Guidester Names John Federman CEO
Senior Executive Brings Years of Proven Management Expertise and Online Retail and Customer Conversion Experience to Guidester
New York – January 14, 2008 – Guidester, Inc., the first paid search e-commerce network for manufacturers, today announced the appointment of John Federman to president and chief executive officer. A proven leader, Federman brings years of e-commerce and media experience to Guidester.
Until December, Federman was the CEO of eStara, the leading provider of proactive conversion solutions for enhancing online sales and support initiatives. eStara was acquired by Art Technology Group (Nasdaq: ARTG) in 2006, and Federman remained at the company to lead integration and work towards achieving its 2007 earn-out. While at eStara, he helped leading online retailers such as Amazon.com, Jenny Craig and Best Buy connect with high-value customers at crucial times in the buying experience to improve online conversion rates and reduce shopping cart abandonment.
“Guidester is poised to become an integral piece of the e-commerce puzzle – for consumers, manufacturers and etailers – and become the next big thing in paid search,” said John Federman. “Guidester is at the forefront of establishing paid search as an industry standard for both etailers and manufacturers. By partnering with the major site search, performance and e-commerce platform companies serving the needs of etailers, we will transform online product search from a needed utility to a revenue-generating core operation of their site. In the same way in-store marketing like *end-caps* have matured to a key source of revenue for brick-and-mortar retailers, I’m looking forward to leading Guidester to help etailers apply the same fundamentals to their increasingly important e-commerce sites.”
Federman has extensive experience in developing start-up companies and driving them to growth and profitability. As president and CEO of AdSmart, a CMGI company, he grew the company tenfold and orchestrated its sale to Engage. Following AdSmart, Federman successfully repositioned Newmediary from a destination site to an ASP supporting a private label directory network, and sold that company to CNet Networks. And, just prior to eStara, Federman was co-founder, president and CEO of Dotomi, an Internet advertising company. While leading Dotomi in establishing U.S. operations, Federman guided the rollout of its first product that enables advertisers to display personalized banner ads.
He spent 12 years at PC Week, rising from regional advertising manager to publisher of the #1 trade publication in the world. While at PC Week, he managed all aspects of the publication’s operations and launched PC Week online. Federman replaces Guidester founder Joe Chin who remains at the company, serving as Chief Strategy Officer.
“The proven leadership skills that John brings to Guidester will surely propel the company to the forefront of the e-commerce and paid search world,” said Chin. “He has an extraordinarily strong track record of repeat success and I am thrilled to have him join our team.”
About Guidester, Inc.
Guidester is the first paid search network for product manufacturers. Through Guidester’s proprietary AdMatch bidding engine, product manufacturers like Sony, Olympus and Lenovo set CPC bids to influence top product placement in the search results on Guidester’s network of ecommerce and comparison shopping engine partners. Guidester provides manufacturers with sponsorship opportunities through a variety of services and navigation tools it deploys on its partner sites including: Guidester Hit ListTM, Guidester NAVTM and Guidester IQTM. For more information on the company and its services, please visit us online at http://www.guidester.com/ or call 212.227.8990.