Kevin P. Ryan is an American investor and entrepreneur who has founded several New York-based businesses, including

Gilt Groupe Gilt is an online shopping and lifestyle website based in the United States, launched in 2007. On January 7, 2016, The company was sold to Hudson's Bay Company for approximately $250 million. Prior to the Hudson’s Bay acquisition, sales were ex ...

, ''

Business Insider ''Insider'', previously named ''Business Insider'' (''BI''), is an American financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Insider''s parent company Insider Inc. has been owned by the German publ ...

'' and

MongoDB MongoDB is a source-available cross-platform document-oriented database program. Classified as a NoSQL database program, MongoDB uses JSON-like documents with optional schemas. MongoDB is developed by MongoDB Inc. and licensed under the Serve ...

. Ryan helped grow

DoubleClick DoubleClick Inc. was an advertisement company that developed and provided Internet ad serving services from 1995 until its acquisition by Google in March 2008. DoubleClick offered technology products and services that were sold primarily to adv ...

from 1996 to 2005, first as president and later as CEO. Ryan continues to found and invest in companies through AlleyCorp, a venture capital firm he founded with

Dwight Merriman Dwight Merriman is an American Internet executive, racing driver, and entrepreneur in New York City's Silicon Alley. Best known for co-founding DoubleClick with Kevin O'Connor and serving as its CTO for 10 years, Merriman currently serves as th ...

in 2008. He holds a B.A. from Yale University and an M.B.A. from

INSEAD INSEAD, a contraction of "Institut Européen d'Administration des Affaires" () is a non-profit business school that maintains campuses in Europe ( Fontainebleau, France), Asia (Singapore), the Middle East (Abu Dhabi, UAE), and North America (San ...

Career

Ryan began his career working at

United Media United Media was a large Column (periodical), editorial column and comic strip newspaper print syndication, syndication service based in the United States, owned by the E. W. Scripps Company, that operated from 1978 to 2011. It syndicated 150 comi ...

. Ryan launched the ''

Dilbert ''Dilbert'' is an American comic strip written and illustrated by Scott Adams, first published on April 16, 1989. It is known for its satirical office humor about a white-collar, micromanaged office with engineer Dilbert as the title characte ...

'' web site, based on the popular comic strip created by Scott Adams. Serving as senior VP of business and finance, he helped lead a restructuring effort that increased United Media's profits fivefold. Ryan also spent time with Euro Disney in France, and as an investment banker with Prudential Investment Corporation in the US and the UK.

DoubleClick

Ryan helped build

from 1996 to 2005, first as president and later as CEO. During this time, DoubleClick grew from a 20-person startup to a publicly traded company with over 1,500 employees. DoubleClick was sold in 2005 for $1.1 billion to Hellman and Friedman LLC, and Ryan stepped down as CEO shortly thereafter. DoubleClick was acquired by

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

for $3.1 billion in March 2008.

TheLadders.com and HotJobs

In 2004, Ryan became an angel investor in

TheLadders.com Ladders, Inc. is a United States-based company providing career news, advice, and tools and an Recruitment, online job search service. Their search service only lists vetted job offers with annual salaries of $100,000 or more. History Ladders, or ...

. He also was an early investor and board member of

HotJobs Yahoo HotJobs, formerly known as hotjobs.com, was an online job search engine. Hotjobs. com provided tools and advice for job seekers, employers, and staffing firms. It was acquired by Yahoo in 2002, then acquired by Monster Worldwide, owner of ...

, which was purchased by

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., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Man ...

for $436 million in 2002. During this time in career, Ryan also served on the boards of the Direct Marketing Association, the

Ad Council The Advertising Council, commonly known as the Ad Council, is an American nonprofit organization that produces, distributes, and promotes public service announcements on behalf of various sponsors, including nonprofit organizations, non-governme ...

, and HotJobs.

AlleyCorp

After leaving DoubleClick, Ryan, along with former DoubleClick CTO and co-founder,

, founded a network of three affiliated Internet companies of which he is chairman and CEO. AlleyCorp has expanded its mission to both found and invest in companies in New York City. Combined, these companies have raised more than $700 million in venture capital funding and have employed over 2,000 people.

Gilt Groupe

Founded by Ryan and Dwight Merriman in 2007,

is an online shopping site. Gilt offers fashion for women, men, and children; home decor; artisanal ingredients; hotels and travel experiences on every continent. Gilt Groupe secured over $240 million in total financing. Its investors include

Matrix Partners Matrix Partners is a US-based private equity investment firm focusing on venture capital investments. The firm invests in seed and early-stage companies in the United States and India, particularly in the software, communications, semiconducto ...

General Atlantic Partners General Atlantic (also known as "GA") is an American Growth capital, growth equity firm providing capital and strategic support for global growth companies, headquartered in New York City, New York, United States. The firm was founded in 1980 as t ...

Softbank Group is a Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo which focuses on investment management. The Group primarily invests in companies operating in technology, energy, and financial sectors. It also runs the ...

New Enterprise Associates New Enterprise Associates (NEA) is an American-based venture capital firm. NEA focuses investment stages ranging from seed stage through growth stage across an array of industry sectors. With ~$25 billion in committed capital, NEA is one of the w ...

Draper Fisher Jurvetson Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) is an American venture capital firm focused on investments in enterprise, consumer and disruptive technologies. In January 2019, DFJ Venture, the early-stage team, spun out and formed Threshold Ventures. DFJ Growth ...

and

Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs () is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered at 200 West Street in Lower Manhattan, with regional headquarters in London, Warsaw, Bangalore, H ...

. In February 2014, Gilt Groupe was preparing for an IPO. However, the company sold to the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business div ...

in January 2016 for $250 million.

''Business Insider''

Ryan and Dwight Merriman founded ''

'' in 2009 with Henry Blodget. Ryan functioned as chairman of the board through its acquisition by

Axel Springer SE Axel Springer SE () is a German digital and popular periodical publishing house which is the largest in Europe, with numerous multimedia news brands, such as '' Bild'', ''Die Welt'', and ''Fakt'' and more than 15,000 employees. It generated to ...

for $442 million.

MongoDB

Ryan and Dwight Merriman founded

MongoDB Inc. MongoDB, Inc. is an American software company that develops and provides commercial support for the source-available database MongoDB, a NoSQL database that stores data in JSON-like documents with flexible schemas. History The company was first ...

in 2007. Ryan served as chairman of the board through the company's initial public offering in 2017 at a $1.18 billion valuation.

Other

Ryan has gone on to found and serve as chairman of the board for several other New York-based companies including,

Zola Zola may refer to: People * Zola (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * Zola (musician) (born 1977), South African entertainer * Zola (rapper), French rapper * Émile Zola, a major nineteenth-century French writer Plac ...

, Coedition,

Nomad Health Nomad Health is an online marketplace that directly connects physicians, nurses, and medical facilities for healthcare jobs, without the involvement of third party employment agencies. Nomad Health is based in New York City. Company history Nom ...

, and

Meetup Meetup is a social media platform for hosting and organizing in-person and virtual activities, gatherings, and events for people and communities of similar interests, hobbies, and professions. It was founded in 2002 by Scott Heiferman and four ot ...

. Ryan was a founding advisor and seed investor for Pearl Health, before participating in the company's

Andreessen Horowitz Andreessen Horowitz (also called a16z, legal name AH Capital Management, LLC) is a private American venture capital firm, founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. The company is headquartered in Menlo Park, California. Andreessen ...

-led Series A fundraise, alongside AlleyCorp. He currently sits on the board of Pearl Health.

Philanthropy

Ryan has served on the boards of

Mercy Corps Mercy Corps is a global non-governmental, humanitarian aid organization operating in transitional contexts that have undergone, or have been undergoing, various forms of economic, environmental, social and political instabilities. The organizatio ...

Partnership for New York City The Partnership for New York City, formerly called the New York City Partnership, is a nonprofit membership organization consisting of a select group of nearly three hundred CEOs ("Partners") from New York City's top corporate, investment and entre ...

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

, Tech:NYC, the Trust for Governors Island, the NYC Investment Fund and

. He has been named the director emeritus of

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...

as well as being on the advisory board for

Doctors Without Borders Doctor or The Doctor may refer to: Personal titles * Doctor (title), the holder of an accredited academic degree * A medical practitioner, including: ** Physician ** Surgeon ** Dentist ** Veterinary physician ** Optometrist *Other roles ** ...

. He is also a member of the Yale International Council and the

Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, mi ...

. He was one of the project chairs for NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg's review of the future of NYC's fashion industry, Fashion.NYC.2020. On May 30, 2012, Yale announced that Ryan has been elected to serve a six-year term as a member of the Yale corporation, the university's governing body.

Recognitions

In June 2009, Ryan was named Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young, LLP and In 2013 was named one of "The 100 Most Influential New Yorkers of the Past 25 Years" by the ''Observer''. Ryan was also named one of the "50 Most Influential Business People" by ''Crain's New York Business'', and was included in ''Vanity Fair'' "2011 New Establishment List".

Personal

Ryan earned his B.A. from

in 1985 and his M.B.A. from

in 1990. He is a Fellow at Yale University's

Trumbull College Trumbull College is one of fourteen undergraduate residential colleges of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. The college is named for Jonathan Trumbull, governor of Connecticut from 1769 to 1784 and advisor and friend to General George Wash ...

. Ryan currently lives in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

with his wife and children.

References

External links

Profile by scribemedia

Kevin Ryan on SourceWatch
''inc.com'', March 1, 2010.
"New York Isn’t Silicon Valley. That’s Why They Like It."
''New York Times'' Dealbook, March 7, 2010. *Evans, Teri
"The Ultimate Start-Up Challenge? Hyper Growth"
''Wall Street Journal'', March 11, 2010. Look at Gilt amongst other companies.

''New York Times'', September 1, 2012. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ryan, Kevin P. Living people American computer businesspeople American corporate directors Place of birth missing (living people) American technology chief executives American technology company founders INSEAD alumni Yale University alumni 1969 births