Executive Team

J.B. Holston – CEO and President

J.B. has run a wide range of technology and media enterprises over the last two decades. As President of Ziff Davis International, Holston managed Ziff Davis' operations across more than 100 countries, and launched Yahoo! Europe. He was part of the senior management team that led the successful LBO of ZD by Forstmann, Little, and subsequent sale to Softbank. Since selling his last technology start-up, Holston has helped create a wide range of for-profit and not-for-profit entities. Holston’s career has included senior posts with GE, NBC and the Boston Consulting Group. He received his BA and MBA from Stanford University.

Walker Fenton – General Manager, Media & Consumer Products

Walker began his career in the Internet working for Netcom Online Communications, the first nationwide dial-up Internet Service Provider, and has since been involved with several start-ups including dbDoctor, Inc. and Xaffire, Inc. Walker received a BA in Economics from Colby College and has an MBA from Regis University.

Dave Keller - General Manager, Enterprise

Dave is responsible for sales, marketing and professional services within the enterprise business segment at NewsGator. He has more than 25 years of experience in building and managing fast growing sales organizations. Immediately prior to NewsGator, he was Executive Vice President at Tailwind Strategies, a sales and marketing consultancy firm focused on early-stage companies. He has held executive sales management positions at several successful early-stage companies including: The Saddlebrook Corporation, Mosaix (now Avaya), Individual Inc., and IONA Technologies. During his seven-year tenure at IONA, Dave held positions of increasing responsibility culminating as Vice President, America’s Sales for this $180 million middleware vendor. Dave brings a wealth of field and channel sales experience, having built many successful direct and indirect enterprise sales teams.

Brian Kellner - Vice President of Products

Brian is responsible for product development for NewsGator. Brian has held product or development management positions for over a dozen years. Most recently he was Vice President of Enterprise Products for Webroot Software. Brian holds a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.S. in Management from Colorado Tech.

Mark Nass – Chief Financial Officer

Mark is responsible for all finance, accounting and administration operations at NewsGator Technologies. Nass spent the last eight years with SmartTalk, Inc. in Boulder, Colorado, most recently as CEO. He has over 20 years of management, financial and accounting experience in both private and public companies, including HBOC, CliniCom, Inc., and Peterbilt Motors Company.

Melissa Risteff – Vice President of Marketing

Melissa Risteff is responsible for all marketing activities at NewsGator, including demand generation, marketing communications, social media marketing, and product marketing. Melissa has had extensive experience in using Web 2.0, social media, and traditional marketing technologies to effectively build brand awareness, generate leads, and drive revenue at Fortune 500 companies as well as startups. Before arriving at NewsGator, Melissa was the Chief Marketing Officer at a collaborative analytics software firm and the Vice President of Marketing and Product for an eLearning company. Prior to that, she held many senior level marketing and product management roles at Sun Microsystems and General Electric. Melissa holds a B.S. in Marketing from Bentley University, and MAS in Technology Management from the University of Denver.

Mike McGurkin – Vice President of Services and Support

Mike is responsible for implementation services and technical support spanning products and business units for all NewsGator customers. With more than 12 years managing service and support organizations, he brings customer service best practice expertise to NewsGator’s customer base. Prior to joining NewsGator, Mike served as VP of Services and Support at Vericept, a network security enterprise software provider, where he led the establishment of robust technical and business consulting services and technical support. Before that, he worked for several small and mid-size software companies, building or expanding service organizations, as well as developing a consulting practice within BearingPoint. Mike’s experience with customer support and management is an asset for NewsGator’s customer base.

Eric Sauve – Vice President of Tomoye

Eric is a leading expert on Web 2.0 technologies, communities and social networking. He has spoken at multiple events worldwide, and is a frequent author and blogger on related trends and issues. Eric has worked with private and public sector organizations to help them make Web 2.0 a reality in their organization and drive meaningful business results. Eric drives Tomoye’s product vision of communities that tightly integrate with Microsoft SharePoint to extend the value of existing investments through the addition of rich, user-friendly features. Under Eric’s leadership, Tomoye products have established themselves as a market leaders, receiving multiple awards and recognition from industry analysts. He is a four time entrepreneur, and prior to founding Tomoye, he founded La Siembra, the largest Fair Trade organic chocolate company in North America. Eric holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Alberta and a Masters of Arts from Carleton University.