Executive Management

Philip Rosedale | Founder and Chairman of the Board
Mark Kingdon | CEO
Frank Ambrose | Senior VP Global Technology
Tom Hale | Chief Product Officer
Robin Harper | VP Marketing & Community Development
Joe Miller | VP Platform & Technology Development
Marty Roberts | General Counsel
Cyn Skyberg | VP Customer Relations
Ginsu Yoon | VP Business Affairs
John Zdanowski | Chief Financial Officer

Board of Directors

Mitch Kapor | Kapor Enterprises, Inc.
Jed Smith | Managing Partner, Catamount Ventures
Bill Gurley | Partner, Benchmark Capital
James Currier | Founder and President, Tickle, Inc.
Dana L. Evan | Strategic Finance and Operations Executive

Executive Management

Philip Rosedale founded San Francisco-based Linden Lab in 1999, and has led the creation of the virtual world of Second Life from initial concept to a market-leading virtual world, with a robust economy and a global population. As a pioneer in the virtual world industry, Rosedale is actively involved in the strategy, development and design of Linden Lab’s products, including the world of Second Life and the Second Life Grid platform. Rosedale is known for his entrepreneurial approach to new technologies, starting a network software company when he was 17. In 1995 he created an innovative internet video conferencing product, which was later acquired by RealNetworks, where he went on to become Vice President and CTO. In 1999, the advent of consumer broadband and better PC 3D graphics inspired Rosedale to leave RealNetworks and found Linden Lab, pursuing his lifelong dream of creating an internet scale virtual world. Rosedale holds a BS degree in Physics from the University of California at San Diego.


Mark Kingdon joined Linden Lab in May 2008 as Chief Executive Officer. Mark leads the day-to-day management and operations of the company, working closely alongside Linden Lab founder, former CEO and current Chairman Philip Rosedale. Prior to joining Linden Lab, Mark served as Chief Executive Officer of Organic Inc. a leading digital communications agency, building its reputation as a groundbreaking, innovative provider of user-centered design. While at Organic, Mark built the company's social media and social computing services and launched the company's emerging platforms practice. Prior to Organic, Kingdon worked with idealab!, providing strategic guidance and operational support to emerging companies. Before that, Mark was a partner with the consulting division of PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP (PwC), where he held a variety of senior roles throughout his twelve-year tenure. He received an MBA from the Wharton School of Business and a BA in Economics from UCLA.


Frank Ambrose joined Linden Lab in August 2008 as the Senior Vice President of Global Technology. In this role, Frank oversees the development of new processes, systems and tools to maximize the scalability of Second Life's network architecture. Prior to joining Linden Lab, Frank held several senior management positions at AOL, including serving as the Senior Vice President of Technology Infrastructure and Network Services. During his tenure at AOL, Frank lowered worldwide operating expenses by over $600 million and helped grow the user base to more than 30 million customers worldwide, with concurrent usage of almost 3 million. Prior to AOL, Frank spent 9 years with MCI Communications, holding various leadership positions within its International and Network Services divisions. Most notably, Frank was part of the team that integrated MCI's services with British Telecom's, a partnership that formed one of the first major international telecom joint ventures, Concert Communications.

Frank holds a B.S. in Finance from Siena College and is a decorated U.S. Navy veteran, having served as a Surface Warfare Officer in both engineering and operations capacities.


Tom Hale joined Linden Lab in September 2008 as Chief Product Officer. Tom drives the product strategy for Linden Lab’s diverse offerings, reporting directly to Linden Lab’s CEO, Mark Kingdon. Hale brings over 15 years of experience in product development, marketing and management to Linden Lab having most recently served as an Entrepreneur-In-Residence (EIR) at Redpoint Ventures. Prior to Redpoint, Tom served as Vice President and General Manager for Adobe Systems’ Knowledge Worker Business Unit where he drove strategy for the Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Connect and Flash Media Server product lines. Prior to joining Adobe, Tom served a variety of senior roles at Macromedia, where he helped establish Flash as a web development standard and oversaw a learning and training business unit that generated over $100 million annually. Prior to his tenure at Macromedia, Tom was the director of sales and marketing at Fauve Software, an imaging software company. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University.


In her initial years at Linden Lab, Robin led the emergence of the Second Life^® brand, including naming, positioning and the other marketing efforts supporting introduction of this life-changing technology. In the past few years, she shifted focus to the interface between the  Second Life Residents and Linden Lab, facilitating communication at all levels and establishing policies, operations and support mechanisms to address issues ranging from social mores to technical support; all with the aim of ensuring inspired content creation is not compromised by the inevitable hurdles encountered when breaking new ground.  In the last year, Robin has resumed leadership of Marketing while continuing to implement new programs geared to ensuring the booming, worldwide Second Life population's voice is heard and life is good, or at least gets better and better.

Prior to joining Linden Lab in 2002, Harper was the Vice President of Marketing at Maxis, a division of Electronic Arts (EA). At Maxis she played a prominent role in their emergence as the leader in PC simulation games and was a core member of the senior executive team that guided the company through their IPO and subsequent sale to Electronic Arts. Also while at Maxis, she established SimCity as one of the most recognized brand names in entertainment software, and was named one of the marketing 100 by Advertising Age/Newsweek. In addition to Maxis and Linden Lab, Harper has held senior marketing positions at Ninth House Network (corporate learning and online education), at Mondo Media (online entertainment) and in advertising, leading media and later account management services for clients ranging from Clorox to Nintendo. She holds an MBA in marketing from the University of Chicago.

Joining the company in April 2006, Joe Miller is responsible for extending the Second Life platform to reliably support very large member communities. He has spent nearly 30 years squarely at the intersection of engaging consumer experiences and interactive technologies, including senior executive positions at Atari, Koala Technologies, Epyx, Convergent, and Sega of America. He was a founder and CEO of the Knowledge Universe Interactive Studio, and president of MindQ Publishing, two companies focused on lifelong learning services and applications. Prior to joining Linden Lab, Miller's product design company, Perilux Group, was engaged to develop several award winning products now offered by LeapFrog, Bright Things, Apple, and Fitniks. His diverse career started at Battelle Memorial Institute, where he created a portion of the developer training curriculum for the PLATO educational network. He also was a co-founder and president of CyberVision, Inc., the developer and manufacturer of the CyberVision home computer, sold nationally by Montgomery Ward a long, long time ago...


As General Counsel, Marty is responsible for managing the legal department and advising the company's board and management on legal issues and corporate governance matters. Before joining Linden Lab in July 2007, Marty was Deputy General Counsel of eBay Inc., where he managed regulatory affairs and legal operations. Previously, he was General Counsel of Shopping.com, where he helped lead the company through its IPO and subsequent acquisition by eBay, and of LookSmart, where he handled the company's IPO and many corporate transactions. Earlier in his career, Marty was Senior Counsel for the PMI Group and for Fair Isaac Corporation. Marty received his law degree from the University of Alabama School of Law and a BA in English from the University of Virginia.


Cyn Skyberg guides the Second Life support teams: billing, risk management, high end, technical, and inworld support, as well as all external sales and their management. Cyn has worked in the customer relations field for 15 years, and has been with Linden Lab since 2005. Prior to working with the customer relations team at Linden Lab, she held a directorship at the San Jose Museum of Art and a senior management role at the Portland Art Museum. Her varied background includes owning a coffeehouse in Colorado, working as a telephone cable contractor across the United States, sorting osteopathic remains in a natural history museum, and managing a large travel book and map business. Cyn has a BA with honors from the University of California, Santa Barbara in Cultural Anthropology. Her senior thesis was, amusingly, "Complexities of Human Behavior in the Prehistoric Age".


Gene Yoon handles business and corporate development for Linden Lab. As one of the company's early business executives, he has provided leadership in a variety of areas during the company's growth, including international market development, external developer programs, legal, human resources and finance. Prior to Linden Lab, he was general counsel and corporate secretary at Airespace, a wireless LAN equipment company, where he negotiated key strategic relationships, including the sale of the company to Cisco Systems. Before joining Airespace, Gene was a principal at KTB Ventures, leading the firm's investments in wireless communications, networking equipment and semiconductors. He worked with the Airespace founders prior to joining KTB, while consulting with portfolio companies of Storm Ventures. He practiced law at Venture Law Group, advising many technology startups and venture capital firms, and at Kirkland & Ellis in New York, where his practice focused on leveraged buyouts and other complex corporate transactions. Gene received an A.B. degree from Princeton University and a J.D. from New York University School of Law.


John oversees all the financial and accounting activities of Linden Lab including management of the rapidly growing Second Life economy. John has extensive experience building and growing profitable internet companies. Prior to Linden Lab John was CFO at HouseValues where he led finance and accounting as the company profitably quadrupled to over $100 million in revenue in 3 years. John also arranged the company's first institutional financing round of $15 million and its $94 million IPO in 2004. Prior to joining HouseValues, John co-founded Affinity Internet, Inc. raising more than $60 million to build a highly profitable Web hosting and services company serving more than 200,000 small and medium sized business customers. John has worked as an investment banker and a management consultant and began his career as an engineer in GE's highly acclaimed management training programs.

John holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, an MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Syracuse University, and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Clarkson University.

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Board of Directors

In addition to Philip Rosedale, Linden Lab's Board of Directors includes:

Mitch Kapor is the founder of Kapor Enterprises, Inc. He has been a leading figure in the computer industry for 20 years. He was the founder and CEO of Lotus Development Corporation and the designer of Lotus 1-2-3, which sparked the desktop revolution in business computing. Mitch has been at the forefront of the information technology revolution for a generation as an entrepreneur, investor, social activist, and philanthropist. For the past 15-plus years, Mitch has been an investor and advisor to high-technology start-up companies including founding investments in UUNET Technology and Real Networks. He is currently a director of Linden Lab and Reactivity, Inc. From 1999 to 2001, Kapor served as a partner with Accel Partners, a leading venture capital firm based in Palo Alto, California. He has an undergraduate degree from Yale in linguistics and psychology and is an alumnus (but not graduate) of MIT's Sloan School of Management. He held an Adjunct Professorship at MIT's Media Lab from 1994-1996. His writing has appeared in Scientific American, Wired, Forbes, the Harvard Business Review and the New York Times.

Jed is the Managing Partner of Catamount Ventures. Catamount was founded to focus on the underserved seed/early stage venture investment market. Catamount is investing out of its second fund and has approximately $45M under management. Prior to Catamount, in 1997 Jed was the founder of drugstore.com (NASDAQ: DSCM), and served on its board of directors with John Doerr, Brook Byers, Peter Neupert, Howard Schultz and Jeff Bezos. Prior to drugstore.com, Jed co-founded and spent four years at Cybersmith, a retail store chain that showcased the latest advances in information technology and multimedia software. Before that, Jed was Vice President of Sales at Tribe Computer Works (a networking hardware and software company that was successfully sold). Jed began his career in technology working for Tom Siebel at Oracle Corporation, ultimately serving as District Manager for Eastern Region VARs. He is a recipient of the Albert Einstein High Technology Award. Jed holds a BA from Middlebury College and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Bill Gurley joined Benchmark Capital in 1999 after spending two years as a partner with Hummer Winblad Venture Partners. Before entering the venture capital business, Bill spent four years on Wall Street as a top-ranked research analyst, including three years at CS First Boston focusing on the personal computer hardware and software business. His research coverage included such companies as Dell, Compaq, and Microsoft, and he was the lead analyst on the Amazon IPO. In both 1995 and 1996, Bill was a member of the Institutional Investor All-American Research Team. Prior to his investment career, Bill was a design engineer at Compaq Computer, where he worked on products such as the 486/50 and Compaq's initial multi-processor server. Before Compaq, he served in the technical marketing group of Advanced Micro Devices' embedded processor division. Bill is the author of the Above the Crowd newsletter which focuses on the evolution and economics of high technology businesses. James Currier is the Founder and President of Tickle, Inc. James graduated from Princeton in 1990. He worked for GTE New Ventures in Hollywood until 1992, funding broadband service startups in the entertainment industry. He then worked at STAR TV in Hong Kong. Beginning in 1994, he was an associate at Battery Ventures funding early stage software and communications companies. He received his MBA from Harvard in 1999, graduating with distinction. Dana Evan brings a unique combination of strategic and executional strengths to more than 20 years of leadership experience in global finance and operations management. Most recently, Ms. Evan served for 12 years as CFO of VeriSign, Inc., where she was a founding executive and a significant contributor to the company's growth and profitability. She led VeriSign's worldwide operations related to finance and accounting, real estate and property management, legal matters and investor relations, as the company grew from a small venture-backed start-up in 1995 to a global corporation of nearly 5,000 employees. Ms. Evan was a key member of the executive management team, helping to set business strategy and manage company operations as revenue reached nearly $2 billion dollars, driving profitability and cash flow of nearly a half billion dollars per year. During her tenure, Ms Evan led the company's institutional financing rounds, including its successful IPO in 1998 and follow-on financing initiatives. She also was instrumental in driving, executing and integrating approximately 60 merger and acquisition transactions. As the company's chief financial spokesperson, she has been featured in numerous business and financial press, including the Wall Street Journal, Fortune and Financial Times.

Before joining VeriSign, Ms. Evan provided consulting services in the capacity of CFO, vice president of finance, and other executive roles for both public and private companies. Prior to that, Ms. Evan spent six years in various positions at KPMG LLP. Ms. Evan is currently a director of Omniture, Inc. (OMTR) and Linden Lab/Second Life and an advisory board member of VinTrust. For the past two years she has served on the board of MySQL, a venture-backed startup which was recently acquired by Sun Microsystems for $1 billion dollars in February 2008. Ms. Evan has also recently undertaken angel venture investing activities and advisory services for companies and entities in the technology and media arenas.

Ms. Evan is a Certified Public Accountant and holds a B.S. in Commerce with a concentration in Accounting and Finance from Santa Clara University. She is actively involved with several charitable organizations, including the Boys and Girls Club of America, The Health Trust, and the University of Santa Clara Business School. She resides with her husband and two sons in Saratoga, California.

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