Shawn Riegsecker

Chairman & CEO

Shawn Riegsecker is the founder of Centro and currently leads its strategic vision as Chairman and CEO. Having worked his entire career in the confluence of publishing, advertising and technology, Riegsecker saw the need to help make the buying of local online media across thousands of traditional publisher websites easy for advertisers and their respective advertising agencies. Mr. Riegsecker founded Centro to help create a frictionless media process between buyers and sellers in the local industry. Based in Chicago, the company has more than 100 employees and offices in ten cities.

Shawn wishes he had more time for personal travel, but in what little spare time he has enjoys reading, especially F. Scott Fitzgerald short stories such as “Winter Dreams”. Shawn has a fondness for 80s TV including “Manimal” a short-lived NBC show from the early 80s. He’s launching a personal campaign to revive the failed series.

The Newspaper Association of America awarded Mr. Riegsecker the Advertising Person of the Year, which is given annually “to an advertising person who has fostered the ideals of partnership and cooperation in working with the newspaper industry”.

Kelly Davis

VP of Product Development

Speaker Session: Centro Technology Overview

Armed with extensive experience in operations, account management and interactive marketing, Kelly Davis joined Centro in 2003 as the first employee. Since the company’s inception, she’s played a foundation role in establishing cross departmental processes and structure to support new business opportunities and accelerated growth. As Vice President of Product Development, Kelly leads the strategy and implementation of new product and service opportunities as well as enhancements to existing offerings. She also oversees the development and execution of organizational, procedural & technical solutions to reach company objectives. Prior to Centro, Ms. Davis gained a diverse media background at interactive media companies including Real Media, Max Online, and Yesmail. Ms. Davis graduated cum laude from Indiana University with a B.S. in Marketing.

Kelly is way into anything crafty. She says it helps her keep her sanity and find calm in her hectic days. She also loves the movie Amelie and the book Fountainhead.

Kristin Shamberg

Research & Analytics Manager

Speaker Session: Campaign Statistics & Industry Data

Kristin has been with Centro for over two years in the Research Department. She assists in pulling research, articles, studies, and internal data for all of Centro’s teams, as well as assisting in training of new employees, maintaining research numbers, tracking comScore data, and providing research to the sales teams. Before joining Centro, Kristin worked at the Chicago Tribune as a circulation analyst for 6 months. Kristin began her career in the Media Industry at Newspaper Services of America, where she worked for over 5 years as an Analyst Supervisor.

Kristin added to her family, in late 2007, an adorable Pom-a-poo named Ari. She loves the book “I Know This Much Is True” by Wally Lamb and has a secret passion for butter cream frosting from Jewel. And yes, it has to be from Jewel.

Katie Risch

Manager of Publisher Relationships

Speaker Session: Centro Panel

Katie Risch manages Centro’s strategic, ongoing relationships with more than 6,000 local, regional and national publishers in the company’s platform. Katie has been with Centro for just over three years, having worked as a media planner for automotive accounts and movie studios prior to moving into her current role. Like many working with digital newspapers today, Katie started in print as a Sales Account Executive for the Cincinnati Enquirer. She holds a BA in English from Indiana University.

During her free time, Katie enjoys listening to the Boss and grilling out. She first developed a passion for BBQ during her college days, where she worked for a pig roast company. She also makes a delicious homemade watermelon margarita.

Kristen Belavicqua

Account Management Director, East

Speaker Session: Centro Panel

Kristen currently oversees all account management duties for the East Region and has been with Centro for just over two years. Having held account and managerial positions at New York Times Digital and iVillage, Kristen brings over nine years of experience in online advertising to Centro. While at NYTd, Kristen led a team of sales support specialists concentrating in the development of strategic solutions for Boston.com’s top clients. From NYTd, Kristen moved on to iVillage where she leveraged her experience with strategic client programs in the continued development of their Partnership Marketing Group. Kristen currently lives in Brooklyn, NY and is a life long ‘Brooklyn’ Dodgers fan.

Kristen enjoys listening to Andrew Bird, watching NY1 Morning News with Pat Kiernan, and like Kelly Davis, her favorite movie is Amelie.

Leo Brubaker

VP of Finance

Speaker Session: Centro Panel

Leo Brubaker joined the Centro team as the Vice President of Finance in August of 2006. With his financial and accounting expertise, Mr. Brubaker oversees Centro’s accounting department while also managing the company’s financial analysis, reporting, taxes, budgeting and forecasting. Mr. Brubaker brings Centro more than four years of public accounting experience with Ernst & Young where he worked in the Advisory & Assurance Business Services group. Some of his audit clients with Ernst & Young included a few of the largest public and nonpublic companies in the world such as ABN AMRO, BP Amoco, Aon Corporation, and Fimat USA (subsidiary of Société Générale Group). After Ernst & Young, Mr. Brubaker moved to Oak Brook Bank, a public company, where he served as the Vice President and Controller.

Leo spends as much time as possible with his nine month old daughter. He also enjoys waterskiing and loves traveling to Galapagos, Ecuador (his home country).

Mickey Hill

Manger of Campaign Operations

Speaker Session: Centro Panel

Mickey is the Manager of Campaign Operations. In many companies, two years is not considered a very long time, but at Centro, Mickey thinks “it feels like more than four years, in a good way!” In just two years, he has seen tremendous growth, exciting technology improvements and learned more than he had in any previous role. Mickey is proud to work for a company that has incredibly ambitious goals, talented people and a passion to work hard and play hard. Currently, Mickey is working on integrating new products into Centro’s process and systems.

Mickey is always thinking about self-improvement and realizing his potential. His favorite movie is “The Secret”, his favorite book, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, and he enjoys traveling to Orlando, FL. His favorite travel destination may have something to do with Centro’s All-Hands meeting in Orlando in Feb 2008. Good times!

Arlo Laitin

VP Sales, Southeast

Speaker Session: Centro Panel

Arlo was born in Waterville, Maine, the son of two radical hippies, hence the name Arlo. He grew up in Newton, Massachusetts, and went to the same high school as Matt LeBlanc (Joey from friends), and 2 of the 4 members of New Edition (Not Bobby Brown, but two of the guys from Bell, Biv, Devoe). Arlo barely graduated from the University of Vermont, and then set out to change the world, very slowly, by becoming a kindergarten teacher. When he realized that job only paid $19K a year, he decided to jump into the wonderful world of sales. He started his sales career at Cendant, and then went to work for Boston.com, the web site of the Boston Globe in 1998. After spending 7 years with Boston.com and the New York Times company, he took a chance and joined his pal Shawn at Centro.

Arlo lives in Durham, North Carolina with his wife Kristen and 6-month old puppy, Mya. He has a strange fascination for the movie, “Weekend at Bernies” and can quote much of the movie. He’s also a big fan of anything deep fried.