Appinions Board
Larry Levy, Co-Founder, CEO
As a serial entrepreneur, Larry brings a wealth of hands-on experience. Prior to Appinions, Larry served as co-founder and CEO of Semagix Group, which was sold to Warburg Pincus in 2006. Larry was also the founder and CEO of Protégé Holdings, recognized as an “Upside 100” company, as well as the founder of Citria and Delrina Europe. He holds a BCom and BAcc from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, and is a chartered accountant CA(SA).
Dennis Bennie
Dennis is a pioneer, entrepreneur and innovator in the Canadian technology industry. Over the past 25 years, Dennis’ entrepreneurial management has powered several successful companies. In 1997, he founded the XDL Venture Capital Fund, focusing on information technology opportunities. One of its most noteworthy investments was Delano Technology Corp. XDL Intervest, a $150 million fund was started in 1999 and is now fully invested. Bennie currently manages an experienced team investing in private equity opportunities as the XDL Capital Group.
From 1988 to 1996, Dennis was Chairman and CEO of Delrina Corp., which forged the new software categories of electronic forms and PC fax communications. In November 1995, Delrina was sold to Symantec Corp. for $560 million.
Larry Kramer
Larry Kramer was named President and Publisher of USA Today in May, 2012. Prior to that he was an adjunct professor of Media Management at the Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University, a media consultant and author of C-Scape, a book on the changing landscape for media and related industries for Harper Collins (published Nov., 2010).
He sits on the board of directors of BlackArrow, Inc,, Appinions, Inc., and Harvard Business School Publishing, and The Board of Trustees of Syracuse University He was a founding board member and former Chairman of The Online Publishers Association. Prior to his appointment to USA Today, he was a member of the Boards of Directors of Discovery Communications Corp., American Media Inc., and Freedom Communications, Inc.
From March 2005 until November 2006, he served as the first President of CBS Digital Media, reporting directly to Leslie Moonves. In this role, Kramer created a new division that put together all new media operations for the network, including online, interactive and wireless initiatives. He had oversight over and launched several websites including CBS.com, CBSNews.com, CBS SportsLine.com and StarTrek.com. While there, he created March Madness on Demand (the web broadcast of the NCAA Basketball Tournament), put CBS TV shows on the web, and created distribution partnerships with Google, Amazon, Apple I-tunes, Yahoo and Verizon for CBS content. He served as an Advisor to CBS until March, 2008. After leaving CBS He was Senior Advisor of Polaris Venture Partners from Jan 2008 until January 2010.
Before joining CBS, Kramer was Chairman, CEO and Founder of MarketWatch, Inc. (NASDAQ: MKTW), also known as CBS MarketWatch, until its sale to Dow Jones for $528 million in January 2005. He created the company as an LLC with Data Broadcasting Corp. and CBS, launching in October 1997, taking it public in January 1999, and making three acquisitions to build the business along the way.
He had joined Data Broadcasting Corp. as Vice President in 1994, following its acquisition of his first startup, DataSport. As founder, president and executive editor of DataSport Inc. from 1991 to 1994, he created SporTrax, a hand-held sports information monitor, which was a subscription product launched under a marketing agreement with The Sporting News.
Prior to founding DataSport, Kramer spent more than 20 years in journalism as a reporter and editor. He started his career in 1974 as a reporter for the San Francisco Examiner. In 1977, he became a financial reporter for the Washington Post. In 1980, the Post promoted him to executive editor of the Trenton (N.J.) Times. In 1982, he returned to the Post to serve first as assistant to Executive Editor Benjamin C. Bradlee and later as assistant managing editor and metro editor. In 1986, he returned to the San Francisco Examiner as its editor. In 1991, he left the Examiner to become an entrepreneur and launched DataSport and then Marketwatch.com.
While a journalist, he won several awards for reporting, including the National Press Club Award, The Associated Press Award for news writing and The Gerald Loeb award for business reporting. His staffs won two Pulitzer Prizes.
He is a graduate of Harvard University (masters of business administration) and Syracuse University (bachelors of science in journalism and political science).. Kramer has been a lecturer at several universities, including the Harvard Business School, Syracuse University, University of Pennsylvania, UC Berkeley, NYU, Columbia University, Stanford University and Emory University. He served a two-year term as a Pulitzer Prize juror.
Rob Segal
For more than 20 years, Rob Segal has been a leading North American marketing and communications specialist working with some of the world’s most respected brands. Founder of Segal Communications in 1994, Rob helped launch the original Sony PlayStation, PS2, PS3, Ford focus, Axe body spray & Virgin Mobile. His agency, Segal Communications, rapidly grew into one of the largest experiential/promotional agencies in Canada and was acquired by Interpublic’s DraftFCB in 2000.
Segal’s clients included: Sony, Ford, HP, Dreamworks, Unilever, Marvel, Party Poker & Facebook to name just a few. The agency won numerous awards and set the benchmark for many agencies that have followed since. In 2006, Segal partnered with Facebook and created Facebook’s first Canadian media sales team exclusively representing Facebook sales in Canada until 2009.
Rob left the agency world at the end of 2008 and invested in (and later joined) WorldGaming. In 2009 World Gaming partnered with Richard Branson and his Virgin brand, launching as Virgin Gaming to the world in June 2010. Rob currently serves as CEO. Rob is an avid skier, musician and board member of Autism Speaks Canada.
