Scott L. Kauffman (born 1956) is an American business manager. He is currently chair and CEO of the advertising holding company MDC Partners. In July 1992, Advertising Age named him one of the top 100 marketers in the country and was named in 1996 as one of twenty "Digital Media Masters".[1][2]

Scott L. Kauffman
Born1956
Princeton, New Jersey
NationalityAmerican
Alma materVassar College
New York University
OccupationBusinessman
TitleChairman and CEO, MDC Partners
Children2
Parent(s)Ellwood Kauffman (father)
Shirley Kauffman (mother)
RelativesJane (sister), Geoffrey (brother), Matthew (brother)

Early life and education

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He was born in Princeton, New Jersey to Ellwood and Shirley Kauffman, and grew up with his sister Jane, and brothers Geoffrey and Matthew.

Kauffman holds an A.B. in English from Vassar College and an MBA in marketing from New York University's Stern School of Business.

In 1973, he appeared briefly in Steven E. de Souza's first film, Arnold's Wrecking Co.[2]

Career

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Throughout his career, Kauffman has worked for a variety of media companies including Benton & Bowles, Newsweek, and Time Warner in the founding of Entertainment Weekly.[2]

His next job was as a vice-president of CompuServe, where he worked on all of the online brands and pioneered SpryNet, CompuServe's ISP service.[3][4] With help from Goldman Sachs, Kauffman participated in the development of one of the first IPOs of the Internet industry.[5] He left CompuServe in 1997 to become president and CEO of ClickOver, a company focused on developing management solutions for Internet advertising.[6][7] ClickOver later became Adknowledge after acquiring Focalink.[citation needed] Before leaving AdKnowledge and the company was sold to CMGI, AdKnowledge grew to over 80 employees with more than 100 customers.[8]

Kauffman then spent time with eCoverage, a direct-to-consumer online insurance company; Coremetrics, which was acquired by IBM in 2010; and MusicNow, an online music service partnered with FullAudio that was later sold to Circuit City.[5]

In 2005, he became CEO of the San Francisco-based digital-magazine service provider Zinio.[9][10]

In 2006, Scott was named president and chief operating officer of BlueLithium.[9] On December 4, 2008, he was named CEO of Geeknet, the owner of SourceForge.net, ThinkGeek, Slashdot, and Freecode.[11]

Kauffman became chairman of the board of directors of MDC Partners in 2006. He was appointed CEO in 2015 after then-CEO Miles Nadal was investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.[12][13]

Other activities

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Kauffman is the chairman of the board of directors of both ChooseEnergy.com and Lotame, as well as a board member of Vindicia.[5][14]

In addition, he is actively involved in supporting ALS research after his son was diagnosed at the age of 27. In addition to being involved with multiple ALS-related organizations, he serves Chairman of the board of the ALS Association.[15] Furthermore, Kauffman is founder and chairman of his own ALS organization, Iron Horse Foundation.[16]

References

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  1. ^ "DIGITAL MEDIA MASTERS;SCOTT KAUFFMAN". Advertising Age. September 23, 1996. Retrieved April 23, 2016.
  2. ^ a b c "Ten Things You Don't Know About MDC's New CEO". Advertising Age. July 21, 2015. Retrieved April 23, 2016.
  3. ^ "Kauffman adds responsibility for Sprynet". Advertising Age. September 23, 1996. Retrieved April 23, 2016.
  4. ^ "CompuServe shuffle". Advertising Age. July 24, 1996. Retrieved April 23, 2016.
  5. ^ a b c "Scott Kauffman". LinkedIn. Retrieved April 23, 2016.
  6. ^ "CompuServer now ClickOver CEO". CNET. Retrieved April 22, 2016.
  7. ^ "Industry veteran Scott Kauffman to ClickOver". Advertising Age. August 11, 1997. Retrieved April 23, 2016.
  8. ^ "John Mracek named president of AdKnowledge". Advertising Age. December 15, 1999. Retrieved April 23, 2016.
  9. ^ a b "BlueLithium names president-COO". Advertising Age. September 13, 2006. Retrieved April 23, 2016.
  10. ^ "Zinio Systems merging with Blue Dolphin". Advertising Age. September 12, 2005. Retrieved April 23, 2016.
  11. ^ "Geeknet acquires Geek.com for $1 million". Advertising Age. May 14, 2010. Retrieved April 23, 2016.
  12. ^ "Scott Kauffman Appointed Chairman and CEO of MDC Partners; Miles Nadal Retires; Company Reaffirms Annual Guidance". PR Newswire. July 20, 2015. Retrieved April 23, 2016.
  13. ^ Tadena, Nathalie (July 20, 2015). "MDC Partners CEO Miles Nadal Steps Down Amid SEC Investigation". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved April 23, 2016.
  14. ^ "Board of Directors Information". Vindicia. Retrieved April 23, 2016.
  15. ^ "Scott Kauffman". ALS Association. Retrieved April 23, 2016.
  16. ^ "About". The Iron Horse Foundation. Retrieved April 23, 2016.

Further reading

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