Geoffrey Cook

Co-founder, CEO

Geoffrey Cook has been Chief Executive Officer since March 11, 2013. Since November 10, 2011, he was a director and Chief Operating Officer, appointed in connection with the merger of Quepasa and myYearbook. Geoff co-founded myYearbook where he served as Chief Executive Officer from 2005 until the merger in 2011. During his tenure at myYearbook, Geoff grew myYearbook to profitability and $30+ million revenue with 100 employees. Geoff previously founded EssayEdge and ResumeEdge while a student at Harvard University in 1997 and sold them to The Thomson Corporation in 2002.

Jim Bugden

Chief Operating Officer

Jim has worked for internet and technology companies since 2000. He was the CFO of myYearbook from 2007 through 2012. He rejoined MeetMe in 2016 to lead a Corporate Development effort and serve as the GM of our west coast businesses. In 2017, he became our chief financial officer, and in 2020 he became our chief operating officer.

Prior to and in between his time at MeetMe, Jim led finance teams at venture backed technology companies such as Rent the Runway, Solve Media, Circulate and TurnTide. Jim also sat as CFO In-Residence for First Round Capital for 2 years. He’s been played a key role in over $750 million of M&A and fundraising transactions. Jim earned his CPA during his 7 years with Deloitte where he primarily served public technology companies.

Richard Friedman

Chief Technology Officer

Mr. Richard Friedman has been Chief Technology Officer at The Meet Group since September, 2020. Mr. Friedman has held various leadership tenures at The Meet Group including SVP Engineering, and Director of Engineering. Previously Mr. Friedman has been CEO of RedLine13, CTO at Stuzo Inc, Product Management at JBoss and its acquirer Red Hat, and various roles at Bluestone Software and its acquirer Hewlett Packard.

Nick Hermansader

SVP Advertising

Nick has worked in digital advertising for his entire career, which began in 2008 with myYearbook. He served as Traffic Manager from 2008-2009 and Director of Advertising Operation 2009-2013. He went on to become VP of Advertising Operations at The Meet Group until 2017. Nick spent the following year heading up programmatic monetization at Imgur, a Comscore 100 entertainment destination. He returned to TMG to lead advertising as Senior Vice President of Advertising.

Catherine Connelly

Co-founder, SVP Marketing

Catherine is Co-founder and Senior Vice President of Marketing for The Meet Group, leading marketing and communications, across its portfolio of social entertainment apps and livestreaming and creator economy solutions.

As a passionate storyteller, Catherine leads strategic initiatives that engage audiences with The Meet Group’s mission – to meet the universal need for human connection. She is instrumental in growing apps like MeetMe and Tagged into two of the top 10 dating apps in the U.S, as measured by consumer spend and downloads and creating a platform that touches over 10 million monthly active users.

Catherine’s 16 years of experience includes co-founding myYearbook, creating what would eventually become The Meet Group, and leading brand strategy and performance marketing for The Meet Group through a series of mergers, acquisitions and rebrands. The Meet Group sold for $500 million in September 2020 and is now part of ParshipMeet.

Catherine also works closely with the Oasis Consortium and is a council member at Women In Dating; organizations that are working to reduce online toxicity, and bring safety and belonging into the digital dating and community space.

Catherine graduated from Georgetown University and holds an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She was named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award Winner for the Philadelphia Region in 2011. Catherine has been reported on extensively on CNBC, MTV, ABC News, Fox News, CosmoGIRL, BusinessWeek, the San Francisco Chronicle, and CBS.

Jeremy Zorn

SVP Product

Jeremy Zorn has served as our Senior Vice President of Product since April 2018, previously serving as Vice President of Product since November 10, 2011. Jeremy was appointed in connection with the myYearbook merger. From May 2006 until the myYearbook merger, Jeremy served as the Vice President of Product Development of myYearbook. From June 2003 to May 2006, Jeremy held a number of positions at Thomson Peterson’s, where his last position was Director of Product for Essay & Resume Services.

Norman Petty

General Counsel

Norman became our General Counsel in 2021. He leads our Legal team as well as our Trust & Safety team. Prior to joining The Meet Group, Norman spent 25 years as a lawyer for Dow Jones and primarily advised Dow Jones' consumer division, which includes The Wall Street Journal and Barron's.

During his tenure at Dow Jones, Norman gained extensive experience negotiating strategic alliances with large technology platforms and international partners as well as advising on legal issues impacting consumer-focused subscription and advertising businesses. Prior to Dow Jones, Norman worked as an attorney at both Morgan Lewis and Reed Smith in Philadelphia.