Scott L. Kauffman (born 1956) is an American business manager. He is currently chair and CEO of the advertising holding company MDC Partners. In July 1992, ''

Advertising Age ''Ad Age'' (known as ''Advertising Age'' until 2017) is a global media brand that publishes news, analysis, and data on marketing and media. Its namesake magazine was started as a broadsheet newspaper in Chicago in 1930. ''Ad Age'' appears in m ...

'' named him one of the top 100 marketers in the country and was named in 1996 as one of twenty "Digital Media Masters".

Early life and education

He was born in

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...

, New Jersey to Ellwood and Shirley Kauffman, and grew up with his sister Jane, and brothers Geoffrey and Matthew. Kauffman holds an A.B. in English from

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely foll ...

and an MBA in marketing from New York University's Stern School of Business. In 1973, he appeared briefly in Steven E. de Souza's first film, '' Arnold's Wrecking Co.''

Career

Throughout his career, Kauffman has worked for a variety of media companies including

Benton & Bowles Benton & Bowles (B&B) was a New York-based advertising agency founded by William Benton and Chester Bowles in 1929. One of the oldest agencies in the United States, and frequently one of the 10 largest, it merged with D'Arcy-MacManus Masius in ...

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...

, and

Time Warner Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States. It was originally established in 1972 by ...

in the founding of ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cu ...

.'' His next job was as a vice-president of CompuServe, where he worked on all of the online brands and pioneered SpryNet, CompuServe's ISP service. With help from Goldman Sachs, Kauffman participated in the development of one of the first IPOs of the Internet industry. He left CompuServe in 1997 to become president and CEO of ClickOver, a company focused on developing management solutions for Internet advertising. ClickOver later became Adknowledge after acquiring Focalink. Before leaving AdKnowledge and the company was sold to

CMGI Steel Connect, Inc. is an American company that provides supply chain management services to software companies. During the dot-com bubble, the company, which was then known as CMGI, Inc., had a market capitalization of $41 billion and owned the n ...

, AdKnowledge grew to over 80 employees with more than 100 customers. Kauffman then spent time with eCoverage, a direct-to-consumer online insurance company; Coremetrics, which was acquired by IBM in 2010; and MusicNow, an online music service partnered with FullAudio that was later sold to Circuit City. In 2005, he became CEO of the San Francisco-based digital-magazine service provider Zinio. In 2006, Scott was named president and chief operating officer of BlueLithium. On December 4, 2008, he was named CEO of

Geeknet Geeknet, Inc. is a Fairfax County, Virginia–based company that is a subsidiary of GameStop. The company was formerly known as VA Research, VA Linux Systems, VA Software, and SourceForge, Inc. History VA Research VA Research was founded in Nove ...

, the owner of SourceForge.net,

ThinkGeek ThinkGeek was an American retailer that catered to computer enthusiasts and "geek culture". Described as a "Sharper Image for sysadmins", their merchandise has been likened to "toys for adults, novelties designed to appeal to both your inner child ...

Slashdot ''Slashdot'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''/.'') is a social news website that originally advertised itself as "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters". It features news stories concerning science, technology, and politics that are submitted and eval ...

, and

Freecode Freecode, formerly Freshmeat, is a website owned by BIZX, Inc., hosting mainly open-source software for programmers and developers. Among other things, the site also hosted user reviews and discussions. While a majority of the software covered is ...

. Kauffman became chairman of the board of directors of MDC Partners in 2006. He was appointed CEO in 2015 after then-CEO Miles Nadal was investigated by the

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...

Other activities

Kauffman is the chairman of the board of directors of both ChooseEnergy.com and Lotame, as well as a board member of Vindicia. In addition, he is actively involved in supporting ALS research after his son was diagnosed at the age of 27. In addition to being involved with multiple ALS-related organizations, he serves on the board of the

ALS Association The ALS Association is an American nonprofit organization that funds global amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) research, provides care services and programs to people affected by ALS through its nationwide network of chapters, and works with ALS ...

. Furthermore, Kauffman is founder and chairman of his own ALS organization, Iron Horse Foundation.

References

External links

Bloomberg profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kauffman, Scott 1956 births Living people Geeknet New York University Stern School of Business alumni People from Palo Alto, California People from Princeton, New Jersey Vassar College alumni American chief operating officers American technology chief executives American advertising executives

Early life and education

Career

Other activities

References

Further reading

External links