Michael Zimbalist was appointed senior vice president, advertising products and research and development in December 2013.  He works closely with internal partners in technology and consumer products to provide strategic leadership across ad operations including ad products, systems, operations and programmatic and agency relations.  He will continue to oversee the Company’s larger R&D efforts, which he has done since joining The Times in 2006.  R&D’s mission is to drive innovation and change throughout the enterprise by building new product prototypes which reflect the ever-changing needs of news consumers and advertisers.  Digital products based on and inspired by R&D prototypes have made their way into all parts of The New York Times.

Mr. Zimbalist has also held several operational roles within the Times Company.  From 2006 through 2008 he led Boston.com, a regional portal with more than five million monthly users, a part of the New England Media Group that was sold in October 2013 to an acquisition company owned by John W. Henry.  From 2009 to 2011 he led UCompareHealthCare, a subsidiary of the Company that was sold to MDx Medical in 2011.  Mr. Zimbalist is also involved in the Times Company’s investment activities.  He occupies the Company’s observer seat on the board of Betaworks and served in a similar capacity on the board of Brightcove, Inc.  In 2012 he was named a Media Maven by Advertising Age.

Previously Mr. Zimbalist co-founded the Online Publishers Association (OPA) and served as its president from 2001 to 2006.  Before that he held a variety of senior management positions in digital media at ePod Corporation, E.W. Scripps and ABC Television.  He was also a writer/producer at Walt Disney Imagineering.  Mr. Zimbalist received a B.A. degree in chemistry and philosophy from Brown University.  You can follow him at http://twitter.com/zimbalist.