Jo Gilley

Jo is one of the original investors in Overture. She brings 22 years of management, strategic planning and marketing experience to the team. She was previously the VP of marketing for Chicago’s WNBA team, the Sky; director of marketing at The Cradle, the Midwest’s largest adoption agency; and VP of marketing at Cognitive Concepts, an early literacy technology company. Jo helped build two successful Internet start-ups: as vice president of marketing at Tunes.com, Internet music hub and producer of RollingStone.com, and as director of corporate strategy at BackWeb Technologies, where she redefined the company’s positioning prior to a successful initial product launch and initiated European marketing programs in advance of market entry. She was the first communications director for IBM’s Software Group when it was formed as a $12 billion software “company,” and managed the worldwide launch of a major new software product with a series of Telly Award-winning launch events that generated broad, worldwide media coverage. Before starting her career in marketing, Jo worked as an imagery analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency. When she’s not working, she’s watching her sons' baseball games or reading.