Leadership
If these people can’t do it, it can’t be done
Greg Shove
Founder and CEO
Greg has helped brands and consumers connect online since the earliest days of the Web. 2Market, a Silicon Valley start-up that he co-founded, pioneered the development of interactive shopping before being acquired by AOL in 1995. In the past, he has worked at Sun Microsystems, Apple Computer and AOL – and has been an entrepreneur a couple times as well. Greg is also a member of the board. He thinks pivots are good. More about him here: www.gregshove.com or @gregshove.
Joe Burton
President and COO
Joe is a longtime global executive and thought leader in both digital and traditional media. Over the course of a career spanning many sides of the media, marketing, and product development industries, he has worked as a consultant, media owner, and C-level global agency guy. Joe is especially proud of his induction into the Boys & Girls Club Alumni Hall of Fame in 2008. A former stand-up comedian, foodie, and Yelp! Junkie, Joe lives in NYC with his wife and two young sons.
Jonathan Cohen
Founder & Chief Development Officer
Jonathan draws on over two decades of experience in digital marketing to evangelize products, define corporate strategy, and oversee new business development for SocialChorus. His insights, guidance and strategic expertise make him uniquely qualified to bring influencer relationship marketing and networks to market for the world’s best brands. Prior to founding SocialChorus, Jonathan received his JD from NYU School of Law and managed the careers of Diddy and Jennifer Lopez. Jonathan is also a member of the board.
Nicole Alvino
SVP Sales and Business Development
Nicole leads strategic sales and new business development for SocialChorus, working closely with clients to solve their business problems through influencer marketing. Before joining SocialChorus, Nicole was the CEO and Founder of Dermalounge, a skin health consumer brand, and led her company’s adoption of social media and influencer marketing before it was cool. She has over 15 years of sales and business development experience at both start-ups and Fortune 500 companies.
Edmundo Ortega
VP Social Strategy
Ed is responsible for developing relevant and engaging social activations and best practices in social for SocialChorus’s clients. He has been creating advertising and interactive campaigns for Fortune 500 companies for over 15 years, including award-winning work for Gap, Sony, eBay, and Nike. In addition to working at Chorus and teaching graphic design at San Francisco State University, he spends his time surfing and chasing his toddler.
Mark Davis
VP Finance
Mark leads finance and HR for SocialChorus, overseeing accounting, budgeting, contracts, and resource management issues. He has over a decade of experience managing the finances of marketing services companies, most recently in Singapore as Commercial Director of Y&R, and in San Francisco as Controller and Finance Director of one of McCann Worldgroup’s global centers of excellence.
Michael Torres
Director of Product Development
Michael leads SocialChorus’s platform development team. His 15 years of experience in web development, product management, and product development include delivering top-notch web-based properties and web applications for Fortune 100 brands.
Chris Barretto
Director of Engineering
With over 10 years of experience in web development, Chris leads SocialChorus' development team in innovating products and setting standards for best practices around technology. Chris comes to SocialChorus from Real Girls Media, bringing with him deep experience in developing behavior-driven, scalable code for internal and client based projects. Graduated from UCSC with a BS in Computer Engineering, he was born and raised in San Francisco. Married, and father of 2 daughters, he enjoys hanging out with friends and family, playing poker, drawing, reading programming books (believe it or not), and as of late, playing ping pong.
Our board
Jim Kohlberg
Board Member, Primary Investor
Mr. Kohlberg co-founded the private equity firm, Kohlberg & Company in 1987 and was its sole Managing Partner from 1993 to 2007. Currently, he is Chairman of the firm, which is raising its seventh private equity fund of $ 1.5 billion dollars. Kohlberg and Company has over $2 billion of equity capital under management and focuses on value acquisitions as well as underperforming companies in a variety of industries. In addition, as Chairman of Kohlberg Ventures, Mr. Kohlberg has been an active venture investor in clean energy technology, entertainment, and internet media. He has started or was an original investor in many companies, including ClearEdge Power, a fuel cell company of which he is Chairman; Essential Entertainment, a film and television company of which he is also Chairman; Open Road Integrated Media, a New York based digital publishing company of which he is a Board Member; and CurrentTV, where he was an original investor. Jim is Chairman of Social Chorus, and a member of the Board of Directors of the New York Times Company.
Peter C. Horan
Board Member, Angel Investor
Peter C. Horan is an experienced entrepreneur with a history of building successful media and internet businesses. As a CEO and independent director he has been part of four profitable exits in the last seven years totaling more almost $700 million in value. He has been CEO of IAC Media and Advertising, About.com, AllBusiness.com, and DevX. Peter is currently focused on: the intersection of the social web with media and advertising; lightweight content models; as well as advanced ad targeting techniques. Peter is an active angel investor and board member. In addition to SocialChorus, Peter currently works with Lending Tree, Function (x), Merchant Circle, Nile Guide, Apture, Avid Trips, AdZerk, Mahalo, PublishThis, and Bright Hub. He has played a role in five major revolutions in media and technology including: home video games; personal computers; cell phones; Windows computing; and the internet. He has served on the board of directors of the Interactive Advertising Bureau and the Online Publishers Association.He is a venture advisor for Amplifier Ventures.
Allen Morgan
Board Member, Angel Investor
Allen Morgan is an active, early-stage private investor and startup company advisor. In addition, he is the Managing Director, New Ventures Group, at Idealab in Pasadena, California (www.idealab.com), and a Venture Advisor at Mayfield Fund (www.mayfield.com), where he was a Managing Director for 12 years. His principal investment focus is on start-ups in the area of consumer internet services (both consumer-facing and infrastructure), interactive entertainment, online advertising and new media. Prior to joining Mayfield in 1999, he was a partner with two Silicon Valley law firms, Latham & Watkins and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. He earned an undergraduate degree (summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa) from Dartmouth College, a second bachelor's degree and master's degree from Oxford University (Christ Church) and a J.D. from the University of Virginia.
John S. Eastburn, Jr.
Board Member
Before co-founding Kohlberg Ventures, John Eastburn was a partner in the private equity firm Kohlberg & Company, where he led investments in Nancy’s Specialty Foods, Inc. and Thousand Trails, Inc. and was a member of the Board of BI, Incorporated and AGY Holdings. Before joining Kohlberg & Company in 1997, Mr. Eastburn was a senior executive in entertainment, manufacturing and retailing companies. In entertainment, Mr. Eastburn was an executive at Crystal Dynamics, a video game publisher; Vestron, a feature film and video producer; Columbia Pictures, a feature film producer and CBS, a broadcaster and television network. Mr. Eastburn’s manufacturing experience includes Scovill Fasteners, a manufacturer of buttons, snaps and zippers, where he was president and chief executive officer.
John Eaton
Board Member
John, a SocialChorus co-founder, is a tech-savvy marketing professional who was instrumental in developing the company's platform, operations, and strategy from inception to present day. With over 18 years of entrepreneurial experience leading teams, John brings a unique combination of creative, technical, social marketing, and operational experience to SocialChorus.
Prior to SocialChorus, John held key executive roles in entertainment, marketing and electrical engineering companies. His experience in social and influencer marketing includes key-man account executive roles in Retail, CPG, Non-Profit, Entertainment and Healthcare. John has foundational business expertise that includes Managing Partner at entertainment talent management company Zen Media Group, Entertainment Manager at Handprint Entertainment, and Management Director for Sean “P Diddy”Combs. He also has an accomplished creative background as music producer and engineer where he earned numerous awards including an MTV Viewer’s Choice Award and a Grammy. John started his career as an electrical engineer specializing in analysis, manufacture, and design of mil-spec products. He holds two degrees from the University of California: B.S. Electrical and Computer Engineering and B.A. Music.