Helping brands take back the Internet since 2010

James Avery is the founder and CEO of Kevel. Prior to Kevel, he co-founded TekPub, a platform that delivered high-quality screencasts for developers. Over the past 20 years, James has built multiple startups, written code across tech stacks, and authored books for O’Reilly, Wrox, and Microsoft Press. He is also an investor and advisor to multiple startups and serves on the board of MuukTest.

Jaclyn Nix is Kevel’s Chief Operating Officer, bringing over 18 years of experience in retail media and ad tech. She has led the operational scaling of 40+ retail media businesses, including the 2020 acquisition of the Mi9 Retail Media Network (formerly MyWebGrocer) by CitrusAd, establishing the US footprint.  One year later, CitrusAd was acquired by Epsilon.  Since then, she served as EVP, Brand Sales at Epsilon Retail Media (formerly CitrusAd), where she led sales teams across various retail verticals and drove impactful strategies leveraging first-party data. Jaclyn is passionate about operational excellence, cross-functional alignment, and delivering measurable value to customers.

Tim Ewald is Kevel’s CTO, and has spent the last 30 years building distributed software systems to solve problems in a wide range of domains, including image analysis, content management, video processing, databases, and ad tech. He brings his experience as an engineer, architect, and engineering manager to Kevel, where he is responsible for the entire cloud platform. Tim is an author and conference speaker, who holds a Bachelor's in Computer Science from Hampshire College. Outside of the office, he builds furniture using hand tools.

Tom Shanahan brings 20+ years of expertise in financial strategy and operational leadership across retail media, ad tech, and large-scale organizations. Prior to joining Kevel, Tom served as VP, Global Head of Finance at CitrusAd, where he drove financial strategy and operational initiatives during transformative growth, including CitrusAd's acquisition by Epsilon. Earlier in his career, Tom held finance leadership roles at Epsilon, Sears Holdings Corporation, and GMX Real Estate Group. His background combines advanced financial modeling, strategic planning, and operational precision. Tom is passionate about aligning financial excellence with long-term strategy and supporting cross-functional teams in achieving objectives.

Mike Kohn leads the People and HR function at Kevel. Mike’s foundational experience as an HR Business Partner and as a human capital consultant at Deloitte launched him into his roles as a People executive and leadership coach at various scaling organizations. As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, Mike is passionate about building healthy, inclusive cultures where people can bring their whole selves to thrive. Beyond work, he spends time at spin classes, running, playing board games, hiking, and watching musical theater.

John Chaplin brings extensive experience in product management, retail media, and digital innovation. Based in Adelaide, Australia, he began his career in product design and engineering before co-founding award-winning agency Fusion, developing deep expertise in digital strategy, digital transformation and user experience. He later served as Chief Product Officer at CitrusAd, shaping a revolutionary retail media platform, before leading product as SVP at Epsilon Retail Media. Across these roles, he built a reputation for delivering personalised, scalable product experiences for retailers and advertisers. As Chief Product Officer at Kevel, John brings a customer-first approach and a passion for building great products that redefine the retail media landscape.

Dylan Hulser is Kevel’s Vice President of Retail Media, bringing over nine years of experience on the company’s commercial team. His journey at Kevel has spanned roles across Sales, Solutions, and Customer Success, including the creation of the Solutions Architecture team. Today, Dylan leads Kevel’s retail media charge, connecting brands and retailers with consumers through innovative ad serving solutions. He holds a degree in Integrated Marketing Communications from Ithaca College and began his career in digital media buying for Procter & Gamble brands at MediaVest (now Spark). Dylan later joined Reddit where he played a key role in advertising strategy, operations, and monetization. Outside of work, Dylan enjoys exploring new restaurants, traveling, and spending quality time with his family.

Leslie Pierce-Connor has spent her career bootstrapping legal functions at startups, helping to build out the first-ever legal department at multiple growth-stage companies. She brings intensely practical experience in both legal operations and legal practice to the organization, with an emphasis on developing scalable, repeatable processes. Leslie also provides legal consulting services to charitable organizations. When not working, Leslie is an outdoor enthusiast, a calligrapher, a foodie, and a mom to both a two year old son and a six year old labrador retriever.

Sandy Grason has spent her career building lean, agile, high-performing teams. Prior to joining Kevel, Sandy was the Senior Director of Software Development at Charter Communications where she was responsible for the strategic direction and management of the backend video software development. Sandy is a former CEO, business strategist, consultant, published author, serial entrepreneur & mentor, lover of chocolate, movies, skiing & shoes (not necessarily in that order).

Andrew McManamon brings over 20 years of experience across media planning, agency, broadcast, and advertising technology. He began his career as a media planner before moving into agency account management, building a strong foundation in commercial strategy and media buying. He later transitioned into ad tech, working at Specific Media (later Viant) and WideOrbit, giving him a unique perspective across both the buy and sell side of the advertising landscape.Since joining Kevel seven years ago as the company’s first hire in Europe, Andrew has been instrumental in building and expanding Kevel’s international presence. Today, he leads global sales efforts, partnering with commerce media companies to build and scale high-performing retail media businesses.

Martin Jensen is the VP of Partnerships at Kevel and the founder of Nexta, an AI-driven ad platform acquired by Kevel in 2025. Since founding Nexta in 2017, he has consistently focused on helping media companies, marketplaces, and retailers drive revenue growth. At Nexta, Jensen championed a strategic partnership model, working with publishers and marketplaces around the world to create tailored omnichannel advertising solutions with proven impact. Before his time at Nexta, Jensen built up his expertise in programmatic advertising at Adform. Today at Kevel, he draws on his extensive experience and passion for innovation to lead partnership efforts that help brands build transformative ad solutions and achieve sustainable long-term growth.

Jesper Urban is the VP of Engineering at Kevel, having joined the company through its acquisition of Nexta -- a company he co-founded and grew from a two person startup to a global scale-up with clients across Europe and North America. With more than 21 years of experience in software engineering and product management -- including 16 years in B2B SaaS and ad tech -- Jesper brings deep technical and strategic expertise to his role. Before founding Nexta, he served as VP of Product at Adform, where he led the development of programmatic products and helped scale the company into Europe’s largest ad tech platform. Outside of work, he enjoys sailing, Danish summers, and spending quality time with his loved ones.

Paulo has been building products for the digital marketing and advertising industry for over 18 years. After completing his BSc in Computing from London Met, he started his career developing products at companies such as Acxiom and Wunderloop – Europe’s first behavioral targeting technology. Paulo later founded ShiftForward, where he launched products such as the Private CDP and the Ad Forecaster and served as CEO, completing its exit to Velocidi in 2018 and later to Kevel in 2022. Paulo also helps tech startups as a board advisor and as a mentor in the Founders Founders community which he helped create in Porto, Portugal.

Kate Gadzinski is the VP of Revenue Operations at Kevel, bringing over a decade of experience in tech and a unique background at the intersection of enablement and operations -- two functions she believes are most powerful when aligned. She began her career as an Executive Assistant to multiple senior leaders, including CEO -- an experience she describes as her “on-the-job MBA.” Since then, Kate has built a reputation for tackling business challenges through data-driven strategy, smart process design, and a focus on performance enablement. Outside the office, Kate loves to bake and experiment with new recipes. She’s an avid fan of Claire Saffitz’s creations and is always looking for her next kitchen project.

Philip joined Fulcrum in 2007 as the first Analyst. It was a special time to join as they were a startup themselves, and the experience growing with and alongside the firm has taught him a great deal. He have built a culture at Fulcrum that goes beyond business and has truly become a family. With the firm’s operational experience, he meets his teams with solutions, understanding what it truly takes to scale.

Jim loves what he does because he works with the same kinds of companies he's been working on for years. As a leader of these organizations, he wakes up every day thinking about how he can help his portfolio CEOs grow their business. Outside of Fulcrum, he is an active member of Atlanta’s entrepreneurial community. He is also a board member of Venture Atlanta and UNICEF Southeast Region.

Mark Mannino is a seasoned executive with over two decades of leadership experience in advertising technology, digital commerce, and data-driven marketing. Mark has held leadership roles at the forefront of transformational shifts in advertising — pioneering programmatic advertising at MediaMath, helping shape the rise of retail media during his nine years at Amazon and as COO of Flywheel, and now leading the next wave of innovation as President at Vidmob. At Vidmob, Mark is focused on helping brands and agencies turn their creative into a competitive advantage by unlocking the power of creative data. Known for building high-performing global teams, Mark has a proven track record of driving innovation at scale while maintaining a sharp commercial focus. His expertise spans SaaS, services, and General Management, with leadership across sales, operations, product, and engineering.In addition to his role at Vidmob, Mark serves serves as an Executive in Residence at Progress Partners. He holds an MBA from The Wharton School and is a graduate of Villanova University. A proud New York City Marathon finisher, Mark jokes that he ran for 2.5 times longer than the winner.

Matt has been an investor in and operator of early stage technology companies for more than 20 years. At Commerce Ventures, he leads the firm's retail-tech investing and has led investments in FleetOps, Grabango, Kevel, Mulberry, Pensa Systems, Rally, Simon Data, Syte and Trove. Commerce Ventures invested in Kevel in 2020 and Matt has worked closely with them since.

Neil Callahan is a Founder and Managing Partner at Pilot Growth Equity, based in New York City. He has over 25 years of experience investing in and operating technology businesses, including as a successful bootstrapped software entrepreneur. He has advised leading technology companies on strategy, product, sales and marketing, infrastructure, and operations.Prior to Pilot Growth, Neil co-founded and led Sitaro LTD., which was acquired by CoActive Marketing Group. At CoActive, he served on the executive team as President of the Digital Business Unit and EVP of Business Development, expanding the client portfolio across multiple verticals. Earlier, he was VP of Marketing Technology & Strategy at Young & Rubicam/Wunderman and began his career at Andersen Consulting as a software developer and engagement manager, delivering technology solutions for Fortune 50 companies.