Adrian Giles,
Chairman, Webfirm Group Limited
Adrian Giles is an entrepreneur, venture consultant and investor specializing in the Internet and information technology industry. Adrian founded Australia's first SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) company in 1997, and in the same year founded Hitwise. Hitwise's patented technology provided marketers with daily competitive insights to help them benchmark their online initiatives and provided a suite of online tools enabling them to be smarter about attracting and retaining more customers.
As Managing Director from 1997 to 2000, Adrian spearheaded the evolution and growth of the product, the growth of the sales and marketing and Research & Development teams, and guided the business through numerous capital raisings to help fund its international growth.
Hitwise grew over 10 years to become one of the most recognised global Internet measurement brands with over 200 staff operating successfully in the USA, UK, Australia, NZ, Hong Kong, and Singapore. By monitoring more than 25 Million Internet users via more than 40 ISP relationships worldwide, Hitwise provided competitive ratings of the most popular 1,000,000+ businesses across more than 160 industries.
Hitwise was ranked as one of the fastest growing IT companies in the Asia-Pacific region for the past five straight years. Hitwise was the winner of the 2004 Victorian (Telstra) Small Business Awards and was awarded the 'Most Innovative Digital Business' in the United Kingdom for 2004.
Hitwise recently sold to Experian, a leading global information services provider, for US$240 million.
Adrian studied a Bachelor of Computing Degree at Monash University as well as an Associate Diploma of Business at Holmesglen. Adrian was also a finalist in the 2003 'Entrepreneur of the Year' awards.
David Burden,
CEO, Webfirm Group Limited
David Burden is an entrepreneur and one of the true pioneers of interactive marketing services in Australia. David founded Australia's largest and best-recognised interactive and mobile services company, Legion Interactive, in 1994.
David has been Chief Executive Officer of Webfirm Group Limited since February 2008. During his tenure the company has grown dramatically: in October 2008, Webfirm Group was ranked seventh on the 2008 BRW Fast 100 list of Australia's fastest-growing companies (third in the information technology sector) and a month later placed fifth in the 2008 Deloitte Technology Fast 50 list of Australia's fastest-growing technology companies. In December 2008 Webfirm Group was named among Asia-Pacific's top 100 fastest-growing technology companies in the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific 2008. David has also led Webfirm Group's return to profitability, successful re-launch in North America and continued expansion of the company's three divisions: Searchworld, Webfirm Media and Webfirm.
Before joining Webfirm Group David was CEO of Legion Interactive from 1994 to 2006. Under his direction, Legion developed a suite of first-to-market products that enabled the media and marketers to utilise emerging interactive and digital platforms to communicate interactively with their target markets. He also oversaw many market-changing initiatives including: television voting on programs such as Big Brother and Australian Idol; School VCE and HSC results delivered by SMS; interactive telephone weather services for the Bureau of Meteorology; Coca Cola's first SMS marketing campaign, 'Summerdays', and; a mobile tutorial delivered over 3G video calling for Telstra.
During his time at Legion, David was a worthy industry activist with leading roles on the Premium Rate Advisory Council (PRAC), the Telephone Information Services Standards Council (TISSC) and the Vice Chairman of the Australian Direct Marketing Association (ADMA). David was also founding Chairman of ADMA's Mobile Marketing Council which was primarily responsible for the introduction of regulation and consumer protection for mobile services.
David was awarded Australia's Mobile Marketer of the Year 2007/8 in recognition of his contribution to the industry over two decades.
Dr. Adrian Vanzyl,
Board Member, Webfirm Group Limited
Dr. Adrian Vanzyl has spent his career in Silicon Valley and Australia, working as a technology executive with software, advertising driven search, ad network and security focused Internet companies. His experience includes working as a Principal at the technology/investment bank Gramercy Ventures (where he focused on cross border technology deals particularly between the US and Asia), as VP of Business Development for Eurekster (the leading provider of vertical, community and social network based search). Prior to this he was CTO and Entrepreneur in Residence at Blumberg Capital in San Francisco.
Whilst at Blumberg he ran two of their portfolio companies, and as the CEO of Seclarity, a security hardware and software firm, successfully raised funding from Intel Capital, Valley Ventures and Blumberg Capital. Adrian was Group Business Development Manager for Microsoft's bCentral small business portal. His group managed business development and partnerships for the portal, both in the US and internationally (where he helped launch in 22 countries in two years). He joined Microsoft as a result of his role as VP International at LinkExchange (the largest global ad network at the time), which Microsoft acquired and subsequently grew into bCentral.
Adrian worked for two years as CTO of LookSmart, where he was responsible for managing the core search engine technology as well as building the company's US-based team of engineers. Before moving to the US, he worked as CTO at Sausage Software (creators of the HotDog web publishing tool), Australia's first listed Internet software company. He was a member of the three person board of directors that successfully took the company public on the Australian Stock Exchange.
Adrian has an MD degree (MB BS degrees with Honors) from Monash University Australia, and spent the first three years of his career post his medical internship as a researcher and lecturer in Medical Informatics at the University.
