News & Press

• PermissionTV named as a finalist for the 2009 MITX Technology Awards
• The Great Video SEO Frontier
• PermissionTV Appoints Former Hill Holliday Executive Brian H. Whipple to Board of Directors
• Online and Interactive Video Advertising Hot for 2009
• Marketers Eye Online Video for 2009
• Media Post: Online Advertising To Weather Recession

The PermissionTV Management Team —
Proven leaders in media and online services.

PermissionTV is led by veterans of the media, advertising, technology and Internet services industries. We’ve been studio executives, media company leaders and pioneers in software and advertising-based Internet content companies. Because of our unique combination of experience across these converging industries, we’ve built PermissionTV to deliver what you and your audiences need: the experience of great video with the interactivity and forensic marketing capabilities of the web.

Clifford Pollan, President and CEO

Clifford (Cliff) Pollan is Chief Executive Officer, responsible for advancing the company’s growth and overseeing strategy, leveraging over 30 years in the content, information and technology arenas. Most recently Cliff was CEO of Lumigent Technologies, a governance, risk and compliance company.

Prior to Lumigent, Cliff was a co-founder of NewsEdge Corporation (originally Desktop Data), where he lead sales and marketing efforts before eventually becoming President and CEO. He was a member of the executive management team that guided the company through a successful IPO.  He later led the sale of the company to Thomson Corporation. At Thomson, he served as executive vice president of technology and alliances at Dialog, a Thomson business providing online-based information services. Cliff also served as director of sales at Lotus Development Corporation, as a member of the management team of Isys Corporation, and was with Data Resources, Inc.

He received a Bachelor's degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

John Zahner, Senior Vice President, Business Development

John Zahner is a successful start-up entrepreneur with a broad range of experience in information services, online media and software services.

In 1999, he joined start-up eLogic, a content management and software developer for publishers, as VP business development and strategy. He increased sales by adding such clients as NewsEdge, Dow Jones, Excite@Home, Red Herring, Business.com, The New York Times, Clear Channel and Artist Direct. John opened discussions with Cahners publishing in May 2000 that resulted in the sale of eLogic to Cahners' parent Reed-Elsevier for $79 million cash in June of 2000.

Prior to eLogic, John co-founded Individual, Inc. in 1989. Individual exploited new advances in text-retrieval technology to build personalized news services sold as an enterprise solution to Global 500 companies, followed by a single-user service, HeadsUp, and online media site, NewsPage. As VP Marketing, VP Sales, and VP Business Development over a period of 8 years, John took the company from start-up to a successful IPO in March of 1996. Individual merged with rival Desktop Data in 1998 to form NewsEdge, now part of Thomson Corporation.

Prior to Individual, John owned a special-interest magazine publishing firm he sold to Rodale Press and before that was a publisher for Ziff-Davis in New York.

Charlie White, Vice President of Business Development

Charlie White has more than 20 years of experience in the new media and online information services industry, including direct and channel sales management, business development, marketing and product development. Charlie has built and managed top producing sales organizations within divisions of large Fortune 1000 firms as well as start-up operations, and has launched new products and created new sales operations to penetrate new markets.

Prior to joining PermissionTV, Charlie was SVP, Global Alliances and Strategy for Dialog Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Thomson Corporation, where he was instrumental at the integration and reorganization of the Thomson offerings to the corporate market. Prior to Dialog, Charlie was at NewsEdge Corp., where he significantly contributed to corporate strategy, product direction and a successful IPO in 1995, with a market cap of more than $700 million and annual revenues exceeding $70 million. Charlie was part of the management team that sold NewsEdge to Thomson Corporation in 2002.

Prior to NewsEdge, Charlie held senior sales management and business development positions with Individual, Inc., Praxis International and BayBank.

Matt Kaplan, Vice President of Solutions and Chief Strategy Officer

Matt Kaplan is responsible for managing the delivery of customer engagements and championing the design and creation of unique PermissionTV viewer experiences.

Matt brings over 15 years of interactive product design and development experience to PermissionTV. As co-founder of the AdValue Network, a B2B exchange for television and radio advertising, Matt developed an Internet media buying and selling service used by major ad agencies and broadcasters including the CBS, NBC and ABC owned and operated stations. As VP Client Services for Comet Learning, Matt managed relationships and delivered e-learning solutions for major brands including Sony, Hewlett Packard, Fujifilm, Best Buy and CompUSA. Previously as VP of interactive agency AGENCY.COM, Matt pioneered the design and implementation of Internet community and knowledge sharing tools and practices.

After receiving a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics with Computer Science from MIT, Matt began his career as a project manager at Cambridge Technology Partners.

Joe Eldridge, Vice President of Engineering and Operations and CTO

Joe Eldridge has more than 15 years experience designing and delivering integrated software and technology infrastructure solutions in a variety of sectors including financial services, insurance, telecommunications and manufacturing throughout the world.

For the last decade, Joe has held various roles at Agency.com. He most recently served as COO, where he was responsible for 11 offices in the US, Europe and Asia. Previously, Joe held a range of technology roles at the company, including Technical Director, Portal Practice Lead and Head of Technology for the London and Amsterdam offices.

Prior to joining Agency.com, Joe spent several years developing software solutions and managing IT systems and resources for the biotechnology industry. Joe received a BS in Chemical Engineering and a MS in Biochemical Engineering from Tufts University.

Corey Halverson, Vice President of Product Management

Corey Halverson has more than 10 years of technical management experience meeting evolving technology needs in rapidly changing industries. At PermissionTV, he is responsible for setting the product direction and development roadmap for the company’s innovative online video solutions. In addition, Corey ensures that PermissionTV’s products deliver effective solutions for emerging market challenges and opportunities.

Prior to joining PermissionTV, Corey held various technology leadership roles at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, a pharmaceutical company leveraging new technology to improve the disease research process. As Director of Bioinformatics, he led the creation of a revolutionary scientific workflow systems used by cancer and cardiovascular disease researchers, major pharmaceutical companies, and internally at Millennium. In addition, as Director of Global Technical Operations, Corey was responsible for the acquisition and enterprise roll-outs of new technologies throughout the United States, Europe and Asia to facilitate the company’s rapid growth from a 300-person company to a 2000-person, $5B company.

Corey earned a BA in Psychology and Computer Science from Wartburg College, and an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management. While at MIT, he also served as president of the Entertainment, Media and Sports association, where he coordinated conferences and served as a liaison for entertainment and media companies.