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MANAGEMENT BIOS

Kevin Doyle - Senior Vice President & General Manager
As senior vice president and general manager of Apartments.com, Kevin is responsible for all business operations of Apartments.com including sales, marketing, finance, product development, production, customer service and technology.

A five year veteran of Classified Ventures, Kevin was the vice president of sales from 2001 to 2006 where he cultivated and managed relationships with national property-management companies, trained and directed the Apartments.com internal sales force and developed strategic partnerships with organizations and associations that benefit the multi-family industry, property managers and visitors to Apartments.com.

While vice president of sales, Kevin was responsible for growing the Apartments.com customer base from 8,100 customers in 2001 to more than 14,000 in 2006. In addition, Kevin was instrumental in the development of programs and resources to facilitate a 90% customer retention rate and building a top-notch sales team consisting of more than 100 customer-centric employees located throughout the United States.

Prior to Apartments.com, Kevin spent 11 years in technology arena including positions with Headhunter.net, BrassRing, Terra-Starr and Chicago Tribune. Previous accomplishments include creating the first-ever offline career fair for Yahoo Careers and Headhunter.net and contributing to the development of “Silicon Prairie”--a high-tech magazine for IT professionals. Kevin is also a two-time winner of the Campbell Award, a Chicago Tribune top sales honor.

Kevin earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Notre Dame University.

Brad Long – Vice President of Sales
As vice president of sales, Brad is responsible for cultivating and managing relationships with national property-management companies, training and directing the Apartments.com internal sales force and developing strategic partnerships with organizations and associations that will benefit the multi-family industry, property managers and visitors to Apartments.com.

Prior to Apartments.com, Brad worked for 19 years within the newspaper industry, most recently as the vice-president/director of advertising at the Tribune in San Luis Obispo, California.  At the Tribune, Brad served on the SLO County YMCA Board, Finance Committee and South County Advisory Board. 

A Chicago-area native, Brad earned a bachelor’s degree from Northern Illinois University and is currently working on completing his master’s degree in finance from Benedictine University.

Ketan Thakker – Chief Financial Officer
Ketan is the chief financial officer at Apartments.com and HomeScape.com where he affects the facilitation of improved financial operations and the creation of enhanced analytical processes.  He is accountable for all financial functions including forecasting, reporting, auditing and relationship management.

Ketan’s impeccable focus and desire for success is evidenced by his impressive background.  Most recently he served as the director of finance and operations at Ubid, an online business to consumer retailer of computers and electronics.  He has also held previous positions at Fortune 500 companies including Baxter, Abbott Laboratories and Northern Trust Bank.  Collectively, Ketan has 15 years of experience in finance and operations.

Ketan is a Certified Public Accountant and holds a Bachelors of Business Arts in Finance and Accounting from the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater. 

Cristen Baczak – Vice President of Operations
Cristen’s responsibility as the vice president of operations is to oversee all aspects of website production and customer support including the management of the Apartments.com team of professional digital photographers, graphic developers, quality assurance coordinators, production coordinators, and internet support specialists.

Cristen began her career at Apartments.com in 2002 as an operational manager, was promoted to director in 2003 and became vice president in 2007. During this time, Cristen applied and created new and more efficient processes contributing to the Apartments.com operational goal of providing the absolute best product for their customers in the shortest time possible.

Prior to Apartments.com, Cristen worked in print production, primarily business to business trade publications. Previous employers include, Cahners Publishing Company and Primedia Inc.

Cristen attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Chris Brown – Vice President of Product Development
As vice president of product development, Chris is responsible for managing the strategic direction and execution of the Apartments.com product team. In addition to developing applications to support apartment properties and management companies, the team manages products for display advertisers and private landlords, as well as maintains the Apartments.com, RentalHomesPlus.com, MovingCenter.com, Landlord Resources and Apartment Living Web sites.

Chris is a four-year veteran of Classified Ventures and prior to joining the Apartments.com team, he served as a group product manager at Cars.com.  Chris developed significant revenue enhancing products within the Cars.com division and brings his acumen for innovation to Apartments.com.  Since joining the Apartments.com team in July 2007, Chris has begun building additional product offerings which will serve to drive revenue and value for Apartments.com and its customers.

Chris earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Michigan State University and an MBA from the University of Chicago.