Luca Ascani (Co-Founder & President )
A young entrepreneur, he launched www.buycentral.it in 2000 as the Italian subsidiary of a French shopping comparison site. The company was subsequently sold to the German group Lycos in 2004. In 2002, Luca launched ADVance and as it’s Chairman drove it to be one of the main web media agencies in Italy. Luca was also co-founder and shareholder of First Tuesday Italy, a company involved in the organization of seminars and meetings on Financial and Net Economy topics.
Salvatore Esposito (Co-Founder & Managing Director)
Gained his Degree in Business & Finance in 1999. Salvatore started his career within the world of the Internet as a consultant on its use for small & medium enterprises within a project financed by the IBM Italia Foundation. Following this experience, he gained valuable expertise in Internet marketing and advertising by working for BuyCentral, LookSmart and Altavista. Before founding GoAdv, he was Managing Director of the Web Agency ADVance.
Roberto D’Angelo (Chief Technology Officer)
An Engineer with specialization in Information Technology. He was Director of Software Development for Excite Italia between 2000 and 2003. He then moved to Venere.com, managing a team of 25 IT developers. Venere is a leading player in the online hotel booking business. He joined GoAdv in September 2006.
Emiliano Carlucci (Chief Operating Officer)
Earned his degree in Modern Languages in 2000, with a specialization in Media and Communication, at LUMSA University in Rome, where he served as a Member of the Students’ Representative Council and Member of the Academic Senate. He began his career in the advertising field working as an Account Supervisor at Studio Più S.p.a., an advertising agency operating in Rome and Milan. In 2003 he joined ADVance as a Web Marketing Manager and contributed to the launch of the Gomeo and Betterdeals Networks. In January 2007 he started up GoAdvertising Ltd and served as a Managing Director for the Irish Company for more than 1 year.
John Slyne (CFO GoAdv, Managing Director GoAdvertising Ltd)
John has extensive experience in corporate, operational and commercial environments and was previously Financial Consultant to the successful Irish internet company, Web Reservations International Ltd owners of hostelworld.com and boo.com domain names. He was General Manager and VP of Finance at World Avenue Data Solutions, an interactive marketing firm that helps Global 2000 companies achieve customer acquisition and revenue goals, and has held roles as Treasurer, Director of Planning and European Financial Controller at Artesyn Technologies, a Nasdaq listed company acquired by Emerson Electric in 2006. John holds an MBA from the Henley Business School, University of Reading and is a Fellowship Member of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants.
Alessio Semoli (Managing Director, Trackset)
A digital communications and new media expert, Alessio has been working in the internet sector since 1997. In 2001 he founded Intarget.net, an Italian web marketing agency, where he headed up SEO/SEM strategy and web marketing activities for the agency’s top clients. Based on experience gained at Intarget.net, Alessio created ConversionLab – easy to use software for professionals to analyse the ROI of promotional campaigns – which was acquired by GoAdv in 2007. Alessio founded and is Managing Director of Trackset, now part of the GoAdv Group, and a frequent speaker at high profile events in Italy, including Search Engine Strategies, IAB Forum and EBA Forum.
Luigi Andrea Raimondi (Human Resources Director)
With a degree in Sociology of Labor from the Univerity of Rome earned in 1993 and a Master in Business from Texas A&M University earned in 1997, Andrea has over a decade of experience in the HR field and in building solid business partnering approaches for the function. Before joining GoAdv he was at Technicolor as HR Director for the European Theatrical Divison managing HR operations in Italy, Spain and the UK. From 2001 to 2006 he held managerial HR positions for Yahoo! Inc. both in Europe and in the US. Before that he worked for Olivetti and Dell Computer.
Directors
Stéphane Darracq
With a degree from Agro Paris Grignon, Stéphane Darracq began his career in M&A with Hill Samuel & Co in London in 1989. He then joined the European Bank for reconstruction and Development before managing a private equity investment fund for Invesco Asset Management. In 2001 he became the CFO of Opta Limited a technology consulting and investment company. From 2003-2005, he was vice-president in charge of external growth operations for SAIC, a technology company based in San Diego, California. He is now Managing Director for Netbooster.
Stéphane Vais
With a degree from HEC, Stéphane Vais began his career in Paris and then San Francisco working as a project manager and then as Manager of the American office for Thomson –CSF Ventures. In 1992 he joined Hersant group in which he successively acted as an internal auditor, CFO for “Le Figaro” and “France-soir” newspapers before becoming the Group’s CFO. In 2000 he joined AOL France as CFO before becoming Managing Director of Finance and Performance in 2005. Stéphane Vais is also a member of the AOL France’s executive committee.
