BlackWaterOps » Staff

Ivy Clark: Director of Office Management (DOM)

Brandon Wirtz — Sat, 14 May 2011 19:22:55 +0000

Though a merciless ball of spunk, Ivy is cleverly disguised as a sweet little geek. But really she’s the one cracking the whip and keeping us at the grind stone. And then keeping us sane with mandated down time. She’s a gal of many hats with random talents and a knack for things green and earthy.

Ivy manages the day to day operations of BlackWaterOps, and makes sure the staff remembers to do other things aside from work like eat, bathe, and get some fresh air from time to time. She also organizes like a wiz, arranges, schedules, and serves as Brandon’s personal Mary Poppins, sans the umbrella.

Brandon Wirtz Chief Executive Officer

Brandon Wirtz — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 23:42:26 +0000

Brandon has been using SEO for fun and profit for nearly 10 years. Brandon was an early adopter of blogging and social media. He was one of the pioneers of Internet Video, and was part of several IPTV start-ups. Through all of it he continued to make money online through monetizing his content and helping other with monetizing theirs.

In May of 2007 while working at Microsoft, Brandon tested his SEO metal for the first time against other SEO’s. Jonah Stein created a race to be the Greatest Living American while visiting the Colbert Show. Brandon quickly rose to the top and beat out 100’s of other SEO’s competing to make themselves, a client, or Steven Colbert the top hit for the term.

Brandon was a voting member on the SMPTE committee to ratify H.264 and VC-1. He was Microsoft’s first and only Windows Media Server MVP/User Evangelist. His background is varied by technology but has always been at the fore front of new media.

Brandon was also a Teacher at Stone Hebrew Academy, and a Director at Kimball Camp YMCA, these positions gave him strong background in education, and story telling. This has made him a strong speaker, and an excellent presenter.

“Diz” Dang Director of Social Media

Brandon Wirtz — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:00:11 +0000

Diz is the face of BlackWaterOps with a soft voice, and bright smile she manages our relationship with the online world. Diz is BlackWaterOps connection to the newest generation of Internet Users, she works to help us understand what the 20 something crowd’s are looking for, and helps us tune our messaging to reach this audience. Diz also works with our partners and clients to understand what we can do for them. Taking the complex and making it obtainable for the masses, she uses analogy, and her keen art of storytelling to make our messaging “work”.

Jake Ludington EVP of Strategic Partner Relationships

Brandon Wirtz — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 20:03:23 +0000

BlackWaterOps is proud to have Jake Ludington as our EVP of Strategic Partner Relationships. Jake brings his years of managing affiliates, affiliate aggregators, ad brokers, and PR Firms to BlackWaterOps.

Ludington Media West, LLC

January 2001 — Present (8 years 6 months)

Jake Ludington helps over 1,000,000 people answer their video and audio questions every month. From detailed tutorials on complicated video editing scenarios to finding useful tools for isolated problems, Jake provides ongoing research on the best methods for making Internet delivered video. A reasonably comprehensive list of Jake’s writing can be found by searching Google for Jake Ludington. Jake continues in the tradition of providing users with useful digital media focused content in his Digital Lifestyle publication, which is available for free subscription here.

Publisher and principle creative force behind Jake Ludington’s MediaBlab.
Reach over 1 million unique reader’s monthly through a combination of Web searches, email, and RSS.
Annual software sales in excess of $1 million
Industry expert on video compression, video editing, and consumer video cameras.
Consultant on live streaming and on demand audio and video delivery.

IPTV Consultant: Microsoft

November 2006 — November 2007 (1 year 1 month)

Consultant and subject matter expert developing standards and best practices for video encoding and streaming for the Microsoft TV IPTV product adopted by AT&T U-verse, Bell Canada, and a number of other telecommunications firms around the world.

Business Development / Editor :Lockergnome.com

September 2000 — August 2003 (3 years)

Acted as contributing editor to Lockergnome’s Digital Media and Apple Core channels, while also managing contributions from other writers, writing on topics . Developed ebook business from launch, taking it to 20% of the company’s annual revenue. Managed affiliate advertising campaigns, assisting in pioneering affiliate wrapped software downloads.