Ancestry.com Management Team
Meet the Ancestry.com management team.
Tim Sullivan
President and Chief Executive Officer
Timothy Sullivan has served as our President and Chief Executive Officer and as a director since September 2005. Prior to joining us, Mr. Sullivan was Chief Operating Officer and then President and CEO of Match.com from January 2001 to September 2004. From May 1999 to January 2001, Mr. Sullivan served as Vice President of E-commerce for Ticketmaster Online-Citysearch, Inc. From June 1991 to May 1999, Mr. Sullivan held multiple positions at The Walt Disney Company, including Vice President and Managing Director of Buena Vista Home Entertainment Asia Pacific from July 1997 to May 1999. Mr. Sullivan holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and was a Morehead Scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Howard Hochhauser
Chief Financial Officer
Howard Hochhauser has served as our Chief Financial Officer since January 2009. From May 2000 to December 2008, Mr. Hochhauser held multiple positions at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc., most recently serving as Chief Financial Officer from March 2006 to December 2008. He held multiple positions at Bear Stearns & Co. Inc. from September 1996 to May 2000, serving most recently as Vice President Equity Research Analyst. Prior to joining Bear Stearns & Co. Inc., he worked at First Boston and he was a Staff Accountant at KPMG Peat Marwick. Mr. Hochhauser is a Certified Public Accountant and holds an M.B.A. from Columbia University and a B.S. from Boston University.
William Stern
General Counsel and Corporate Secretary
William Stern has served as our General Counsel and Corporate Secretary since July 2009. From October 2005 to July 2009, Mr. Stern held multiple positions at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc., most recently serving as the General Counsel and Secretary from September 2008 to July 2009. From October 2002 to September 2005, Mr. Stern was a Principal at Fish & Richardson, PC. Prior to joining Fish & Richardson, PC, he was a Partner at Morrison & Foerster, LLP. Mr. Stern holds an M.B.A. and a J.D. from the University of Chicago and an A.B. from Brown University.
Joshua Hanna
Executive Vice President and General Manager of Ancestry.com
Joshua Hanna has served as our Executive Vice President and Head of Global Marketing since June 2010. Mr. Hanna held multiple positions with us from November 2001, including Senior Vice President and General Manager of International, Vice President of International Business, Director of International Business, Director of Product Management, Senior Product Manager, and Business Manager. Prior to joining us, he held several marketing and business development roles with Netcentives, Inc. and Cyrk, Inc. Mr. Hanna holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.A. from Dartmouth College.
Eric Shoup
Senior Vice President of Product
Eric Shoup has served as our Senior Vice President of Product since March 2010. He joined the Company in August 2008 as Vice President of Product. Prior to joining us, Mr. Shoup was at eBay for over five years, where he largely focused on growing its eBay Stores product and ProStores business unit. In addition, he assembled and led eBay's global mobile product team. Prior to eBay, Mr. Shoup was a Director of Product Management at Commerce One, a leading provider of B2B e-commerce solutions. Previously, he worked at US Interactive designing and managing consumer e-commerce and marketing Web sites for established companies such as Lexus and Wellcome Supermarkets (Hong Kong). Mr. Shoup holds a B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Jonathan Young
Senior Vice President Technology Operations
Jonathan Young has served as our Senior Vice President of Technology Operations since February 2011. Mr Young joined the company in February 2009 as Vice President of Development. From October 2006 through January 2009 he was Vice President of Technology and Vice President of Software, Security, Subscriptions and Services at EarthLink. Prior to EarthLink, Mr Young held a number of positions over 10 years with the Internet arm of Turner Broadcasting, including Vice President of Product Development. He holds B.A. degrees in Astrophysics and Asian Studies from Williams College.
Ken Chahine
Senior Vice President and General Manager, DNA
Ken Chahine has served as Senior Vice President and General Manager for Ancestry DNA, LLC since 2011. Prior to joining us he held several positions, including as Chief Executive Officer of Avigen, a biotechnology company, in the Department of Human Genetics at the University of Utah, and at Parke-Davis Pharmaceuticals (currently Pfizer). Mr. Chahine also teaches a course focused on new venture development, intellectual property, and licensing at the University of Utah’s College of Law. He earned a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Michigan, a J.D. from the University of Utah College of Law, and a B.A. in Chemistry from Florida State University.
Olivier Van Calster
Vice President of International
Olivier Van Calster has served as our Vice President, International Business since July 2010, having joined in 2008 as Managing Director in the United Kingdom. Prior to joining Ancestry, Mr. Van Calster spent four years at eBay, where he was most recently responsible for UK Marketing, PR, Advertising Sales and eBay Ireland. Before eBay, Olivier held several commercial, product and corporate development roles at media group Pearson (Financial Times, The Economist, Penguin Putnam, Prentice Hall). He started his career as a management consultant with Arthur D Little. He holds an MBA from INSEAD, France, an M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and an M.A. in Economics, both from UCL, Belgium.
Debra Chesterton
Vice President of Acquisition
Debra Chesterton has served as our Vice President of Acquisition since April 2011. Prior to serving in this role, she served as our Managing Director of Ancestry.com.au from January 2007 until April 2011. Before joining us, Ms. Chesterton has held several roles for a number of leading brands including Weightwatchers.com, Tower Australia, NRMA, Stamford Hotels & Resorts and AMP Insurance. Ms. Chesterton holds an M.B.A from Charles Sturt University and a B.A. from Randwick TAFE.
Scott Sorensen
Vice President of Development
Scott Sorensen has served as Vice President of Engineering since February 2011. Mr. Sorensen has been at Ancestry.com since June 2002 and has held multiple positions including Vice President of Search and Vice President of Commerce. Prior to joining Ancestry.com, Mr Sorensen was co-founder and Vice President of Engineering and then President at Coresoft Technologies. Mr Sorensen was an engineering manager at WordPerfect / Novell and a software engineer at IBM. He holds a B.S in Computer Science from Brigham Young University.
Jeff Weber
Vice President of People
Jeff Weber has served as our VP of People since July 2002, having joined the organization in August 1999 as the Director of Human Resources. Prior to joining Ancestry.com, Mr. Weber was the Director of HR Outsourcing Operations for The Russell Group, Inc., a Human Resource consulting company. While at the Russell Group, Mr. Weber managed the HR consulting and outsourcing services provided to a wide range of high-tech and manufacturing companies. He also brings several years of in-house Human Resource and Organizational Development experience, having worked for companies such as Shell Oil Company, Amoco Oil, and Novell. Mr. Weber holds an MBA degree with an emphasis in Organizational Behavior from Brigham Young University. He has been involved in local and state organizations, including serving as President of the local SHRM chapter and the co-chair of the Utah Technology Council’s HR Executive P2P Forum.
Rob Singer
Global Vice President of Customer Relationship Management
Rob Singer has served as our Global Vice President of Customer Relationship Management since November of 2010. Prior to joining Ancestry.com, Mr. Singer was the Senior Vice President of Customer Relationship Management at Bank of the West from February 2009 to November 2010. From July 2005 to February 2009, Mr. Singer was the head of Customer Intelligence and Relationship Marketing at StubHub, an eBay Company. Prior to joining StubHub, he held senior-level database marketing and business intelligence positions at Yates Advertising, YellowBrick Solutions, Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., and KnowledgeBase Marketing. Mr. Singer has a B.S. in Mathematics with a minor in Statistics from James Madison University.