Leaders
Leaders
Scott A. Jones
Co-Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer
Scott brings over two decades of experience and achievement to ChaCha as a veteran entrepreneur, inventor, strategist, and venture capitalist. His well-seasoned perspective and pioneering instincts provide unique direction for the gifted team that ChaCha continues to assemble.
At age 25, Scott invented the massively scalable, easy-to-use voicemail system that has been used by over a billion people around the world. Subsequently, he built Gracenote, the company that supplies Internet-based music services for companies including Apple, Yahoo, and Sony. Gracenote services are being accessed globally at the rate of 24 billion times per year by applications such as iTunes.
Two decades ago, Scott described publicly, during speeches in Hong Kong and London — well before desktop search engines and the Web were born – a vision of people having access to all of mankind’s knowledge, from anywhere, and at anytime. In late 2005, Scott realized that the enabling technologies of the Web and the ubiquity and portability of mobile devices finally provided the necessary pieces of the puzzle to manifest the dream. Hence, ChaCha was born. Scott is now driven by the singular focus of making ChaCha the world’s easiest-to-use and most comprehensive way to access information and answers while people are on the go.
In addition to his focus on changing the world, Scott has traveled the globe with his family, loves to find great hole-in-the-wall eateries with Vee and enjoys time with his sons playing basketball, blowing up things in kitchen science experiments, and watching random YouTube videos.
More on Scott is available at www.scottajones.com.
Chris Brown
President and CFO
Chris leads ChaCha’s dynamic team in its daily quest to build the world’s leading mobile answers service and advertising platform. Chris is leading the effort to build and launch innovative products that delight both customers and advertisers by delivering fast, accurate answers and mobile advertising solutions that drive real results.
Prior to joining ChaCha, Brown played an instrumental role in building Nextel into a $15 billion business and worked on all facets of the Sprint-Nextel Communications merger, one of the largest merger and integration efforts in U.S. history. Chris brings over 20 years of wireless industry experience to ChaCha, including eight years with Verizon Wireless before serving in a variety of executive roles with Nextel. As Nextel’s Vice President of Customer Operations, Chris led the company’s “Service Done Right” program which garnered Nextel the JD Powers “No. 1 in Customer Satisfaction” award.
Chris also has a passion for fine wine, soccer and travel. In fact, Chris’ taste for red wine led him to co-found Dogwood Cellars and Three Families winery in Healdsburg, California. A glass of handcrafted Cabernet Sauvignon at the end of a sunny day with his wife, and sons, is the perfect complement to Chris’ tenacious focus on building ChaCha into one of the world’s great companies.
Tom Cooper
Chief Technology Officer
As the first key executive to join up after the company was founded, Tom plays the critical role of designing and developing ChaCha’s groundbreaking, patents-pending architecture to ensure millions of mobile questions can be handled smoothly.
Tom’s experience as CTO at Bostech Corporation and as creator of more than 20 highly scalable commercial software applications provides essential background for building sophisticated, scalable technology infrastructure for ChaCha. His calm, quiet confidence and off-the-charts intellect combine to continuously drive the ChaCha team to new heights. Tom is known for establishing strong loyalty with world-class engineers and doing whatever it takes to succeed in building robust technology platforms.
In addition to driving ChaCha’s rapid technology ascent, Tom’s passion for flying takes him thousands of feet above the earth whenever he can make it to the airstrip on a cloudless day. With his wife, Pam, at his side, Tom pilots a Piper Cherokee Six at 150 knots. While gliding toward the endless horizon, Tom’s mind is clear to contemplate the next big leap required for ChaCha to continue developing products that deliver the optimal blend of human intelligence and cutting-edge technology.
