Richard Rafael Van Veen (born December 14, 1980) is an American entrepreneur and the Head of Global Creative Strategy at

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

. Van Veen co-founded the comedy brand and humor website CollegeHumor and the video sharing website

Vimeo Vimeo, Inc. () is an American video hosting, sharing, and services platform provider headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices. Vimeo's business model is through software as ...

. He was also CEO of Notional, a television production company spun out of CollegeHumor.

Early life and education

Born in Lutherville-Timonium,

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, Van Veen is the son of Helen and Richard Van Veen. He graduated from Wake Forest University with a degree in management and information systems in 2003.

Career

Van Veen created CollegeHumor as a student at Wake Forest University. Van Veen's site was earning between $10–15 million a year before the partners sold a controlling stake to IAC/InterActiveCorp. He is also one of the principal owners and founders of Connected Ventures, a company formed around CollegeHumor that included

and BustedTees. He made appearances in several College Humor video series, such as ''

Jake and Amir Jake and Amir is an American comedy duo made up of podcasters and former CollegeHumor writers Jake Hurwitz and Amir Blumenfeld. The duo came into prominence in 2007 when they began writing and starring in the web series ''Jake and Amir.'' Th ...

'' and ''Hardly Working'', and the former

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

program ''

The CollegeHumor Show ''The CollegeHumor Show'' is an American television sitcom that premiered on MTV on February 8, 2009 and also aired on MuchMusic. The show was a scripted sitcom with sketch comedy elements written by, and starring, nine CollegeHumor editorial st ...

''.

Ricky Van Veen and Annamarie Tendler (2411346485)

In July 2009 Van Veen was announced to be the CEO of the new production company, Notional, which would be producing material for the traditional media of television. One of Notional's most noteworthy TV shows is ''

Chopped Chopped can have the following meanings: * Chopped and screwed Chopped and screwed (also called screwed and chopped or slowed and throwed) is a music genre and technique of remixing music that involves slowing down the tempo and deejaying. It ...

'' on the Food Network. Van Veen would be mentored by Barry Diller, who is the chairman and senior executive of IAC/InterActiveCorp. Van Veen also co-founded product company Scroll Commerce in 2015, where he would invent products designed to sell online, including the popular "Homesick Candle." The company was later acquired by

BuzzFeed BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John S. Johnson III to focus on tracking viral content. Ken ...

to be the foundation of its new Product Labs division.

Personal life

Van Veen married actress Allison Williams in September 2015. On June 27, 2019, Van Veen and Williams issued a joint statement announcing their divorce. On July 11, 2021, Van Veen married

Chelsea Clinton Chelsea Victoria Clinton (born February 27, 1980) is an American writer and global health advocate. She is the only child of former U.S. President Bill Clinton and former U.S. Secretary of State and 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton ...

's business partner, Caroline Kassie.

References

External links

Ricky Van Veen Selected for Crain's New York 40 Under 40

Ricky Van Veen: Vanity Fair: The Next Establishment
{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Veen, Ricky 1980 births Living people Businesspeople from Maryland CollegeHumor people People from Baltimore County, Maryland Businesspeople from New York City Wake Forest University alumni