Avenue Right Board of Directors

Brian Gramer

Brian Gramer is Founder and CEO of Avenue Right, his third marketing technology start-up company, founded in January 2008.

In 2001 Gramer founded Vtrenz, a marketing automation technologies SaaS (Software as a Service) company. With fifteen years of sales and marketing experience, Gramer is a foremost marketing strategist and brings an impressive track record of success in business start-up, market development, and sales. With an in-depth understanding of the needs of today's marketing professionals and technology trends, Gramer guided the vision and strategic direction of Vtrenz and his first venture, Anycollege.com, an international niche search engine that helps high school students look for colleges at the beginning of their college search process.

As an industry expert, Gramer taught a marketing automation course at the University of Notre Dame and was a guest lecturer at MIT. Brian is frequently invited to be a featured presenter at numerous industry conferences, with past credits including DM Days, the New England Direct Marketing Association Conference, and the Direct Marketing Association’s Annual Conference. Brian shares his expertise with the community and serves on the Moorhead City Planning Commission and MSUM Business School Advisory Board.

Will Schnabel

William Schnabel is responsible for overseeing the international operations and growth strategies for Silverpop’s industry-leading email and marketing automation platforms as Vice President of International Markets. Previously, Schnabel was responsible for overall operations and product direction of Silverpop's Engage B2B (formerly Vtrenz) solution, a best-in-class demand generation and lead management technology. Prior to Silverpop's acquisition of Vtrenz in 2007, Schnabel served as its president and COO, where he guided the company’s growth as an innovative thought leader in the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and marketing technology industries.

Prior to Vtrenz, Schnabel served in an executive capacity at Accenture, a global management-consulting firm, where he provided strategic guidance to global 500 organizations on the application and implementation of advanced business technologies. Schnabel is a frequent columnist and speaker on the topics of engagement marketing strategies, relationship management technologies, and the influence of SaaS-based solutions on optimizing business performance.

Schnabel holds a Master of Science degree in industrial engineering and operations research from the University of Minnesota, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in physics from Grinnell College.

Jeff Haley

As President and Chief Executive Officer of the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB), Jeff Haley has steered the association in a business-driven direction with defined objectives to share knowledge, facilitate consensus, and increase revenue for the Radio industry.

As Senior Vice President for Time Warner Global Marketing from 2001 to 2006, Jeff leveraged $7.5 billion of media investment from key advertisers across Time Warner’s divisions and was responsible for creating marketing programs for some of the largest advertisers in the U.S.

Jeff is on the Board of Directors for the Ad Council and a member of the Arbitron Radio Advisory Council. He also serves as Co-Chair of the Radio Creative Fund (RCF), the governing body of the Radio-Mercury Awards.

Jeff holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the College of the Holy Cross and attended Boston University’s School of Management. He and his wife Marcy, a former television producer, live in Southport, Connecticut, with their four sons.

The Radio Advertising Bureau serves more than 6,000 member Radio stations in the U.S. and over 1,000 member networks, representative firms, broadcast vendors, and international organizations. RAB leads and participates in educational, research, sales, and advocacy programs that promote and advance Radio as a primary advertising medium.

Dana Johnson

Dana Johnson is the President of MidAmerica Capital Partners, LLC, a firm which provides family office and asset management services. He has over twenty five years of experience investing in and consulting with companies over a wide range of industries.

Mr. Johnson is also currently the President of America Bancshares, Inc., a bank holding company. He has led a number of merger and acquisition transactions, served as Chief Financial Officer for a large privately held financial institution, and worked in the entrepreneurial division of Deloitte and Touche, assisting start-up companies through consulting services and in debt and equity raises. He holds a BA from the University of Northern Iowa and is a CPA.

David L. Anderson

Dave Anderson is Managing Director of Supply Chain Ventures, LLC, a venture capital and consulting company specializing in software and biotech investing, and is a retired managing partner of supply chain consulting at Accenture, a $15 billion global technology consulting company.

He currently is an independent member of the Board of Directors (and compensation committees) of Lean Logistics of Holland, Michigan; of New Vine Logistics in Napa, California; of Optiant in Burlington, Massachusetts; of Aiko Biotechnology, a start-up drug development Company in Maine specializing in pain management; and Chairman of Control Group, a New York City-based technology consulting and outsourcing company.

Dr. Anderson is on the Board of Advisors of Logispring Management Company s.a.r.l.; Geneva Switzerland, a $200 million European venture fund specializing in supply chain investments; and True Demand Software, Inc., a Los Gatos-based company using real-time data to enhance supply chain management. He is also a member of the President’s Council of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations.

Before joining Accenture, he was vice president in charge of logistics consulting at Temple, Barker & Sloane, Inc. (now Mercer Management Consulting) and a vice president of Data Resources, Inc. (now part of Global Insights, Inc), where he founded the Firm’s transportation and logistics consulting practice. He was a founding partner of Operations Technology, Inc., a web-enabled, intelligent messaging software company (now part of Neptune Orient Lines). He has also taught classes in undergraduate and graduate level business courses at Northwestern, MIT, Boston University, and Northeastern University.

His past associations include the Board of Directors of Industri-Matematik-International (sold to Symphony Technology, then China dotcom), Board of Directors of Vtrenz (sold to Silverpop), a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of New England, the Board of Directors of The Transportation Center at Northwestern University, and a founder of the Stanford University Global Supply Chain Forum.

Dr. Anderson received his Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Econometrics and Finance from Boston College and his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics from the University of Connecticut.

David Straden

David Straden is the Founder and Managing Partner of Flagship Partners, a venture capital firm that makes early stage investments in Software-as-a-Service companies. He has been investing in and helping to shape successful growth companies for over twenty years across a range of industries from media to software and technology-enabled business services.

Mr. Straden has led a number of corporate turnarounds as CEO, worked in corporate strategy for a large international conglomerate and provided M&A advice and managed IPOs as an investment banker for Smith Barney. He holds a MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, a MSc from the London School of Economics and a BA from Northwestern University.