Our Team

John Gable is Co-founder and CEO of AllSides, and partnered with Joan Blades to have their two organizations, AllSides and Living Room Conversations, jointly launch the non-profit initiative AllSides For Schools.

Throughout John's career, he has been a builder of tools, teams and companies that empower people and improve the world. John has over 25 years of technology entrepreneurship, management and executive experience, leading product, marketing and consumer teams and divisions. He served on the original teams for Microsoft Office, Mozilla at Netscape (browser is now known as Firefox), and ZoneAlarm at Check Point Software. He co-founded Kavi Corp (web-based collaboration, sold to Higher Logic) and previously was a professional political campaigner and executive director in the 1980s working for the Republican National Committee as well as for candidates for US President, US Senate, US Congress, Governor and local campaigns. His experience spans consumer technology products, marketing, press, community collaboration and high tech management.

Scott McDonald is Co-founder and CTO of AllSides.

With a passion for mashing technologies and mixing/mashing music, Scott co-founded Thump Radio, a nationally syndicated radio production company and early (1999) successful community-based website in the music industry that produced the #1 radio show in timeslot (Arbitron Ratings) - reaching over 6 million people a week - and a website with over 100k registered users. (This is where he first met Nikita Tselovalnikov, the AllSides star designer and Drupal-smith who is also the the Russian-born musician and psytrance producer behind Penta). Before coming to AllSides, Scott managed the Global Web Team for Check Point Software (Internet security with over $1 Billion annual revenue). His expertise with web development and mashing technologies provides the core to the AllSides approach for revealing and improving our understanding of the world and empowering us to act.

Stephanie Bond is a Strategic Consultant and acting Chief Operations Officer at AllSides.¹

Stephanie Bond is a business management consultant with extensive experience in both the corporate and non-profit arenas as well as both large corporations and small entrepreneurial organizations.

She spent the first decade of her career as a management consultant with McKinsey Company in Atlanta, Georgia, where she advised Fortune 500 clients on strategic, marketing, operational, and organizational design issues. Much of her work was in the healthcare (pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and insurance), transportation, and telecommunications industries. She also managed McKinsey's North American Marketing Practice. After leaving McKinsey, Stephanie remained focused on health care issues helping develop predictions of the impact of the 2010 Affordable Care Act on providers, payors, and consumers, working with a private equity-backed medical products company on a go-to-market strategy, and providing volunteer and philanthropic support to children’s hospitals in Atlanta and in Kansas City.

Stephanie currently heads her own independent management consultancy, working with organizations at the intersection of non-profit / social good and entrepreneurial / high growth organizations. She serves as a thought partner to C-level executives and assists organizations in growth strategy development, team building, organizational structure and performance metrics design, contingency planning, and marketing strategy creation.

Stephanie has also worked with a variety of non-profit organizations in education, the arts, social services, international development, and health care. She has served on several boards including, youthSpark, Inc. (an Atlanta-based non-profit serving exploited, abused, and neglected youth) and Camp Encourage (a Kansas-City based organization serving youth on the autism spectrum) where she has led marketing, PR, and strategic planning efforts.

She earned an MBA from The Fuqua School of Business at Duke University where she was a Fuqua Scholar. She also holds a BA in economics, magna cum laude, from Vanderbilt University.

1. Techically speaking, Stephanie is currently a consultant and will transition to the full COO role after completion of AllSides' next funding round.

Joan Blades partnered with John Gable to have their two organizations, AllSides and Living Room Conversations, jointly launch the non-profit initiative AllSides For Schools.

Joan is the co-founder of LivingRoomConversations.org, an open source effort to rebuild respectful civil discourse across ideological, cultural and party lines while embracing our core-shared values. She is also a co-founder of MomsRising.org and the progressive activist group MoveOn.org.

She is a Great Work Cultures champion and co-author of The Custom-Fit Workplace: Choose When Where and How to Work and Boost Your Bottom Line, winner of a Nautilus book award in 2011, The Custom Fit Workplace and The Motherhood Manifesto, which won the Ernesta Drinker Ballard Book Prize in 2007.

A mediator (attorney) by training and inclination, she is a nature lover, artist and true believer in the power of citizens and our need to rebuild respectful civil discourse while embracing our core shared values.

Kristin Hansen is a Silicon Valley-based marketing, communications, and investor relations executive, with former senior roles at Intel, IBM, and several start-up companies. She also serves as Lecturer in Management at Stanford's Graduate School of Business, co-teaching a recurring quarterly course in Strategic Communications. She currently devotes her skills and experience to the emerging movement across the United States to reduce polarization, improve civil discourse, and restore democracy, serving as Executive Director of Civic Health Project and as Director of AllSides Connect (formerly Mismatch), a realtime video platform fostering civil discourse through guided conversations across distance and divides.

Jill Passalacqua is Acting General Counsel of AllSides.

Derek Reisfield is CEO of BBN Networks, the largest Business-to-Business Digital Advertising Network. Previously he was the co-founder and chairman of MarketWatch, a leading financial news and information site sold to Dow Jones for over $500 million. Derek was also a founder and principal of i-hatch Ventures, president of CBS New Media, Director of CBS Sportsline and consultant for McKinsey & Co.

Laura Yecies is an experienced technology CEO and strategist with over 25 years of experience developing and marketing technology products and services. Currently the COO at Mobilize, Laura previously was CEO of SugarSync and Catch.com, Vice President of Marketing and General Manager for ZoneAlarm at Check Point Software, General Manager of Yahoo Mail, and Vice President of the Client Products Division at Netscape. Public spokesperson and recognized industry thought leader frequently sought out by the media in the cloud, mobile, security, collaboration and internet services area. Passionate, multilingual internationalist with expertise in building global business.

Rob Reid is an entrepreneur and American author. He founded Listen.com that launched the Rhapsody digital music service, the first licensed service of its kind. (Real Networks acquired Listen.com, and later sold Rhapsody to MTV for $230 million.) Rob was also a founding board member of IGN Entertainment (went public and then was acquired by News Corp for $650 million).

As an author, Rob wrote two business books, Year One: An Intimate Look Inside Harvard Business School and Architects of the Web: 1,000 Days that Built the Future of Business, and then a hilarious sci-fi satire of the music industry’s copyright laws called Year Zero.

Chris Nolan is Founder and CEO of Spot-On, an online media company servicing political campaign professionals. With more than 20 years reporting experience, Nolan's work is well known to tech-savvy and politically astute readers, with her work appearing in The Washington Post, The New Republic, Fortune, Business 2.0 and Conde Nast Traveler. Nolan speaks frequently on technology, politics and media, as well as the impact of stand alone journalism — a phrase she coined to describe the web-based writing of experienced and professional journalists.

Karen E. Watson established and runs a subsidiary of the Neilsen Company, the Government and Public Sector Sales division. Her extensive experience in government advocacy, communications, and media includes serving as Vice President of Government Relations at Echostar Satellite Services, Director of Public Affairs at the Federal Communications Commission, Associate Director – News and Public Affairs Programming at PBS, Assistant Producer of Morning Edition at NPR, and Production Assistant at the Macneil/ Leherer Report.

Ted Barnett is the Co-founder and COO of Byliner, Inc., a digital publishing company and social network built around compelling works by great writers. He has co-founded several companies, including SuperSecret, When.com (sold to AOL), and ActiveSite. He served as VP of Business Development at Reardon, a start-up incubator, as well as VP of Product Marketing for the Reardon subsidiary Mova. Ted’s background includes senior product management at Apple Computer and he co-authored a patent, issued in 2007, for multi-layered online calendaring and purchasing technology.

Lisa Guillerman Gable is the President of the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation, a CEO-led initiative aimed at helping to reduce obesity in America. She is a branding expert having served as Global Brand Identity Manager for INTEL and as founding partner of The Brand Group. Lisa formerly held the rank of Ambassador representing the United States at the 2005 World Exposition (the World’s Fair) in Japan. Other notable roles include U.S. Delegate to the United Nations, Commissioner of the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships, Vice Chairman for the U.S. Defense Department’s Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services, and advisory board member for Base Technologies (acquired by CA Technologies).

Bill Gorman was co-founder of TV by the Numbers which was acquired by Tribune Digital Adventures in 2015. TV by the Numbers provides television industry professionals and enthusiasts with TV ratings and trend analysis as well as insight into key metrics on website traffic, advertising and business. Today Bill runs TVGrimReaper.com, continuing his predictions of TV show cancellations independently of the Tribune Company. Previously, Bill worked for AOL as Mayor of Digital City San Francisco, Managing Director of AOL International, and Manager Business Development.

Louis Libin is President of Broad Comm, Inc., a consulting group specializing in advanced television broadcast, interactive TV, Internet Protocol and wireless communications. Prior to his tenure at Broad Comm, Mr. Libin was Chief Technology Officer for NBC, and was responsible for all business and technical matters for satellite, wireless and communication issues for General Electric and NBC. Since 1989, Mr. Libin has represented the United States on satellite and transmission issues at the International Telecommunications Union in Geneva, Switzerland. Mr. Libin is a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, and is a member of the National Society of Professional Engineers. Mr. Libin also serves on the boards of directors of several private and not-for profit companies.

Freddy Ohou is a computer scientist, software engineer and researcher. He currently conducts private research, specializing in geometric modeling, 3D graphics and visualization, computational topology, data analysis, and NURBS. He holds a Master's degree in Computer Science, Mathematics from the University of Michigan and advises AllSides specifically on AI and machine learning.

Kathryn McManus brings world-class expertise in business development, leadership, operations, innovation, marketing and communications. She has built and led teams consisting of MBA’s, PHd’s, and renowned thought leaders.

Having launched both CNN Japan and News Certified Exchange Kathryn McManus' career has been highly regarded. Kathryn has worked with hundreds of senior executives and forged business relationships with top-tier organizations including: The World Business Forum, Bloomberg, the American Express Foundation, Reuters, Turner International, The Fulbright Foundation, Orrick, Deloitte, The Aspen Institute, NHK, Stanford University, The New York Times, TV Asahi, The Center for Creative Leadership, Fox Business News, Edelman, Bon Appétit Management Company, CCTV, Havas PR and many others. “Kathryn is considered one of the most networked executives within media and industry globally.” according to The Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

As a senior member of Turner International's business development team, Kathryn traveled extensively launching various broadcast networks. On behalf of CNN, she resolved conflicts between the network and international governments, broadcasters, and clients. In addition, Kathryn has been published in The New York Times, CNN, PBS, and is a frequent panelist, lecturer, and moderator. Beyond serving as an advisor to AllSides, Kathryn works in partnership with the Cronkite School and Fulbright Foundation, and select clients who are in the process of nationally scaling their organizations.