Rob Rasko - President & COO, CPX Interactive

Rob Rasko has always been good with numbers. It was his love of Math that led him to major in economics at the State University of New York at Albany, and eventually to a career on Wall Street. This expertise also brought him to online ad network, CPX Interactive, where he is now President and COO.

Rob grew up in New Jersey where he swam competitively and coached for a number of years. Many of the parents of children on his team worked on Wall Street, and recommended that he pursue a career there. After graduation, Rasko followed their advice and began an internship with Dean Witter (now Morgan Stanley). The internship grew into a full-time job, but after a few years, Rob decided that he wanted to be at the center of the financial world, so he took a job with Oppenheimer in Manhattan.

While there, Rob employed his number skills in a variety of different ways, starting by helping individuals with their investments, and later moving on to work with corporate executives on company financials. It was right around the bursting of the Internet bubble in 2000 when Rob realized that he did not want to spend his whole career on Wall Street. "The thing about Wall Street is that it's a very old industry, very set in its ways, so you're not going to make a lot of change there," he said.

Rob wanted to a more dynamic career, in an industry with the potential to grow and develop. A friend had started an Internet marketing company, and Rob had made an investment in 1999. When he tired of Wall Street, he decided that Internet business seemed like a great way to try something new. Rob soon realized that the financial and Internet marketing industries had some similarities. "Internet traffic can be viewed as a commodity at the end of the day. At the outset, we traded in bulk amounts of inventory between brokers talking to each other," he explains, and he thus he fit right in.

The company was Internet marketing agency, Endai Worldwide. At first, Rob started out doing simple sales, and then headed up a sales team. After a while, they started a new division and Rob took it from zero to profitability. "At this point in my career, I've kind of done everything. I've done 0 to profitability, I've done a million a year to 5 million a year, and now we're on a quest to go from 10 million a year to 100 million a year. So, I have played a part in every stage of a company's growth," he explains.

After a few years at Endai, Rob realized that the company was going in one direction and he was going in another. He then reconnected with an old friend and industry contact, Mike Seiman, CEO of CPX Interactive. At the time, Mike and CPX CTO, Carlton Hickman, were still in the early stages of establishing their new business. Rob explains that their biggest issue was managing their internal financial processes. Mike and Carlton were making money, but did not really have a great system in place to keep track of their finances. Once again, Rob's number savvy served him well, and he began helping Mike and Carlton with their finances on a part time basis. Rob also used his experience on Wall Street to talk to outside investors interested in CPX.

It didn't take long for Rob to realize that CPX was where he wanted to be, and he soon took on a full time position. Initially, he served as CFO, but his role has evolved significantly over the years. When he took on the responsibility of sales in addition to finance, Rob's title changed to COO and he became a member of the company's board.

Rob reflects on how he served as a bridge between the company and the outside world. "Probably one of the most important functions I provided was that I wasn't too old, but I was older than they (Mike and Carlton) were, so I was the bridge between what the company was and what the company would be in the future. I could communicate with banks and Wall Street and put a suit on, but I could still hang out with the guys." Last year, Rob's role at CPX expanded once again and he added President to his title. He now oversees the departments in the company, and he reports back to the board.

Rob has also become a representative of CPX in the industry. He is involved in the IAB, and he is a part of the working group that is writing language that will hopefully make the Internet a safer place. Internet security is a cause that is very important to Rob and one that he feels passionate about improving. Though there are some things on the Internet that cannot be controlled, Rob feels that the industry could be doing a better job of policing the space. "A lot of big brands still don't feel that the Internet is safe, so they won't associate with it, and they won't consider advertising online. If we really want our industry to progress, we have to make sure it's safe," he says.

When Rob left Wall Street, it was because he wanted to be in an industry capable of change and forward progress. He chose to leave Endai when his goals and theirs no longer coincided. Now, Rob has found his place in the ever evolving industry of online advertising, and he has found a company that is moving forward and thinking bigger for the future.

CPX Interactive delivers more than 30 billion impressions to more than 200 million unique users in more than 60 countries every month. They have offices in New York, Los Angeles, Spain and Italy, and plan to open an office in Turkey this year. The Internet is far from set in its own ways, and CPX is open and excited about change. "This place is very idealistic in certain ways, it's very upbeat and yet we have a very intense team. If you're the kind of person who wants to sit under your desk and hide, this is not the place for you. Everyone is part of the team here. There's no analogy, no sign on the wall, it's not about some quote, it just is."

Rob Rasko has always been good with numbers, and numbers brought him from Wall Street to the Internet. He's happy to cruise down that highway with CPX, and he can't wait to see what the future brings.

Rob has been married for six years to his wife Liz. They have a two year old son, Nate, who he hopes will someday be a benefactor of the safer, stronger Internet that CPX is working to create.