Local Search Association Adds Jed Nachman of Yelp and Michael Fordyce of Ninthdecimal to Board

Published: 04/22/2015

LSA honors Chris Cummings, CEO of Marquette and Peter McDonald, former CEO of Dex Media, Inc. with Lifetime Achievement Awards

HOLLYWOOD, CA, April 22, 2015
 — The Local Search Association (LSA) today announced the addition of Jed Nachman of Yelp and Michael Fordyce of NinthDecimal to its board of directors. The new board members represent the growing diversity of companies participating in the local advertising marketplace, including review sites, data intelligence companies, digital agencies, and mobile and social media companies.

With their vast expertise and experience in local, the new board members will work closely with LSA’s existing board to help deliver greater value and benefits to the Association’s growing membership – this year alone more than 30 new members have joined.

“We are the only organization whose sole focus is on the business of local and we represent the full spectrum of local advertising companies, regardless of platform or channel,” said Neg Norton, president, Local Search Association. “Jed and Mike represent two of the innovations that are having the greatest impact on both businesses and consumers in the local marketplace and we are excited they will be helping lead our Association.”

Industry Leaders Join Board of Directors
In a meeting at the 2015 LSA Annual Conference currently taking place in Hollywood, Calif., the LSA Board of Directors approved the instatement of the two new directors:

  • Jed Nachman, Senior Vice President of Revenue, Yelp. Jed has been with Yelp since early 2007 and is responsible for leading Yelp’s rapidly growing sales, client services, and revenue operations groups, which span across four domestic locations as well as Europe. Prior to Yelp, Jed spent seven years in senior sales roles for Yahoo! HotJobs, and most recently as director of corporate sales for the Western region. He began his career in the Venture Services Group of investment bank Robertson Stephens.
  • Michael Fordyce, Chief Executive Officer, NinthDecimal. Mike joined NinthDecimal in November 2012 to accelerate the growth of the company to be the leading mobile audience intelligence platform building the most comprehensive understanding of people by connecting their digital and physical lives. His career spans more than twenty years in business development, strategic alliances, corporate development, marketing, product management, and sales within the telecom, adtech, and media industry.

The Board also reelected Bill Dinan as Chair of the LSA board of directors. Bill is President of Telmetrics, Inc. and begins his 3rd year as Chair. He is joined by Ben Wood of Google and Sharon Sweeney of Fairway Group who were appointed to the board’s Executive Committee.

“We are thrilled to welcome Jed and Mike and their collective industry insight to the LSA board,” said Norton. “This is an exciting time for our industry and Association and the strong leadership from the board as a whole will drive LSA to further elevate the local advertising market and support local businesses.”

In addition to these new members, the board currently includes representatives of DAC Group, Dex Media, Fairway Group, Google, hibu, Marquette Group/USMotivation, Microsoft, ReachLocal, Starcom MediaVest Group, Telmetrics, The Berry Company, Yellow Pages Digital and Media Solutions, and YP Holdings LLC. 

About Yelp
Yelp Inc. (https://www.yelp.com) connects people with great local businesses. Yelp was founded in San Francisco in July 2004. Since then, Yelp communities have taken hold in major metros across 29 countries. Yelp had a monthly average of approximately 135 million unique visitors in the fourth quarter of 2014. By the end of the same quarter, Yelpers had written approximately 71 million rich, local reviews, making Yelp the leading local guide for real word-of-mouth on everything from boutiques and mechanics to restaurants and dentists. Approximately 72 million unique visitors visited Yelp via their mobile device on a monthly average basis during the fourth quarter of 2014.

Yelp Press Inquiries
415.908.3801

About Ninth Decimal
NinthDecimal is the leading mobile audience intelligence company empowering marketers with the most comprehensive understanding of people by connecting their digital and physical lives. Fortune 500 companies and marquee brands, including Microsoft, Target, Kraft, Comcast, American Express, Starbucks and Toyota, use NinthDecimal to achieve high performing campaigns by engaging the most precise and relevant audiences across all media channels on a single platform. By bridging online and offline data sources, NinthDecimal offers the most precise audience solution in the market to create a true understanding of mobile consumers and how to engage them throughout their path-to-purchase. Its Location Conversion Index™ (LCI™) is the mobile industry’s most accurate ROI metric for measuring the incremental lift in store visits directly attributed to mobile ad campaigns; and its data partnerships with leading companies like Datalogix and Neustar provide a comprehensive closed-loop solution for marketers.

Kimberly Breslin
NinthDecimal
415.821.8609

About LSA

The Local Search Association (LSA) is a not-for-profit industry association of media companies, agencies and technology providers who help businesses market to local consumers. LSA has about 300 members in roughly 20 countries and the Association helps these members realize the power of local and location-based marketing through conferences, consulting, insights, advocacy and more.

The Association offers industry news and perspective on its blog, LSA Insider, as well as resources on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and SlideShare.

Press Contact

Greg Sterling
VP of Strategy and Insights
Local Search Association
415.886.7276