Directors

Greg Foster

Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Greg Foster, Co-Founder and CEO of BrightWhistle, also serves as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Chrysalis Ventures.

Greg possesses a comprehensive entrepreneurial and executive background in media and technology. Most recently, he served as Partner at Noro-Moseley Partners, an Atlanta-based venture capital firm, with a concentration on early-stage digital media companies. He has been a member of the management teams of three successful start-ups: at iXL, he served as Vice President and General Manager of the Madrid, Spain office and Senior Vice President of Corporate Development for the Atlanta office. At Silverpop Systems, Greg was Vice President of Business and Corporate Development. Prior to SilverPop, he launched Southern Direct, where he served as CEO. Greg then joined Turner Broadcasting following Turner’s acquisition of Southern Direct, where he served as Vice President of Corporate Development, overseeing M&A and investment opportunities for all of Turner’s brands including CNN, TNT, TBS, TCM, Cartoon Network, TruTV and Adult Swim.  He currently sits on the Board of Directors for The Onion, StatSheet, and PlayOn Sports and serves on the advisory board of Vertical Acuity, SolidFire and Clearleap.

Greg holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering, Magna Cum Laude, from Georgia Tech and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He is a member of the board of trustees for the Georgia Tech Alumni Association, the Georgia Council on Economic Education, and the Bobby Dodd Foundation.  Greg and his wife, Christine, have two sons, Jack and Henry.

Chad Mallory

Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer

As Co-Founder and COO, Chad Mallory is responsible for the operations of the business, human resources, administrative issues, and client services.

Prior to BrightWhistle, Chad co-founded Nexteppe, a retail marketing platform for automotive dealers. As Co-Founder and CTO, Chad created the Nexteppe product platform and continued to manage all aspects of product development, making Nexteppe one of the fastest growing automotive marketing platform providers in the industry.

Chad studied industrial engineering at Georgia Tech. Chad and his wife, Sarah, live in Flowery Branch.

James M. Hamilton (Jamie)

Managing Partner – Hamilton Ventures LLC

Jamie is the Managing Director of Hamilton Ventures LLC and is responsible for the formulation and implementation of the investment strategy, the review of prospective investments, monitoring of existing investments, and formulation of disposition strategies. Prior to founding Hamilton Ventures, Jamie was President / CEO of Capital Investments Inc.; Member FINRA / SIPC. Jamie has an extensive background in alternative investments, including early stage investing, and has placed over $50 million of private equity to work in transactions totaling $125 million. He currently serves as a Director of 2080 Media (PlayON! Sports).

He is a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology and currently resides in Suwanee, Georgia with his wife and 3-year-old son.

Paul Iaffaldano

Former EVP and General Manager – The Weather Channel

Paul Iaffaldano has over 32 years of experience building companies. Most recently he served on the Advisory Board of Blinq Media as it became a successful social media advertising platform.

Paul was EVP and General Manager of The Weather Channel Media Sales Company, where he was responsible for all advertising revenue functions of The Weather Channel Companies, including cable TV, online, mobile and international. Under his leadership, the company consistently outperformed the industry revenue growth metrics and was recognized by customers as the leading sales organization in both television and online industries. He also co-chaired the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) privacy committee though difficult data ownership negotiations. The company was successfully sold to private equity in September 2008.

In 1997, Paul was part of the weather.com launch team. The organization went on to introduce many new firsts in the online advertising space including many that were adopted by the IAB. Paul was a founding board member of the Wireless Advertising Association (now known as Mobile Marketing Assoc.).

As VP of advertising sales at Travel Channel cable network, he doubled revenue by introducing new revenue streams. In 1997, the company was successfully sold to Discovery Communications. At Walt Disney Company, Paul helped launch the magazine publishing division, with a wide range of titles including the award winning “Family Fun” magazine.

He also has extensive experience in the advertising management field, working with Kraft-General Foods, Celestial Seasonings, Quaker Oats, General Mills, Anheuser-Busch, Coca Cola and Sears Roebuck. He won a Gold Effy Award from the American Marketing Association for his work on Celestial Seasonings.

Paul has an MBA from Loyola University and a BA degree from Wittenberg University.

Emerson Fann

Managing Partner – Eastside Partners

Emerson Fann is the Managing Director of Eastside Partners I & II and is a Partner in Southeastern Technology Funds I & II. As a partner in four private equity funds, Emerson has been active in over 25 portfolio companies and developed a relationship network and complement of skills to develop private companies. Emerson focuses his company development efforts on recruiting management, developing executive management incentive programs, raising capital and assisting with sales, marketing, and general operational issues. Emerson currently serves on the board of directors for MEDSEEK, Mobular Technologies, and Accelarad. Previously, Emerson has served on the boards of MedMined, Comframe and Castlebridge Technologies.

Emerson received a B.S. in Corporate Finance with honors from the University of Alabama.