Board Members
![]() |
Bill Gross, ChairmanBill Gross serves as the Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Idealab which he founded in March 1996. While at Idealab, Bill has started many successful businesses including Overture Services, Cars Direct / Internet Brands, Picasa, and Energy Innovations. A lifelong entrepreneur, Bill started several companies prior to Idealab including City Search, now a division of IAC, GNP Development, Inc. which was acquired by Lotus Development Corporation, and Knowledge Adventure, an educational software publisher that grew to be the third largest educational software publisher.Bill has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology where he serves on the Board of Trustees. |
![]() |
Allen Morgan, Board MemberAllen Morgan has spent nearly 25 years counseling entrepreneurs through the startup company process, first as a well-known Silicon Valley lawyer and, since 1999, as partner at Mayfield. Having closed more than 650 venture capital financings, mergers and acquisitions, IPOs and other public offerings in his career, Allen brings a broad base of startup experience to bear on behalf of entrepreneurs.Allen earned an undergraduate degree (summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa) from Dartmouth College, a second bachelor's degree and master's degree from Oxford (Christ Church) and a J.D. from the University of Virginia. |
![]() |
Marcia Goodstein, Board MemberMarcia Goodstein founded Idealab with Bill Gross in March 1996 and since that time has been instrumental in the creation and development of dozens of Idealab network companies in industries ranging from clean technologies and robotics to search technologies and Internet retail.Today Marcia serves as Idealab's Chief Operating Officer and President and currently serves on the boards of numerous companies including eSolar, EI Solutions, Evolution Robotics, Evolution Robotics Retail, Perfect Market, X1 Technologies and Internet Brands. Prior to founding Idealab, Marcia worked at several start-up companies and was an early employee of Gemstar Development Corporation responsible for media licensing for North America, as well as marketing and distribution in South America. Prior to joining Gemstar, Marcia worked in a biology lab at the California Institute of Technology. She is a graduate of Pomona College. |
![]() |
Tom McGovern, Board MemberTom McGovern is co-founder and CEO of Snap. In 1999, Tom founded a successful e-commerce company with Bill Gross and Idealab, which was acquired by PETsMART, Inc. a leading multi-channel marketer. Tom served as President and CEO of the division of PETsMART managing the Internet and catalog businesses. Tom returned to Idealab in 2003 to explore new internet marketing and search opportunities. Prior to that, Tom was Senior Vice President with Warner Bros. and a management consultant. He started his career in 1983 at Price Waterhouse. Tom is a graduate of the Harvard Business School and earned his B.S. from the University of Colorado. |
![]() |
Dr. Howard Morgan, Board MemberHoward Morgan, Ph.D. has been a director of Idealab since March 2002. Dr. Morgan was president of Idealab New York from March 2000 to June 2001 and was a vice chairman until December 2002. Since 1989, Dr. Morgan has served as president of Arca Group, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in the areas of computers and communications technologies. Dr. Morgan was a professor of Decision Sciences at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a professor of Computer Science at the Moore School of the University of Pennsylvania from 1972 through 1986. He serves as a director for a number of public companies, including Franklin Electronic Publishers, Inc., Predictive Systems and Segue Software, Inc.Dr. Morgan received his Ph.D. in operations research from Cornell University and his B.S. in physics from the City University of New York. |
![]() |
Rishad Tobaccowala, Board MemberRishad Tobaccowala is a marketing and strategy executive who has worked with a wide spectrum of clients and companies during his more than 25 year career. Rishad leads Denuo, Publicis Groupe's new futures practice formed to respond to trends in digital, interactive and evolving traditional marketing disciplines. He also simultaneously serves as Chief Innovation Officer of Publicis Groupe Media, a management board that oversees two of the world's largest media companies: Starcom MediaVest Group and Zenith Optimedia.Prior to these roles, Rishad founded and ran SMG Next, the first and most comprehensive futures practice in the media industry, plus he was the co-founder of SMG IP, an award winning digital and interactive communications agency. He was named by Business Week as one of the top business leaders in 2005 and Time magazine once dubbed him one of five "Marketing Innovators." He is also in Advertising Age's Interactive Hall of Fame and was selected as Adweek's 2000 Media All-Star for Interactive Media. Rishad holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the University of Bombay and an M.B.A. from the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago. |







