Kent Ertugrul
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Kent Ertugrul was Interim Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Phorm Inc., a Delaware corporation."Kent Ertugrul," {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20150519065040/http://www.phorm.com/sites/default/files/files/AIM_Admission_Document_4-19-07.pdf AIM Admission Document]}}, Phorm, April 19, 2007, p. 14. Retrieved August 22, 2009. He resigned from the Phorm Corporation board on 15 July 2015.{{Cite web |url=https://www.phorm.com/?wpdmdl=194 |title=Archived copy |access-date=2015-10-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151007002544/https://www.phorm.com/?wpdmdl=194 |archive-date=2015-10-07 |url-status=usurped }} Phorm ceased trading on 14 April 2016, having burnt through £200 million of investors' capital.{{Cite web|url=https://www.businessinsider.com/phorm-ceases-trading-2016-4?r=US&IR=T|title=Ad tech company Phorm has gone bust and investors stand to lose every cent of the $284 million sunk into it|website=Business Insider}}
Early career
Ertugrul began his career in investment banking, working at J.P. Morgan, Credit Suisse First Boston and Morgan Stanley in London, helping to develop and distribute Inflation Linked Floating Rate Securities."Businessweek Executive Profile," Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved January 29, 2011. Later, as Director and Chief Financial Officer, he oversaw the growth of Compass Technology as it became a leading PC-based voice mail company in the US. In 1991, Compass merged with California-based Octel Communications, which in turn was acquired by Lucent Technologies.[https://web.archive.org/web/20151006221216/http://uk.reuters.com/business/quotes/officerProfile?symbol=PHRM.L&officerId=750671 "Kent Ertugrul: Brief Biography"], Reuters. Retrieved 29 Jan 2011.
=MiGs, Etc.=
In 1990, Ertugrul was introduced to a MiG test pilot. The pilot offered Ertugrul a test flight, and from that flight, MiGs, Etc. was born - a joint venture with the Russian Air Force and the Russian Space Agency, which offered joy rides to tourists in Mig-29 jet fighters.Stecklow, Steve, and Sonne, Paul. [https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704243904575630751094784516 "Shunned Profiling Technology on the Verge of Comeback,"] Wall Street Journal, November 24, 2010. Retrieved January 29, 2011. Ertugrul put a one-inch square advert in the Wall Street Journal which read "Fly a MiG 29 over Moscow." The company was inundated with 450 press inquiries within 24 hours, gaining worldwide media attention for commercializing the end of the Cold War.Neate, Rupert. [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/5259501/From-Cold-War-spies-to-battling-web-campaigners.html "From Cold War Spies to Battling Web Campaigners"], The Daily Telegraph (London), May 1, 2009. Retrieved May 7, 2010. Later, Ertugrul founded Life.com, a desktop software and online interactive diary, as well as Voxster, a company enabling Instant Messaging for email.
Phorm
In 2002, Ertugrul founded the company that would become Phorm, Inc. He served as Phorm’s Interim Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer. Phorm is an Internet personalization technology company with offices in Europe, South America, Asia and the United States."Placing of £6,075,000 convertible secured loan notes," London Stock Exchange, December 17, 2010. Retrieved Jan 29, 2011. Phorm partners with ISPs, publishers and advertisers to bring behaviorally targeted advertising and content to opted-in users of its service. The company was originally known as 121Media, Inc., but changed its name to Phorm, Inc. in 2007.
121Media, founded in 2002, produced a spyware application called PeopleOnPage.{{cite web|url=http://www.f-secure.com/sw-desc/apropos.shtml |title=Apropos |access-date=2008-04-18 |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131110220950/http://www.f-secure.com/sw-desc/apropos.shtml |archive-date=2013-11-10 }}{{full citation needed|date=November 2012}} This application acted as a browser hijacker and passed details of the user's currently visited website to central ContextPlus servers, so that the user could be targeted with advertising. The adware component was called AproposMedia. AproposMedia is described by InternetSecurityZone.com as "...a malicious executable program that is usually installed without user consent or knowledge. AproposMedia may have the ability to secretly monitor, record, and transmit computer activity."[http://www.internetsecurityzone.com/Targets/AproposMedia AproposMedia] internetsecurityzone.com {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071123065817/http://www.internetsecurityzone.com/Targets/AproposMedia|date=November 23, 2007}}
The company finally closed down in 2016, having lost millions of dollars for its shareholders during its period of operation.{{Cite web|url=https://www.theregister.com/2016/04/14/phorm_ceases_trading/|title=Ad slinger Phorm ceases trading|first=John|last=Leyden
|website=www.theregister.com|access-date=21 April 2023}}
Education
Ertugrul attended St Paul's School, London and holds a bachelor's degree in politics from Princeton University.
References
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Category:American technology chief executives