Mike Riley

Mr. Riley has spent forty years as a senior corporate executive, first leading the marketing innovations of Fortune 500 firms, and later building marketing-driven startup firms.

He first served for two decades as a strategic planning officer or partner of leading advertising agencies in Chicago and San Francisco. There he helped client firms like Procter & Gamble, Miles/Bayer, Coca-Cola, and Dole Foods to generate over $2 Billion in incremental annual sales by helping them to introduce a host of successful new products and brands.

More recently, Mr. Riley has helped to create seven new firms in Southern California. Between them, these firms have provided more than two hundred man-years of employment for skilled workers and executives. The business of these firms range from telecommunications to consumer electronics; one marketed the fastest growing microbrewed beer brand in the United States while he was President of the firm.

In 2005, Mr. Riley and his partner sold their market-leading municipal marketing firm to The Active Network, a fast-growing, innovative software and marketing services firm. Since then, Mr. Riley has focused on providing marketing communications services to a wide range of clients, providing them with strategic planning, writing and design services, as well as multimedia and video campaigns.

Mr. Riley is also a Vietnam-era military veteran, best-selling author, and inventor (five U.S. patents). He earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in Marketing and Advertising from the Medill and Kellogg Schools of Northwestern University.