Niel Robertson, Founder and CEO
Niel Robertson came to Colorado from Boston in 1998 to find out more about “this state he was always flying over”. To his surprise, he liked it and started building companies. Along the way he built two software companies, opened (and closed) a couple of restaurants, and learned how to love Fleece and Flip Flops. He spends at least 10% of his time going to Spruce Confections for yet another large no-room Americano.
Ben Wright, VP Service Delivery & Marketplace
Ben Wright oversees Client Services, Account Management and Optimizer Management responsibilities at Trada. Ben told us he is an experienced Search Sales and Account Management Leader. He claimed to be a 10 year Search veteran of GoTo, Overture and Yahoo! where he allegedly held multiple leadership positions in the Account Management and Agency/Channel Sales teams. At the time of leaving Yahoo! Wright was a Sr. Director leading the Search Creative Development team, responsible for initial Search campaign development, ongoing keyword coverage and performance optimization activities for all of Yahoo!’s premium North America Region Direct Advertisers and Agencies… or so he claims. Eventually reached for comment, Niel Robertson, CEO, said “Ben told us he is both wise and handsome. And while we are frankly a little unsure as to whether he really knows anything about Search, he has a charming accent that we suspect may be fake, but it’s a bit of a tough hiring market out there so, you know… whatever.”
Matt Harada, VP of Finance
Matt joined Trada to reign in the frivolous spending on used semi-functional furniture and PBRs. While failing miserably in this endeavor, he has, at least, succeeded in dramatically increasing the finance group’s production of charts and spreadsheets. He also holds the honor of having Trada’s only rhyming email address. Matt joined Trada from ServiceMagic where he built and led the financial planning and analysis department. Matt enjoys spending time with his wife and four kids who are all his favorite.
Alex Herndon, Inside Sales Representative
Alex grew up in Denver before attending Baylor University where he double majored in Finance and Economics. While studying in Texas, Alex met his wife, Catherine, and convinced her to move back with him to Colorado. Though he originally desired to work in investment banking, he quickly realized that the shorts & flip flops style of start-ups suited him much better. On the weekends, Alex likes to ski, home brew, play piano and is currently trying to visit every microbrewery/brewpub in the state.
Andrew Steketee, Optimizer Quality Manager
Andrew oversees quality management for Trada’s search marketplace, and has worked in the local online media vertical for the past six years engaged in search engine marketing and optimization. He also is a writer and the current managing editor for niche sporting magazine The Flyfish Journal. Spare time is relegated to lacrosse coaching, chasing fresh and saltwater fish with flies, Michigan Wolverine football games, The Flaming Lips, parenting a 6th grader, and the South Park Saloon in Alma, CO.
Anna Sawyer, Social Media and Marketing Manager, Content Queen and Auteur
Anna comes to Trada from the worlds of selling books, writing and globetrotting. She enjoys snacks and triathlons, and she rides her bicycle in a dress and heels – every day. For a long time she was staunchly opposed to the Oxford comma, but now, every once in a while, under cover of darkness, Anna and the Oxford comma have a secret tryst. She’s passionate about grammar and she is the one responsible for all those scarf videos on the Trada website. What’s next? Exploring her passion and talent for spoken-word dubstep (patent pending) and working on the next Great American Marketing eBook.
Ben Good, Operations Engineer
Ben is our brilliant operations engineer who lives for the moments when people shout out, “Ben, my Internet isn’t turning on.” When not ignoring insipid tech questions, Ben is actually on the front lines keeping Trada running smoothly with his Ninja-like prowess as an engineer. Ben is looking forward to sneaking away from work to attend Rockies Baseball Fantasy Camp.
Blake Redson, Your Marketplace Link
For weeks, the talking heads of the sports world could only speculate what team the young man from Denver would finally call home. And so it was on that fateful day, Blake Redson uttered the words that would soon become infamous, “In this fall — this is very tough — in this fall I’m going to take my talents to Downtown Boulder and join Trada.” The world erupted in outrage as jerseys were set ablaze in the streets. Despite the overwhelming hometown criticism, this move proved to be quite fruitful. Blake loves working at such an innovative and exciting start-up with the world’s most excellent people. In the winter he rides and in the summer he goes fishing with flies.
Chris Burton, Protocol Warlord
Born in the punk rock–ravaged suburbs of New Jersey. Raised by a pack of wild dogs. Escaped to Colorado in 1988 and slowly became domesticated over the next few years, despite having attended the University of Colorado. Has worked with mastermind Niel Robertson in his last 3 Colorado startups. Likes backpacking in the Colorado Rockies and practicing martial arts moves on wife Ruth.
Courtney Pollock, Magical Marketplace Maven
Courtney grew up wondering why anyone would voluntarily vacation in Colorado instead of somewhere more tropical. Staying true to this mentality, she ran away to Southern California after graduating high school to pursue a tan and a Marketing Degree at San Diego State University. After several blissful years of sunshine and sand, the universe intervened and threw her back into the snowy (albeit beautiful) city of Boulder, where she landed a job at Trada using various forms of bribery. Courtney is an accomplished hang-gliding ninja warrior who enjoys yoga, hazelnut lattes, and dodging invitations to participate in outdoor winter activities.
Dan Tisser, Account Manager
Dan has been working with all kinds of businesses in the realm of search marketing. From the smallest garage based business to major players in moving & storage, newspapers and credit card processing. His time away from Trada is spent on his mountain bike, recovering from knee surgery and making fun of NASCAR.
Dave Mitchell, Utility Infielder
Dave is still wondering how he got into a profession that requires sitting at a desk when nearly all of his interests are outdoors. He enjoys hiking, tolerates trail running, and loves watching his kids play outside. Other interests include his collection of fine porcelain dolls and moonlighting as a professional bull rider.
David “Fergie” Ferguson, Business Development Rep
Fergie is originally from Jamaica. He moved to Colorado about 11 years ago from New Jersey after being wooed by a company formerly known as Qwest with promises of great riches and fame. Anyways needless to say that didn’t happen. If you are making any assumptions based on the fact that he is Jamaican, sorry but he is a bit of a disappointment there. A jack of all trades master of none he has done a bunch of things for a bunch of companies. He’s an avid golfer, poker and soccer player he is just 1 laid back dude with a great sense of humor.
Eric “E3″ Serota, Chief
Eric was born in Albuquerque but was transplanted to the southeastern suburbs of Denver when he was 3 years old. Eric grew up enjoying the finer things in life, recess, lunch and nap time. Growing up he never considered being anything other than a professional baseball player, however as he approached graduating from a small private high school he realized that his chances at the bigs were slim at best. So he had to figure out how to use his brain in order to make a living, which took him his entire college career. He decided to pursue a Communications major at the University of Colorado Boulder of which he said, “In Communications I learned more about life than any particular skill or trade, which I feel will help me in a number of areas in life, not just business,” and he never looked back. Prior to working at Trada, Eric helped a number of organizations increase new business through his ability in sales, but has never been more excited to be a part of something as special as what is going on here at Trada. In his free time Eric enjoy playing a lot of softball, he skis in the winter, and loves to SCUBA dive whenever he is able to travel to an exotic destination like the Galapagos, Truuk lagoon, Indonedia, and Thailand.
Ivo Karadjov, Product Manager
Ivo stumbled on Colorado in 1998 on his way from Bulgaria to California. After a few seasons of ski bumming Ivo decided to join the corporate workforce in 2000. Since then Ivo has held numerous positions in Boulder based software development shops, from Sales Engineer to Director of Professional Services to Director of Product Management and now a lucky guy working for Trada since May, 2010 as a Product Manager. Ivo is skier since almost birth and loves Colorado immensely. First track on the mountain makes him extremely giddy.
Jake Burns, IT Manager
Raised by wolves in Sawpit, Colorado. If found outside the office, please feed and return him to A-Basin.
Joshua Clauss, Director of Marketplace Support Services
After an accounting degree at CU-Boulder, running away to Europe, coming back to the US for a fulfilling year of waiting tables, and running away to Europe again for graduate study on socioeconomic business in Scotland, the obvious place for Josh to end up was in web advertising start-ups. With 2 years managing marketing and accounts for two different companies, Josh landed at Trada to help users more fully understand the marketplace and to yell “FORWARD IT TO ZENDESK!!!” unsolicited at defenseless coworkers. Top Foursquare check-in spots: Coors Field, the Avery Brewing Tap Room, the Great Divide Brewing Tap Room, the Denver Art Museum, Pho 95, US Thai Cafe, and Palma Cigars.
Justin Calvert, Channel Partner Business Development Manager
Justin Calvert comes to us from the Pacific Northwest. At first he was a little leery of living in landlocked Colorado. However, he soon discovered that the wild beauty and the great people of Colorado have made him quite content with his change in geographical location. While he loves the fact that there are so many different breeds of Razor Scooters to ride at Trada, he is even more thrilled by being among the amazing group of people that constitute this sexy-smart start-up. When he is not completely engrossed with his work, he can be found designing Facebook pages, blogging, tinkering with social media, keeping up with the latest technology and teaching himself web and graphic design. He also loves traveling, cooking, snowboarding, alliteration, and any and all of the other offered outdoor activities of Colorado.
Kevin Weiss, Marketplace Aficionado
I’m originally from Chicago, but graduated high school in Boulder. I went to school at Boston University and studied many things, but mostly political science. I live in Denver now with my lovely girlfriend. When I was growing up I wanted to be an inventor, a mayor, and a professional volleyball player. I have many hobbies; volleyball and newest of all running – I ran the Paris marathon in April 2011, which was the last place I traveled to. If I had 3 wishes, they’d be: 1. World Peace; 2. Instant Teleportation; 3. Infinite number of wishes.
Matt Hessler, Director of Marketplace Operations
Matt Hessler started working in Search Marketing way back in 2002 when the industry was in its infancy. Having worked on campaigns ranging from small local advertisers to million dollar a month corporate campaigns over the last 8 years. Matt’s passion for search marketing had often led to him being ridiculed by his peers for being a “search nerd” but ultimately it led him a perfect home at Trada. When he grows weary of the minutia of PPC search you can find him out riding his motorcycle on the race track or crawling around under the ‘66 Chevy El Camino he is restoring.
Michael Lavrisha, Engineer
Michael is a software engineer by day. By night, however, he enjoys playing his banjo, reading about the wisdom of crowds, going on runs barefoot on the local golf course and referring to himself in the third person. He is also a renowned foreign film actor, starring in such films as Frate Lione (this is actually true). He graduated from the esteemed Gonzaga University with a Computer Science degree. Oh, and also he enjoys making terrible jokes and puns… some say that they are PUNishing.
Sam Weber, Marketplace Support Guru
Growing up with a dad in the Air Force, Sam traveled the world and eventually found the ultimate meaning of life – the number 42 – which surprisingly had nothing to do with Chuck Norris. Shortly after this revelation, he decided to spend some time in both Korea (the nice one) and Japan to expand his cultural horizons. It was there that he perfected the art of Ninjutsu. Newfound abilities in hand, he took to earning his degree in Anthropological Sciences from THE Ohio State University. Several years and one diploma later, Sam ventured westward and eventually landed in Boulder where he is currently using his powers to aid Trada in their plans for world domination. When he’s not skiing, cooking, hiking or generally enjoying the outdoors, Sam can usually be found roaming the streets of Boulder searching for a decent Philly Cheesesteak.
Tim Warton, Inside Sales
Tim loves romantic comedies, mystery novels, traveling and long walks on the beach. You can also find him singing Peter Cetera hits under his breath. Besides his amazingly storied background and ridiculously good looking family, Tim brings an unbridled passion for seeing his clients succeed.
Tom Guzik, Inventor of Science Contraptions That Work
Tom grew up in the land of the Mohicans in the Mohawk Valley of Upstate New York. He then went into the Air Force to do his duty underground working in our country’s Missile Silos. After college, he started his software/hardware career in factory automation in the Solar industry, which years later is now a hot industry. From there, he went into teleconferencing, web conferencing, video asset management, presence and messaging, ERP testing and change management. Seven start-ups later, he is at Trada helping build a revolutionary way to manage internet advertising.
Trey Hicks, Software Taoist
Trey is passionate about exploring the outdoors with his wife and son, playing with gadgets, and solving technology puzzles. He brings a wide range of experience in everything from graphics engines to user interfaces to highly performant server architectures pulling the best ideas from many diverse technology stacks. After a year and a half of begging, Trada finally let him in the door.
Jordan Benjamin, Conversion Ambassador/Marketplace Consultant
Jordan is a recent graduate of the University of Redlands in Southern California where he studied Business Admin & Management. Although he loved Cali, he is a Colorado native and couldn’t stay away from the incredible atmosphere of Boulder. All of the startups and friendly mentors around helped him lay a solid foundation to hit the ground running getting into the business world. When the position at Trada opened up he was in the door the next day. When not working he can probably be found playing/watching sports, hiking, taking photographs, playing with puppies, snowboarding, doing yoga or trying something new. Some day, he will start a company that help makes the world a better place.
Heather Zukin, Business Development Supervisor
Heather, Trada’s snow cone aficionado, is originally from New York and has lived in out west for almost 10 years. She graduated from CU Boulder in 2007, skied in Park City, UT for a year, worked as a non-profit child-care worker in Seattle for a year and finally returned to CO where she was a Psychology doctoral student at DU in Denver. Her expertise in the human mind helps her understand the needs of the perfect Trada customer. When she is not working with our first class sales team to expand our business, you will most likely find her playing kickball or broomball with her friends, skiing at Vail or taking a weekend excursion to one of Colorado’s many beautiful sites.
Todd Beauford, Advertiser Support Services/Marketplace Super Hero
I was born in Kansas at the age of 2. My favorite Star Trek movie is the fourth one. Good friends, good food and good fun…these are three things I love. I’m lactose intolerant so I eat my cereal with a fork. My favorite Civil War colony is Percy Wyndham. I know a lot about cars, (I can look at any car’s headlight and tell you exactly which way it’s coming from), My great-great-grandpa was the first man to use the expression”lefty loosey, righty tighty”. I do not think REO Speedwagon is the greatest band of all time, but it’s close. I’m a huge fan of I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter because I like to feel incredulous while buttering my toast. I enjoy eating rice, especially when I want to eat a thousand of the same thing.
I wear flip flops when I’m pretty sure I won’t be chased that day. I can whistle with my fingers, especially if I have a whistle. I like Kit-Kats, unless I’m with four or more people. The shirt I’m wearing is dry clean only, (which means it’s dirty). I once battled an addiction to chill pills. I like to play blackjack, (I’m not addicted to gambling, I’m addicted to sitting in a semi-circle). I wear a necklace, because I want to know when I’m upside down. AND I’m against picketing, but don’t know how to show it.
Nate Etter, Marketplace Consultant
Nate is an East Coast transplant hailing from the uneventful state of Pennsylvania. After graduating from Penn State University with degrees in political science and public relations, he vetoed politics to move to Boulder and work at an ad agency running social media campaigns for clients including Travel Channel and Crock-Pot. After the excitement of pretending to be a middle-aged slow-cooking mom wore off, he decided to try his luck in sales. In his free time he enjoys basketball, tennis, rock climbing, and drums in a local funk band.
Eoin Coffey, Software Engineer
And my axe!
Vijay Velagapudi, Business Intelligence Analyst
Vijay is exceptionally terrible at describing himself. However, through much pain and effort, he has compiled a list of adjectives that accurately describe him:
Tall
Dark
Handsome
Kelly Ericson, Test Engineer
Kelly has been testing software since applications were installed from 5 1/4″ floppy disks. He moved to Colorado during the internet boom and has enjoyed working at various startup companies ever since. Kelly has a beautiful wife and 6 lovely children and has a taste for all things zany, from “The Marriage of Figaro” to “Duck Soup”.
Keith Oster, Business Development Executive
Keith comes to Trada from the San Francisco bay area by way of Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. After initially coming to Boulder to party, he proceeded to bang down the Sales Department door until someone agreed to interview the ambitious young man wearing cut off shorts. He came back the next day, fully clothed, and has been talking paid search ever since. Keith can pinpoint the make of any rare car from the corner of his eye, loves a great steam at the gym, and cries at any movie where animals die, Bambi included.
Ashley Colburn, Office Manager and Codespace Events Planner
Born in Wyoming, but found her way to Colorado before she hit preschool. There she traded in her toddler carhart marshmallow jump suit for acid washed jeans and a fanny pack. Ashley didn’t like the social stigma placed on ‘the new kid’ and in turn the direct motivation to show the other kids in the cauldesac just how rad she was, or so she thought.
Accustomed to skating by with her good looks and charming personality she managed to chalk up a degree in History with a minor in Education at Metro State in Denver. She thought her path in life was to become the world’s best school teacher,. but having a mouth like a sailor strongly weighed against her .She figured her light hearted demeanor would land her a permanent seat in the principal’s office, thus revoking any possibility for becoming a nominee for best teacher of the year award.
Shortly after, she started exploring other avenues of her life and managed to land a job at Trada. Do’er of all things she has worked hard in getting Trada’s office into tip top shape. As Office Manager she gets to do many cool things such as planning the famous Palio di Trada and now even knows how to install hard wood floors. I wonder what she will be capable of doing by the end of 2012.
Sara Fox, Marketing Manager, Lead Nurturing
Hailing from the City of Angels, Sara spent the greater part of her youth sitting in traffic. She first set foot in Boulder at the tender age of 17 and has had a passionate involvement with Colorado ever since. Most easily identified by her signature giggle, Sara can generally be found at work, in Vegas, and/or engaging in antics with her dog and sidekick, Bryce.
Keith Jensen, Marketing and Sales Operations
Keith is a Colorado native and Spring 2012 CU Marketing grad. After realizing that snowboarding by day and bartending by night wasn’t going to give him the income he desired, he decided to focus on his college degree and a change of career path. Somehow, he managed to charm his way into the sales and marketing operations internship at Trada, where he spends his days trying to finagle his way into a full-time position after graduation. He loves a nice beer, a night out on the town with good friends, and capping it off sleeping where ever he falls down.
Marlo Schneider, Business Development Representative
Marlo is the foremost expert on dumplings and dumpling related foods in north central Colorado. She honed her skills while growing up in the cultural melting pot of Long Island, NY. Her pursuit for the perfect dough wrapped confection lead her to major in International Affairs at CU Boulder and further explored her passion by learning Mandarin and studying in China. If you ask her how to do something, she will likely respond ‘Google it’ and has a thing for emoticons 
. In her spare time… Marlo enjoys wine, kale smoothies, and fashion.
Severan Johnson, Marketplace Consultant
Severan grew up a desert rat in Phoenix Arizona before moving to good ol’ Nashville Tennessee where he did NOT listen to country music. After spending two years living and working in Central Africa working in international development and investment he decided to start a business in sunny Boulder Colorado which subsequently failed miserably. Next step: Trada! Severan is passionate about helping advertisers succeed in the digital universe and has officially drunk the Trada Koolaid. If he’s not at work you can find him at the gym or wandering the streets looking for trouble.
