Mike Linton is the Executive Vice President, Marketing for FMN Technologies, an early stage start-up in Silicon Valley. He has been in marketing and general management for 30 years.
Before joining FMN Mike consulted for a number of companies while writing a column for Forbes.com titled “CMO Calculus”. Previously, he was eBay’s CMO after working as the Senior Vice President of eBay Motors, Canada, Half.com and eBay Stores. Prior to that, Mike became Best Buy’s first ever Chief Marketing Officer responsible for all marketing, brand management, research, Customer Relationship Management, call centers, the Best Buy Advertising Agency and Public and Investor Relations. Earlier he was with Progressive Insurance, James River Paper Company, and Remington in various Marketing and General Management positions. He began his career in Brand Management at Procter & Gamble in 1980.
Mike was named by Promotion Magazine as a Marketer of the Year in 2004 and by Ad Age as one of the most influential 30 marketers in 2003, 2004 and 2005. He has received two Effies and has been a speaker for Forrester, the Marketing Conference Board, the CMO Summit, Forbes CMO Summit, GMA Conference, P&G Alumni Reunion, Accenture Conference, Google National Sales Meeting, Ad Week, and Retail Advertising Conference. He is a charter member of the Marketing-50, was elected to the Retail Advertising Hall of Fame in 2008, and has been featured in Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, Advertising Age, Fast Company and Promo Magazine.
He is on the Board of Directors of Peet's Coffee & Tea and Support.com and serves on the advisory boards of a number of venture backed companies.
Mike is a native of Cleveland, Ohio, a graduate of Bowling Green State University and Duke's Fuqua School of Business, and now lives in Silicon Valley with his wife and two children.