Meet the Media Predict Team

Robert Lane, CEO

Mr. Lane is currently serving as CEO of Media Predict, Inc. Before joining Media Predict, Bob was CFO at IAG Research, which was acquired by The Nielsen Company in 2008 as well as a Director of Telephia, Inc., which was also acquired by Nielsen. Prior to joining IAG, Bob was the CFO at Telephia, and before that spent eight years in senior executive positions at Nielsen Media Research, which was taken public in 1998 and then acquired by VNU in 1999. After moving to New York City in late 1980's, Bob was an executive in the Dun & Bradstreet Corporation's strategy and planning department. He is a graduate of the Bishop's University in Lennoxville, Quebec, and received his MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Bev Carter, CMO

Bev is Chief Marketing Officer of Media Predict Inc., responsible for new business development, strategic partnerships, and client support. Prior to Media Predict, Bev was Senior Executive Advisor at the Brookside Group, a private equity firm based in Stamford, CT. As a marketing consultant to Brookside, Bev served as Director of Marketing at Ampex Data Systems Corporation, a Brookside portfolio company, which was acquired by Delta Information Systems in 2014. Before joining Brookside in 2012, Bev was Executive Vice President at The Nielsen Company, following his role as Senior Vice President at IAG Research, which Nielsen acquired in 2008. In addition to his experience in television media research and aerospace/defense, Bev has held a variety of product management and marketing positions in the Internet, publishing, and industrial manufacturing sectors. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia and received his MBA from the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill.

John N. Irwin III, Chairman of Board of Directors

John Irwin is a Managing Director of The Brookside Group. He co-founded The Brookside Group in 1977 and remains its lead investment officer. John and his partners were pioneers in the field of leveraged buyouts starting in the late 1970s, focusing initially on the acquisition of a select number of public company divestitures - and over time expanding the firm’s activities to include various types of leveraged buyouts. John has been active in developing strategic plans, driving operational improvements, and managing numerous private and public financings for portfolio companies. He has structured numerous international corporate joint investments and has managed portfolio companies with significant global operations. John and his team also led one of the early privatizations in Eastern Europe and subsequently took the firm public in the Czech Republic. He also initiated The Brookside Group’s expansion into other asset classes including public markets, real estate, and mezzanine. He was an early investor in hedge funds and co-founded Brookside Select Managers Funds. As the lead investor and an advisor, John also helped found several successful third-party private equity firms and real estate investment firms. John graduated from Princeton University and attended L'Institut d'Etude Politique Paris. He is active in the non-profit sector, serving as President of the Achelis and Bodman Foundations, President of the Fresh Air Fund, and the Chair of the Committee on Trustees of the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Kumar Mahadeva, Director

Kumar Mahadeva was Founder, Chairman and CEO of Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation, a leading global outsourcing provider. During his decade-long career with Cognizant he was instrumental in creating in excess of $5 billion in shareholder value and generating total shareholder return in excess of 2,700% between initial public offering in 1998 and December 2003. Prior to founding Cognizant Kumar was Corporate Vice President and Chief Executive for India and China at D&B, (formerly Dun & Bradstreet) for five years. Before D&B, he served as Corporate Director for Strategy and Corporate Development at AT&T. Prior to joining AT&T Kumar was an Associate Principal at McKinsey & Company working in that firm's New, York, London, and Amsterdam offices. Kumar holds an MSc in Electrical Engineering from Cambridge University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Scott Sandell, Adviser

Scott is a General Partner and head of NEA’s Technology investing practice. Since joining the firm in 1996, he has personally led investments in industry-transforming companies like Bloom Energy, Data Domain, Fusion-io, Salesforce.com, Tableau Software, WebEx, and Workday. Scott has been named to the Forbes Midas List several times, with 16 technology companies in his portfolio having successfully completed public offerings or mergers. In addition to his focus on information technology and alternative energy investments, Scott leads NEA’s investing activities in China. Scott is currently a lead director of two public companies, Spreadtrum (NASDAQ: SPRD) and Fusion-io (NYSE: FIO), and serves on the board of a third public company Workday (NYSE: WDAY). He is also a director of a number of private companies including Bloom Energy, BloomReach, CloudFlare, Coursera, and Tableau Software. Other previous investments include 3ware (acquired by Applied Micro Circuits Corp.), Neoteris (acquired by Juniper Networks), NetIQ (NASDAQ: NTIQ), and Playdom (acquired by Disney). Prior to joining NEA, Scott was a Product Manager at Microsoft, where he worked on Windows 95. Before joining Microsoft, Scott was the first salesperson at C-ATS Software and later founded and ran the company’s European subsidiary. He began his career at the Boston Consulting Group. Scott holds an MBA from Stanford and an AB in Engineering Sciences from Dartmouth College. He serves on the Board of Directors of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA).

David Harkness, Adviser

In his 34-year career with Nielsen Media Research, David Harkness led the development of essentially all new major areas of business. He founded and managed Nielsen’s NHI service, which provides television audience measurement of cable, pay cable, and other home-video television sources and became Nielsen's most profitable service. He also developed and managed NSS, Nielsen's service for producers and syndicators of television programs. He led the development of and managed Nielsen services for the Internet and mobile communication industries and was one of the participants in the W3C consortium that helped establish web standards. His strategy role also involved managing media measurement methods for television, Internet, advertising, and mobile. He holds an MBA from the University of Connecticut, and a BS in chemistry from Bates College. He was a U.S. Air Force captain involved in the reconnaissance satellite program.