Jon has spent nearly 20 years in media and technology at companies such as Polar Capital Group (Pres & COO), IAC (SVP and GM of Portals Group), Ask Jeeves (SVP and member of Exec Committee) and Interactive Search Holdings (first employee and COO; sold to Ask Jeeves in 2004). 

Jon started his career at the NBA (not playing, sadly) where he established NBA Canada and launched the Raptors and Grizzlies franchises. 

Jon's two non-Patch passions (Patch-ions?) are his family and singing.  He can frequently be found at a museum or zoo with his way-out-of-his-league wife and delicious children, and very occasionally at an open mic or karaoke night.  Jon graduated, cum laude, from Bowdoin College.  Jon also sits on the Board of Directors of the Online Publishers Association and is a Director of Action America.

Warren began his media career in 1997 at Morris Communications, where he held various executive positions, including Group General Manager of nine local newspapers, magazines and websites between Aspen and Vail, Colorado.  Since then he has been Vice President of Material Media, publisher of niche content sites including Babble.com, and Director of Magazine Publishing for Gannett in Westchester, NY, where he was responsible for 40+ local and regional titles.  Warren is an active member of several industry and charitable organizations, is a member of the Media Council at The Paley Center, and is a frequent speaker about the local digital space.  He graduated from St. Lawrence University with a BA in English.  

Warren grew up in a small Patch town on Cape Cod and would almost always prefer to be on a boat.  In his earlier life he worked as a sailboat captain based on the Cape and Martha’s Vineyard, and when he’s not at Patch he can be found somewhere around 18° 19' 60 N, 64° 37' 0 W.

Steven oversees Patch’s day-to-day operations, including editorial, sales and analytics. 

Most recently, Steven was COO of Westwood One, one of the largest syndicators of programming to the radio industry, and President of the Metro Traffic division, a leading provider of traffic and local content to radio stations and online providers. Before Westwood One, Steven was COO and a Board member of Rodale, a global health and wellness publisher of brands including Men’s Health, Women’s Health and Runner’s World. Prior to that, Steven was COO of Medscape, an online site for medical professionals and also held positions with ESPN and McKinsey & Co.

Steven received an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Economics and Computer Science from Brown University. He was previously a Board member of The United Way of Lehigh Valley.

Steven lives in a Patch town with his wife and three children.

Rachel is the Chief Content Officer at Patch. She joined the team in February 2012 from The Parenting Group, where she most recently served as Editorial Director, Digital Content, Strategy and Design, overseeing all digital development of the Parenting, Babytalk and Conceive brands and their online extensions. Under her leadership, the sites achieved record-breaking growth and won numerous industry honors and awards. Rachel was named Media Industry Newsletter’s Digital Content Strategist of the Year in 2010 and was inducted into the Media Industry Hall of Fame in 2011. Creating and editing websites since the mid-1990s, Rachel began her career as a journalist, with a focus on business, health and political reporting, and also served as one of the original six editors at Metrobeat (later CitySearch), a pioneer in the local space. Rachel earned a Master of Art & Technology degree from NYU as well as a BA in English from Amherst College.

Rachel lives in the fabulous Patch town of Montclair, NJ, with her husband and two young sons, and has discovered that the secret of happiness is a backyard garden, a good running route, and getting the coffee ready the night before.

Mark leads Patch’s efforts to develop and execute all revenue streams, including local, regional and national channels. Mark also oversees the sales and corporate marketing functions for Patch, bringing an extensive background in marketing and brand management.

Prior to Patch, Mark was CEO of Outside.in, which was acquired by Patch in 2011. Outside.in was a leading hyperlocal platform that organized the web around neighborhoods for consumers, publishers and advertisers across the country. Prior to Outside.in, Mark was President and CMO of Seevast Corp, which builds and operates proprietary and publisher ad networks.

Before that, Mark held various positions at About.com, including General Manager and Executive Vice President of Marketing and Business Development. Mark was a founding member of Cone Interactive's new media practice, where he managed marketing and communications for pioneering Internet media businesses, including About.com and iVillage.com. Mark graduated from Skidmore College with a BA with honors in psychology.

Mark was born in a Patch town and now lives in another Patch town with his wife and three boys.

Leigh joined Patch in October 2012 and has over 20 years experience in corporate strategy, new business development, M&A, product management and marketing.  Most recently Leigh held roles at The Walt Disney Company as VP of Emerging Businesses in the Corporate Strategy & Business Development group, as well as VP of Product Development at Disney Interactive.  Leigh joined Disney from IAC, where she was a Co-founder and VP of the Gifts.com business.

Leigh’s early career highlights include several years as a team leader at Bain & Company, focusing on strategic initiatives for Fortune 500 clients in the media/entertainment and consumer goods industries as well as several years in credit card marketing at JP Morgan Chase.

Leigh holds an MBA in Strategic Management from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and a BA in Government from Dartmouth College.

Leigh hails from the Patch town of Scotch Plains, NJ and currently lives in NYC with her husband, very young daughter and finicky cat.

Melanie has spent nearly 15 years in the media industry developing strategic financial plans, managing operational processes and leading high-performance teams. Prior to joining Patch, Melanie held roles as VP Finance & Editorial Operations at The Newsweek Daily Beast as well as at MTV Networks International in the Consumer Products & Program Syndication divisions. She previously held various financial management positions at NBC Universal, where she started off with the Owned & Operated Stations and then moved to CNBC & CNBC International.

Melanie holds an MBA in International Business as well as a BA in Business Administration from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She spends time outside the office as an adjunct professor, teaching Digital Financials as part of NYU’s Masters of Science in Publishing program. Melanie hails from Cape Cod but has called NYC her home for 15 years. Her passion for globe-trotting has recently been curtailed with the arrival of her son and soon-to-be second. She anxiously looks forward to returning to travel and sharing all the world has to offer with her new, little travel companions.

Laura leads the People Team at Patch, and spends every day growing our culture and most valuable Patch asset – our people! Prior to Patch, Laura worked at AOL as a lead HR for Advertising.com/Sales, Search, Local & Ventures, corporate groups, The Huffington Post Media Group, and AOL Media. She has also led the HR function at Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie and Free People, in Philadelphia, where she supported an international retail force, and all corporate functions. Before her HR life, Laura served as a law clerk for the Honorable Victor J. DiNubile at the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. She holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Pace University and a Juris Doctor from Widener University School of Law. 

Laura lives in the Patch neighborhood of Park Slope (Brooklyn!) with her husband and 2-year-old son. Laura reads non-stop, is obsessed with the This American Life podcast, is a champion Trivial Pursuit player, and makes a mean apple pie.   

Sophia has spent the last 11 years recruiting and managing teams for Fox Interactive Media, TV Guide, Disney ABC Media Networks, Time Inc and Accenture, where she has helped organizations scale and driven talent pool development for key business build-outs.  She recently relocated back to NYC after spending a year in Los Angeles, and contends that there’s no place as spontaneous as New York.  A native of Boston, Sophia is a card carrying Red Sox and Patriots fan.  She lives in Manhattan with her fiancé, Shane, and her dog Poopsie.  Sophia holds a B.A. in Comparative Literature and Classical Studies from Hamilton College.

Most recently, as CTO of NYC based startup, Outside.in, Rob led the development of a search based platform to massively scale the aggregation, analysis and delivery of hyperlocal news and information.

Prior to Outside.in, Rob was the Director of Application Development at Digital Railroad where he spent the majority of his 'hands on' time innovating in the area of image search while leading the development team to build and maintain an online archival, sales and marketing platform for professional photographers. Rob has previously led application development at HUGE and Intrasphere where he was responsible for the strategic direction of technology for clients such as iVillage/NBC, Pfizer and Scholastic. A veteran of the New York City start-up scene, Rob developed his early passion for innovative technology and scalable web based architectures at BlueTip and Nicholson, NY.

Rob holds a Bachelor’s degree in computer science and mathematics from the State University of New York at New Paltz. Rob is an active member of the nautical community around the port town of Northport, Long Island and holds a current United States Coast Guard OUPV captain’s license.