Barlow Group

Venable to Be Instrumental in Further Expanding Company’s Global Client Base

ANDOVER, Mass.--InnoCentive, the leader in on-demand innovation, today announced the appointment of Thomas Venable as its new executive vice president of sales and marketing. In this position, Venable will lead the drive to further InnoCentive’s expansion into commercial, governmental and non-profit markets.

Venable comes to InnoCentive from Digital River, Inc., a leading provider of global e-commerce solutions for software and consumer technology, and one of the fastest growing companies in 2006, according to Fortune magazine. Venable brings more than 20 years of senior management experience in software, e-commerce and Internet businesses. He received his bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Minnesota, and is very active with several community service organizations in his hometown and currently serves as president of the Eden Prairie Youth Football Association. The Barlow Group, a Norwalk, Connecticut-based executive recruiting firm, was instrumental in placing Venable with InnoCentive.

"We welcome Tom to InnoCentive and are confident that his experience and management capabilities will help us expand our worldwide business and achieve key sales and marketing milestones,” said InnoCentive president and CEO, Dwayne Spradlin. “With Tom’s entrepreneurial background and proven track record, we expect him to lead the expansion of our Seeker and Solver communities and drive up revenues to fuel our growth.”

“InnoCentive is clearly the leader in on-demand, open innovation,” said Venable. “I welcome the opportunity to lead sales and marketing as we expand into new markets and increase the number of innovation-driven organizations that can benefit from our ability to deliver timely solutions to pressing R&D problems.”

About InnoCentive
InnoCentive is the first online platform that allows world-class scientists and science-based companies to collaborate in a global scientific community to achieve innovative solutions to complex challenges. Companies including, Eli Lilly and Company, Procter & Gamble and others, which collectively spend billions of dollars on R&D, post scientific problems confidentially on the InnoCentive Web site where more than 120,000 scientists and scientific organizations in more than 175 countries can solve them. Scientists who deliver solutions that best meet InnoCentive's challenge requirements receive financial awards ranging up to US$1,000,000. To learn more and to register as an InnoCentive Solver, visit the InnoCentive Web site at www.innocentive.com.

InnoCentive and InnoCentive Challenge are registered trademarks of InnoCentive, Inc. Other product or service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.