior to joining Covario, Beal served as the section manager for Hewlett-Packard’s ITSM product group where he planned and executed the convergence of the HP Service Desk and Peregrine Service Center products. An early R&D thought-leader in web analytics and SaaS software, Steve Beal has over two decades of technology experience in assembling and leading winning development teams. His tenure includes Peregrine Systems, Order Fusion, Key Lime Software (now a part of Yahoo!), TriTeal Corporation and SAIC.
Steve earned a BS in Electrical Engineering from Kettering University.
Michael Bridges, Vice President of Client Services
Michael Bridges, vice president of client services, has overall responsibility for the relationships and interactive marketing solutions provided to Covario’s clients. Michael has been with Covario since its inception and has spent the past three years building its awarding winning agency. The company has received awards and recognition from organizations such as ad:tech, Search Engine Watch, Gartner & 1to1 Media, and Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), among others.
Most recently, Michael was director of Marketing and Business Operations at myFICO, the consumer financial services group of Fair Isaac Company, where he built and managed the myFICO marketing team consisting of search engine marketing, paid search advertising, organic search engine optimization, affiliate programming, email marketing, DRTV, and website merchandising. Prior to managing the marketing function, Michael managed the P&L and all financial aspects of myFICO.com including strategic analysis, forecasting, and mergers and acquisitions. Previously, Michael held several financial management and strategic planning positions within large enterprises and smaller, emerging growth firms.
Michael earned an MSBA and a BBA in Finance from Texas Tech University.
Mike Gullaksen, Vice President of Search StrategiesMike Gullaksen, vice president of search strategies, leads the company's efforts to expand the Covario technology and services offerings for natural search engine optimization (SEO) and Covario's Search Synergy Score (S3) by working with Covario's more than sixty Fortune 500 and Internet 1000 customers to help identify areas that can drive additional value and results
Mike brings more than a decade of experience designing search engine marketing programs for large advertisers. For the last nine years, Gullaksen worked at iCrossing, where he held several executive-level positions. As iCrossing's senior vice president of search, Gullaksen worked with a variety of Fortune 500 advertisers including Bank of America, Coca-Cola, Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, and Williams-Sonoma.
Mike earned a BS in Business Administration from Arizona State University
Jeff Johnson, Vice President of Business DevelopmentJeff Johnson, vice president of business development, has responsibility for the Company’s worldwide sales organization, with an emphasis on new client acquisition and customer satisfaction.
Jeff brings more than 20 years of sales management and account development experience to Covario. Most recently, Jeff served as senior vice president of strategic account development for iCrossing where he held multiple positions during his tenure. Previously, Jeffrey held leadership positions at AOL Time Warner, Homebuilder.com (a division of HomeStore.com) and Trader Advertising Media.
Jeff earned a BS in Business Administration from Arizona State University
Steve Lagotta, Vice President of FinanceSteve Lagotta, vice president of finance, is responsible for achieving the company’s profit goals while upholding the company’s financial integrity, policies and accounting practices.
Prior to joining Covario, Lagotta served as a division controller at Time Warner Cable and as the controller for NewGen Results Corporation. During his tenure at Time Warner and a previous position at Radyne ComStream (RCS), Steve directed several successful mergers and acquisitions. Steve’s industry experience also includes positions at Thompson-Rose Consulting, Pacific Communication Sciences Incorporated (PCSI), General Dynamics Electronics (GDE) Systems, and Science Applications International, Inc. (SAIC).
Steve earned an MBA at the University of Redlands and a BS, Finance at San Diego State University.
Craig Macdonald, senior vice president and chief marketing officer, is responsible for the strategic direction, development and marketing of the Covario™ portfolio of solutions.
Prior to Covario, Craig was the director of product management for the service and management group within Hewlett Packard’s OpenView division where he oversaw service and asset management, configuration management, and discovery applications used by large enterprises worldwide. Previously, Craig held key positions at Peregrine Systems, Inc., Fair Isaac, HNC Software, World Research Advisory, META Group and Greenwich Associates.
Craig earned an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business, and a BS from the University of Pennsylvania. He also studied at the United States Military Academy at West Point.
Jeffrey Scime, Vice President of OperationsJeffrey Scime, vice president of operations, is responsible for technical support, education programs, implementation services and all customer engagements.
Prior to joining Covario, Jeff held executive level positions with several enterprise software providers including Avexus where he was senior vice president and chief operating officer and Sybase, where he managed professional services for North America. He was also the vice president of North American operations for Interactive Group/DataWorks, Inc. (now Epicor).
Jeff earned a BS, Business in Quantitative Information Science from Western Illinois University.