Scott Penberthy

Entrepreneur
[email protected]

Summary
My teams specialize in web applications with flexible cost structures. These costs vary with user
demand and revenue, optimizing profit margins.

We believe in agile development, where results can be seen in the very first week of an engagement,
optimizing the transformation of capital into working code.

We utilize open source and follow the Web mantra of authenticity, transparency, and involvement with
elegant, crisp design.

I've personally led engineering teams for an online video destination site with 5M consumers at
Heavy, an online photo sharing site with 50M consumers a Photobucket, and online sporting events
at IBM.

Specialties
Getting stuff done. High volume consumer applications, Amazon Web Services, open source
software, agile processes, LAMP, Ruby on Rails, ActionScript 3, Java, C, digital video, digital
photography, mobile platforms, e-commerce.

Experience
CIO at Gilt Groupe
January 2009 - Present (7 months)
Gilt's revenue growth is extraordinary, selling luxury brands through private, invitation-only sales.
We're building one of largest Ruby on Rails platforms on the planet, integrating it across the entire
supply and demand chain of luxury goods. We deploy to the cloud, warehouses, and mobile
devices. Whatever it takes. GTD.

CTO at Heavy, Inc.

September 2007 - October 2008 (1 year 2 months)
Heavy is a network of Internet video sites targeted at young males, age 18-35. Heavy comes up
with wild ideas, produces an hour of video each week with a team of television professionals,
distributes the video to over 300 partners, then sells premium CPM advertising that "skins" these
videos with brand imagery. I'm leading the transformation of the site into an advertising platform.
We push the edges of ActionScript 3 / Flash, LAMP stacks, OpenAds / OpenX, DART and more, all
utilizing cloud computing (e.g. Amazon Web Services).

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 2 recommendations available upon request

VP Engineering at Photobucket
January 2007 - August 2007 (8 months)
Lead an extraordinary engineering team to deliver the world's largest and fastest growing personal
media service. Photobucket delivers over 1B page views and 100B image clips each month from a
robust, scalable LAMP & Ajax platform. More than 50M consumers have accounts at Photobucket
for linking billions of images, videos and avatars to more than a half million online and mobile
properties. Photobucket was acquired in July, 2007 and is now part of News Corporation (NWS).
6 recommendations available upon request

CEO at Bling Software

February 2005 - January 2007 (2 years)
As founder and CEO of this wireless software company, I desired to enable a market for mobile
Ajax widgets as the "next big thing" beyond ringtones and wallpaper. Raised venture financing in
the US, built a bi-coastal team, led onshore and offshore development of an Ajax Widget platform
on Java and BREW phones, and secured initial customers.
2 recommendations available upon request

Vice President at IBM

March 2000 - February 2005 (5 years)
2004 CTO, Industrial Sector. Responsible for technology megadeals with some of IBM's top clients
in the automotive and electronics industries.

2000-2003 Vice President, IBM Global Services. Identified and nurtured a dozen startup service
businesses, including grid computing and open source services, leading to more than $1B in J2EE,
LAMP, and web-application related revenue. Incremental $B's are possible when you have a $38B
base and 5000 employess tagged as "emerging business" experts...
5 recommendations available upon request

Director at IBM Corporation

January 1998 - February 2000 (2 years 2 months)
1999-2000 Director. Architected and sold J2EE and LAMP infrastructure for web applications to
.com companies, transforming an ailing ISP billing business to a quarter-billion powerhouse of
"e-business" revenue. I put the technology solutions together for our General Manager, a master at
the Art of the Turnaround.

1997-1998 Director of technology. Brought IP tunneling, wireless LANs, instant messaging, and
XML services to IBM, lowering the costs for enabling mobile employees to access legacy systems.
A defining moment was when we showed our CIO how we could access IBM's Notes through
America On Line, all via an SSL VPN... without an expensive milking machine. We defined XML
services as "Rock the Net" and passed out Van Halen CDs to executives.

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 3 recommendations available upon request

Technical Assistant to the Chairman at IBM Corporation

March 1997 - January 1998 (11 months)
Assisted Lou Gerstner in daily operations of the Chairman's office, responsible for all CEO, board,
and executive transactions on IBM technology. I'll never forget flying on the G5 when Lou and his
stewardess broke into a harmonic version of "Happy Birthday" and put a hot chocolate chip cookie
on my tray. Lou's an amazing mentor and not a bad baritone.
2 recommendations available upon request

Research Manager at IBM Corporation

June 1986 - March 1997 (10 years 10 months)
Engineering Management. Co-conspirator in IBM Research who built one of the earliest scalable
web services for hosting the US Open, Wimbledon, PGA Tour, Olympics and other sporting events.
Used Perl 4 (gads), AIX, SP2's, Thinkpads and about anything we could get our hands on to digest
a billion hits.

Engineering. Personally authored and wrote IBM's first web products, the IBM WebExplorer, with a
team of 4 in 4 months in C. Seven years as a programmer of distributed AI systems in LISP and C.
Four years as a research manager in web applications and interactive TV.
2 recommendations available upon request

Education
University of Washington
PhD, Computer Science, August 1989 - June 1993
Activities and Societies: IBM Resident Scholar 1989-1991

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

SB, SM, Computer Science, 1981 - 1986
Activities and Societies: Course VI-A, Pi Lambda Phi, Graduate Assistant in Artificial Intelligence,
Real Time Programming, and Distributed Object-oriented Computing.

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Honors and Awards
Computerworld's Premier 100 IT Executive, 2008
IBM Chairman's Award for Outstanding Teamwork, IBM WebExplorer, 1995
IBM Chairmans' Award for Outstanding Teamwork, IBM Olympics, 1997
IBM Outstanding Technical Achievement Award
American Academy of Achievement "Golden Plate" Award
Westinghouse Science Talent Search National Winner, "Starship" multi-player online game
Virginia Science Talent Search Top Winner
ACM Programming Contest National Winner
MIT Navy Scholarship
IBM Resident Study Scholarship

Interests
Agile software development, online media, open source, mobile publishing and advertising, online
entertainment, creative thinking & design, music, movies, advertising, skiing, travel, Manhattan,
Amagansett, Beaver Creek, St. Johns, leadership

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Scott Penberthy
Entrepreneur
[email protected]

22 people have recommended Scott

"Scott is an extraordinary leader and technology visionary with astounding business acumen.
Having worked with Scott is among my greatest professional experiences. He is extremely honest,
smart, very competent and capable of single-handedly transforming a company into a powerhouse.
Scott is also admired, respected and well-connected in the tech community, with an impeccable
ability to inspire others and rally them around a cause. He has an army of well-known top engineers
who truly admire him. His insatiable desire to code non-stop for hours on end, combined with his
creativity and his nature to experiment with the latest technology always keeps him at the forefront
of any the new developments in his line of work. That's the kind of person you want leading your
engineers and moving your business forward. On a more personal level, Scott is really down to
earth and has great people skills. He's very easy to get along with and fun to have around. He's
very trustworthy and will go the extra mile and extend a helping hand if you ever needed it. You can
count on him. It was a pleasure writing a recommendation for him. He's such a tremendous asset to
any firm. I can't recommend him enough."
— Fitim Blaku, Senior Programmer, Heavy.com, reported to Scott at Heavy, Inc.

"It is my pleasure to write this recommendation for Scott. While I worked at Heavy.com I never felt
like I worked for Scott but instead with him. He re-inspired my passion for programming and I
learned more working with him then under any other person in my entire career. His deep
knowledge of development, code, process, and management is so rare to find. Scott has an
amazing intuition for web technology and eagerly learns about it hands on. It is so rare to have a
CTO tell you about how a technology works because he has not only used it but probably taught it
to himself the night before. Working with Scott is more like painting then programing. He is my
mentor and the code I create becomes my finest work of art. Scott is also humble, kind, and calm
even in a hectic chaotic work environment. You can count on him when you are going to have to
work a late night because he will be there with you. He is always striving to help you be the best
and that kind of genuine encouragement is not traditionally seen in the technology world. I regret
leaving Heavy because I no longer work with Scott, but I can say that I have made a true friend. It is
an honor to work for him, and I would happily do it again!"
— Jesse Freeman, Sr. Engineer, Heavy.com, reported to Scott at Heavy, Inc.

"I worked directly with Scott providing resources for the Development team over at Photobucket.

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From an outside client perspective, Scott was a dream to work with. He is highly organized,
detail-focused, and driven to create positive change. Scott is unique in that he possesses a strong
technical acumen and yet is easily able to traverse the gap commonly found between business and
technical professionals. It is a rarity these days to find a passionate leader so well-versed from both
sides of the plate!"
— Conor Swanson, Senior Account Executive, The Remy Corporation, was a consultant or
contractor to Scott at Photobucket

"Scott and I were at the crossroads of client server and web technology changes going on. Many
religious wars were underway. Scott demonstrated great decisiveness in his executive decisions
and dove many key decisions which created the foundation long term technology growth. Scott
brings an uncanny ability to mesh the business impacts and deep technical expertise in his
approach to challenges."
— Jim Doran, Senior Architect - Directory Services, IBM, reported to Scott at IBM Corporation

"Scott is a brilliant, creative and inventive technologist and market strategist. Lots of fun to work
with, travel with and do business with. Scott understands how to cut through large company
bureaucracy to get deals done."
— David Levine, Founder/CEO, Emergent Game Technologies (Butterfly.net), was with another
company when working with Scott at IBM

"Without hesitation I can say that Scott is a leader who not only inspires his team, but participates
with it to a level that can only be hoped for by any organization. I have worked with many different
types of professionals throughout my career, some good, some not. But to find a person with the
technical expertise that is required for a leadership role in Engineering, combined with the human
element of fair, straightforward, and conscientious communication is truly the rare exception. Scott
is that type of a leader. I hope very much to one day again have the pleasure of working with him,
and would without pause recommend him for any organization."
— Geoffrey Cullins, Web Developer, Photobucket.com, Inc., reported to Scott at Photobucket

"There are many positive attributes that define Scott as a solid leader and intelligent engineer. His
ability to engage a person, observe and learn about them, and inspire them to do their best is what
really stands out. I am a better engineer due to the guidance he granted me. Scott is a great
individual and would be an asset to any organization."
— Josh West, Sr. Developer, Photobucket, reported to Scott at Photobucket

"Scott is one of the best engineering executives I've worked with. He manages that difficult balance
between driving the team, ensuring product quality and hitting business goals. He's also a great
team leader. I highly recommend Scott!"

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— Alex Musil, Vice President, Product, Photobucket, worked with Scott at Photobucket

"Not only is Scott brilliant technically, he is a charismatic leader who knows how to motivate and
mentor individuals and teams to be at their very best. A rare individual who is able to understand
and bring together the business, technical, and user perspectives. I would jump at the chance to
work with him again!"
— Todd Sheridan, Senior Web Developer, Photobucket.com, reported to Scott at Photobucket

"I have spent many years (too many to count) working with engineers at all levels, and Scott is
absolutely one of my favorites. He combines a rigorous approach to understanding engineering
priorities and process, with a creative approach to understanding user needs. He is always willing
to entertain exciting new opportunities that the market may offer, while keeping his head firmly in
the reality of shipping quality products on time. He is a great team leader, and has a terrific sense of
humor and camaraderie. I loved working with Scott, and I'm going to miss him at Photobucket!"
— Alice Lankester, Vice President, Marketing, Photobucket, Inc., worked with Scott at
Photobucket

"Scott and I worked closely together at the dawn of the Internet boom, helping IBM build the very
first web products. So I have known him professionally since early 1994. He was a Research
manager in New York, I was in the Networking Software division in Raleigh. Together we built and
shipped the OS/2 WebExplorer (web browser) to over a million customers in dozens of countries.
The team started with just four of us, but mushroomed to an entire product team over the course of
the year. Camaraderie and teamwork were so strong, we were constantly interrogated by senior
management as to the 'secret ingredient of our success', eventually winning the very first
Chairman's award for outstanding teamwork from Lou Gerstner, CEO (recall that Gerstner was
trying to re-unite IBM, so he wanted to reward and encourage cross-divisional collaboration). Well I
can tell you now, the 'secret ingredient' was Scott. I have to say that working with Scott was one of
the most memorable events of my career, and I refer to it often as an exemplary, fun time. His
performance was outstanding, where he earned a technical achievement award, stock options, and
more. He continued on with the server work as I eventually left IBM, then he rose quickly through
the ranks. I believe IBM is one of the best managed companies on the planet, and cultivates great
talent. Only the best reach Vice President levels in their early 30's, and only 4 became assistant to
the CEO. His efforts set the strategic foundation for IBM's entire web portfolio - Websphere, web
hosting, core technologies, and more. That is probably his biggest achievement - he was (and still
is) a visionary and transformational leader. Scott's creative energy and unique technical skills
helped propel IBM into the Internet era. Scott and I have been in touch ever since and continue to
collaborate in many ways. But to best capture Scott's leadership essence, I would say that he has a
powerful combination: he comes up with great innovative ideas, and communicates those ideas in
ways that inspire individuals, teams or even companies to follow him and do great work. It's rare

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that leaders are both great managers and deeply technical. Should you have the good fortune to
work with Scott, you will find as I have that he is by far one of the smartest people you will ever
have the pleasure to work with. It will almost certainly be wild ride, so get ready and fasten your
seat belt !! Sincerely, Dr. David Greenwood"
— David Greenwood, Program Director, e-Market Strategy & Business Development, IBM, worked
with Scott at IBM Corporation

"Scott is wicked smart. He is one of those rare individuals who can go both broad and deep and
then pull it all together and simplify it down to the important essence. If I needed to embark on
uncharted waters -- I'd want Scott in the boat."
— Michael O'Brien, Owner, Medthis Software, was with another company when working with Scott
at Bling Software

"SCott is one of the smartest people I had the pleasure of working with."
— Ofer Shoshan, Founder, CEO, Qlusters, was with another company when working with Scott at
IBM

"Scott is an innovator, doer and leader. He spots the trends early on, acts on them, and has the
knack of succeeding. His track record confirms this. And he is very personable."
— Ephraim Feig, Research Staff Member, IBM, worked with Scott at IBM Corporation

"Scott is a tremendous leader who has a deep appreciation of both the strategic decisions and the
daily details of the business. He brings a deep technical knowledge matched with sharp business
focus and an ability to grow and lead teams. It was a pleasure and a learning experience to work
with him and anyone would be lucky to have Scott as a friend or colleague."
— Paul Magnone, Program Director, Strategy & Business Development, IGS, IBM, reported to
Scott at IBM

"Scott is an extraordinary leader, who brought a great sense of passion to his endeavors at IBM. He
is a visionary who served as our primary spokesperson on variety of topics, most notably on the
subject of gaming and the potential for traditional IT players to play a role in the new era of
gaming-driven technology. Technology wise, he is without peer. Just as importanlty, he is a
charasmatic, leader who inspires the best in others."
— Jim Larkin, Director of Media Relations, IBM, worked directly with Scott at IBM

"Scott is technically one of the strongest founders we've seen, and his references were
impeccable."
— Austin Scee, Senior Associate, Advanced Technology Ventures, was with another company
when working with Scott at Bling Software

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 "I had the pleasure to work for Scott for several years at IBM. He is the quintessential definition of a
triple-play entrepreneur. He is a whiz at business. Scott is constantly blending great strategy,
deal-making, and execution to deliver outstanding, memorable results that create a path for others
to follow. He is a top communicator. Scott has a unique talent for communicating complex ideas in
ways that energize people from all walks of life - from Fortune 100 CEOs to software developers to
individual consumers. He is a technical genius. Scott has a long history of conceiving new ideas
and then making them a reality in short order, even in the face of extraordinary technical
complexity. He did so at IBM many times during his accomplished career, and then again as the
Founder / CEO of Bling Software. Many terrific entrepreneurs have one or two of these qualities.
Scott has them all, and a wonderful style that will always draw flocks of people to want to work with
him in whatever endeavor he undertakes."
— Ken Khouri, Business Development Executive, IBM, reported to Scott at IBM

"Scott and I were close associates of Lou Gerstner, then CEO and Chairman of IBM Corporation. I
was impressed with Scott technical acumen, combined with deep-grounded business vision. This
helped him to steer several key technical commitees at the top of IBM, and provide critical advice to
the CEO, thus bridging marketing and technology strategy."
— Pierre Liautaud, Executive Assistant to IBM Chairman and CEO, International Business
Machines, worked directly with Scott at IBM Corporation

"I worked with Scott in the office of the IBM CEO and I totally endorse Scott as an extremely bright
individual , with strong commitment to excellence and creativity. Scott is someone I would love to
work with or have on my team!"
— Michael Jackman, GM Health Care Info Solutions, Eastman Kodak, worked directly with Scott
at IBM Corporation

"Scott has championed innovative business transformations that improved the productivity and work
environment at IBM."
— David Reich, worked indirectly for Scott at IBM Corporation

"Scott is running one of the most important movements in corporate innovation today."
— John Wolpert, Director - BRIDGE Intermediated Services, Australian Industry Group, worked
indirectly for Scott at IBM Corporation

Contact Scott on LinkedIn

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