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Board of Advisors
Sean Finnegan
Sean Finnegan is the President and Chief Digital Officer Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) where he is responsible for the global media network. His previous position was the former Chief Media Officer for Vibrant where he oversaw business development and marketing. Prior to this, he was the Chief Executive Officer of OMD Digital, a unit of Omnicom Media Group. As head of OMD Digital, Sean led its global management team and developed functional services in Digital Investment, Search, Mobile, Gaming, Futures, Analytics and Ad Operations. Sean began his career in the early nineties at BBDO New York, where he focused on spot TV buying and print planning. When the internet became commercial, Sean quickly shifted his focus to new media, working at such interactive agencies as Darwin Digital (Zenith), APL Digital and JWT Digital. Sean then departed the agency world to become Director, Advertising Business Development at AllAdvantage.com. In 2001, Sean left for his native Chicago, where he became Media Director for TribalDDB. A year into his tenure at Tribal, Omnicom formed OMD and Sean became Midwest Director of OMD Digital. Eventually Sean was promoted to lead OMD Digital, a position he held for three years before forming OMD Digital.
Ralph Terkowitz
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 Media, 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
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 Media, 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.
Wim Obbens
Wim Obbens served until recently as Managing Director of the Corporate Finance & Capital Markets Department of Fortis. He was a member of the Management Teams of the Specialized Finance and the Corporate & Institutional Banking department of the Merchant Banking division. Previously, he was a Member of the Board of MeesPierson, then the investment banking arm of Fortis. He is also director of a number of companies (indirectly) owned by Fortis. Prior to joining MeesPierson, he worked for Swiss Bank Corporation/SBC Warburg being responsible for Investment banking in the Netherlands and in the investment banking business line of ABN AMRO. Obbens graduated in Business Economics from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam.
Roelant Lyppens
Roelant Lyppens is Executive Director at the Technology, Media & Telecommunications team at Fortis Corporate Finance & Capital Markets in Amsterdam, where he joined in 2007. Prior to Fortis, Roelant worked for the mergers & acquisitions department of KPN, the Dutch incumbent telecom operator, in which he completed multiple transactions for all segments of the company. Before, he was CFO of PanTel, the alternative telecom operator of Hungary now part of HTCC (AMEX;HTC) and was board member of Euroweb, the central eastern Europe ISP. Roelant has also been manager corporate finance of Xantic, the satellite communications joint venture of KPN and Telstra and had several other finance positions within the KPN Group. Roelant obtained a Master in Business Economics from the University of Amsterdam.
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