Personal / TeamData

Co-founder & CTO

Digi.me

EVP Technology

Personal was started in 2009 to allow individuals to take control of their personal data so they could share it with other individuals or businesses in a privacy-preserving and secure way. Personal was the first organization to be recognized as a Privacy by Design ambassador by Dr. Ann Cavoukian who coined the term.

At the heart of the product was our “secure share” architecture and technology which enabled users to share any part of their personal data graph with other individuals and businesses while cryptographically locking our team out of being able to see that data. It was architected in a way that showed that privacy and security don’t have to be on the opposite end of the spectrum from sharing.

Embracing that notion fully, we designed onboarding opportunities that allowed our users and partners to invite individuals and pre-populate their data vaults with information lowering barriers to adoption and driving growth. As the product was seeing traction with SMBs, it was renamed TeamData and re-focused to allow teams to share sensitive information in a private and secure way. This presented even more opportunity for growth as individuals tend to be part of multiple teams: at work, with family members, sports clubs, and so on.

In 2017 we merged TeamData with digi.me. We met the founder of digi.me at a conference and quickly realized we were fighting for the same things like empowering individuals with their own personal data by breaking it out of the silos where it lives. We were making it easier for them to secure it, but also to share it with whom they choose. Personal data is the key ingredient in many important areas of tech like analytics, recommendation systems and personalization of services.

The Map Network

Co-founder & CTO

NAVTEQ

Director, Location Content

Nokia

Director, Location Content

The Map Network was founded in late 1999 to create high-quality, rich location content, maps and a brand which would be easily recognizable in major cities globally and attract a large audience whose attention was sought by advertisers.

We created several highly interactive products that allowed our customers to create custom maps of their cities, connect, geocode and correct their location content and publish beautiful maps on their websites. The Map Network quickly became the official map of hundreds of the world’s most visited cities as well as institutions such as The Smithsonian.

Through these relationships, The Map Network proudly served clients such as The NBA All-Star Game, NFL Super Bowl, DNC and RNC conventions and many others.

In 2001, after September 11, The Map Network’s New York City map was picked up by The Red Cross and became one of the most used resources for dealing with the fallout of the tragedy. Our team worked tirelessly to update the map with the latest information on blood donation centers, missing persons information centers, road and neighborhood closures, etc. earning wide acclaim and recognition for our efforts.

In addition to our flagship product, we created an indoor mapping product, which was used by some of the world’s largest trade shows to showcase exhibitors and products on exhibit floors, inside museums and other venues across the world.

In late 2006, The Map Network, having just over 100 employees, was acquired by NAVTEQ where we continued to drive the company’s location content strategy and products. Navteq now had more than 5,500 employees worldwide working in 202 offices in 53 countries. Just a year later Navteq was acquired by Nokia in a transaction valued at $8.1 billion that would put us in a company of 100,000+ employees.

It was a time of amazing growth and opportunity and allowed our team to experience a single business growing from a small, to a medium and finally, a very large company. In 2009, most of the core team of the original Map Network left Nokia to seek other opportunities. Shortly thereafter, some of us co-founded Personal, Inc. (see above)