Tim Hanlon

Tim Hanlon is widely regarded as one of America’s most influential thought leaders in the concentric fields of emerging media, marketing and digital technology.

He is the Founder and CEO of The Vertere Group, LLC, a boutique investment advisory and strategic consulting firm focused on helping today’s most forward-leaning media companies, marketers, entrepreneurs, and investors benefit from rapidly changing technological advances in marketing, media and consumer communications.

Tim was previously Founder and Managing Director of Velociter, the innovation-centric partnership and strategic investment arm of Interpublic Group’s corporate media agency division Mediabrands – where he was chiefly responsible for driving entrepreneurial innovation through proprietary relationships with more than a dozen innovative venture-backed media/marketing startup firms, including: Mixpo (acquired by Netsertive, 2017); Machinima (Warner Brothers, 2016); Retailigence (ShopAdvisor, 2016); Aditive (Acxiom, 2014); BLiNQ Media (Gannett, 2012); Circle Street (Valassis, 2012); Sharethrough, and Spongecell.

Before Velociter, Tim was Executive Vice President/Managing Director of Publicis Groupe’s VivaKi Ventures – the strategic partnership and investment arm of VivaKi (comprising Starcom MediaVest Group, Zenith Optimedia Group, Digitas, Razorfish, and Denuo), which he founded in 2008, after launching predecessor Ventures practices for Denuo (2006) and Publicis Groupe Media/PGM (2005).  In those roles, Tim served in formal advisory and directorial positions with over four dozen media-related startups, while managing successful exits with more than two dozen firms, including Sling Media (acquired by Echostar/Dish Network, 2007); Blinkx (IPO, 2007); Navic Networks (Microsoft, 2008); Rapt (Microsoft, 2008); SnapTell (Amazon/A9, 2009); Dapper (Yahoo, 2010); IMMI (Arbitron/Nielsen, 2010); Pelago (Groupon, 2011); Tumri (Collective Media, 2011); Panache (24/7 Real Media/WPP, 2011); Sezmi (KIT Digital, 2012); Brightcove (IPO, 2012); Peer39 (DG/MediaMind/Sizmek, 2012); Modiv Media (Catalina Marketing, 2012); ViTrue (Oracle, 2012); Buddy Media (Salesforce.com, 2012); TRA (TiVo, 2012); Daylife (NewsCred, 2012); RMG Networks (IPO, 2013); Pando Networks (Microsoft, 2013); Adap.tv (AOL, 2013); YuMe (IPO, 2013); Aggregate Knowledge (Neustar, 2013); CoolIris (Yahoo, 2014); Visible World (Comcast, 2015); BlackArrow (Cadent, 2015); Hillcrest Labs (InterDigital, 2016); and Visible Measures (AcuityAds, 2017).

Prior to founding the Denuo Ventures and PGM Ventures practices, Tim was Senior Vice President/Director, Emerging Contacts for Starcom MediaVest Group.  He was chiefly responsible for all US client activity and agency initiatives in the field of emerging media technologies, including the firm’s ground-breaking TV 2.0 Practice, centered around evolutionary television platforms such as interactive/ enhanced television, on-demand video, digital video recording, interactive program guide navigation, addressable advertising, and digital broadcasting/multi-casting.

Tim has over 20 years of classic, digital and “emerging” media and marketing experience including senior management positions at marketing promotions agency Frankel (Chicago), regional advertising agency Creative Alliance (Louisville), digital content pioneer Starwave (Bellevue, WA), and credit card issuer MBNA America (Wilmington, DE).

Tim also has wide-ranging journalism experience, including production, editing and writing stints at CBS News, Sports Illustrated, the former Radio & Records, and the Voice of America.

Among numerous industry honors, Tim is most proud of being an inaugural recipient of Interactive Television Today’s Leadership in Interactive Television Award - way back in 2004.  His insights into the future of media, advertising and marketing are regularly seen in major electronic, print and trade press outlets.

Tim holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth Graduate School of Business, and a BA from Georgetown University.