Leadership

Paul de Groot is the chief financial officer (CFO) at iQU™. As CFO, Paul is responsible for managing and planning both growth and revenue for partners and affiliates. A trusted financial executive, Paul was brought on as CFO due to his successful track record with start-up companies.

Prior to joining iQU, Paul founded, acquired and sold numerous start-ups. Most recently, he founded UnitedGames, an international online game license exchange and localization company, which he sold to Bwin Entertainment AG Vienna Stock Exchange. Other companies he managed and sold were DPI Animation House, IEX.nl, V3 Redirect Services and Faxtor Securities.

Paul founded his first company, Trilab BV, while studying industrial design at Technical University in Delft, the Netherlands. He is a member of the advisory board at Gamepoint.net.

Barend Van den Brande is a private investor in iQU™, where, as an active member the supervisory board, he has direct input on maintaining the financial well being of the company.

In addition to working with iQU, Barend currently serves on the board of directors for Clear2Pay, iQU Group, Mobiluck, Wakoopa and Travel Intelligence Group Ltd. He was a director on the board of Dedigate (acquired by Terremark Inc.) and the president of the Benelux Tech Tour 2006-2007. These companies are part of Big Bang Ventures’ portfolio, a company Barend founded in 2000. As managing partner, Barend oversees all aspects of fund and investment management for Big Bang Ventures.

Prior to managing Big Bang Ventures, Barend was interim CEO of the US division of SwiftTouch. He began his career in the US as a Financial Analyst for SG Cowen in Boston, Massachusetts, focusing on Internet and data-networking companies.

Barend earned a master’s degree in economics from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.

Pim Schmitz is an early private investor in iQU™, where, as an active member of the supervisory board, he has direct input on maintaining the financial well being of the company.

In addition to working with iQU, Pim presides as CEO of Talpa Holding, the holding company of Dutch media tycoon John de Mol’s assets, which include Endemol, a media conglomerate responsible for hit programs such as “Big Brother,” “Deal or no Deal” and “The Voice.” In his role, Pim is also responsible for the operations of media company Talpa Media, which develops and produces TV formats worldwide as well as managing investments, such as the recently acquired 33% stake in the SBS Group.

Prior to Talpa Holding, Pim served on the Board of Endemol and as head of private equity at Cyrte Investments. Before that he worked as an investment banker for ABN AMRO, one of the largest banking firms in the Netherlands.

Pim studied Economics at the Erasmus University and received his MBA from the Rotterdam School of Management.

Reinout te Brake on Linkedin

Reinout te Brake is the chief executive officer of iQU™, which he co-founded with Simon Usiskin in 2009. As CEO, Reinout is responsible for setting the overall direction and product strategy for the company. He leads the design of iQU’s service and development of its core technology and infrastructure.

Previously, Reinout was Strategist at Spil Games, where he oversaw the company’s growth from a young games company to one of the most recognized casual games enterprises in the industry in less than three years. He played a major role in transforming the company from a local game portal into a worldwide game distributor, operating game portals in more than 40 countries, reaching almost 85 million unique players a month. Under his supervision, Spil Games opened offices in Poland, France, Germany and China.

Reinout graduated from Chr. Hogeschool Windesheim in the Netherlands.

Simon Usiskin on Linkedin

Simon Usiskin is the chief commercial officer and co-founder of iQU™, which he co-founded with Reinout te Brake in 2009. As CCO, Simon is responsible for overseeing the relationships with iQU’s advertisers and publishers, and ensuring they deriving maximum value from their campaigns with iQU.

In addition to his position at iQU, Simon runs JWR Ventures, where he provides strategic advice to media companies focused on entertainment and online gaming. Previously he served as portal director at Spil Games where he was responsible for the success and growth of the game portals. He was also the head of “Hiptv” at 2waytraffic, where he integrated revenue generation by converting video views. As sales and marketing director at Totalstay Group, Simon was responsible for technical development of managing offline and online marketing campaigns, where he increased revenue by 40 percent in two years.

Simon attended the University College School in the United Kingdom and received a bachelor of arts in Economics from Manchester University.

Paul de Groot on Linkedin

Paul de Groot is the chief financial officer (CFO) at iQU™. As CFO, Paul is responsible for managing and planning both growth and revenue for partners and affiliates. A trusted financial executive, Paul was brought on as CFO due to his successful track record with start-up companies.

Prior to joining iQU, Paul founded, acquired and sold numerous start-ups. Most recently, he founded UnitedGames, an international online game license exchange and localization company, which he sold to Bwin Entertainment AG Vienna Stock Exchange. Other companies he managed and sold were DPI Animation House, IEX.nl, V3 Redirect Services and Faxtor Securities.

Paul founded his first company, Trilab BV, while studying industrial design at Technical University in Delft, the Netherlands. He is a member of the advisory board at Gamepoint.net.

Jochem De Gruyter on Linkedin

Jochem De Gruyter is the chief operations officer (COO) and chief technical officer (CTO) at iQU™. In this role, Jochem is responsible for overseeing the company’s product strategy and technology platform development to successfully organize, drive and grow the business.

Prior to joining iQU, Jochem was the CRM manager at SBS Broadcasting and played a key role on the management team as co-founder of SBS Interactive. Before SBS Broadcasting, Jochem was commercial manager at Acxiom Corporation, where he was responsible for the development of digital media operations and a member of the Dutch management team. He also served on the board of the CRM Association and was a lecturer at Nyenrode University (Multi Channel Management and MSc).

Jochem received a BBA in international management and business from the Amsterdam School of Business and studied in the CRM Executive and DQ Management program at Nyenrode University.

Peggy de Lange on Linkedin

Peggy de Lange is the chief marketing officer (CMO) at iQU™. She is responsible for driving growth through sales and marketing strategies to elevate the company’s reputation as a leader in the advertising and game industries. Peggy has practiced experience in sales management, product development, distribution channel management, marketing communications (including advertising and promotions), pricing, market research, and customer service.

Prior to joining iQU, Peggy co-founded Truecomms Partners, where she specialized in partnering technology entrepreneurs with business experts, technology experts and seed stage investors. Peggy was also co-founder and CEO of Solid Ground, a privately held communications firm, for nine years, overseeing all internal and external operations.

With more than 15 years of experience in marketing communications, Peggy’s leadership has established industry standards in B2B and B2C communications for companies such as Microsoft, SanDisk, Asus and the Seiko Epson Corporation.

Peggy received a degree in strategic marketing from the IBO (Business School) in the Netherlands.

Thomas Lee on Linkedin

Thomas Lee is the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) and head of U.S. operations for iQU™. As CRO, he is responsible for iQU’s U.S. expansion, spearheading business development efforts, expanding operations, overseeing partner relations and bringing new developers on board. He also focuses on building relations with international companies, specifically those based in Asia.

A video game executive and entrepreneur with a deep understanding of both development and publishing, Thomas brings with him more than 15 years of game industry experience with some of the world’s most distinguished publishers, including Origin/EA, Square Enix, and most recently Gamepot (USA) Inc. As Gamepot’s Senior Director of Business and Marketing, he spearheaded efforts making Gamepot a top free-to-play game portal in North America.

Prior to Gamepot (USA) Inc., Thomas served as head of business development at Nexon America, where he contributed to the explosive growth of the free-to-play online games market in the U.S., managing relations with major retailers including Target, 7-Eleven, Rite Aid, Best Buy and Wal-Mart to drive the adoption and sales of Nexon Prepaid Cards. He is also a founding member of the International Game Developers Association, Korea Chapter, and a consultant at the Seoul Institute of the Arts.

Thomas holds a Masters in Computer Animation from the William Paterson University of New Jersey.

Oliver Kern on Linkedin

Oliver Kern is director of performance and intelligence at iQU™, where he oversees the development of IQU Performance Network and GameriQU, a sophisticated platform for mapping gamer behavior across platforms.

Prior to joining iQU, Oliver was head of online strategy at Jagex, the UK’s largest independent games developer and publisher. While at Jagex, he set up the marketing department and defined the online and publishing strategy for the company. Prior to that he was leading the International Marketing at Oberon Media. His experience in the online games industry includes tactics such as paid search, SEO, display media, affiliation, social media, content aggregation and syndication, game monetization, micropayments and more.

Oliver holds a bachelor of arts in marketing and advertising from the Business School Frankfurt in Germany.