Tim Hanlon is Managing Director of Chicago-based Riverview Lane Associates, a strategic investment and advisory firm focused exclusively on fostering “new media” and marketing innovation through paradigm-changing platforms and technologies.  

Previously, Hanlon was Executive Vice President/Managing Director of VivaKi Ventures, the strategic partnership and investment arm of VivaKi – the digital services hub of marketing services agency holding company Publicis Groupe, S.A., comprising Starcom MediaVest Group, Zenith Optimedia Group, Digitas, Razorfish, and Denuo.   He was chiefly responsible for the solicitation, negotiation and oversight of the unit’s strategic partnership and investment activity – including formal advisory and directorial positions with over three dozen early-stage companies – an outgrowth of his previous work as head of ventures activity for both Denuo and Publicis Groupe Media.

Prior to founding the Denuo Ventures and PGM Ventures practices, Hanlon was Senior Vice President/Director, Emerging Contacts for Starcom MediaVest Group.  He was chiefly responsible for all US client activity and agency initiatives in the field of emerging media technologies, including the firm’s ground-breaking TV 2.0 Practice, centered around evolutionary television platforms such as interactive/enhanced television, on-demand video, digital video recording, interactive program guide navigation, addressable advertising, and digital broadcasting/datacasting. 

Hanlon has over 20 years of traditional and interactive agency media experience including roles as Vice President/Director, Strategy & Business Development for the Digital Marketing Group of Chicago-based marketing services agency Frankel, and Director of Interactive Media at Creative Alliance in Louisville, KY.  He also served as the Advertising Media Manager for the in-house agency of credit card issuer MBNA America in Wilmington, DE, USA.   

Hanlon also has wide-ranging journalism experience, including production and writing stints at CBS News, Sports Illustrated and the Voice of America. 

Among numerous advertising and television industry activities, Hanlon has been Chairman of the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) Advanced Television Committee, a founding member of the Steering Committee of the Innovation in Digital Advertising (IDiA) Consortium, and a founding member of the National Academy of Media Arts & Sciences (NAMAS).  In 2004, he was an inaugural recipient of Interactive Television Today’s Leadership in Interactive Television Award, and has been twice named to MEDIA Magazine’s “Media 100” list.  His insights into the future of media and advertising are regularly seen in major electronic, print and trade press outlets.

Hanlon holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth Graduate School of Business, and a BA from Georgetown University.