About Us

Joel Ohman, Chief Executive Officer

Brandon Halprin, Chief Financial Officer

Brandon has worked as a CFO for two prior private equity-backed companies and has extensive experience with leadership of all finance functions. He has performed due diligence and provided financial guidance to senior management leading to strategic acquisitions and other key business transactions and is comfortable designing forecasting and integration models for M&A activity. He has been involved in multiple equity funding rounds with institutional capital and is comfortable creating reporting structures to enhance communication with key stakeholders. Brandon holds an MBA from the University of South Florida.

Matt Rihtar, Chief Marketing Officer

No stranger to the world of insurance, paid media, and business development, Matt has a deep understanding of the digital insurance advertising marketplace and managing large-scale marketing channels across search, social, display, and strategic partnerships. Matt has held marketing positions at a number of brands, including marketing manager at Insurance.com, SVP of Business Development at insuranceQuotes, a Bankrate company, and Chief Marketing Officer at UE.co.  In 2019 Matt helped sell the UE.co business to Digital Media Solutions (DMS) and remained with DMS, serving as SVP of Insurance. Matt joins Quote.com as Chief Marketing Officer, responsible for overseeing marketing strategy, paid media and building out the suite of products that connect high-intent consumers with a network of auto, home, health, and life insurance providers.

Chris Michelson, Chief Revenue Officer

As Chief Revenue Officer for Quote.com, Chris leads: Marketplace Operations, Business Development, Sales, Account Management as well as Client Success and Retention. He is directly responsible for adding and developing the Medicare marketplace into the top vertical for our organization. Since joining the team he has provided +5x YoY lift to our bottom line performance. Prior to Quote.com Chris held leadership positions at large Insurance Agencies, Consumer Finance organizations, Home Service aggregators and held licenses for both health and life insurance. Combining over a decade of experience in insurance marketing leadership and over 20 years of professional sales experience, Chris helps to lead Quote.com as we evolve and grow our Insurance, Consumer Finance, Legal, and Home Services Marketplace.

Outside of business hours you can find Chris tinkering with antique vehicles, hiking, fishing, or enjoying his favorite activity—hanging out with his daughter Kenzie Joy, who is already a better mechanic and fisher than he is.

John Gadbois, Chief Technology Officer

John has worked in digital media lead generation for over 10 years, with 5 of those years in executive leadership positions. John is a full-stack developer with deep experience in site architecture and managing technical teams. He has overseen the growth and development of hundreds of web properties, resulting in 99.9% uptime performance while supporting millions of annual visitors and multiple thousands of concurrent users. He holds an MBA from the University of Connecticut and an M.S. in Computer Science from Georgia Tech

Lauren Greenwald, VP of Strategy & Analytics

After spending several years in Financial Planning & Analysis roles in North Carolina and New York City Lauren moved into the insuretech space, joining UE.co.  Serving as Manager of Strategy at UE, she led the incredible growth and profitability of the company over five years and was part of the M&A team that sold the business to Digital Media Solutions (DMS) in 2019.  Most recently, Lauren held the position of Director, Business Analytics with DMS where she led the entire analytics team across multiple verticals, channels, and products. She was named a 2018 finalist for the San Diego Business Journal Business Women of the Year for her impactful work at UE.co. Lauren joins Quote.com as VP, Strategy & Analytics where she will be responsible for overseeing data integrity and support company growth across organic and paid media channels.

Joseph Ariaz, VP of Product

Joseph has become the leading product, design, and development engineer in the insuretech space with 15 years of experience in the lead generation businesses, specializing in UI/UX of consumer-facing product funnels. His designs and infrastructure have been used to power paid media campaigns for $100M businesses.  Key to Joseph’s success has been his deep acumen in data analysis and split testing which has resulted in best-in-class click-through and conversion rates through an iterative approach. Joseph joins Quote.com as VP of Product, responsible for all of Quote.com’s consumer funnels across the portfolio of domains and verticals.

Christian Mackley, VP of Call Marketplace

Christian has grown up around insurance and entrepreneurship his whole life. He started at his family’s local insurance agency and ventured into the lead generation industry a few years later. After working for a publicly-traded marketing company as a sales director he quickly uncovered opportunities that better aligned with his entrepreneurial spirit which led him to form his own online media venture leveraging comprehensive data acquisition strategies. As the VP of Calls Marketplace, Christian oversees Quote.com’s entire call marketplace. He has a deep focus in the health insurance space leveraging years of experience and extensive first-hand knowledge as an insurance agency owner himself.

Erich Garcia, VP of Paid Media

With over a decade of performance marketing experience focused on Paid Search and Programmatic, Erich heads up Paid Marketing for Quote.com. Prior to his current role Erich spent time running performance Programmatic Media for brands like: Mercari, 1-800-Contacts, Consumer Cellular and Head Space at Rain The Growth Agency in the Pacific Northwest. Before heading toward Agency work Erich had stops at publicly traded companies like QuinStreet as well as in-house work for brands like Harley-Davidson North America driving performance campaigns in Paid Search and Display.

Outside of work Erich can be found at wineries across the PNW, golfing, volunteering or spending time with his Wife and pets.

Mark Fidel, President, Media (Ring2Media)

Mark Fidel is a successful entrepreneur with a proven track record of creating, building, and selling companies. As an industry-leading marketing and advertising executive, Mark’s performance-driven mentality has been the key to his biggest achievements.

In his most recent venture, Ring2Media, now a division of Quote.com, Mark led a team of seasoned individuals dedicated to effectively distributing advertisers’ cost-per-action (CPA) commercials across its network of television properties, including cable systems, syndicators, and national affiliates.

He is also co-founder of Guardian First Funding, which was ultimately sold to Knight Capital Group, and founder and business developer for VCOM.com, which was ultimately sold to Utility.com (Idealab). Mark enjoys family time, skiing, exercise, yoga, golfing, and listening to live music in his spare time.

John Neff, Chief Operations Officer, Media (Ring2Media)

John Neff is a Lead Generation industry veteran with expertise in Direct to Consumer Insurance, Financial Services, Legal,  and Home Services.

Prior to joining the Quote.com team, John spent eight years at Ring2Media, the nation’s premier Direct Response Television Lead Generation firm.  During his tenure as COO of Ring2Media, 

John focused on building client relationships, performance analytics, and operational leadership.  John is excited to help Quote.com expand into Television Lead Generation and develop multi-channel opportunities. 

A graduate of the University of Delaware and a die-hard Blue Hens fan, John is an avid beach-goer and concert-goer and enjoys spending time with his three children.

Lauren Mitchell, Sr. VP of Media, Media (Ring2Media)

Lauren has worked in direct response marketing for over 20 years.  Prior to joining Ring2Media, she spent 13 years at Nutrisystem leading their marketing efforts in long- and short-form television, radio, podcasting, and connected TV.  She understands the complexities of the media landscape and their impact on client goals.

Her responsibilities at Ring2Media include strategizing, analyzing, and executing media buying initiatives and building relationships with vendors and clients.

On the weekends, Lauren can be found on the sidelines of a soccer or softball field watching her daughters compete or binge-watching TV, which she considers market research.

Erica Kramer, VP of Production, Media (Ring2Media)

Erica was born for direct response marketing. With 15-plus years of experience in the industry, she brings a level of unmatched passion and commitment.  She spent the majority of her career at Nutrisystem focusing on creative production while leading all electronic retailing efforts for the brand.

Erica knows how to drive immediate response and generate leads. As the VP of Production for Ring2Media, Erica takes a measured approach as she oversees the creative production process from end to end.

She believes in direct communication, loves a good team effort, and nothing is more exciting than producing winning creative content.  

She is one HYPE dance mom to two beautiful daughters.

Paul Stanco, Sr. Vice President of Health & Life Insurance

Paul has over 20 years of experience in performance marketing using data-driven insights to deliver on performance and growth objectives.

Prior to joining Quote.com, Paul spent 8 years with HealthPlanOne, a Medicare brokerage, where he led marketing and product development, helping the company grow revenue over 10x and launching one of the first e-commerce sites for shopping and enrollment in Medicare plans.

Before HealthPlanOne, he spent 12 years building and growing consumer subscription service businesses at Affinion and Webloyalty.

At Affinion, Paul established a new, direct-to-consumer business unit, setting strategy and managing execution, ultimately bringing to market the company’s flagship consumer credit reporting product using a multi-channel marketing approach.

Paul holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Lehigh University and an MBA from New York University.

Ben Moe, Board Member

Ben is Managing Director of Osceola Capital and oversees all investment activities including origination, evaluation, and execution of investments. He has completed over 65 M&A transactions to date across a wide variety of industries. Previously, Ben served as CEO of Avesta Asset Management, a private equity firm focused on value-add multifamily real estate investments.  Before Avesta, he was CFO of Advantage Waypoint, an outsourced business services company, where he helped lead the acquisition of 24 businesses before an eventual sale to Apax Partners.  Ben also spent six years in the investment banking groups of Bear Stearns and Raymond James and five years as a United States Air Force officer and hospital administrator. Ben earned an MBA from Duke University and a BS with Distinguished Graduate designation from the United States Air Force Academy. Ben lives in Tampa with his wife and two sons and enjoys fishing and snowboarding.

Brad Pence, Board Member

Brad is Principal of Plexus Capital and focuses on fund management, financial modeling, transaction structuring, due diligence, and portfolio monitoring. Previously, Brad served at WestEnd Advisors, an investment advisory firm based in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he gained experience in financial analysis, macroeconomic research, and memorandum preparation to support the firm’s investment team. Brad is a graduate of the University of North Carolina where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration and Political Science.

Lou Geremia, Board Member

Lou is an innovative insurtech leader who thrives growing profitable businesses via new products, strategic partnerships, and innovative technology. Founder of one of the first online insurance marketplaces, Insurance.com. Continuously building new models and technology to distribute and sell P&C insurance to customers. Led and built dynamic teams at Bankrate, Goji, Internet Insurance Group, and Bold Penguin. Currently, leading growth efforts at Ask Kodiak. Member of the Advisory Boards of innovative Insurtech startups including HealthIQ.com, Bindable, and Agentero.

Joel Ohman, Chief Executive Officer

Joel is a serial entrepreneur and author with a number of prior tech company exits. He’s led the company to 5x EBITDA growth and has been on the buy-side and sell-side of over 30 M&A transactions throughout his career. He has an MBA from the University of South Florida and a Master’s of Divinity from SEBTS. He serves on the board of the Tampa Bay Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Chairman of Trustees of The Idlewild Foundation, and a number of other boards. Joel is also the author of the #1 bestselling Meritropolis series. He enjoys martial arts, reading, writing, and fishing with his kids.

Jason Owen, Board Advisor

Jason is an award-winning marketing executive and thought leader, who has nearly two decades of success at the intersection of bleeding-edge MarTech, search and social marketing, analytics-driven strategy, and high-impact business ecosystems. He currently serves as the Chief Strategy Officer at Array, the leading embeddable fintech for consumer credit. Previously, he shepherded the turnaround of Credit.com’s underperformance and piloted it to become a positive contribution brand and growth actuator for Progrexion’s portfolio. As VP of Marketing at Vivint, he directed marketing for the national inside sales arm of the largest smart home platform worldwide. Utah Business Magazine honored Jason with its vaunted “Sales and Marketer of the Year Award” (SAMY) in 2016. Jason has offered his marketing expertise at panels and to large companies, including Facebook, Affiliate Summit, LeadsCon, ClickZ, Search Engine Watch, and Search Engine Strategies.

Mark Fidel, President, Media (Ring2Media)

Mark Fidel is a successful entrepreneur with a proven track record of creating, building, and selling companies. As an industry-leading marketing and advertising executive, Mark’s performance-driven mentality has been the key to his biggest achievements.

In his most recent venture, Ring2Media, now a division of Quote.com, Mark led a team of seasoned individuals dedicated to effectively distributing advertisers’ cost-per-action (CPA) commercials across its network of television properties, including cable systems, syndicators, and national affiliates.

He is also co-founder of Guardian First Funding, which was ultimately sold to Knight Capital Group, and founder and business developer for VCOM.com, which was ultimately sold to Utility.com (Idealab). Mark enjoys family time, skiing, exercise, yoga, golfing, and listening to live music in his spare time.