Fran Maier
CEO

Fran Maier is the CEO of TRUSTe, the leading brand in online privacy.  Fran brings 15+ years of experience building consumer brands and enhancing consumer trust. She is known for her expertise in online privacy, online marketing best practices, and marketing to women.  As a co-founder of Match.com she established credibility, safety and trust in online dating, making Match.com the favorite dating site for single women. In executive marketing roles at Women.com and Kmart’s BlueLight.com subsidiary Fran has both established new start-up online brands and brought blue-chip offline brands onto the Internet.

Since Fran joined TRUSTe in 2001, the company has evolved to expand consumer choice from Web sites to downloadable software. Under Maier's leadership TRUSTe launched new trust services for businesses starting with development of the Sender Score Certified Program, formerly called the Bonded Sender Program, which is widely viewed as the leading legitimate sender program on the market. TRUSTe’s latest network reputation service is the Trusted Download Program, which promotes ethical behavior by adware and other software companies by publishing a “whitelist” of certified applications. It is the first downloadable software standards program backed by industry leaders Yahoo! Search Marketing, CNET's Download.com, CA, AOL, and Verizon.

During that time TRUSTe has strengthened its monitoring and dispute resolution platforms while growing in influence and certifying more than 2,000 websites. Fran speaks widely on the issues of privacy, security, and trust, has appeared before the Federal Trade Commission and the US Department of Commerce, and has testified before the United States House of Representative’s Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection.

Fran holds a BA and MBA from Stanford University.  She lives in Alameda, CA with her husband and two sons.

Chris Russell
COO

Chris Russell brings 20 years experience leading key growth initiatives for information technology and web-based service companies. Mr. Russell has extensive experience in strategy, brand development, sales acceleration and service delivery. He has served as a senior executive and advisor to highly innovative and successful growth stage companies, including WageWorks and ArcSight, and also launched Oracle Corporation's On Demand business. While at Oracle, Mr. Russell was Division President of Business OnLine, SVP Marketing for Industry Verticals, and served on the executive team that grew Oracle Consulting from 900 to 17,000 staff. Earlier in his career, he was a management consultant at Booz Allen, and a C.PA. at Ernst & Young.

As COO, Chris Russell drives TRUSTe's growth initiatives through his leadership of product management, marketing, sales, and client services. Mr. Russell also helped attract the capital and talent to further the company's mission of enabling deeper levels of online trust. Under Mr. Russell's leadership, the company will extend into new online privacy sectors to provide Internet users and consumers a higher level of service and confidence.

Mr. Russell holds a BA in Accounting from the University of Washington and an MBA with Honors from the University of Chicago.

Joan Pashon
Chief of Administration

Joan is responsible for TRUSTe’s financial affairs and human relations. Previously she was Director of Finance and Administration at BrightMail and Bluelight. Prior to BrightMail and Bluelight she held various positions with Amfac and WorldCom leaving as Assistant Controller. Joan has a BA in Business Administration from Grand View College.

Michelle Hines
Vice President of Sales

Michelle is the Vice President for Sales at TRUSTe. Michelle brings over a decade of experience in sales, business development and management to the organization. Michelle joined TRUSTe in 2001 and in that time, has developed a team which has promoted and furthered the TRUSTe mission by attracting companies committed to respecting and protecting the privacy of their customers. This has resulted in year over year double digit growth of the TRUSTe web program both in terms of revenue and clients, including attracting numerous F500 and global brands including the NFL, Pfizer, Nestle, and NASDAQ into the program with a retention rate above 90%.

Prior to TRUSTe, Michelle joined early stage startup health content provider HealthCentral.com and helped develop the first fully integrated content and ecommerce model for both pharmaceutical and OTC drug manufacturers. She also ran the content production team responsible for developing quality health content to millions of consumers through its website and newsletter channels. Michelle started her career in development with the United States Olympic Committee in Colorado Springs. She holds a B.S. in Communications and a minor in English from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA.

John P. Tomaszewski
Vice President of Policy and Compliance

TRUSTe’s Vice President of Policy and Compliance John Tomaszewski ensures that the organization’s programs are built on a strong legal framework. He makes certain that enforcement and compliance efforts are thorough, transparent and defensible. Prior to joining TRUSTe, John served as Chief Privacy Officer of CheckFree Corporation and provided trust model consulting through his private practice. He frequently lectures on Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and secure e-commerce. John graduated from St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio, Texas, where he held the position of Solicitations Editor of the Law Journal. He completed his undergraduate work at the University of Texas, Austin. 

Carolyn Hodge
Vice President of Communications

Carolyn Hodge is responsible for all corporate, product, and consumer brand communications for TRUSTe - the leading website privacy seal program protecting more than half of all internet users. For the past four years Ms. Hodge has built TRUSTe's reputation for best practices through thought leadership research programs such as the Most Trusted Company for Privacy Award, while maintaining a high standard for independence and promotion of consumer protections. Ms. Hodge came to TRUSTe with an extensive international PR agency and public affairs experience. She holds an MBA in entrepreneurship from Babson College and a BA from George Washington University.

Colin O’Malley
Vice President of Strategic Partnerships & Programs

Colin O’Malley and his team manage a portfolio of privacy practice certification products. In November 2005, Colin’s team launched the Trusted Download Program. The program directs software distribution opportunities and growing internet advertising dollars to those ad-supported programs and affiliate networks that respect consumer choice. Prior to TRUSTe, Colin was the Manager of Product Development at NetCreations, a permission email marketing firm that pioneered commercial applications of the double opt-in process. He is a graduate of Vanderbilt University.

 

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