Meet The SimpleFeed Team

Mark Carlson

CEO

Mark Carlson co-founded SimpleFeed in 2004 and has served as CEO since the company’s inception. Previously, Mark was CFO at First to File, an enterprise software company he sold to MarkMonitor. He was also general manager of the internet security group of CyberMedia, a public company later acquired by Network Associates/McAfee. Mark joined CyberMedia when it acquired Walk Softly, Inc., a company he founded and helmed as CEO. At Walk Softly, Mark led marketing and development of Guard Dog, an internet privacy and security product that became a PC Data Top 10 product. Before he started Walk Softly, Mark was CFO and vice president of business development at Digital Pictures. He began his career in the technology investment banking departments of Montgomery Securities and PaineWebber after graduating from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Ian Kennedy

VP, Customer Success

Ian Kennedy has worked on news delivery systems his entire career. Prior to SimpleFeed, he worked at SmartNews as an early member of the US team helping establish monetization, early machine learning experiments, and source onboarding systems. At  Gigaom, a tech news media company based in San Francisco, he was Product Manager on their newsletter system and premium subscription funnel. While at Nokia HQ in Finland, he ran several company Hackdays and worked on several prototypes of their mobile software. At Yahoo, during the Web 2.0 era, Ian helped integrate Yahoo properties using social media tools and building an early version of a social news feed. His early career was in the corporate information space where he was the original Product Manager for Dow Jones & Reuters Joint Venture, Factiva.com, a professional news database.

Torry Stanley

Chief Revenue Officer, Advertising

Torry Stanley is an experienced advertising executive with a proven track record in driving revenue, launching innovative ad products, and building strategic partnerships. As Chief Revenue Officer at SimpleFeed, he leads advertiser demand and partnerships for the company’s Apple News advertising supply. Previously, Torry spent over a decade at Amazon Ads, where he held strategic leadership roles across sales, ad product, and go-to-market functions, contributing to the launch of ads on Amazon Fire devices and Amazon Live, and driving growth for IMDb’s advertising business. Following Amazon, he served as CRO at Azarus, an ad tech startup, leading sales, business development, and go-to-market efforts. Torry joined SimpleFeed in 2023 to scale its Apple News business by collaborating with brands, agencies, and ad tech providers.

Franco Fernandez

VP Publisher Development

Franco Fernandez started his career in digital media in 2005. Before joining SimpleFeed in 2023, he spent ten years as Director of Digital Business at United Press International, where he managed Ad Operations, Product Development, Content Strategy, and Syndication Partnerships.
 
As VP of Business Development at SimpleFeed, Franco helps lead the company’s strategic growth initiatives and partnerships within the digital media industry. With over 20 years of experience in digital business management, Franco has a demonstrated history of driving revenue growth, improving audience engagement, and optimizing operational efficiency.
 
Franco is deeply committed to developing innovative solutions that harness technology to improve user experience and achieve positive business results for publishers.