Zype Names Michael Kurtzman as Chief Revenue Officer and Lauren Chadwick as Senior VP of Marketing
Tech leader in video infrastructure and OTT hires go-to-market veterans to support rapid growth
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#WeAreBacklight—Zype, the leading video API and infrastructure platform, today announced the appointments of Michael Kurtzman as chief revenue officer and Lauren Chadwick as senior vice president of marketing. Both roles are new to Zype, which was recently acquired by Backlight™, a growth-equity backed media technology holding company. Backlight is supercharging Zype with resources and investment in talent, product development, innovation and infrastructure.
“Zype’s superior technology platform, modern architecture and innovative solutions are widely recognized by the industry as differentiated and compelling,” said Ed Lacyznski, CEO of Zype. “With investment from Backlight, we are now building out a world-class go-to-market team led by Michael and Lauren. I know they will have a huge impact bringing our products to market and enabling more companies and audiences to benefit from Zype’s technology and solutions.”
Michael Kurtzman will be responsible for leading the company’s revenue generating functions. His career spans sales, marketing, and general management leadership roles focused on global go-to-market for technology companies. He has guided start-ups through liquidity events totaling over $700M in valuation and grew a $100M+ revenue group inside a Fortune 50 company. His industry expertise spans enterprise SaaS platforms, data/analytics, streaming video, user experience, and mobile applications. Most recently, he served as the SVP of Sales for Panopto, an enterprise video and search company. Prior to that he was the global vice president of sales for the Platform through their integration into Comcast Technology Services. Kurtzman holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
“We are thrilled to have Michael join our executive team to lead our sales efforts,” said Lacyznski. “Michael not only brings unparalleled industry experience in video management software and infrastructure, but also a proven track record of building high performing sales teams and scaling growth stage companies.”
As the senior vice president of marketing, Lauren Chadwick is responsible for leading the company’s go-to-market strategy and all marketing operations. Lauren has 20 plus years of integrated marketing experience, the past 10 of which have been spent building and leading marketing teams, and driving revenue growth through high-ROI demand generation. Like Michael, she has experience helping start-ups scale and achieve acquisition and has partnered with several Fortune 500 brands throughout her career. Most recently Lauren served as director of global marketing operations at Blackhawk Network, a global fintech company. She had previously been tapped to establish and lead Blackhawk’s first ever demand generation program and team, following its 2018 acquisition of CashStar, a fintech startup for which she established a B2B marketing and demand generation infrastructure. Lauren holds a Masters degree in Marketing Communication from Emerson College and a BA from Mary Washington College.
“We are excited to welcome Lauren to the Zype team,” said Lazcynski. “Lauren brings proven marketing experience at high growth SaaS companies with deep expertise in demand generation and marketing operations. She is exactly the marketing leader we need to scale our go-to-market operations and execute our vision for next generation video infrastructure.”
About Zype
Zype provides infrastructure for digital video, with a cloud-based platform to manage and distribute enterprise-grade video across web, mobile, TV, and social media. Offering both developer-friendly tools such as customizable APIs as well as turnkey solutions for automated app publishing and playout, Zype’s SaaS enables video creators, publishers or distributors to quickly build, launch and manage superior video products at scale. With a wide ecosystem of video connectors and technology partners and an award-winning support team, Zype’s customers confidently increase reach, engagement and monetization by delivering premium entertainment experiences. Acquired by Backlight in 2021, Zype is a privately held company with more than 300 customers worldwide. www.zype.com.
About Backlight
Backlight is a media technology company that improves video content ideation, production, post production and distribution. Launched in 2022 with funding from PSG, Backlight acquired media software businesses ftrack, Celtx, iconik, Wildmoka and Zype. Video-forward organizations utilize Backlight to solve their mission-critical business and operational challenges. Visit www.backlight.co for more information.
Contacts
Kiní Schoop
Backlight / Zype
media@backlight.co