Board of Directors

Craig Gooding - Board Director

Craig co-founded Vibrant in 2000 with Doug Stevenson, serving as CCO and co-founder of Vibrant between 2000-2009. With minimal seed funding, Craig oversaw Vibrant's rapid growth strategy, positioning Vibrant as the world's leading premium contextual platform in the US, UK, Germany and France. Formerly AOL Europe's E-commerce Manager and leading dealmaker, Craig has thirteen years of publishing, media and Internet experience across AOL, CompuServe, ICQ, and Netscape, playing a crucial role in the launch of Netscape Online. Craig is an active Vibrant Board Member and Strategic Advisor.

Craig has a B.A. in Humanities from Humberside University.

 

Wim Obbens - Board Director

Wim Obbens is appointed managing director of Janivo Holding an international Investment company located in The Netherlands which manages the investments of a group of private individuals. He is founder of Bio Rights B.V. an eco-technology group in The Netherlands specialized in the production of biofuels from waste celluloses. Until 2007 he served as Managing Director of the Investment Bank of Fortis Bank, being member of the Management Team of the Corporate & Investment Banking business unit. Previously, he was Member of the Board of MeesPierson. He also served as director of a number of companies (indirectly) owned by Fortis. Prior to joining MeesPierson, he worked for Swiss Bank Corporation/SBC Warburg which later merged with UBS, being responsible for Investment banking in the Netherlands. He started his career in the investment banking business line of ABN AMRO. Obbens graduated in Business Economics from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam

 

Ralph Terkowitz - Board Director

Ralph Terkowitz joined ABS Capital Partners in January 2004 as a General Partner and is responsible for investments in companies within the media & communication and technology sectors. Terkowitz represents ABS Capital on the boards of American Public Education, Inc., eFashionSolutions, LLC, Vibrant, Inc. and WhenU.com, Inc. He is also an observer on the board of Course Advisor, Inc.

Previously serving as CIO/CTO of the Washington Post Company, Terkowitz brings more than 30 years of operating, financial and technical experience to ABS Capital. Terkowitz served as founder and CEO of its electronic publishing subsidiary, WashingtonPost.Newsweek Interactive (formerly DigitalInk). Also for the Washington Post, Terkowitz was also the CEO of Brass Ring for the Washington Post, one of the first business services providers. Brass Ring has grown to be one of the two largest outsourced recruiting platforms. Terkowitz serves on the board of TRUSTe and eCornell.

In addition to his ABS Capital duties, he is a member of the board of advisors of the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins University, the Indian CEO High Tech Council, the Cornell University Council and the Newspaper Association of America's Business Committee on Industry Development.

 

Deric Emry - Board Observer

Deric Emry joined ABS Capital in 1999 and is a General Partner responsible for investments in the media and communications sectors. He serves on the boards of ABS portfolio companies Control Point Solutions, Inc., Course Advisor, Inc. and Vibrant, Inc. Emry was formerly a board member of Simplexity, Inc. (now InPhonic, Inc.) and Captivate Network, Inc. He was also an observer on the boards of NeuStar, Inc., SBA Communications Corp. and Dolan Media Company.

Prior to joining ABS Capital, Emry was part of Deutsche Banc Alex Brown's Media & Communications Investment Banking team from 1996 to 1999. During that time, this team was considered by Wall Street to be the premier investment banking team in the sector. Emry was instrumental in developing new sub-sectors of focus within media & communications. For example, his team raised Wall Street awareness of communications tower companies, eventually becoming the leading banker for the most significant companies in that industry.

In addition to his board duties, Emry is a member of the William T. Walters Committee of the Walters Museum of Art in Baltimore.

 

Okko Filius - Board Observer

Okko Filius joined ABN AMRO Bank in 1991 and is Managing Director and Deputy Head of its Corporate Finance & Capital Markets department. In his first nine years at ABN AMRO in Amsterdam and Hong Kong, Okko was primarily active in origination and execution of Debt Capital Markets and Equity Capital Markets transactions. During his time in Asia late nineties, he worked for ABN AMRO Rothschild and was COO of ABN AMRO Asia Corporate Finance. In 2000, Okko moved to MeesPierson to focus on M&A origination and execution. He is one of the leading financial advisers for public offers in the Netherlands and has assisted clients like Arcelor, Canon, ERIKS, Rexam and voestalpine. Following the merger of ABN AMRO Bank and Fortis Bank Nederland (including MeesPierson) in July 2010, Okko is now back at ABN AMRO Bank again. He is also a Director of an ABN AMRO Bank group company that is a Vibrant Media shareholder. Okko has a Master's degree in Business Economics from the University of Groningen.