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Travis May

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Travis May
Bornc. 1987
Cary, North Carolina, U.S.
EducationHarvard College
OccupationBusinessman
Employers
Websitetravismay.medium.com

Travis May (born 1987) is an American entrepreneur.[1][2][3] He is the CEO of Shaper Capital, founder and former CEO of Datavant and previously co-founded and was the CEO of LiveRamp.[4][1]

Early life

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May was born in Cary, North Carolina, in 1987.[5][6] He grew up in Cary and attended Cary Academy, graduating in 2005.[7][8][9] While in high school, he was a member of a four-person team that won the mid-Atlantic regional and competed in the 2005 National Economics Challenge.[10][11]

May attended Harvard College, graduating in 2009 with degrees in economics and mathematics, magna cum laude.[12][13][14] During his freshman year, he co-founded the Harvard Entrepreneurial Forum.[2] When he was a sophomore, he created the website IvyAdmits.com, which featured examples of successful college application essays from Ivy League students.[15] Later, he co-founded the i3 The Harvard College Innovation Challenge, a student startup competition, which continues annually with support from the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard.[14]

Career

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When he was a student at Harvard in 2007, May co-founded Campus Venture Network Inc with Vivek G. Ramaswamy.[12][2][16][17] May was the company's CEO.[13] May and Ramaswamy created StudentBusinesses.com, a closed social network that paired students who had business ideas with potential investors.[12][17] The website was tested at Harvard and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and expanded to Duke University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Yale University, and several hundred students in India.[12][16][17] In 2009, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation purchased Campus Venture Network and its StudentBusinesses.com for an undisclosed amount.[16][13] The platform evolved into YouNoodle and continues to be used for the i3 competition at Harvard.[14]

After graduating, May took the position of vice president of product at Rapleaf, a small start-up company co-founded by Auren Hoffman in San Francisco.[18][13] In 2011, May co-founded LiveRamp with Hoffman and was its vice president of product.[19][1][18][13] LiveRamp was a Silicon Valley–based start-up company that provided data onboarding.[20][21][22] After three years, Acxiom purchased LiveRamp for $310 million.[1] May became acting president of Acxiom and CEO of its LiveRamp division for eight years.[1][9]

Hoffman, who left LiveRamp with the buyout, noted that Acxiom trusted the team who created LiveRamp, giving May a "very long rope."[19] Between 2015 and 2016, LiveRamp generated $90 million in revenue.[1] By 2017, it was worth more than $1.5 billion.[19] Its customers included Adobe, American Express, and Google.[1] Acxiom assigned May to the new position of chief growth officer in September 2017.[23][24] Although May was allowed to spend some work time on his new start-up, he resigned from Acxiom in April 2018.[24][23]

In September 2017, May became the CEO of Datavant, a San Francisco–based biotech company he co-founded with his former business partner Ramaswamy.[9][25][22][3] May made a “significant personal investment” in Datavant which was initially supported by Roivant Sciences, a healthcare company owned by Ramaswamy.[22] In 2018, May helped lead a $40.5 million financing round, securing investments from Cigna Ventures and Johnson & Johnson Innovation.[5][26] Datavant entered into a $7 billion merger with Ciox Health in 2021.[4][27] After the merger, May stepped down as CEO, becoming the president of the company and remaining on its board of directors.[4]

Honors

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  • In 2016, Forbes magazine named May to its 30 Under 30: Marketing & Advertising list[1]
  • Ad Age named May to its 40 Under 40 List in 2016.[28]

Personal life

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May married Holly Metter, a graduate of Cary Academy and Harvard, on the Cary Academy campus in 2012.[9] She is in charge of human resources for Datavant.[9] In 2019, the couple donated $500,000 to Cary Academy, establishing the Metter May Scholarship which provides full tuition for financially disadvantaged students.[29] May was a sponsor of the i3 The Harvard College Innovation Challenge in 2021.[14]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "2016 30 Under 30: Marketing & Advertising: Travis May, 28". Forbes. April 5, 2016. Retrieved 2018-11-21.
  2. ^ a b c Halpern, Jake (September 30, 2007). "The New Me Generation | Boston Globe". Boston.com. Retrieved 2018-11-21.
  3. ^ a b Carroll, John (April 30, 2018). "What do you get when you integrate healthcare data from multiple sources into one comprehensive, global package? Travis May says he's on track to find out". EndPoints News. Retrieved 2018-11-21.
  4. ^ a b c Romero, Henry (June 9, 2021). "Health data firms Datavant, Ciox to merge in $7 billion deal". Reuters. Retrieved December 21, 2022.
  5. ^ a b Henderson, Jennifer (April 30, 2018). "Growing health tech company with Triangle ties makes acquisition, banks $40M". Triangle Business Journal. Retrieved 2022-12-22.
  6. ^ Jackson, Justin (December 24, 2023). "Behind Forbes 30 Under 30: Travis May". The Green Hope Falcon. Retrieved 2024-07-16.
  7. ^ "The Board of Directors and the Faculty and Staff of Cary Academy Congratulate the Class of 2005". The News and Observer. 2005-05-28. p. 15. Retrieved 2022-12-22 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ Hannah-Jones, Nikole (2004-06-30). "This Boot Camp's All Talk". The News and Observer. p. 17. Retrieved 2022-12-21.
  9. ^ a b c d e Dailey, Mandy (December 8, 2019). "Embracing Zigs Zags and Left Turns | The Magazine of Cary Academy". Cary Academy. pp. 14–17. Retrieved December 21, 2022.
  10. ^ Watson-Garner, Kerry (2005-05-12). "Cary Academy Team Prepares for National Economics Contest". The News and Observer. pp. B5. Retrieved 2022-12-21 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ Garner-Watson, Kerry (2005-05-05). "High School Notebook". The News and Observer. pp. B9. Retrieved 2022-12-22 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ a b c d Shover, Chelsea L. (September 25, 2007). "Student Site Links Business Community". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved 2018-11-21.
  13. ^ a b c d e Miller, Abby (2013-05-15). "Discover the "Missing Link:" Closing the Loop Between Online Marketing and Offline Purchases". DMNews. Retrieved 2022-12-23.
  14. ^ a b c d "i3 Sponsors". Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard. Retrieved 2022-12-23 – via Harvard University.
  15. ^ "Student from Cary Adds His Site to Essay-Writing Toolbox". The News and Observer. 2006-09-13. pp. B7. Retrieved 2022-12-22 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ a b c Rao, Leena (October 19, 2009). "Kauffman Foundation Acquires StudentBusinesses.com". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2018-11-21.
  17. ^ a b c Lynch, Brendan (March 20, 2008). "Harvard student, alum, launch social biz site". Boston Business Journal. Retrieved 2022-12-22.
  18. ^ a b "RapLeaf CEO Hoffman Discusses New LiveRamp Solution And Company Strategy". AdExchanger. 2011-07-08. Retrieved 2022-12-23.
  19. ^ a b c "Three Years Later: Why Acxiom's Acquisition of LiveRamp Worked". AdExchanger. 2017-06-29. Retrieved 2022-12-23.
  20. ^ Gage, Deborah (2014-05-14). "Acxiom To Acquire LiveRamp For $310M". WSJ. Retrieved 2018-11-21.
  21. ^ Kaye, Kate (November 17, 2016). "Acxiom's LiveRamp Buys Two Publisher Data Firms in Race to I.D. Consumers Across Devices". AdAge. Retrieved 2018-11-21.
  22. ^ a b c Adams, Ben (September 21, 2017). "Silicon Valley vet to run new Roivant trial AI company". Fierce Biotech. Retrieved 2018-11-21.
  23. ^ a b "Acxiom Appoints New Leadership for Connectivity Division". Ad Tech Daily. 2017-09-29. Retrieved 2022-12-22.
  24. ^ a b Brown, Wesley (2018-04-17). "Another top Acxiom executive leaves company to join Silicon Valley startup". Talk Business & Politics. Retrieved 2022-12-22.
  25. ^ Carroll, John (September 20, 2017). "Tech maven Travis May takes the helm of Roivant's data mining startup". EndPoints News. Retrieved 2018-11-21.
  26. ^ Muoio, Dave (October 12, 2020). "Datavant brings in $40M to power health data exchange across providers, life sciences". Mobi Health News. Retrieved December 21, 2022.
  27. ^ Porter, Kiel; Davis, Michelle F. (June 8, 2021). "New Mountain's Ciox Nears Merger With Datavant". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2022-11-21.
  28. ^ "Meet Ad Age's 2016 40 Under 40". AdAge. March 21, 2016. Retrieved 2018-11-21.
  29. ^ "Giving Back: The Metter May Scholarship". The Magazine of Cary Academy (Winter 2019) pp. 18–19. via Issuu, retrieved December 22, 2022.
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