Mzinga Expands Executive Management Team

Mzinga’s new executives include Timothy O’Toole, who recently joined Mzinga as Chief Financial Officer, as well as former Prospero co-founders Dan Bruns, Chip Matthes, and Rusty Williams. In their new roles, Bruns is serving as Executive Vice President of Social Media Solutions, Matthes becomes Senior Vice President and Chief Social Media Architect, and Williams is Senior Vice President of Social Media Product Planning.

In addition to these changes, Mzinga’s co-CEOs, Rick Faulk and Barry Libert, have assumed new roles within the company. Barry Libert has been named Chairman of the Board, focusing his efforts on a capital markets strategy and thought leadership activities, and Rick Faulk now serves as President and CEO, focusing on leadership, operations and growth.

“A company’s success is a reflection of the people leading it, and Prospero Technologies was a pioneer and major success story in the social media industry, due in large part to its executive team,” said Rick Faulk, Mzinga’s President and CEO. “We are thrilled to have them and Timothy O’Toole aboard to further strengthen our existing management team.”

Timothy O’Toole: Chief Financial Officer
Timothy O'Toole brings more than a decade of financial experience to his role as Mzinga's Chief Financial Officer. Prior to joining Mzinga, O’Toole served as Vice President of Finance for BladeLogic (BLOG), one of the foremost companies in data center automation. During his tenure at BladeLogic, the company recognized revenue increases from $12 million to $63 million in three years and completed its initial public offering on NASDAQ in July 2007.

Prior to joining BladeLogic, O’Toole was a Controller at Precise Software Solutions (PRSE), a leader in the application performance management space. He holds a BS from Bentley College and is certified as a Public Accountant in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Dan Bruns:  EVP, Social Media Solutions
One of the first pioneers of the Internet to lead the way in social media, Dan Bruns brings to Mzinga almost two decades of entrepreneurial experience in online technology innovation. In his role as Executive Vice President of Social Media Solutions, he is responsible for overseeing the strategic direction and development of the company’s social media and online community technologies and services.  

Prior to joining Mzinga, Bruns was co-founder and CEO of Prospero Technologies, where he was instrumental in developing the company’s secure, reliable platform and custom-branded, high-performance community applications and moderation tools. Earlier in his career, Bruns served as Chairman and CEO of Delphi Internet Services as it became the first commercial online service to provide access to the Internet in 1992. At Delphi, he oversaw the sale of the company to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation in 1993. He later co-founded the Knowledge Factory, creating CompanyLink in conjunction with the Pulitzer Publishing Company.

In 1996, Bruns reacquired Delphi and leveraged the existing online communities to build a new platform to support white-labeled community applications. This platform has evolved into Mzinga’s current social media and online community technology platform. Dan has twice testified on telecommunications policy issues before the U.S. Congress. He is a graduate of Williams College and the Harvard Business School.

Chip Matthes: SVP, Chief Social Media Architect
Chip Matthes was an early participant in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) helping to set standards for the World Wide Web and its underlying technologies. He was one of three co-founders of the Knowledge Factory, and later served as Chief Technology Officer for Prospero Technologies.
 
As Senior Vice President and Chief Social Media Architect for Mzinga, Matthes is responsible for the architecture and technical design of Mzinga’s social media and online community technologies. He holds a BS from Cornell University and an MBA from The University of Michigan.

Russell “Rusty” Williams: SVP, Social Media Product Planning
Rusty Williams first joined Delphi Internet, a predecessor company of Prospero Technologies and now Mzinga, in 1986 and served as Vice President and General Manager through 1995 when Delphi was acquired by News Corporation.

Over the course of his career, Williams has held leadership positions at various online technology and media organizations, including acting as Vice President of Marketing for Prospero Technologies and Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Inforonics, Inc., a diversified holding company specializing in technology consulting, content management and application maintenance. Prior to that, Williams served as Vice President of New Internet Ventures for Individual, Inc., a publicly traded provider of personalized business news (now NewsEdge Corporation).

In his new role as Senior Vice President of Social Media Product Planning, Williams is responsible for overseeing the development of Mzinga’s social media solutions.   A recognized authority on interactive media, Rusty has been a featured speaker at Internet World, The Breakfast Network, Interactive Services Association, Digital Convergence and investment conferences. He graduated with a BA degree from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.

These new executives join a seasoned executive team at Mzinga comprised of Edward J. McGowan, Chief Technology Officer; Karen Leavitt, Chief Marketing Officer; Randy Saari, Senior Vice President of Sales; and Mike Merriman, Vice President of Services & Support.