Doug Leeds (born 16 May 1968), is the Chief Executive Officer of IAC Publishing, a digital media operating group launched on December 9, 2015, by media and Internet conglomerate IAC.
The single digital media publisher reaches 100 million monthly uniques according to comScore October 2015 numbers
and includes publishing brands About.com, The Daily Beast, Investopedia and Dictionary.com. Digital publishing is one of four key areas of strategic focus for IAC, as Leeds noted to the WSJ,
saying that “bringing the sites under one umbrella will allow IAC to combine their strengths.” Leeds previously held the title of Ask.com CEO since 2010.
Biography
Career at Ask.com
Leeds was named CEO of Ask.com in 2010 following his tenure as president of the company. The previous CEO of Ask.com was
Jim Safka
James Patrick Safka (born 7 May 1968) is an American digital media executive and former Chief Executive Officer of Match.com and Ask.com.
Biography
Career at Match.com
At Match.com, an online dating service with more than 20 million members, Sa ...
. Under Leeds's helm, Ask.com returned to its roots as a Q&A service, redesigned its site and launched an online community to generate human-powered answers to supplement answers that are indexed from across the web. Leeds also focused the company on reaching mobile users, launching Ask.com mobile applications for web, iPhone
[Stephanie Yang (2013-08-05)]
UrbanSpoon To Focus On Quality Restaurant Reviews After Selling Rezbook To OpenTable
. TechCrunch and Android
as well as several well-received stand-alone applications that spun out of the Ask.com flagship experience. Ask.com mobile apps have been downloaded over one million times.
With the Ask.com product re-focused on Q&A, Leeds returned the brand to the TV airways, inking partnerships with
Live with Kelly
''Live with Kelly and Ryan'' (or simply ''Live'') is an American syndicated morning talk show hosted by Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest. Executive produced by Michael Gelman, the ''Live with...'' show formula has aired under various hosts since ...
and airing new TV commercials that highlighted the Q&A value proposition. The result of this product and marketing coordination has been greater than 25% user growth in the past year as well as a tripling of revenue and 700% increase in annual profits under Leeds's leadership.
IAC (company)
IAC Inc. is an American holding company that owns brands across 100 countries, mostly in media and Internet. The company is incorporated under Delaware General Corporation Law and headquartered in New York City. Joey Levin, who previously led th ...
CEO Greg Blatt stated about Leeds's management that "for the first time, maybe since we bought it, I think Ask is really hitting a stride."
Leeds has been a leading advocate of "Applied Improv" as a business tool to foster creativity and innovation. Under Leeds's direction, all Ask.com employees have been trained in using improv techniques to enhance their communications, identify new opportunities and accept a more diverse set of business possibilities.
Prior to assuming the top role at Ask, Leeds served as the company's chief operating officer, chief strategy officer,
and SVP of Products where the products he launched won multiple
Webby Awards
The Webby Awards are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over two thousand industry experts and technology innovators. Categories include ...
and were heralded as the "Apple of search" by Chris Sherman of
Search Engine Land
Danny Sullivan is an American technologist, journalist, and entrepreneur. He is the founder of Search Engine Watch in 1997, one of the earliest online publications about search engine marketing. He also launched ''Search Engine Strategies'', one ...
In addition to running Ask.com, Leeds now also oversees a publishing network of informational, evergreen content aimed at helping people learn new things and includes About.com, Investopedia,
Ask.com, Dictionary.com.
Purchase of ASKfm
In August 2014, Leeds also spearheaded Ask.com's acquisition of ASKfm, a global social network with 150 million users across 150 countries. ASKfm generates an estimated 20,000 questions per minute with approximately 45 percent of its mobile monthly active users logging in daily. To date, the mobile app has been downloaded more than 40 million times. Leeds has been active champion in spearheading the safety overhaul of ASKfm, proactively driving partnerships with New York and Maryland Attorneys General
to design specific safety plans and relocating the company out of Latvia, to Dublin Ireland where he has forged partnerships with local government and children's ministries to ensure the site is up to industry safety standards.
Career at Dictionary.com
Immediately prior to leading Ask.com, Leeds was the President and chief executive officer of
Dictionary.com
Dictionary.com is an online dictionary whose domain was first registered on May 14, 1995. The primary content on Dictionary.com is a proprietary dictionary based on ''Random House Unabridged Dictionary'', with editors for the site providing new ...
, a top 50 website in the US. Leeds took over management of Dictionary.com following IAC's acquisition of the company in 2008, which Leeds spearheaded.
Under Leeds's direction, Dictionary.com entered the mobile market, launching the Dictionary.com mobile app on all major mobile platforms, resulting in over 40 million app downloads and recognition by Apple, in March 2012, as one of the 25 most downloaded apps of all time. Under Leeds, revenue at Dictionary.com grew 75% and profit rose over 150%.
Leeds also oversaw the successful launch of several Dictionary.com mobile games including Miss Spell's Class and Agent X Word.
Other business experience
Leeds has worked in various capacities at additional companies including
Yahoo
Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo! Inc. (2017–present), Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds ma ...
(VP, Product Justice), Overture Services (Senior Director, Trust and Community), OmniSky (Director of Wireless Advertising), BootSpace (CEO),
Vodafone
Vodafone Group Public limited company, plc () is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Telephone company, telecommunications company. Its registered office and Headquarters, global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It ...
(Director, Public Policy),
Thelen Thelen may refer to:
People
* A. J. Thelen (born 1986), retired American professional ice hockey defenseman
* Albert Vigoleis Thelen (1903-1989), German author and translator
* Dave Thelen (born 1936), former Canadian Football League running back
* ...
(Associate Attorney, Antitrust),
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) is a nonpartisan international affairs think tank headquartered in Washington D.C. with operations in Europe, South and East Asia, and the Middle East as well as the United States. Founded in ...
(Fellow), and the
Arms Control Association
The Arms Control Association is a United States-based nonpartisan membership organization founded in 1971, with the self-stated mission of "promoting public understanding of and support for effective arms control policies."
The group publishes th ...
(Researcher). He has served on the board of directors of
TRUSTe TrustArc (formerly TRUSTe) is a privacy compliance technology company based in San Francisco, California. The company provides software and services to help corporations update their privacy management processes so they comply with government laws a ...
and the
Mobile Marketing Association.
Personal biography
Born and raised in
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
, Leeds is the grandson of
Joseph Friedman
Joseph B. Friedman (October 9, 1900 – June 21, 1982) was an independent American inventor with a broad range of interests and ideas. Friedman was a first generation American and the fifth of eight children of Jacob David Frie ...
, inventor of the flexible straw. He attended high school at
Crossroads School before receiving his bachelor's degree ''cum laude'' from
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
in 1992. He graduated with high honors in Political Economy and served as the department's
valedictorian
Valedictorian is an academic title for the highest-performing student of a graduating class of an academic institution.
The valedictorian is commonly determined by a numerical formula, generally an academic institution's grade point average (GPA ...
. He earned his
juris doctor
The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law
and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...
''cum laude'' in 1996 from the
Georgetown University Law Center
The Georgetown University Law Center (Georgetown Law) is the law school of Georgetown University, a private research university in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1870 and is the largest law school in the United States by enrollment and ...
where he was an editor of the
Georgetown Law Journal
''The Georgetown Law Journal'' is a student-edited scholarly journal published at Georgetown University Law Center. It is the flagship law review of the Georgetown University Law Center.
Overview
The ''Georgetown Law Journal'' is headquartered ...
. In 1994, Leeds married Tracy Porter. They have three daughters. Leeds and his family live in
Danville, California
The Town of Danville is located in the San Ramon Valley in Contra Costa County, California. It is one of the incorporated municipalities in California that use "town" in their names instead of "city". The population was 43,582 at the 2020 census ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leeds, Doug
1968 births
Living people
American technology chief executives
Georgetown University Law Center alumni
University of California, Berkeley alumni
People from Danville, California
American chief operating officers
Crossroads School alumni