Rich LeFurgy

Rich LeFurgy founded Archer Advisors to bridge the digital advertising world with Madison Avenue. Rich left the agency world in New York in 1995 to lead the revenue/monetization efforts for  Starwave Corporation in Seattle, who has just acquired the rights from The Walt Disney company to operate ESPN and ABC News’ very first digital offering. He became Founding Chairman of the Interactive Advertising Bureau in 1996, serving as CEO until for six years. Rich continues to be active with the IAB, as a Board and Executive Committee member. Rich was a partner at  WaldenVC in San Francisco from 1999-2004, investing in early stage digital media companies, cementing his knowledge of the impact of technology on media/entertainment/advertising. Rich has served as an independent board director, strategic advisor and early stage investor in over 65 digital media and technology companies. His strategic advisory projects include fundraising, marketing and sales strategy. He has worked with a range of companies from Fortune 50 to start up, including: Google, America Online, Time Warner, Placecast (sold to Ericsson), adapt.tv, Spaceback and Vungle, and has invested in over two dozen digital advertising companies, including Ad Relevance (sold to Nielsen), Klout (sold to Lithium) and Clypd. This past year, Rich was awarded the Hal Riney Icon of Marketing award from the Bay Area Interactive Group (sfBIG) and has also received the Adtech Industry Achievement Award, the Interactive Advertising Bureau Lifetime Achievement Award, placed in the Advertising Age Interactive Hall of Fame and was named by USA Today as “the Johnny Appleseed of online advertising”.