More than 100 years of industry experience in our C-Suite alone.
HipCricket’s executive team boasts decades of experience that reflect the passions of superb leaders working on the front lines of mobile marketing innovation.
The team has more – far more – than 100 years of collective experience working with companies like Symantec, InfoSpace, Nestlé, NBC, Qpass/Amdocs and General Motors. They have founded companies, been named “Trendsetter of the Year” by Billboard Magazine, and “CFO of the Year” by the Puget Sound Business Journal. They have introduced the mascots for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games and earned C-level jobs in their mid-20s. Read on...
Ivan Braiker, Chief Executive Officer
Ivan is a co-founder of HipCricket, but he has been a force for change in the broadcast industry for decades.
Ivan began his 30 years in broadcast media as an account executive with a CBS television affiliate in Las Vegas, but soon became co-owner and operator of a radio station there. In 1976, he took a position heading Belo Broadcasting’s radio division, where he was recognized as a successful major-market General Manager.
He later co-founded and was president of Satellite Music Network, the first radio network to distribute live, 24-hour programming via satellite – an innovation that earned him Billboard Magazine’s “Trendsetter of the Year” award.
In the interim, he built a series of radio networks, starting with Olympia Broadcasting, which became one of the first publicly-held radio groups. When Ivan got there, it was a single station; when he left, it held a 15-station portfolio with presences in eight key markets. He subsequently co-founded and served as president of New Northwest Broadcasters, which grew under Ivan’s leadership to hold more than 40 stations.
His reputation for leadership has earned him the respect of an entire industry. He is a frequent speaker at National Association of Broadcasters and Radio Advertising Bureau events.
At his current company, Ivan is the Big Cricket: He leads a talented team with backgrounds in broadcasting and brands. And to the shock and amazement of no one, he’s still a driving force in transforming an industry he spent his career helping to shape.
Eric Harber, President and Chief Operating Officer
Eric has spent his career applying his business skills to products, services and companies at every stage of their strategic growth. His breadth of experience in general management, strategy, M&A, product, sales and marketing has earned him a reputation for driving revenue growth, building effective teams and managing change in dynamic environments.
Eric joined HipCricket from Qpass, Amdocs' Advertising, Commerce, and Entertainment Division, where he was Vice President of Corporate and Business Development. Qpass delivers mobile solutions to companies including major entertainment companies and America's best-known wireless carriers. While at Qpass, he extended the company's offerings and diversified its revenue streams by creating new product lines, partnerships, acquisitions, and strategic business opportunities. His work helped build the company's employee base four-fold and increase its revenue by a factor of ten, all while expanding its customer base and global reach. In 2006, he played a key role in the company's $275 million acquisition by Amdocs.
His 20 years of industry expertise spans mobile, telecommunications, networking, e-commerce, media and entertainment. Prior to joining Qpass, Eric was General Manager and Executive Vice President of ChannelAdvisor Corporation, where he built relationships with customers and partners including Google, eBay, Amazon, Motorola, Sprint, Sears and IBM, establishing ChannelAdvisor as a leader in e-commerce/online marketplace software and services.
Previously, Eric helped to start, grow, and lead Motricity, a mobile software and services company. Eric held various executive leadership positions there including Chief Marketing Officer and SVP, formulating strategy, driving execution by successfully selling to major mobile operators and media companies, and managing dramatic growth for the company. Eric was also part of the original executive team that built and successfully sold Netsation, a venture-backed network software company, to Nortel Networks yielding a 1200 percent return on invested capital in one year. He subsequently held global marketing responsibility at Nortel and also brings expertise from his leadership positions at Citigroup, Accenture, and his own consulting firm.
Eric has held several board and corporate advisory board positions, including serving on the Americas board of the Mobile Entertainment Forum. Eric studied at Oxford University and earned a degree in Engineering from Stanford University, as well as an MBA from Duke University. Eric is an author, lecturer, and frequent speaker on a variety of global industry topics including mobile and media issues.
Graham Knowles, Director of Sales
Graham is the consummate broadcast salesperson. By the time he helped found HipCricket, he had already brought his vision and leadership to a globe-spanning career that included work in Australia, Asia, the U.K. and the U.S.
Graham started his 25-year career in broadcast as a sales representative for Country Television Services in Australia. Within a year, he had been promoted to marketing manager of Radio 2GZ. He quickly assumed the post of retail sales manager at Radio 2GO, in Australia’s largest provincial market.
He has since continued that trajectory with positions as sales director for Central Coast Radio, direct sales manager for The Australian Radio Network and – reaching the States – as chief operating officer for BoomerangBack Llc.
Graham’s colleagues recognized his success by appointing him to represent regional broadcasters at the Federation of Australian Radio Broadcasters. He has also served as a guest lecturer on direct sales and marketing at Macquarie University’s Australian Film, Television and Radio School in Sydney.
Graham also found time to start his own company: Media… Made To Measure, a firm that consulted on yield and inventory management for more than 80 radio, television and outdoors clients on four continents.
Iain Simms, Chief Technology Officer
Iain brought to HipCricket the technological know-how to create a uniquely user-friendly, flexible and measurable platform. He earned a business economics degree from the University of Surrey in England, then entered a graduate training program with a U.K. supermarket chain. His next move was into IT consulting for banking and insurance companies.
Still only 26 years old, Iain took his first CTO job, with a Sydney-based mobile marketing firm. His initiative spawned more than technology: He drove the company’s growth into the U.S. market, eventually helping form BoomerangBack. Through that venture, he built a relationship with Wireless Service Corporation that led in 2003 to one of the first true cross-carrier mobile marketing initiatives, for NBC’s “Access Hollywood.”
At HipCricket, Iain has continued to offer a great deal more than technowizardy: He helped the company form key relationships with companies including Nestlé, General Motors, Clear Channel and others.
Tom Virgin, Chief Financial Officer
Tom directs all aspects of HipCricket’s financial operations with a flexibility borne of 28 years in both small and large companies – many of them as a CFO. He has strong ties to the Pacific Northwest, having built and helped lead many notable companies here.
His most recent position was as executive vice president and CFO for Talyst Inc., which was named one of Fast Company magazine’s “Fast 50 Reader Favorites” in March 2007 – an honor bestowed on firms that readers believe provide the most innovative and progressive “profit-driven solutions for what ails the planet.” At Talyst, that work involved providing software and equipment solutions that improve efficiency and patient safety at acute care hospitals, delivery networks and long-term-care pharmacies. For his own contributions, Tom received the Puget Sound Business Journal’s CFO of the Year Award in the Small Private Company category.
Tom started his career as a public accountant, auditor and tax specialist for companies in a variety of industries. He spent more than 15 years at Seafirst Bank (now Bank of America), eventually becoming a senior vice president and controller. From there, he stepped into his first CFO role, at a commercial leasing company. He subsequently served as interim CFO for two software companies, working on both funding and financial operations.
Immediately before joining Talyst, Tom was vice president of finance and administration and CFO for WizKids, a Bellevue, Wash. company that creates and sells collectible miniature games. Tom joined the company in 2001; by 2003, he was directing its sale to the Topps Co.
Tom is active in his professional community as a member of Financial Executives International, the American Institute of CPAs and the Washington Society of CPAs.
Jeff Hasen, Chief Marketing Officer
Jeff arrived at HipCricket from InfoSpace, where he led the strategic communications effort that built the company into a mobile media leader ranked No. 20 on the prestigious Wired 40 list of the most innovative companies on earth. His strategic acumen and targeted messaging in introducing the first GPS-enabled mobile local search product generated coverage by major outlets including USA Today, the New York Times, CNBC and the PBS television network.
In his previous positions at Publicis Dialog and WongDoody Communications, where he served as president, Jeff developed successful, results-oriented programs for global leaders in a breadth of fields.
For Nestlé, the world’s largest food company, he launched new products and reinvigorated established ones. As project director for the Salt Lake Organizing Committee’s “look and feel” program, Jeff and his team introduced the 2002 Olympic Winter Games’ theme, logo and mascots. And for Symantec, the world’s top Internet security technology company, he helped lead consumers and businesses through debilitating virus outbreaks.
Jeff’s emphasis on integrity in business has made him a frequent speaker and writer on what he calls “Moments of Trust,” the points that make or break brands and dramatically impact loyalty and sales.