The Jungle Disk Management Team
Dave Wright, CEO & Founder
Dave Wright first achieved notoriety in the online gaming community for creating Rocket Arena, a free mod for the multi-player first-person shooter games Quake, Quake II, Quake III Arena and Quake IV. Dave left Stanford University in 1998 to help start Game Spy Industries. Dave served as Director of Development and Chief Architect of GameSpy from 1998-2004. He was responsible for leading the development of online middleware and backend systems supporting millions of users across PC and console platforms including the Sony PS2, Sony PS3, Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii. The GameSpy middleware technologies Dave created are still the leading online middleware solutions for PC and console online games today. Additionally, Dave built the entire software development team and helped expand the company from a single product to multiple divisions providing software and services to consumers and businesses across the gaming industry. As a result, GameSpy quickly became a leader in online videogame media, technology, and software and, in 2004, merged with IGN Entertainment to create one of the largest Internet gaming and entertainment media companies in the world.
Dave continued to serve in the role of Chief Architect for IGN from 2004 to 2007. After IGN was acquired by NewsCorp in 2005, Dave led the technology integration with Fox Interactive Media (FIM), the home of MySpace, Fox Sports, Fox News and other sites. It was while Dave was helping develop scalable file storage for some of the largest Web sites in the world such as MySpace and FilePlanet that he recognized how empowering cloud storage could also be for individuals and small businesses.
Predicting that all data would be stored online in the future, Dave not only saw the cloud storage as an enabling technology, but also the need for software that made cloud storage services usable for individuals and businesses. It was on this premise that Dave left IGN and founded Jungle Disk in 2007.
Dave has spoken at various conferences such as Game Developer’s Conference and Startup Riot. He is a partner with Shotput Ventures, an Atlanta-based seed-stage technology fund.
What are you passionate about?
Solving difficult problems. Helping people use cloud to improve their lives. Helping other entrepreneurs succeed.
What are your personal hobbies & interests?
Scuba diving, skiing, travel, auto racing.
Why do you love Jungle disk?
I love seeing the response from users who finally understand “the cloud” when they see Jungle Disk
Scott Gibson, Vice President of Operations
Scott Gibson joined Jungle Disk in March of 2008 as vice president of operations and oversees all general company operations, client services and customer support. His goal is to ensure a positive customer experience and takes seriously Jungle Disk’s affiliation with Rackspace to continue the great Rackspace tradition of fanatical customer support among Jungle Disk customers. Scott joined Jungle Disk as the second employee of the company to manage all non-development-related operations.
Prior to joining Jungle Disk, Scott worked with several startup companies. Most recently, he served as director of operations for Market Velocity, the industry leader for asset recovery, providing recycling, trade-in and donation solutions to Fortune 1000 IT and consumer electronics manufacturers. Scott was responsible for the day-to-day operations of the company and was instrumental in positioning the company for acquisition in July 2007.
Scott previously served for nearly 13 years in the U.S. Armed Forces under the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program where he was responsible for supervising junior engineers in the operation of nuclear power plants on U.S. Navy submarines.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in Nuclear Engineering from Thomas Edison State College and is a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Executive MBA Program.
Scott is a member of the Technology Association of Georgia, the Georgia Tech MBA Group and the Georgia Tech Entrepreneurs Group.
What are you passionate about?
I am passionate about helping people understand the value of backing up their irreplaceable data. We see a lot of customers that are proactive about backing up their data but unfortunately, we also have a good deal of customers that come to us after tragedy has already struck. We want more of the former rather than the latter.
What are your personal hobbies & interests?
As of April 2009, I made a big life change going from couch potato to triathlete. I am totally hooked on the sport of triathlon and it has become a catalyst for becoming a healthier person.
Why do you love Jungle disk?
Overseeing support, I get the opportunity to hear about all of the great stories where Jungle Disk saved the day. It’s really exciting to know that I am part of a product that is able to come to the rescue for so many of our customers.
Erika Brooks, Vice President of Marketing & Sales
Erika Jolly Brookes joined Jungle Disk in 2009. As the company’s vice president of marketing and sales, she is responsible for all lead generation and branding efforts, as well as reseller and partner relationships.
With more than 18 years of professional experience, Erika was most recently with EarthLink, a national consumer Internet Service Provider, from 1995 to 2008. She joined the company when the company was MindSpring Enterprises as employee 47 and had 10,000 dial up Internet customers located in a handful of local Southeastern markets. The company went public in 1996 and expanded to a national footprint in 1998 and continued to grow its national awareness. As vice president of consumer products and services, Erika launched leading edge initiatives such as Spaminator, a search distribution deal, banner advertising as well as broadband via DSL and cable. When the company merged with EarthLink Networks in 2000, Erika played a critical role in growing total brand awareness to 60 percent of U.S. households and growing EarthLink’s base to 5.2 million subscribers. In addition, Erika had product, marketing and sales responsibility for growing revenue from add-on services for access by 130% over 4 years.
Erika has held product marketing and product management positions with Sterling Software and Iterated Systems, Inc.
She is a graduate of Berry College with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, and has completed post-graduate executive level education in the areas of finance and marketing.
She is involved in a variety of startup initiatives including Start Up Weekend, Start Up Riot, Startup Chicks and Atlanta Web Entrepreneurs. She is also a member of the Atlanta CEO Council.
What are you passionate about?
I’m passionate about solving problems with technology through delivery of new products and services. Jungle Disk is a great example of enabling a technology to solve a business issue. Storing online protects against the inevitable hardware failure or lost USB key and creates an opportunity to more effectively share your files with co-workers.
What are your personal hobbies & interests?
Spending time with my family, long distance running, college football (go Dawgs!) and reading.
Why do you love Jungle disk?
Great product, cool brand and nice, smart people… and I get to bring my yellow lab, Sunny, to work.