Executive Team

SearchIgnite is run by a team of digital pioneers with a history of building game-changing media and marketing organizations.

Will Margiloff - Chairman

Will Margiloff serves as Chairman of SearchIgnite and is also CEO and Founder of SearchIgnite’s parent company, Innovation Interactive. With more than 15 years of Internet marketing experience, Mr. Margiloff brings unparalleled innovation and expertise to the company and to the industry. As one of the early pioneers in the Internet marketing field, he has helped revolutionize the online landscape, leading the use of paid placement, interstitials, site take-overs, alternative display ads and image-based contextual marketing.

Mr. Margiloff has worked extensively with top consumer and B2B Fortune 500 brands. He is a regular speaker at industry events and investment conferences focused on the Internet advertising industry and is frequently quoted in publications ranging from Dow Jones to Ad Week.

Before founding Innovation Interactive through a management buyout from Net2Phone in 2002, Mr. Margiloff was the Senior Vice President of Advertising Sales at Net2Phone. There, he founded and ran the Internet Sales group from 2000 to 2002. Prior to this he served as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for TheGlobe.com and Vice President of East Coast Sales for 24/7 Media.

Mr. Margiloff holds a BA in History from Hobart College.

Roger Barnette - Founder & President

Roger Barnette is the Founder and President of SearchIgnite. Since founding SearchIgnite in 2004, Mr. Barnette has grown the company into one of the largest providers of search optimization technology, managing more than $350 million in search dollars each year for over 500 advertisers. As President, he drives the vision of the company, leads the company’s aggressive growth and technology leadership and runs the day-to-day operations of the business.

A veteran of the online marketing industry, Mr. Barnette has extensive experience managing and growing emerging technology businesses. Prior to founding SearchIgnite, he was Founder and CEO of eTour, an Internet marketing technology company acquired by Ask.com. At eTour, he raised over $52 million in equity financing and in less than three years grew the company from its inception to 5 million registered users, 400 advertisers and 170 employees.

Mr. Barnette is a frequent guest speaker at digital marketing conferences and is regularly cited in major media outlets including Advertising Age, MediaPost, Forbes, CNN, Reuters and Mediaweek for his expertise in search marketing and the engines.

Mr. Barnette has received numerous awards including the Atlanta Internet Marketer of The Year award and Emory’s Goizueta Business School Outstanding Recent Alumni award. He holds a MBA from Emory University’s Goizueta School of Business and a BS in Computer and Electrical Engineering from the University of South Carolina.

Craig Pohan - Chief Technology Officer

Craig Pohan is the Chief Technology Officer for Search Ignite. Since joining the company in early 2005, Mr. Pohan has focused on defining SearchIgnite's technology strategy and supporting the company’s initiatives as it continues to grow organically as well as through acquisitions.

As SearchIgnite grows and diversifies its suite of performance-based products, Mr. Pohan ensures complete technical integration between product lines, allowing for a holistic approach to managing online campaigns. By continually refining and standardizing SearchIgnite's accompanying robust reporting systems to track online campaigns across all product lines, he is also systematically building technology that allows for easy integration of new products, whether acquired or developed internally.

Before joining SearchIgnite, Mr. Pohan held a number of executive positions at Ask Jeeves, Inc., most recently as Vice President of Software Development, where he led all major technology projects involving portal (iWon, Excite, MyWay) and search (MySearch, MyWebSearch) and ad serving (MaxOnline, AJinteractive) functionality. Craig was an integral member of the senior management team for the Irvington, NY based Interactive Search Holdings (ISH) prior to the Ask Jeeves, Inc. acquisition. Before joining Ask Jeeves, Mr. Pohan held various positions at UBS and Accenture. Craig is also CTO of Innovation Interactive, parent company of SearchIgnite.

Eric Carlyle - Chief Knowledge Architect

Eric Carlyle is Chief Knowledge Architect for SearchIgnite, where he leads SearchIgnite Advisor’s team of Bid Scientists, a dedicated group of quantitative media managers responsible for the day-to-day management of complex client SEM campaigns. His team manages more than $100 million in annual media spend utilizing advanced, customized mathematical and statistical algorithms, helping SearchIgnite Advisor clients achieve maximum ROI from their search budgets. Additionally, Mr. Carlyle’s group is responsible for the research and development of advanced bid and campaign optimization technologies including SearchIgnite’s patent-pending Portfolio Optimization Technology (SPOT).

Prior to SearchIgnite, Mr. Carlyle was a managing member for a group of statistical arbitrage hedge funds where he was responsible for analysis, development and implementation of statistical trading algorithms. Throughout his five years in the hedge fund business, Mr. Carlyle’s funds were consistently rated in the top 10 percent of statistical arbitrage funds. Prior to this, he was a managing consultant for The Insight Group, a consultancy focused on the application of complex decision modeling and advanced statistical models to business operations. His clients have included a variety of Fortune 500 companies including Mobil Oil, Coca-Cola, News Corp. and AIG Insurance.

Mr. Carlyle graduated from the University of Michigan with a BA in Economics. He also holds a MBA from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University with a concentration in Finance and Quantitative Methods.

Mark Ziler - Vice President of Business Operations

Mark Ziler is Vice President of Business Operations for SearchIgnite, where he oversees the Client Services and Product Management teams. In this role, he ensures the quality and continued innovation of SearchIgnite’s online optimization platform and provides strategic consultation to clients on best practices for implementing their online campaigns to ensure optimal campaign performance. Mr. Ziler has more than 11 years’ experience developing software technologies and more than eight years of experience in the online marketing industry.

Prior to SearchIgnite, Mr. Ziler was the Chief Technology Officer of Ad Engine, a vertical advertising and lead generation network. At Ad Engine, Mr. Ziler was responsible for managing the technology and product teams to build yield management, marketing attribution and content publishing systems. He also led the company’s search engine marketing efforts and worked closely with many search management vendors throughout his tenure.

Mr. Ziler holds a Computer Science degree from Duke University, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude.

Noriaki Okubo - Representative Director of SearchIgnite Japan

Noriaki Okubo serves as Representative Director of SearchIgnite Japan Inc., where he manages the strategic growth of the company in Japan and other Asian markets. In addition, Mr. Okubo oversees the day-to-day operations of SearchIgnite Japan.

Before joining SearchIgnite, Noriaki was Senior Vice President of International Business at Livedoor Co., Ltd., where his main duties included finding and executing strategic investments and developing technology partnerships globally to leverage Livedoor's assets in Japan. Mr. Okubo also managed the operations of Livedoor’s international subsidiaries and was a board member for Value Click Japan, a Livedoor subsidiary.

Mr. Okubo has more than 12 years worth of experience in international business, and for the past seven years has focused on the Internet industry and consumer software.

Mr. Okubo graduated from Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan.

James Yancey - Managing Director, SearchIgnite London

James Yancey serves as Managing Director of SearchIgnite London, where he leads the company’s UK and European operations.

Mr. Yancey has spent the majority of his career focusing on search and digital strategies for major brands. Prior to SearchIgnite, he served as a Managing Director of digital agency 360i where he managed several senior agency relationships with the company’s top clients and oversaw a large team of digital marketing specialists. Before that, Mr. Yancey served as a Director for search agency iCrossing in New York and helped launch several Internet start-up companies.

Mr. Yancey holds two Bachelor degrees in Sociology and International Studies from Georgia State University.