William Wise

Bill Wise is the co-founder and CEO of Mediaocean, the advertising infrastructure company he helped create when MediaBank (which he led as CEO) merged with Donovan Data Systems. Over his career he has overseen more than $5 billion in mergers, acquisitions, and public offerings, including the $720 million sale of Mediaocean to Vista Equity Partners in August 2015. Under his leadership Mediaocean has grown into a foundational platform for media buying, spanning agencies, brands, and publishers.

Before Mediaocean, Wise spent more than a decade in senior advertising-technology roles. He was an executive at Yahoo overseeing global advertising platforms, a position he assumed following Yahoo's $850 million acquisition of Right Media in 2007, where he served as President. Earlier in his career he held leadership roles at DoubleClick, MaxOnline, and Ask (which became part of IAC Advertising Solutions). He holds a BS in Accounting & Business from the University at Albany and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Alongside his operating career, Wise founded Click Ventures, LLC in 2007, where he is Managing Director and leads all investment decisions. Click Ventures provides investment capital for early-stage internet companies and functions as his angel-investment vehicle. He also serves as chairman of MediaWallah and has sat on the boards of the Ad Council and the Centre for Social Innovation.

Wise has been widely recognized in the industry: Business Insider ranked him among its top digital professionals four times, Goldman Sachs named him one of its "100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs," he won Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year award in technology, and he was named 2024 CEO of the Year by the Tech Ascension Awards.

• Invests through Click Ventures, his personal vehicle (founded 2007), providing "investment capital for early stage internet companies."
• Focuses on start-ups and young digital companies that use information technology in innovative ways to create high-growth online business opportunities.
• States that "passion is the single most important criteria" in his investment decisions — a founder-and-conviction-driven filter rather than a purely metrics-driven one.
• Sector affinity skews toward ad tech, marketing tech, data, and consumer internet — areas mirroring his operating expertise at Mediaocean, Yahoo, Right Media, and DoubleClick.
• As an operator-angel, he brings deep advertising-ecosystem relationships and M&A experience (having overseen $5B+ in transactions) to portfolio companies.