Gene Quinn is a pioneer in digital media, technology and financial services and e-commerce. He is Co-Founder and former CEO of Tnooz and led the company from launch in 2009 through 2016.
Tnooz is the leading source of news and analysis about technology and its impact on the global digital travel economy. As a global B2B media brand, Tnooz tracks innovation and disruption in the travel industry through the lens of devices, distribution, marketing, social platforms, startups and systems.
Gene was an investor and chairman of the board of Phocuswright from 2000 to 2012, when the company was acquired by Northstar Travel Media. Through its widely recognized travel research and leading executive conference, Phocuswright remains an industry thought leader.
In the 1990s, Gene was a pioneer in digital transformation of the media and financial services industries at Trbune Company in Chicago. As a member of the company’s digital strategy team, he was part of early-stage investments in new media, banking and e-commerce companies, including America Online, Checkfree, Open Market, Excite, iVillage and Peapod.
In 1997, he was named the first Senior Vice President, Online and Interactive at MTV Networks, home of Viacom’s global entertainment brands MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon and TVLand. He developed web media platforms for the brands and led business development and content partnerships with Yahoo, AOL, Intel, Microsoft and other technology and distribution companies.
Since 1999, Gene has been a private investor and adviser to public and private companies in travel, media, marketing, financial services and web technology. In addition to chairing Phocuswright, he was advisory board chairman of BzzAgent, a word-of-mouth marketing leader acquired by Tesco’s Dunnhumby agency, and adviser to Newtrade Technologies, a hotel marketing platform acquired by Expedia, and adviser to Monetate, a provider of retailing personalization software.
Gene’s goverance background includes: director of public companies Checkfree and Open Market; director of private companies Tnooz and PhoCusWright; chairman/director of the trade group Interactive Services Association and non-profit conservation group Henry’s Fork Foundation; member of advisory boards of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), the birthplace of the Mosaic web browser, and the MIT Media Lab.
He holds a BA in English literature from the University of Delaware and an MBA from the Kellogg School at Northwestern University.