With more than 30 years of publishing, business development and electronic media start up experience, Rick Blair is an established and respected leader among the global content, advertising and digital publishing industries.

Most, recently Rick served as the CEO of Clarity Digital Group, overseeing Examiner.com. During his tenure there, he led the site to become one of the largest news and information sources in the country, serving more than 24 million monthly unique visitors, expanding the site to 244 markets across North America and increasing its contributor base to more than 70,000. In addition, Examiner.com was awarded the Standard of Excellence by the New Media Institute under his guidance, and Rick was directly awarded an Outstanding Achievement honor by the Interactive Media Council for his work in online news with Examiner.com and the Denver Business Journal Power Book Award.

Forging partnerships with the like of Reuters America, Living Social, CBS, Yahoo, Microsoft, Foursquare and Facebook—his ability to discover synergies, cross-promotional opportunities and long term business relationships continues to be one of his most sought after assets.

With strong roots in local, Rick was also a key player in the reemergence of AOL’s content strategy and the creative force behind AOL’s Digital City, holding a number of positions including Vice President of Sales, Vice President of Operations and Business Development, and Vice President of New Enterprises. Mr. Blair’s previous experience also includes serving as Vice President of Sales and Marketing and Vice President of Content Management at Picture Network International, funded by the Tribune Co., and CEO of PressLink (launched in 1989), the first all electronic/online photo delivery and licensing system used by over 1000 media outlets worldwide.

Blair is an angel investor with relationships with Verve Wireless, Eviesays, Closely.com (board member), Celljournalist.com, Happenings Media, Planet High School, StreetFight, and The Pursuit Group.

Twitter: @RickEBlair