Rafat Ali
Editor & Publisher
paidContent.org

Rafat Ali, Founder, Editor and Publisher Since founding the Company in 2002, Ali has overseen the rollout to three new verticals and the expansion into revenue generating events. Before ContentNext, Rafat was managing editor of the Silicon Alley Reporter. Editor & Publisher has called Rafat "journalism's poster boy for career independence from news companies," and CBS MarketWatch has called him "a pioneer in using the Web for an almost real-time business news feed." Rafat was the Knight Foundation Fellow at Indiana University, his alma mater, in 1999-2000.

Bruce Eatroff
Founding Partner 
Halyard Capital

Mr. Bruce A. Eatroff is a Founding Partner at Halyard Capital. He also co-founded the firm and has a broad variety of private equity investing experience across the media and communications industry including telecommunications, cable, publishing, broadcasting, and marketing services. In addition to his responsibilities at Halyard, Mr. Eatroff is the Executive Managing Director and Head of Investment and Corporate Banking for U.S. Media and Communications at Harris Nesbitt. He has 20 years of Wall Street experience and a broad variety of private equity investing, capital raising, and advisory experience, having completed more than 200 transactions representing more than $40 billion in value. Prior to joining the firm in April 2000, Mr. Eatroff served as a Managing Director and one of the senior members of the Media and Telecommunications Investment Banking team at CIBC World Markets. Prior to CIBC World Markets, he was a senior banker at UBS Securities and Goldman, Sachs & Co. Mr. Eatroff currently represents Halyard on the Boards of eLearners.com, Impremedia, Integrated Solutions, and TRANZACT. He previously served on the Board of Hanley Wood. He also resides on the Board of FutureSmart Networks. Mr. Eatroff received an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and a B.A., with Honors, from Lafayette College.

Susan Lavington
Senior Vice President of Marketing 
USA Today

Susan Lavington is senior vice president of marketing for USA TODAY. Lavington oversees all marketing efforts for the USA TODAY brand. Prior to that appointment, she was vice president of consumer marketing.

Lavington joined USA TODAY in 1999 as director of marketing for USATODAY.com where she was responsible for successfully growing the website's audience. Lavington also was in charge of research and mobile product development. In 2005, she was named vice president of consumer marketing for USA TODAY, responsible for developing the brand marketing strategy for all USA TODAY brands in order to reach new customers and grow the business. Lavington's direct areas of responsibilities included the research and promotion teams.

Prior to joining USA TODAY, Lavington worked for US Airways, first as Senior Analyst/Marketing Planning and later as Manager/Electronic Distribution Marketing and Customer Service. She holds a B.A. from Rice University in Houston and an M.B.A. from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

Dennis Miller
General Partner
Spark Capital

Dennis Miller is a General Partner at Spark Capital. Mr. Miller has led Spark's investments in Mandalay Media (MNDL.OB) Xoova, and Next New Networks. Mr. Miller was most recently a Managing Director of Constellation Ventures, the venture investment arm of Bear Stearns. His investments included College Sports Television (acquired by CBS); TVONE (a cable network owned in partnership with Comcast and Radio One); K-12 (NYSE:LRN); The Gospel Channel and Widevine Systems. Mr. Miller also served on the Board of Directors of Capital IQ (acquired by McGraw-Hill). From 1998 to 2000, Mr. Miller was Executive Vice President of Lions Gate Entertainment. Prior to joining Lions Gate, Mr. Miller was Executive Vice President of Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE). Mr. Miller was responsible for all television operations of SPE and actively involved with strategic planning and new media. From 1990-1995, Mr. Miller was Executive Vice President of Turner Network Television. In 1993 Mr. Miller took on the additional responsibility for the Turner Entertainment Company. Mr. Miller began his career as an attorney with Manatt, Phelps, Rothenberg and Phillips in Los Angeles. Mr. Miller holds a Juris Doctorate from Boalt Law School and a BA in Political Science from the University of California at San Diego.

Arthur Zaczkiewicz
Director of Content
Argyle Executive Forum

Arthur Zaczkiewicz is currently the director of content at Argyle Executive Forum, a media firm that convenes c-level executives, investors and stakeholders from a variety of industries. Previously, he served as senior editor, financial, of Women’s Wear Daily (WWD) and was the financial editor of the Fairchild Fashion Group, a division of Condé Nast Publications. At WWD, Zaczkiewicz and his team of editors and reporters tracked the $180 billion apparel market, producing business stories relating to financials, mergers and acquisitions, IPOs, executive pay, and the equity markets. Zaczkiewicz has moderated and participated on numerous panels and conference calls with firms that include Citigroup, Telsey Advisory Group, Financial Dynamics, Bear Stearns and TradeCard. As a reporter and writer, Zaczkiewicz's work has appeared in WWD, WWD The Magazine, WWD Scoop, DNR, Footwear News, Home Furnishings News, HomeWorld Business, Hotel Business, Newsday, the Times Herald-Record and Ulster Publishing. He has also appeared on CNBC’s On the Money and on Northeast Public Radio.

Michael Zimbalist
Vice President, Research & Development Operations
The New York Times Company

Michael Zimbalist is vice president, research & development operations at The New York Times Company.  Under his leadership R&D is stimulating innovation and cultural change as NYTC transitions to a multi-platform company.  He is also leading Boston.com into its next phase of growth and overseeing mobile technology initiatives for the Company.

Since joining the Times Company in January 2006, some of Mr. Zimbalist’s accomplishments include:  Extending the Times Company’s digital activities to new and emerging platforms, and managing the companywide launch of new mobile products such as mobile real estate listings at each newspaper site and About.com; Overseeing Boston.com and its expansion into local search and community publishing; Structuring the strategic alliance with Monster.com in which 17 of the Company’s newspaper Web sites, including NYTimes.com and Boston.com, are co-branding their recruitment sites with Monster’s; Focusing on new tools and services such as analytics and data mining to optimize content delivery and advertising revenue across all NYTC sites.

Mr. Zimbalist has been widely quoted in publications such as The New York Times and Wall Street Journal and has been a guest commentator on NBC News, CNN and BBC Radio discussing the future of media and advertising.

Before joining the Times Company, Mr. Zimbalist co-founded the Online Publishers Association and served as its President.  Prior to the OPA he held a variety of senior management positions in digital media including executive vice president of marketing and business development for ePod Corporation; general manager of online services for United Media; and director of development and production Multimedia Group at ABC.  He was also a writer/producer at Walt Disney Imagineering.

Mr. Zimbalist received a B.A. degree in chemistry and philosophy from Brown University in 1979.  He lives in Montclair, N.J., with his wife and three children.