Online shopping platform names COO

LOS GATOS, Ca. — Wanderful Media, a new Silicon Valley company that helps retailers bring consumers into local stores and facilitates ways for consumers to discover local merchandise, has appointed Doug Kilponen as its new COO. In his new role, he will oversee all business units and collaborate with CEO Ben T. Smith IV on strategic goals.



Founded in November 2011, Wanderful Media is creating an online platform for shoppers to explore products and sales with the mission of connecting shoppers with local brick-and-mortar retailers.



"As COO, Doug will focus on defining and managing the company's overall strategic operations, as well as developing new revenue and partnership opportunities. Over the years Doug and I have built profitable businesses with high-performing, enthusiastic teams. Doug has already been invaluable in our efforts to grow the Wanderful Media team and set its initial direction. It is a pleasure to work again with his insight, leadership and integrity to tackle the local discovery shopping opportunity," said Smith.



Kilponen joins Wanderful Media from MerchantCircle, where he was SVP. As an original member of the MerchantCircle team, Kilponen held roles in product management, customer acquisition and business development. MerchantCircle was a local Internet media company acquired last summer by Reply.com.



"When Ben approached me about joining Wanderful Media, I was drawn by the opportunity to build something exciting in this unique partnership of local Internet expertise and traditional media distribution. We've been fortunate to have a lot of familiar faces, including many from our old team at MerchantCircle, come to Wanderful for the opportunity to innovate for some of the biggest media properties in the country. I'm excited about the team and the opportunity to lead the company into the next phase of innovation and growth for discovery shopping," said Kilponen.



Prior to MerchantCircle, Kilponen was director of product management and product marketing at Digital Impact, now Acxiom Digital. He also served as e-commerce product manager at RealNetworks and spent four years at A.T. Kearney, a management consulting firm. He began his career at J. Walter Thompson, one of the largest advertising agencies in the nation. Kilponen has a bachelor of arts from Northwestern University and an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management.