Michael Walrath (born April 17, 1975) is an American investor, advisor, and entrepreneur known for founding and leading startup and expansion-stage companies. He was the CEO and founder of

Right Media Right Media, Inc. was an online advertising company that operated the Right Media Exchange (RMX), a marketplace that enabled Advertising, advertisers, Web publishers, publishers, and Advertising network, ad networks to trade digital media. Techn ...

, an online advertising exchange marketplace that was acquired by

Yahoo Yahoo (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web portal that provides the search engine Yahoo Search and related services including My Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, y!entertainment, yahoo!life, an ...

for $850 million in 2007. Walrath is also a co-founder of the WGI Group, an early-stage

venture capital firm Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in terms of number ...

Early life and education

Walrath grew up in

Brookfield, Connecticut Brookfield is a New England town, town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, situated within the southern foothills of the Berkshires, Berkshire Mountains. The population was 17,528 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The t ...

, and graduated from Brookfield High School. In 1997, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the

University of Richmond The University of Richmond (UR or U of R) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Richmond, Virginia, United States. It is a primarily undergraduate, residential institution with approxim ...

Career

Early career

After college, Walrath worked in promotional marketing for

Reebok Reebok International Limited ( ) is an American footwear and clothing brand that is a part of Authentic Brands Group. It was established in England in 1958 as a companion company to J.W. Foster and Sons, a sporting goods company which had bee ...

and held roles as a

personal trainer A personal trainer is an individual who creates and delivers safe and effective exercise programs for healthy individuals and groups, or those with medical clearance to exercise. They motivate clients by collaborating to set goals, providing m ...

and fitness program manager. In 1999, he joined

DoubleClick DoubleClick Inc. was an American 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 primaril ...

, where he became the director of direct marketing and later the senior vice president of strategy and development at MaxWorldwide. During his time at DoubleClick, he helped create DoubleClick Direct, a direct marketing service.

Right Media

In 2003, Walrath founded

, a digital advertising exchange marketplace. The company experienced rapid growth, with revenues increasing from $1.3 million in 2003 to $34.8 million in 2006. ''Inc.'' magazine ranked Right Media 43rd on its list of the fastest-growing private companies in the United States. Walrath served as Yahoo's Senior Vice President of Advertising Strategy until 2009.

WGI Group and Investments

In 2009, Walrath co-founded the WGI Group with Noah and Jonah Goodhart. The

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

firm focuses on seed investments in internet-based startups. Walrath also became chairman of Yext, a location data software company, and chairman of Moat, an analytics company specializing in digital ads.

Atlas Films

In 2008, Walrath co-founded Atlas Films, a

production company A production company, production house or production studio is a studio that creates works in the fields of performing arts, new media art, film, television show, television, radio, comics, interactive arts, video games, websites, music, and video ...

focused on feature-length

documentary films A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". The American author and media analyst Bill Ni ...

addressing social issues. The company's debut film, ''Tapped'', examined the bottled water industry's environmental and health impacts. Atlas Films also partnered with

Katie Couric Katherine Anne Couric ( ; born January 7, 1957) is an American journalist and presenter. She is founder of Katie Couric Media, a multimedia news and production company. She also publishes a daily newsletter, ''Wake Up Call''. Since 2016, she ha ...

on ''The Big Picture'', a documentary exploring the root causes of childhood obesity.

Other ventures

In 2012, Walrath acquired The Surf Lodge, a concert and nightlife venue in

Montauk, New York Montauk ( ) is a Hamlet (New York), hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in East Hampton, New York, East Hampton and Suffolk County, New York, on the eastern end of the South Shore (Long Island), South Shore of Long Island. As of the 2020 Un ...

, and became part-owner of the

restaurant A restaurant is an establishment that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and Delivery (commerce), food delivery services. Restaurants ...

Swallow East, also in Montauk.

Philanthropy

In 2008, Walrath and his wife, Michelle, founded the Walrath Family Foundation, which supports social, environmental, and health organizations. The foundation has contributed to environmental groups such as Grassroots Environmental Education, Food and Water Watch, and the Peconic Land Trust. The Walrath Family Foundation also supports arts initiatives and organizations focused on addressing humanitarian crises, including genocide.

Recognition

In 2007, Walrath received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for his work with Right Media.

Key accomplishments

* Right Media: Founded and sold the company to Yahoo for $850 million. * Yext: Board chair of a company valued at $270 million. * Atlas Films: Produced socially conscious documentaries such as ''Tapped''. * WGI Group: Co-founded a venture capital firm investing in internet startups

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Walrath, Michael 1975 births Living people American financiers Brookfield, Connecticut People from Brookfield, Connecticut Philanthropists from New York (state) American restaurateurs American company founders American chief executives in the mass media industry American advertising executives Businesspeople from New York City University of Richmond alumni