Eric is an experienced software executive and an Internet pioneer, having either founded or served as a senior executive for early-stage Internet companies since 1996. He was the founding CEO and Publisher of U.S. News Ventures, a branded internet publishing company funded in part by U.S. News & World Report. Previously, he was co-founder and CEO of Five Star Alliance, a successful eCommerce startup in Alexandria, which became the largest independent booker of luxury hotels worldwide and was sold in 2007 for over a 20X return to investors in less than 3 years.
Previously, Eric served in various executive roles at Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive (WPNI), including CFO, VP of Business Development, VP of Strategy, VP of Operations and Technology, and VP of Sales. Prior to WPNI, he worked for 9 years as a financial executive in product development at Ford Motor Company, consulted at Deloitte Consulting, and founded a startup company, PrimeSource, which provided financial and strategic consulting services to Fortune 500 clients. Eric has an engineering degree from M.I.T. and an MBA from the Sloan School at M.I.T.
An accomplished Ironman and Olympic-distance triathlete, Eric is a co-founder and Managing Partner at PublicRelay, a market-leading enterprise software company providing advanced media intelligence solutions to large corporations, trade associations, and government agencies.