Corporate Governance

Chairman of the Board

W. Kip Speyer has been our CEO, President and Chairman of the Board since May 2010. From 2005 to 2009 Mr. Speyer served as a director, the president and chief executive officer of Speyer Door and Window, LLC, which was sold to Haddon Windows, LLC (SecuraSeal, LLC, AccuWeld Corporation) in December 2009. From October 2002 to May 2005 Mr. Speyer had been a private investor. Mr. Speyer was president and chief executive officer of Intelligent Systems Software, Inc. (ISSI) from October 2000 through June 2002, whereby Mr. Speyer became chief executive officer of ICAD, Inc. (ICAD: Nasdaq) which was a combination of ISSI and Howtek, Inc. (HOWT:Nasdaq). Mr. Speyer was the president and chief executive officer of Galileo Corporation (GAEO: Nasdaq) from 1998 to 1999. Galileo Corporation changed its name to NetOptix (OPTX: Nasdaq) and was merged with Corning Corporation (GLW: NYSE) in a stock purchase in May 2000. From 1996 to 1998 Mr. Speyer was the president of Leisegang Medical Group, three medical device companies owned by Galileo Corporation. Prior to joining Galileo Corporation, Mr. Speyer founded Leisegang Medical, Inc. and served as its president and chief executive officer from 1986 to 1996. Leisegang Medical, Inc. was a company specializing in medical devices for women’s health. From 1982 to 1985 Mr. Speyer served as president of Hays Medical Companies, a six-company multi-national and part of the Hays Group. Mr. Speyer is a graduate of Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, where he earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration in 1972.

Director and Chief Executive Officer of Bright Mountain Media, Inc.

Matt Drinkwater is a digital media executive with extensive leadership experience at iconic high-tech brands Buzzfeed, Twitter, Groupon, Yahoo, AOL, and Lycos. He consistently demonstrated his agility in working across publishing, platform, format, and AdTech mediums, collaborating with diverse domestic and international stakeholders to deliver on and surpass goals.

Prior to joining Bright Mountain Media, Matt served as Senior Vice President, International, of BuzzFeed. Matt joined BuzzFeed from Twitter, where he led Agency Development and Global Accounts for Latin America from Sao Paulo, Brazil and Miami.

Before joining Twitter, Matt’s influential roles included VP of Groupon Inc.; Senior Director, New England and Canada, at Yahoo; and Regional Director, New England. His leadership talents were evident early on in his career when he earned promotions to management at Lycos and AOL.

Director, Chairwoman of Audit Committee, Member of Governance and Nominating Committee.

Pam Parizek is a Managing Director in the Forensic Investigations and Intelligence practice of Kroll, based in Washington, D.C. She leads the Financial Investigations practice in North America. Pam is a recognized business leader, with more than 30 years of experience advising audit committees, C-suite executives and outside counsel on complex accounting, legal and regulatory matters. She is a JD/CPA, certified in financial forensics, and previously served in the enforcement division of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), led the Washington, DC forensic practice of a Big Four accounting firm, and served as an independent compliance advisor for several regulated entities and multilateral organizations.

Over the past decade, Pam has led over 100 engagements in 30 countries, including numerous cross-border investigations into fraud, misconduct, and alleged anti-bribery and corruption violations. She has developed anti-fraud and anti-bribery and corruption training programs, risk assessments, compliance audits, due diligence procedures and remediation plans for clients in EMEA, South America, APAC and the U.S. Her findings have been presented to the SEC, U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Serious Fraud Office, and other U.S. and foreign regulatory authorities—in compliance with restrictive data protection and privacy regimes around the world.

Pam has also conducted a wide variety of forensic accounting investigations involving overstatement of revenue, improper deferral of expenses, misappropriation of assets, manipulation of reserves, improper accounting for bonus accruals, performance rebates and accounts receivable reserves, premature recognition of software revenue, and improper capitalization of current period expenses. She specializes in crisis management involving multiple constituents, including but not limited to U.S. and foreign regulators, corporate boards and audit committees, C-suite executives, external counsel, independent auditors and other stakeholders.

Pam’s regulatory compliance engagements include: serving as an independent auditor to a Systemically Important Financial Market Utility (“SIFMU”) pursuant to SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) orders mandating an independent review of regulatory and compliance undertakings; conducting an independent review of a PPP loan portfolio for a fintech lender in connection with a DOJ and Small Business Association (SBA) investigation; and appointment as an independent auditor in a False Claims Act matter to facilitate settlement among a global shipping company, DOJ and the Department of Navy. She has also served as External Compliance Advisor for several multilateral financial institutions to administer annual financial disclosure programs and resolve actual, potential or apparent conflicts of interest. Earlier in her career, she served as a financial advisor to the Regulatory Auditor of a national stock exchange to assess whether the exchange’s policies and procedures pertaining to its investigations and disciplinary program were reasonably designed to detect and deter violations of federal securities laws.

Pam holds a J.D. from Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and an A.B. from Harvard College. She is a licensed Certified Public Accountant in Virginia and the District of Columbia, and AICPA Certified in Financial Forensics.

Pam serves on the Board of Directors of Bright Mountain Media, Inc., Foundation for a Smoke Free World and the National Museum for Women in the Arts. She previously served on the Board of Directors of Global Kids and the SEC Historical Association.

Director, Chairman of Acquisition Committee, Member of Audit Committee, Member of Compensation Committee.

Harry D. Schulman has been a member of our Board of Directors since November 2019. For more than 20 years he has served on multiple boards including Baird Capital, a private equity firm managing over $3 billion, Hancock Fabrics, Inc., O2 Media, Inc., QEP and HeZhong International Holdings. He holds a Master’s degree in International Business from the University of Miami and a Bachelor’s degree in Business from the University of Dayton.

Director

Jeff Hirsch is a seasoned business executive with a results-driven record of driving growth for both private and public companies.  His experience includes executive leadership, domestic and international growth management, business and sales organization development, product strategy/go to market planning and execution, operations management and process development, marketing communications and brand strategy, business development and investor relations. Jeff is driven by working with high performing teams to meet and exceed their goals, both professionally and personally.

In his last role as Chief Commercial Officer of PubMatic (NASDAQ: PUBM) he spent six and a half years helping the company operate profitably and grow faster than market rates.  The company IPO’d in December 2020.  Prior to PubMatic, Jeff served in several different roles such as President of CPXi (now Digital Remedy), and CEO of AudienceScience, arguably the first data driven technology offering in AdTech.  He has also served as CMO of SundaySky, SVP of ValueClick, and was a founder and CRO of Fastclick (NASDAQ: FSTC).   Prior to his 25+ years of experience in ad tech, Jeff founded a 1993 INC 500 software company and a regional advertising agency in Central California.  He graduated with high honors with a BA in Experimental Psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara.