Context Optional – The leading provider of social marketing solutions to global brands and advertising agencies

Kevin Barenblat, co-founder and CEO of Context Optional. After graduating from Stanford with an engineering degree Kevin worked at Boston Consulting Group, a leading strategy consulting firm. He then earned an MBA from Harvard Business School before taking on strategy and marketing roles for start-up companies in the San Francisco Bay area.

Scott J. Kleper, co-founder and CTO of Context Optional. Scott is an accomplished technical architect and computer scientist. Prior to starting Context Optional, Scott co-wrote Professional C++ (Wiley, 2005), which he adapted for a course at Stanford University. Scott is passionate about building unique Internet applications with compelling user-centered designs and has held engineering leadership positions at several startups, including Bluedog, M-Factor, and Reactivity (now Cisco). Scott holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Computer Science from Stanford University.

Craig Fanning, VP Strategic Accounts (West) brings two decades of experience working with brands to reach and engage customers, including online experience beginning in 1996 at Thrive (AOL / Time partnership). He then led interactive sales at Oxygen and Alloy Media + Marketing before joining Context Optional to run strategic accounts.

Brendan McGeever, VP Strategic Accounts (East), joined Context Optional from YouTube, where he was responsible for YouTube’s Consumer Packaged Goods business. Prior to Google Brendan was a brand manager at Kraft in the beverages, cereals, and desserts divisions. Brendan earned his BS in Marketing from the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania and his MBA from Harvard Business School.

Jeff Feldman, VP of Account Strategy and Development, has developed strategic and tactical marketing plans for large brands since 2003. He has spent more than six years helping companies and their brands understand, measure, and utilize various forms of social media. His experience includes managing Consulting and Strategic Services for marketing analytics firm TNS Media Intelligence, internet-focused strategy consulting for Molecular, start-up consulting and advisement, and new-media business development. Jeff received a B.S. from the Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania.

Marc Blinder, Creative Director, is a Princeton Graduate, began his marketing career in the rough and tumble world of California politics. After more than five years of experience in offline marketing, Marc helped design and build a mobile social network from the ground up with Visto/Mobileplay. Marc’s experience as President of Mobileplay gives him a insider’s view of the importance of data-driven decision-making and maximizing marketing ROI that he brings to crafting creative social marketing solutions for clients that meet specific business goals.

Rafi Jacoby, Director of Engineering, is a skilled engineering manager with over a decade of experience solving tough technical problems as an engineer and architect. He’s a graduate of Oberlin with degrees in Computer Science and Philosophy.