David Morgan, ’85 PL SC, JD ’88, has proven that small companies can offer big benefits to Penn State students. David is the creator of Simulmedia, a media marketing company, and gladly hosted two Penn State Liberal Arts student interns last summer to give them knowledge and skills useful for the business world.
David is best described as a serial entrepreneur. Before founding Simulmedia he was the founder, CEO and Chairman of TACODA, Inc., an online advertising company that pioneered behavioral online marketing in 2001 and was acquired by AOL in 2007, as well as Real Media, Inc., one of the world’s first ad serving and online ad network companies and a predecessor to 24/7 Real Media (TFSM), which was later sold to WPP. Most recently, David served as Executive Vice President, Global Advertising Strategy, at AOL, formerly a Time Warner Company.
Today, David is the CEO for Simulmedia, a New York City-based media marketing company dedicated to improving the effectiveness of program promotion on television. This fast-paced startup is pioneering the development of predictive technology using a variety of data sources to help television companies deliver the right on-air promotions to the right viewers at the right time.
When David learned about the opportunity to sponsor Liberal Arts interns, he immediately saw the possibilities for Simulmedia. He believes a liberal arts education helps students to develop key writing, communication and critical thinking skills, which are just as necessary backgrounds in technology companies as engineering and technical backgrounds. Therefore, Liberal Arts students, Lindsay Keane, a senior in psychology, and Austen Talbot, a senior in economics, joined his company for the summer.
Working full-time, Lindsay and Austen were immediately embraced as part of the staff at Simulmedia and given various tasks reflecting the variety of work done at the company. A major ongoing project involved classifying 5,000 shows broadcasted during April and May into subcategories according to their audience statistics. By the end of the internship, both students created and delivered presentations to the staff, analyzing different communications companies and their relations to Simulmedia. Their positive energy and relentless work ethic allowed Lindsay and Austen to accomplish David’s objective, as well as demonstrated to the Simulmedia staff how they can utilize future employees with backgrounds similar to those of Lindsay and Austen.
The Penn State interns had the unique experience of working in an emerging technology company in the media marketing industry. Rarely do people have a chance of working in a start-up company, a growing trend in the current economy. Also, the students were able to work in Manhattan, the corporate heart of the nation. David understands how different working in this environment can be, having grown up in Western Pennsylvania and coming to Manhattan only 15 years ago.
David plans on hosting more Liberal Arts interns in the future and is currently working on creating positions for this summer. He highly recommends that other Penn State alumni consider sponsoring interns as well. To learn more about making internship positions available to Liberal Arts students, see the Employer page of our internship website, or contact Ashley Tarbet at aet143@psu.edu.