Eben Thurston

Current

Founder at Spring Marketing Strategies

Past

Director of Marketing & Audience Development, Celebrations.com at 1800flowers.com
Director & Founder at Thurston Consulting Co.
Managing Director, Marketing & Business Development at Root Markets Inc.

Product Development Manager, Online Audience Development at Time Inc. Interactive
Business Development Manager, Online Audience Development at Time Inc. Interactive
Web Analytics Associate at Time Inc. Interactive
Web Developer at Time Inc.
Web Production Developer at Time Inc.
Freelance Web Producer at Aquent
Tech Support Consultant at Advantage Human Resourcing
Sales Assistant at Lehman Brothers
Stock Plan Administrator at Morgan Stanley

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Education

Fordham University - Graduate School of Business Administration
New York University
United Digital Artists

University of Vermont

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1 more...

Recommended

5 people have recommended Eben

Connections

386 connections

Industry

Marketing and Advertising

Websites

Local Search Marketing Firm

Eben Thurston’s Summary

I'm an experienced internet business professional, with experience in major media and startup environments, and proven skills in strategic partnership development, product development, web analytics, paid search, search engine optimization, strategic planning and leading marketing teams. I'm interested in all aspects of web/tech business including venture capital, mobile, e-commerce, advertising, publishing, video, content syndication, social networking and social media. Hands on experience and expertise with Omniture Sitecatalyst, Google Analytics and Google Adwords.

Eben Thurston’s Specialties:

Online Marketing, Business Development, Interactive Strategy, Web Analytics, Organic SEO, Paid Search, Product Development

Eben Thurston’s Experience

Founder

Spring Marketing Strategies

(Marketing and Advertising industry)

February 2009 — Present (6 months)

SEO, Web Design, Search Engine Marketing, and Local Internet Marketing for Small Local Business.
Director of Marketing & Audience Development, Celebrations.com

1800flowers.com

(Public Company; FLWS; Retail industry)

September 2008 — February 2009 (6 months)

Managed the marketing team, overseeing strategic partnerships, organic search engine optimization, paid search, email marketing, social media optimization, and blogger outreach. Responsible for traffic growth and increasing unique visitors.

Position eliminated amid restructuring due to weakness in retail and advertising markets.
Director & Founder

Thurston Consulting Co.

(Online Media industry)

January 2001 — February 2009 (8 years 2 months)

Part-time project work helping small business with website design and development, search engine optimization and paid search. Decided to expand into a legitimate company and founded Spring Marketing Strategies, LLC in February 2009.
Managing Director, Marketing & Business Development

Root Markets Inc.

(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)

September 2007 — August 2008 (1 year)

Identified highest potential product and partnership opportunities, successfully managed strategic partnerships, proactively directed marketing positioning strategy, and advised senior management on day to day technical operations in increasingly difficult credit and real estate market conditions. Created and nurtured key strategic partnerships with publishers. Made recommendations to reduce operating costs by streamlining product line, company focus on core products and discontinuing unsuccessful campaigns and projects.

Company closed due to conditions in the credit and mortgage markets.
Product Development Manager, Online Audience Development

Time Inc. Interactive

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; TWX; Online Media industry)

February 2007 — September 2007 (8 months)

Led projects to enhance technical infrastructure to support search engine optimization, web analytics and syndication efforts. Focused on driving high quality traffic growth to online properties via cross-title initiatives such as content syndication, 3rd party strategic partnerships, web analytics, SEO, and general business development strategy.
Business Development Manager, Online Audience Development

Time Inc. Interactive

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; TWX; Online Media industry)

July 2006 — February 2007 (8 months)

Managed initiatives to drive cross-title traffic growth via strategic partnerships with leading online companies. Responsibilities spanned project management, new product development, web analytics and business development.
Web Analytics Associate

Time Inc. Interactive

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; TWX; Online Media industry)

January 2006 — June 2006 (6 months)

Assisted in early stages of integrating with analytics vendor Omniture and establishing key performance indicators (KPIs) for website performance, in addition to managing junior developers and leading training efforts.
Web Developer

Time Inc.

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; TWX; Publishing industry)

August 2004 — December 2005 (1 year 5 months)

Played a leadership role in transitioning Time Inc from an HTML code standard of traditional "table based" development to web standards, including XHTML and CSS. The transition led to more efficient code, decreased page load times and bandwidth consumption, improved search engine spider access, accessibility and overall user experience.
Web Production Developer

Time Inc.

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; TWX; Publishing industry)

January 2002 — August 2004 (2 years 8 months)

Developed expertise in the fundamentals of direct marketing, including: direct mail, retention, online, email, partnership and the quantitative metrics used to identify and track success.
Freelance Web Producer

Aquent

(Privately Held; 501-1000 employees; Online Media industry)

April 2000 — January 2002 (1 year 10 months)

Web production projects in the dotcom and media sectors. A long term assignment at Time Inc's magazine subscription e-commerce group led to an on-staff position at in August 2000.
Tech Support Consultant

Advantage Human Resourcing

(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Staffing and Recruiting industry)

July 1999 — April 2000 (10 months)

Worked on projects including CRM data migration and intranet application beta testing in commodities trading and asset allocation groups.
Sales Assistant

Lehman Brothers

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; LEH; Investment Banking industry)

January 1999 — June 1999 (6 months)

Sales Assistant to the top performing high-net-worth brokerage team in the NY Private Client Services office.
Stock Plan Administrator

Morgan Stanley

(Public Company; 5001-10,000 employees; MS; Financial Services industry)

May 1998 — January 1999 (9 months)

Account manager for employee stock options and purchase plans outsourced to MS by client companies.

Eben Thurston’s Education

Fordham University - Graduate School of Business Administration

MBA , Concentration: Marketing, Focus: Product Management , 2006
New York University

Continuing Education , XML for Website Development , 2001 — 2001

Fundamentals of XML and RSS.
United Digital Artists

Certificate in Web Design , 2000

Training in the fundamentals of Photoshop, Flash, HTML, JavaScript, information architecture and web server technology.
University of Vermont

B.A. , Political Science, English , 1998

Activities and Societies:

NCAA Division One Men's Basketball

Additional Information

Eben Thurston’s Websites:

Local Search Marketing Firm

Eben Thurston’s Interests:

Business, technology, politics, fishing, basketball, snowboarding, surfing, golf

Eben Thurston’s Groups:

- NY Dotcom Hatchery
- NY Tech Meetup
- nextny.org
- Board President, Gramatan Court Apartments, Bronxville, NY
- Member, Magazine Publishers of America
- Member, USGA
- Member, StripersForever.org conservation group