Thornley, McGraw, Dawson, Halama And Ruble To Take On Expanded Roles
The Whitehouse, an editorial company with bases of operation in London, New York, Chicago and Santa Monica, has promoted from within to assemble a new management team in preparation for the pending departure of CEO Charles Day and COO Christine Tardio.
As earlier reported, company partners Day and Tardio are leaving next month to move onto new career challenges (SHOOT, 3/18, p. 1). The Whitehouse has named five company professionals to take the managerial reins and assume expanded responsibilities.
Melissa Thornley has been named managing director, a position that will have day-to-day authority to run The Whitehouse. Beginning her career with the company eight years ago, she has served as executive producer for the company’s Chicago, New York and London offices.
Reporting to Thornley will be four department directors, all current Whitehouse employees who take on the following expanded roles: Dan McGraw, director of strategic development and technology; Sue Dawson, director of postproduction; Lacey Halama, director of operations; and Joe Ruble, director of finance.
McGraw had been the company’s director of technology for the past five years. Prior to The Whitehouse, McGraw was a senior manager at Avid Technology.
Dawson is currently the executive producer of The Whitehouse’s Santa Monica shop. In her new capacity, she will manage all of the company’s 14 producers and will be responsible for their individual and collective development. Dawson came aboard The Whitehouse in 1998 with experience in post and agency production, including a stint at Wieden+Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
Halama has been with The Whitehouse for four years. She served as the company’s manager of operations, working under outgoing COO Tardio.
And Ruble had been consulting with The Whitehouse over the last year regarding the overall financial management of the company.
The remaining partners in The Whitehouse are editors David Brixton, Russell Icke, Rick Lawley and John Smith.Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More