Uptake Team
Yen Lee, Co-founder and president of Uptake, has been helping launch and grow travel and local search businesses since 1996 when he co-founded CitySearch San Francisco. As Executive Vice President at WorldRes and Places to Stay, his team captured nearly 12% of 2001 online hotel bookings (source: PhoCusWright). Most recently, Yen was General Manager for Travel at Yahoo!, where he helped grow the travel business 40% annually and exceeded targets for 10 straight quarters. Before being saved by the internet, Yen used to work in the railroad and newsprint industries as a McKinsey consultant in Canada.
He received his masters from MIT and undergraduate degree from University of Western Ontario. Yen is a frequent speaker in technology and travel conferences, including Goldman Sachs, PhoCusWright, EyeforTravel and USTA events and he has provided analysis and interviews for New York Times, Travel Weekly, Bloomberg, MSNBC, Venture Wire and others on search, social media, e-commerce, and travel. He was also recently featured in Entrepreneur Magazine. He served as board chair of Big Brothers and Big Sisters of San Francisco and competes in open water swims.
Yen's Favorite Vacations: I still recall with surprisingly color my last trip to the Queen Charlotte Islands with my late brother and a posse of friends from Sault Sainte Marie: the long summer days, unspoiled temperate rainforest, marine life, mossy beds, and chocolate fondues. My most recent trip was a two week vacation this spring to Bali, Lombok and Gili Trawangan for surfing, eating, diving and snorkeling without the encumbrances of digital life, not even a Blackberry!
Gene McKenna, co-founder, has 15 years of experience in software design and product development in direct marketing and travel. Previously Gene ran product at Acxiom Digital (formerly Digital Impact) and was responsible for the platform that sent over 5 billion personalized emails daily; during his tenure the company reached profitability for the first time. Before that he co-founded Bluedot Software, a travel company sold to Peter Ueberroth's Ambassador's International. Gene is a MIT-trained engineer and has a Masters from Stanford.
Gene's Favorite Vacations: When we travel, my family likes to explore and get exercise. We've taken a number of great bike trips usually with an organized group that carries luggage and sets up food along the way. We spent a week biking across New England, from upstate New York to Maine with 14 family members including a 1 year old niece we took turns pulling in a burley. You really get to see a place when you are traveling on a bike. You travel on more scenic roads, and you take it all in at a slow 10-20 mph instead of zooming by in a car at 60. The best part about a bike trip is after a long day of biking you can literally eat anything and everything you want.
Clive Beavis, vice president of engineering, has more than twenty years of software development management experience at both public and start-up companies where he has managed the development of a wide range of technologies including commerce platforms, globally distributed applications, and fraud detection systems. As Vice President of Engineering and CTO at Micro Focus, Clive oversaw research and development of the entire product range. As Vice President of Products for PeerLogic, he coordinated the projects of four recently acquired development teams and was part of the management team that positioned PeerLogic for acquisition by Critical Path.
Clive's Favorite Vacations: I was fortunate enough to be invited by the leader of an Inuit Eskimo tribe to a place called Point Hope. Point Hope is on a barren stretch of land sitting on a peninsula about 200 miles inside of the Arctic Circle. To be a guest at the three day whaling festival was really special and a unique experience for me. The weather was perfect during my visit; clear sky, no wind, making it a perfectly calm, clear and peaceful place, the silence was deafening. The sun of course shone all day, and all night!
Chris Hickson joined Uptake Networks in May of 2010 as vice president of revenue and is responsible for the overall strategy and revenue growth of the company.
Previously, Chris was General Manager of Yahoo! Travel where he was responsible for the P&L and strategy for the property. Prior to managing Yahoo! Travel, he acted as Senior Director of Business Development for Yahoo! Travel and Yahoo! Local, where he was responsible for business development and alliance management. Prior to Yahoo!, Christopher worked for Ingenio, Inc. (acquired by AT&T Interactive), as Director of Business Development. At Ingenio, he was an inventor of the Pay Per Call Advertising Platform which he brought to market through a host of licensing and distribution partnerships. Before Ingenio, he worked at NBC Internet, Inc. in both business development and finance roles.
Chris received an MBA with an emphasis in finance from Georgetown University and a BA in economics from Occidental College.
Chris' Favorite Vacations: A trip to the Greek Isles with a bunch of good friends during the World Cup. Great culture, food, beaches... and there is nothing like watching football in European bars, surrounded by loads of (just slightly intoxicated) Europeans with lots of national pride at stake!
Lesley Kao recently joined Uptake in February, 2011 as the vice president of product. Prior to joining UpTake, Lesley led the global product management, product marketing and design teams for the Yahoo! Listings businesses, which are comprised of some of the leading online consumer research sites: Yahoo! Shopping, Travel, Autos, Real Estate, Deals and Personals. During her tenure at Yahoo!, Lesley led the global launch and growth of Yahoo! Answers in more than 21 countries and nine languages. Lesley is a graduate of Stanford University, University of Cambridge, and the Haas School, University of California
Lesley's Favorite Vacations: I love food so usually my travels often center around eating and even more importantly, sharing great food with friends. Some of my favorite trips are those spent with a close-knit group of friends. On one excursion we drove across the Northern Coast of Spain, making our way through Basque Country, Cantabria and Asturias. Every day was spent exploring different towns and every meal was a celebration, whether it be walking across the city to find a locals recommendation of the best churros y chocolate, ducking into a family shop for mind-blowing slices of jamon iberico de bellota, or driving into the mountains to have an amazing multi-course meal capped by a *giant* family-style bowl of smoky arroz con leche for dessert.
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