Thomas Layton, CEO
Thomas Layton came to Metaweb from OpenTable, where he served as CEO from 2001 to June 2007. Previously, he was a co-founder of CitySearch, Inc., which later merged with Ticketmaster and is now a subsidiary of USA Networks. Prior to his experience at Ticketmaster-CitySearch, Thomas was with Score Learning Corporation, a leading educational services company, where he served first as Chief Financial Officer and later as President and Chief Operating Officer. From 1986 to 1988, Thomas was an Associate Consultant with the Boston Consulting Group.
Thomas holds an MBA from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University and a BS from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Robert Cook, Co-Founder and Executive VP of Product Development
Robert Cook co-founded Metaweb Technologies in July 2005. At parent company Applied Minds, Robert led the San Francisco office as Director of Knowledge Product Development. Since the start of his career, Robert has played the role of author, designer and programmer for myriad software applications. Robert’s first computer was an Elf II, which used the same microprocessor as the Voyager, Viking and Galileo spacecraft. At the young age of 15, Robert created database software for a small publishing company. He followed this first piece of work by publishing a number of computer games through Broderbund. This early work included the classic game Gumball as well as the Atari 400/800 and Commodore 64 versions of Karateka. Robert later designed the game D/Generation and acted as the technical director for The Last Express.
Robert holds a BS in Computer Science from Yale University.
John Giannandrea, CTO
John Giannandrea co-founded Metaweb Technologies in July 2005. Prior to joining Metaweb, John was CTO of Tellme Networks Inc., where he was responsible for the development and operation of the world's largest VoiceXML network, handling over 2 billion voice transactions per year. Microsoft Corporation acquired Tellme in 2007. Prior to Tellme, John was the Chief Technologist of Netscape/AOL's Web browser group. Throughout his career John has contributed extensively to the industry's Internet standards and protocols, including Java, HTTP, SSL and RDF.
John is a native of Scotland and a graduate of Strathclyde University.
Mike Osborn, VP of Marketing
Mike joined Metaweb in July 2008, after spending over five years at eBay. During his time at eBay, Mike in turn managed the company’s paid search, affiliate, and customer relationship marketing teams, with responsibility for building the company’s industry-leading analytical marketing capabilities. His teams’ work produced increases in marketing ROI of over 200% points and contributed significantly to the company’s growth. Mike began his tenure at eBay in the Corporate Strategy/M&A group. Prior to eBay, Mike worked in Corporate Development at Openwave Systems. Prior to that, Mike spent four years in the Corporate Strategy & Development group at The Walt Disney Company in both Burbank and Paris.
Mike earned an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BA in Quantitative Economics from Stanford University.
