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Ben Straley has spent over 15 years of his career managing and leading marketing teams and business for venture-backed startups and large, publicly traded companies. As CEO and Co-Founder of Meteor Solutions, he sets the vision for the company, leads strategic sales and business development, and manages day-to-day operations. Meteor’s customers include Microsoft, MTV, AT&T as well as many other global brands.

Ben began his online marketing career in 1997 as a producer at Starwave, where he worked on online advertising and marketing promotions on ESPN.com and ABCNews.com for major brands including Microsoft Internet Explorer, Gatorade, and Pizza Hut. In 1998, Ben moved from the creative services team to spearhead the development of ESPN.com’s online marketing and e-commerce systems and lead product management of Disney’s Go Network registration and billing web services platform. In 2001, Ben joined Santa Clara-based Sanctum Corporation to oversee Product Marketing of AppScan, the company’s leading suite of Web application security assessment and monitoring tools. In the spring of 2003, Ben was recruited to lead eCommerce and Internet Business Development for the Salton Corporation, a $1.3B global kitchen and housewares company. In this role, Ben led an ecommerce team, oversaw B2B and B2C ecommerce operations and fulfillment, coordinated the expansion of the company’s online presence and ecommerce operations in the UK and Australia, and signed partnerships with leading online retail companies including Amazon and Target. In the summer of 2005, Ben returned to his native Seattle to lead marketing for venture-backed Judy’s Book, a site where community members around the country shared advice and recommendations about local businesses and activities.  In late 2006, Ben co-founded Spring Creek Group, a leading social media strategy and digital marketing agency.

Ben was selected by Seattle Business Magazine as one of the Innovators of the Year and was recognized by the Puget Sound Business Journal as one of the “40 Under 40” top business leaders in the Puget Sound region.  He is a frequent speaker at conferences including SMX, OMMA, WOMMA, and Digital Hollywood and he has written articles for a variety of publications including Mashable, Adotas, and Digiday.

Ben holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, a BA with distinction from Colorado College, is the curriculum developer and lead instructor at the UW Extension’s Advanced Interactive Marketing program, and is the past-Chair of the Board of Directors at the Seattle Children’s Home, Washington State’s oldest children’s charity.

Before joining Meteor Solutions, Acker was president of Swofford Consulting where she counseled clients such as Phorm Media in the UK and AdReady in online business strategy and advertising sales. Prior to that, Acker served in executive roles of increasing importance at Flipside, Inc., the online game and media division of Vivendi Universal. Acker joined Flipside in 1999 as director of sales for the ground-breaking Virtual Vegas website. In 2001 she was named senior vice president and general manager of Vivendi’s Traffic Marketplace division. Acker joined Vendare Media in 2003 through its acquisition of Traffic Marketplace and was senior vice president of strategic sales for Vendare Media when she left in 2005. Acker has a bachelor’s degree in Diplomacy and World Affairs from Occidental College, Los Angeles.