Wes Nichols

Wes Nichols is a Board Partner at Upfront Ventures, one of California’s largest venture capital firms, and a serial technology entrepreneur, an active investor and advisor. Wes is an industry authority in predictive analytics, AI/machine learning, and technology. Wes is the author of the Harvard Business Review cover story, Analytics 2.0, on next-generation analytics to drive more predictive decision-making for CMOs.

Most recently, Wes was the Chief Strategy Officer at Neustar (NYSE: NSR), the leading company in authenticated identity, which was acquired in December 2016 in a $2.9 billion take-private transaction. A year earlier, Neustar acquired his company, MarketShare, where he was co-founder and CEO. MarketShare’s analytics SaaS solutions is the industry leader in marketing resource planning and attribution. Acquired by Neustar for nearly $500 million, MarketShare was backed by FTV Capital, Elevation Partners and Silver Lake Partners.

Prior to starting MarketShare, Wes was with Omnicom Group (NYSE: OMC) as President and CEO of TBWA’s digital business, working with Nissan, Sony, Pfizer, and other brands. Prior, he was the founder and CEO of Direct Partners, building from scratch one of the industry’s first data-driven analytics companies, which was acquired by Omnicom.

Wes is a Board Director and Chair of the Compensation Committee of TrueCar (NASDAQ: TRUE), Strategic Advisor to the leadership of SNAP (NYSE: SNAP), Special Advisor and former Director, Comscore (NASDAQ: SCOR), Board Director of computer vision technology company GumGum (PE-backed), identity data company MediaShift (PE-backed) and a Trustee of Randolph-Macon College. Wes is an active member in both Young Presidents Organization (YPO). Wes is the 2016 winner of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award and was nominated as a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum (WEF).

Wes graduated from Randolph-Macon College and The Johns Hopkins University, with degrees in Psychology and Business, respectively. He is currently enrolled in the executive education program at Harvard Business School.