Christopher Wyatt Tippie, Managing Partner, Maroon Ventures

Prior to founding Maroon Ventures in August 2006, Christopher Tippie, 36, served as Vice President of Marketing and Client Services for WebVisible, a leading Search Engine Marketing company based in Irving, California. During his tenure at WebVisible, Tippie was responsible for new product development and reseller management working with companies such as Dex Media, RH Donnelley, McClatchy, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and MediaNews Group.

Previously, Tippie lead technology initiatives for MediaNews Group Interactive as Vice President of Service Delivery. In this capacity, Tippie managed software development, support, ad operations and program management for the interactive division of MediaNews Group, the fourth largest newspaper company in the United States. He was responsible for the online technology infrastructure including content management systems, search, archival systems, corporate email and graphical ad platforms. Tippie has also served in an executive capacity at Managed Business Solutions (MBS), the Indigio Group, and Planet Technologies.

As a Maroon Ventures partner, Tippie has served as the acting General Manager of the Newspaper Consortium – a group of 23 newspapers companies who have entered into agreements with Yahoo, Inc. He has also served as the Transition Officer for MediaNews Group heading up the integration of the online assets of the San Jose Mercury News, St. Paul Pioneer Press, Contra Costa Times and Monterey Herald.

Tippie earned his Masters in Business Administration from the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University and his Juris Doctor from the Deadman School of Law at Southern Methodist University. He also holds a BA in Economics from Marietta College.

Chris Tippie lives a charmed life living in Crested Butte, Colorado. He is married to photographer Andrea Tippie. They have two wonderful daughters, Eleanor and Samantha and enjoy spending as much time as possible in the high country.

Chris Tippie can be reached ctippie@maroonventures.com or 303.807.2022.

Heather Lamm, Partner, Maroon Ventures

Prior to becoming a Partner with Maroon Ventures, Heather Lamm was an Executive Vice President at MediaNews Group, the fourth largest newspaper company in the US, with properties throughout California, the Rocky Mountains and the Northeast. In this role Heather led the Interactive team and was responsible for developing the company’s interactive strategic vision and working with its 60+ newspaper groups to implement online initiatives. During her tenure at MNG, interactive revenue grew from $14 million in 2003 to $150 million in 2008. Heather was also responsible for strategic partnerships and in this capacity was instrumental in the recent Hot Jobs and Yahoo! deals with the Newspaper Consortium.

Heather was also previously Vice President of Strategic Planning at San Francisco-based Standard Media International, publisher of the Industry Standard magazine. In this role Heather rode the internet wave to its apex; participating in illustrious conferences in Barcelona, Palm Beach, Aspen and other hot spots of internet activity and trying her hardest to use words like “synergy” and “convergence” in most sentences. When the bubble crashed, Heather and her husband “quit” their jobs and travelled the world for 9 months.

From 1999-2004 Heather was Chair of the Board of Directors at Third Millennium, a non-profit, non-partisan advocacy and education organization. In this role, Lamm testified before congress on the need for Social Security and Medicare reform. She has appeared on CNN’s Inside Politics, CNN & Company, Talk Back Live, Crossfire, The McLaughlin Group, the Jim Bohananon Show and Politically Incorrect. Heather is actively involved with education reform efforts in the city of Denver and is a Partner at Social Ventures Partners, a group of community-minded professionals who contribute time, money, and business expertise to Denver nonprofits She is a 2004 graduate of the Denver Chamber of Commerce Leadership Denver program.

Heather holds an MBA in entrepreneurship and organizational behavior from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and a BA in political science from Brown University. Heather currently lives in Denver with her husband, two young sons and a Bernese Mountain Dog named Argos. True devotees of Steep and Cheap, they fancy themselves as active skiers and hikers but in reality they spend more time changing diapers than on the slopes these days.

Heather Lamm can be reached at hlamm@maroonventures.com or 720.480.0181.

Mike Higgins, Partner, Maroon Ventures

Before becoming a partner with Maroon Ventures, Mike Higgins was the Executive Vice President of Interactive for MediaNews Group, the 4th largest publisher of newspapers in the United States. In that role he had overall responsibility for interactive operations and technology for the companies 57 daily newspapers.

Over the last 13 years Higgins has been involved in numerous start up and early stage businesses. Prior to MediaNews Group Interactive Higgins was co-founder and Executive Vice President for the Indigio Group, Inc. Today Indigio is Colorado's largest interactive agency managing the online channels for companies as Avis-Budget Group, Qwest, Sirva and PODS. While at Indigio, Higgins successfully launched four ventures, opening Indigio Europe to serve VNU from offices in Amsterdam Holland, Excito Marketing, StreamingCity and SavingStreet Realty.

Prior to Indigio, Higgins was an Officer and VP Sales with Digital Courier Technologies (NASDAQ: DCTI). In that role he oversaw the business operations of their weather subsidiary WeatherLabs, ultimately selling the business to Landmark Communications (Weather Channel) in 1999. Previously Higgins served as Director of National Sales for MapQuest.

Higgins earned a B.A., Political Science from Colorado State University. He currently lives in Denver with his wife of 18 years Valerie, their three children, 3 dogs and one horse.

Mike Higgins can be reached at mhiggins@maroonventures.com or 303.332.3370.

Robert Benz, Partner, Maroon Ventures

Before becoming a partner in Maroon Ventures, Bob Benz, 45, served as vice president of interactive media for E.W. Scripps Co.’s newspaper division. In that role, he oversaw strategic, financial and operational activities for the company’s daily newspapers.

Benz worked at Scripps in various capacities since 1985, starting his career as a journalist and migrating to interactive initiatives after helping to launch the Rocky Mountain News website in 1995. The highlight of his journalism career came in 1994, when he was an editor on “The Plutonium Experiment,” which earned a Pulitzer Prize for reporter Eileen Welsome and The Albuquerque Tribune.

During the early stages of his interactive career, Benz helped launch websites at Scripps newspapers and television stations. In 2000, he began to focus solely on the newspapers, which achieved profitability in 2002 and grew revenue at a 32% compound annual growth rate from 2002-2007.

Key achievements in his role at Scripps included the installation of content management systems, implementing extensive financial benchmarking, establishing an innovation fund and managing an interactive staff of 40 that handles ad serving, sales, operations, product management, search engine marketing and programming. He also was one of several newspaper industry executives who negotiated an extensive partnership with Yahoo!

Benz earned a BA in journalism/English from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and holds a master's in English literature from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Key board seats he holds or has held include: the Newspaper Association of America’s New Media Federation, Ohio University Scripps School of Journalism Advisory Board, the Scripps Howard Foundation and PowerOne Media.

Benz is married to Lara Edge, VP/Editorial for Scripps Networks online. They live in Knoxville, Tenn., with four dogs and an angry cockatoo.

Bob Benz can be reached at bbenz@maroonventures.com or 865.604.7731.

Charity Huff, Partner, Maroon Ventures

Charity Huff draws on a wealth of search engine marketing, newspaper and yellow pages experience to bring media products to local markets. Since joining Maroon Ventures as a partner in the summer of 2007, Huff has focused on helping the newspaper industry execute on interactive strategies. One key initiative has been associated with the development of social marketplace technology designed to connect newspapers’ strong local user base with relevant products and services.

Before joining Maroon Ventures, Huff managed strategic relationships for WebVisible, an online media company specializing in local search engine marketing products. Huff leveraged her experience with both newspapers and yellow pages to double WebVisible’s affiliate revenues.

Huff’s media experience includes an account management role at MediaNews Group, where she helped to establish a service delivery business for the company’s interactive division. In this role, Huff managed the relationship between MNG corporate and its Los Angeles and Northern California newspaper properties. These websites represented 40 percent of the company’s interactive revenues.

Before joining MediaNews Group, Huff worked for eight years in the Internet yellow pages industry at Dex Media (now R.H. Donnelley). She helped to bring new products to market and gained extensive experience with search engine marketing products, sales force automation tools, competitive response marketing and sales campaign planning.

Huff earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from Washington State University and a Masters in Business Administration with an emphasis in Operations Management from Regis University.

Huff enjoys a wonderful life in Denver, Colorado. She is married to Brian Huff, a senior Chemical Engineer with Golder Associates. They have two children, Trenton and Sarah.

Charity Huff can be reached at chuff@maroonventures.comor 303.886.6816.

Wesley A. Jackson, Partner, Maroon Ventures

Before becoming a partner in Maroon Ventures, Wesley A. “Wes” Jackson served as a corporate senior vice president for Belo Corp. and president/General Manager of Belo Interactive Media. In that role he was responsible for P&L, operations, strategy, national sales and product development for more than 30 Web sites. He also oversaw interactive alliances and partnerships as well as a broad range of Internet-based products and services. Upon joining Belo in 2000, Jackson was vice president of sales for Belo Interactive, which was formed as a subsidiary of Belo Corp.

During his term at Belo (2000-’07), Jackson was instrumental in bringing the firm into Classified Ventures, which has developed industry-leading online classified products (including Cars.com, Apartments.com and Homescape.com). He also championed new products, such as a 3 million subscriber permission e-mail program, and took Belo’s interactive revenue from $3 million in 1999 to over $75 million in 2007. In Q1 2007, Belo’s network of news and information Web sites averaged more than 7 million unique visitors and more than 145 million page views each month. In addition, Jackson has represented Belo and played a lead role in a consortium of 21 newspaper companies representing 400 newspapers in a strategic partnership with Yahoo!

Jackson holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Kentucky. Before joining Belo, he worked in a variety of media and interactive positions, including: sales associate at the Lexington Herald Leader (Knight Ridder); account executive with Village Companies’ radio station WXZZ-FM; founder and partner of Lexweb.com, a Lexington, KY, based online directory, movie and apartment guide; Internet marketing consultant with Knight Ridder newspapers; General Manager Interactive Media at the Rocky Mountain News in Denver; and corporate director of vertical markets for Scripps.

Jackson has served a board member of Classified Ventures, Online Publishers Association and Colorado Real Estate Online. He was on the development committee of the Denver Better Business Bureau and has been involved in a number of civic organizations, including Big Brothers of America. In 1999 he was Editor & Publisher finalist for “Best Use of Interactivity,” and in 1998 he won a Digital Edge Award for Kyautoconnect.com. Jackson now lives in Louisville, KY, his home town.

Wes Jackson can be reached at wjackson@maroonventures.com or 502.749.9570.