Meet the Team
The guys in charge
Sugih Jamin (to the left) is co-founder and Chairman of Zattoo. Sugih is also Associate Professor of computer science at the University of Michigan. He has played around plenty in the area of Internet measurement, protocol, infrastructure design and deployment. Sugih was visiting Professor at the University of Tokyo as well as at the University of Cambridge, and has worked at Xerox PARC. He has collected numerous awards including the Sloan Foundation Fellowship, the NSF CAREER Award, and the White House Presidential Award.
Beat Knecht (to the right) is co-founder, President, and CEO of Zattoo. In an earlier life Beat was the co-creator of UBS OpenLAN, SAP xRPM, and Levanta. Before joining Zattoo, Beat was vice president of marketing at Linuxcare (now Levanta) in San Francisco and experienced the consulting world as associate partner at McKinsey & Company. Beat holds a BA in Computer Science from the University of California (Berkeley) and received his MBA at IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland.
More guys in charge
Thomas Billeter is Vice President of Business Operations. Thomas is a co-founder of TPN, a leading Swiss WiFi operator. Prior to joining Zattoo he held senior management positions with ISMM/ISL, where he oversaw the new media business for top sports rightsholders in international soccer, tennis and athletics, and with Ascom, where he managed a data networking unit. He also spent six years as a senior consultant with McKinsey & Company. Thomas holds a master of science and an MBA from ETH Zurich as well as a PhD in economics from the university of Zurich. He has also attended Harvard Business School's executive management program.
Thomas on TV:
“I own one large screen TV and Zattoo ... although I like TV I am not a zapper at all (in fact I hate zapping because of all the rubbish you encounter on the way to the next interesting show) so I use Zattoo all the time, mainly because I know where the channels are (it's a logo not a 2-digit number) ... I only divert to the old TV when Roger Federer is playing tennis. Obviously Zattoo's resolution does not do justice to a tennis ball flying at 200 km/h across a court.
... no I am not a TV junky and yes TV is on all the time while I do other things (like answering emails). My favorite programs are sports (soccer, basketball and tennis) political discussions/interviews and music shows (why not Swiss Idol)... sometimes (I hate to admit it) I also watch crime series (more the “Der Alte" style then CSI Miami).
No cult shows from my childhood... I recollect watching adventure movies (like The Three Musketeers , The Count of Montecristo) and Western series.”
Nick Brambring is Head of Advertising. Before he joined Zattoo, Nick worked for the Boston Consulting Group, where he did strategic consulting for companies in the consumer goods industry. His industry expertise includes the TV and music business. Nick is a qualified lawyer and holds a PHD in law from the University of Cologne and an MBA from Insead in France and Singapore.
Nick on TV:
“I’m not a TV junky, I always preferred reality – spending time with my dear friends Heathcliff Huxtable, Homer Simpson and Colt Sivas. Ironically, now that Zattoo enables them to visit me even during office hours, I’m too busy working because of Zattoo. Most games of German Bundesliga are shown on the week-ends though and fortunately my favourite team 1. FC Koeln is back again.”
Ian Greenblatt is Vice President of US Content Acquisition at Zattoo. He has over ten years experience in broadcast and cable. Before joining Zattoo, he was in production at FOX and ABC, and legal at Warner Bros. Ian’s reputation as an evangelist for the “next new thing” started in 1999, when he was VP/GC and employee #1 at Broadbus, a Video—on-Demand server company purchased by Motorola. Ian holds a juris doctor from DePaul University College of Law, and majored in film and TV at Northwestern University.
Ian on TV:
“I own too many TVs – too much real estate taken up by older space/power hungry technology. My career in finding the intersection between content and technology came into focus while watching The Simpsons; Homer tries to answer the phone with the TV remote, and moans “Why isn’t there something on this thing for that thing.” A screen is a screen is a screen; the audience needs to be in charge of getting their chosen content on their chosen device – that’s why I love Zattoo!
I enjoy the higher concept shows, almost anything made by HBO (Rome, Deadwood, John Adams) and (insert sheepish grin here) I love the Sci-Fi channel – Battlestar Galactica is simply terrific. Since I’ve grown up around television, The Simpsons is my second family, and the Family Guy is its and my bawdy, inappropriate but wonderful cousin by marriage - I may have to name future kids Groening or MacFarlane!"
Benoit Henry is our CFO. He’s got plenty of experience growing young, innovative companies, which is why it’s excellent to have him on board. Over the past six years, he has been CFO at various companies where he developed and led several M&A exit strategies. One of his latest assignments was the sale of Musiwave to Openwave, a leading provider of software solutions. Benoit has spent the first six years of his career in Asia working in the multimedia and publishing industry. He holds a master of science in management from HEC, Paris.
Benoit on TV:
"We have no TV set at home. Our family relies 100% on Zattoo for TV!!! We even put Zattoo on a beamer in the evening.
We do stay true to my programs: mainly American series. I love watching The Sopranos, Seinfeld, Rome, The Office (US and UK versions), Prison Break 1 & 2... I love the idea of having a weekly meeting with the characters of these series. It has more than once happened that we turned down invitations not to miss a show ...
As a child, I might have spent too much time watching TV ... Japanese stuff mainly. That might explain why I ended up living in Japan for 3 years and did 15 years of martial arts ..."
Gagan Palrecha is Vice President of US Business Development at Zattoo. He has over 10 years of experience leading technology and entertainment companies, both domestically and abroad. Prior to Zattoo, Gagan was CEO and President at The First Time Records, an independent record label distributed by Universal Music Group. He has held various leadership positions in product, engineering, and business development with Sennari, Oracle, Loudcloud/Opsware (acquired by Hewlett-Packard), and Vontu (acquired by Symantec). Gagan holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan.
Gagan on TV:
“ We've always had television in the house, and it's always played a big part of shaping who I am today. Alternative content and cartoons have been a staple in my television viewing experiences over the years. I'm also a bit of a sports nut and love watching Soccer, Basketball, Tennis, Skateboarding, and most other sports.
Favorite Shows Past
MTV's 120 minutes, He-Man, Voltron, Thundercats, The Adventures of Pete & Pete, The A-Team, The Simpsons, Space Ghost, Saved By The Bell, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Sanford & Son
Favorite Shows Today:
Heroes, The Wire, The Daily Show, Colbert Report, Psych, SportsCenter, How I Met Your Mother"
Dug Song is Vice President of Engineering at Zattoo. He has over 10 years of experience leading commercial software development for products in global enterprise and service provider markets. Dug joined Zattoo after 7 years as the founding engineer and chief architect at Arbor Networks, and author of several of its patents. Prior to Arbor, Dug was the architect of a network anomaly detection system at Anzen Computing (acquired by NFR Security). Dug has made a name for himself in the open-source community, and serves on the program committees for various academic and industry computer security conferences and technical advisory boards. He holds a bachelor of science in Computer Science from the University of Michigan.
Dug on TV:
“I own only one TV, but several computers and laptops, and wait patiently for Zattoo to finally come to the States! In the US, TV really defined pop culture in the 80's, eventually kicking off a global youth culture that blossomed and was remixed all over the world. As a latchkey kid during this time, I grew up on TV, microwavable meals, computers, and skateboarding. I'm definitely of the MTV generation: I first learned to surf channels, then BBSs, then websites ...
My TV history
Elementary school: Mr. Wizard's World, The A-Team, Danger Mouse, Transformers, You Can't Do That On Television!
Middle school: Robotech, French in Action
High school: The Simpsons, 120 Minutes, Jeopardy
College: The Adventures of Pete-n-Pete, Ranma, Space Ghost Coast to Coast
Post-college: Law & Order, X-Files, The Daily Show, Frontline
Today: Pancake Mountain, Heroes, Pororo, and various Korean dramas (I won't call them soap operas!)”
Andre Thalmann is our General Counsel. Before joining Zattoo, André worked for 10 years in law firms and gained extensive experience in the various areas of business law, with a strong focus on all matters related to the Internet, IT and Media industries. André was admitted to the bar in 1997. André holds a PhD in law from the University of Lausanne, an LL.M. from the College of Europe, Bruges, and an MBA from the University of St. Gallen (HSG).
Andre on TV:
"I watch TV!
fave shows and programs:
- let me think...
Francesco Vass is Vice President of Marketing and Content. Before joining Zattoo Francesco worked as consultant at McKinsey & Company, where he advised clients in the telecom and media industries on strategic issues. Previously, Francesco was deputy head of product development at Sunrise, Switzerland's largest new telecom operator. Francesco holds an master of science in Electrical Engineering from the ETH Zurich and received his MBA from INSEAD in France and Singapore.
Francesco on TV:
"I own one single, old TV set. Along with that a PVR of the wave.
My tv consumption is very focused: mostly news and tv series, occasionally a sport event or moviefave shows and programs:
- teenage-hood: "The Dukes of Hazzard", with Daisy Duke (Catherine Bach) as the incarnation of my wildest dreams. Also watched "Mork & Mindy", "The Jeffersons", and "Diff'rent Strokes" - all of which I found exhilarating
- In my mid-twenties I fell victim of "Friends"
- More recently, I can't live without my weekly shot of "24", "Lost", "Prison Break" and "Dr. House".
- I gave "Six feet under" a try but didn't make it past episode 3 of the first series"
Wenjie Wang is co-founder and CTO of Zattoo. Wenjie holds a Ph.D. degree from the University of Michigan. He has over eight years of experience in Internet protocol design, system performance analysis, and P2P application implementation. He built the prototype of the Zattoo streaming protocol as part of his Ph.D. thesis. Wenjie has also worked at Microsoft Research Asia and Oracle China.
Wenjie on TV:
"I spend most of my home time either in front of a TV or a laptop. My TV consumption became more sporadic in recent years, thanks to broadband and Internet video. I cannot throw away my TV yet because a lot of content is not available on the Internet. I hope we can make a difference there.
My favorite channels are discovery (HD) and history, Fox/CBS during NFL season."
That’s not all respectively everybody we’ve got. We’re currently about 50 people altogether (it’s hard to keep count, as new people join all the time), who are working on developing the software even further, acquiring hot new content for viewers all over the world, setting up new servers, taking care of our users, and and and. The techie side is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan/USA, while the business geeks experts operate from Zurich, Switzerland.