Micropayment Imagery Pioneer iStockphoto Names Kelly Thompson COO and Opens European Headquarters in Germany With Experienced Microstock Executive Dit

BERLIN & CALGARY, Alberta --(Business Wire)-- Sep 22, 2008 iStockphoto, the world’s first micropayment stock imagery and video Web site, and the world’s busiest image market, announced today that it has promoted former executive vice president, Kelly Thompson, to chief operating officer. iStock will also be opening its European headquarters in Berlin, Germany on Oct. 1. Dittmar Frohmann, formerly regional director at Fotolia, will advance iStockphoto as European director. One of Frohmann’s first duties is a joint presentation with Livingstone at photokina on Sept. 24.

“Kelly earned the COO position by helping drive the exponential growth of iStockphoto, using amazingly strong skills in everything from finance and marketing to computer programming and graphic design,” said Bruce Livingstone, founder and CEO of iStockphoto. “Dittmar Frohmann is an energetic and enthusiastic addition to our team who thoroughly understands the nature of the market we created, and I look forward to his accomplishments in Europe.”

iStockphoto European Headquarters

Germany is one of the largest markets for iStockphoto outside of North America, and is central to many of the countries within which iStockphoto offers localized Web sites. The headquarters’ team will supervise and manage marketing and client relations for the region. Frohmann has assembled a team of several experienced multi-lingual marketers and customer service experts. The office will also add several new people in the coming year.

“I have always watched the innovations of iStockphoto from afar,” said Frohmann. “When I saw Bruce Livingstone speak at a conference last year, I realized that I needed and wanted to align my skills and interests with his vision and the pioneering leader in microstock.”

About Dittmar Frohmann

Dittmar, like most of the senior management at iStockphoto, brings an unexpected and creative background to the company. He was most recently regional director for Fotolia. Born in West Berlin, he garnered two degrees from British universities in marketing and in business. Music is a passion that led him to market the German heavy metal label, “Noise,” and the New York City-based dance label, “Strictly Rhythm.” He then founded his own successful music label, “Blaou.” He has also run galleries and marketed mobile content. He started his marketing career as an executive for a French freight forwarder. Dittmar will report to Catherine Gluckstein, vice president of international markets and corporate expansion for iStockphoto.

About Kelly Thompson

Kelly Thompson met Bruce Livingstone at Image Club Graphics in the early 1990s, and urged his managers to give Bruce a crack at Web design. They stayed in touch over the years and Bruce slowly coaxed Kelly to leave his safe corporate job to take a vested interest in a nascent iStockphoto. Kelly has served in several roles at iStockphoto, most recently, executive vice president. Kelly is still a programmer at heart, despite his business acumen, and has been the driving force behind many iStock innovations, such as the patent-pending CopySpace™, which many in the industry are now trying to duplicate.

He holds a computer science degree from the University of Calgary, which thankfully didn't get in the way of his artistic side. His early focus on human-computer interface design put him on a quick and obvious trajectory to the web. Prior to iStockphoto, he was Senior Brand Manager at the enterprise search company Verity, Inc.

Soure: VPO