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 ...

'' 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 Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the Unit ...

, 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. The college be ...

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 to ...

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...

, and

Time Warner Warner Media, LLC ( doing business as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned by AT&T. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City. It was established as Time Warne ...

in the founding of ''

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

.'' His next job was as a vice-president of

CompuServe CompuServe, Inc. (CompuServe Information Service, Inc., also known by its initialism CIS or later CSi) was an American Internet company that provided the first major commercial online service provider, online service. It opened in 1969 as a times ...

, where he worked on all of the online brands and pioneered SpryNet,

's ISP service. With help from

Goldman Sachs The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered in Lower Manhattan in New York City, with regional headquarters in many internationa ...

, Kauffman participated in the development of one of the first IPOs of the Internet industry. He left

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, 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 International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

in 2010; and MusicNow, an online music service partnered with FullAudio that was later sold to

Circuit City Circuit City Corporation, Inc., formerly Circuit City Stores, Inc., is an American consumer electronics retail company, which was founded in 1949 by Samuel Wurtzel as the Wards Company, operated stores across the United States, and pioneered th ...

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

, 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 c ...

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

, and Freecode. 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 United States 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. Its primary purpose is to enforce laws against market m ...

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 Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or—in the United States—Lou Gehrig's disease (LGD), is a rare, terminal neurodegenerative disorder that results in the progressive loss of both upper and low ...

research after his son was diagnosed at the age of 27. In addition to being involved with multiple ALS-related organizations, he serves Chairman of 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 clinical care centers, and w ...

. 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 Businesspeople from Palo Alto, California Businesspeople 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