Creating the Best Video Platform
for Video-Driven Businesses

Dave has drawn on decades of executive-level IT experience to secure JW Player’s position as the leading video software and data insights platform on the market. As its co-founder and chief executive officer, Dave has helped propel JW Player from a popular open-source video player to the digital video platform of choice for hundreds of thousands of businesses, including half of the comScore top 50 websites in the U.S. Dave’s strategic leadership has helped JW Player’s customer-base reach an average of over 1 billion viewers per month across 2.7 billion devices. Prior to his time at JW Player, Dave served in various leadership positions at companies including Nielsen/Net Rating and About.com. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree in finance from Georgetown University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

JW Player’s creator, co-founder, and chief product evangelist is a recognized expert in online video and standards who drives innovation and market awareness. He is active in the IAB and W3C standards committees and frequently presents at conferences such as IBC and Streaming Media. He graduated with honors from the Design Academy Eindhoven with a degree in management and communication.

Brian Rifkin is a co-founder and Senior Vice President of Strategic Partnerships of JW Player, a global video platform that is trusted by the world’s leading media companies and brands. A digital veteran, Brian has over two decades worth of experience working for companies on the cutting edge of technology. Prior to co-founding JW Player, he served as president of A Simple Internet, a media services firm he founded in 2001 specializing in digital marketing. He started his career with About.com serving as senior vice president of business development.  Brian currently serves as a mentor at the Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator (ERA). He holds a BS in Business Administration from the University of Pittsburgh.

As Chief HR Officer, Jillian leads the overall operational and strategic alignment of JW Player’s people and talent. She is responsible for attracting, retaining, and developing JW Player’s talent and culture. She has over 20 years of experience leading Talent Acquisition, Performance Management, and People Operations at media and technology companies. She is passionate about growing and evolving talent in creative, proactive, and scalable ways. Prior to JW Player, Jillian led HR and Operations at the media company, Mashable, and managed administration and HR for the financial tech firm, Correlix. She holds an MFA from Naropa University and a BA in Advertising from the University of Oregon.

Phil is JWP’s Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) where he leads marketing, sales, partnerships, customer success and support. Phil has 25 years of experience building and leading high-performance go-to-market (GTM) teams at hyper growth early-stage startups that IPO’d like Akamai Technologies and HubSpot. Prior to joining JW Player, Phil most recently served as vice president and group director of sales research at Forrester where he led a team of veteran GTM leaders who advised sales, marketing and product leaders on how to build a modern revenue engine. He served on the board of directors of Read to a Child, an education nonprofit for at-risk elementary students and has also been an active angel investor for 20 years with numerous successful exits. Phil holds a BA from Duke University and is a graduate of MIT Sloan’s Greater Boston Executive program.

Andrew leads the finance team at JW Player and is in charge of executing the company’s business strategy as a successful SaaS based enterprise. Prior to joining he ran finance for RetailNext where he led the company’s transformation from one-time to recurring revenue. Earlier in his career he had senior roles in private equity and investment banking. Andrew holds a MS and MBA from Georgetown University and a BA from Bates College.

Ryan Beebe is the Senior Vice President Sales at JW Player. The first senior account executive at the company and later its first VP of Sales for EMEA and APAC, Ryan has grown a diverse global customer base by working with hundreds of publishers among some of the world’s largest media companies over the last seven years. He graduated from Miami University (not Florida but Ohio!) with a B.S. in marketing and entrepreneurship. A Connecticut native, Ryan currently resides in London and has also lived in Thailand, Japan, and Australia.

James leads our broadcast product strategy, ensuring we provide innovative, scaleable and monetizable solutions for our broadcast clients. James has over 20 years experience working in the streaming industry. Before joining JW Player in 2021 as SVP of Broadcast Products, James was previously the CTO & Co-Founder of Vualto. Vualto was acquired by JWP in April 2021. James has helped to deliver ABR Streaming with DRM for HBO Europe and architected and delivered the original encoding solution behind the BBC iPlayer Radio—the first major radio OTT service in the UK. Recently, he has delivered end-to-end broadcast solutions for many of Europe’s leading broadcasters including VRT, Telenor and France Televisions. He has a background in networks/IP and has worked with broadcasters and governments to solve workflows, systems integrations, and improve efficiencies with full-stack OTT services covering Live, VOD, DRM and Catchup services.

Aisha is the Senior VP, Finance at JWP and has been responsible for establishing, maturing, and leading the accounting and finance function. Prior to JWP, Aisha was the VP, Finance at Dstillery. There she contributed to its growth from a small to mid-size advertising technology company where she was responsible for the entire lifecycle of financial reporting and its operations including budgeting, forecasting and audits.Previously, Aisha was the Controller for the About Group both pre and post the NY Times Company acquisition. She holds a BA in accounting from Pace University.

David LaPalomento is an esteemed industry veteran and the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at JW Player. With over a decade of invaluable experience in internet video delivery, David has been instrumental in spearheading groundbreaking advancements that have revolutionized the industry. His visionary leadership has paved the way for the widespread adoption of adaptive bitrate streaming technology on the web, empowering content creators and viewers alike. David has been at the forefront of global engineering endeavors, driving innovation in critical areas such as the transition to HTML-based video players, server-side ad insertion, and live streaming. His unwavering commitment to technological excellence continues to shape the landscape of online video, positioning JW Player as a frontrunner in the industry.