Industry Analysts

Michael Boland
VP, Content and Senior Analyst

Since joining the company in 2005, Michael Boland has been instrumental in covering interactive and mobile media. His expertise and curiosity about new mobile, social, and video technologies have made him a valuable resource for BIA/Kelsey clients. He now directs internal programs such as the evolution of BIA/Kelsey’s Custom Advisory Services, and the newly formed “BIA/Kelsey Labs” incubator for new initiatives.

Boland is a frequent speaker and organizer at top industry conferences including BIA/Kelsey events, Ad:Tech, WHERE 2.0 and others. He has authored in-depth reports on the changing local media landscape including online video, social networking and mobile. He contributes regularly to highly read online news sources such as Huffington Post and Business Insider. A trusted source for reporters covering the interactive media space, his comments have appeared in major news and trade media, including The Wall Street Journal, Fortune and Forbes.

Before joining BIA/Kelsey, Boland was editor of Innovation World’s TechAlert, a monthly journal of emerging technology companies. Previously he was a San Francisco-based freelance writer for business and technology magazines, such as Red Herring, Business 2.0, Mobile and Digitalife. He began his career in business analysis and journalism as a staff reporter for Forbes magazine, covering the tech sector.

Matt Booth
Chief Strategy Officer

Matt provides a leadership role for our consulting practices and conferences. Well-respected in the local media community for his expertise, Matt creates strategic initiatives that advise clients on how to be successful in the ever changing media landscape. Matt also runs our highly successful Interactive Local Media (ILM) advisory service program.

Matt Booth came to BIA/Kelsey from Perform Local, a local lead generation start-up funded by two prominent venture capital groups. He was a cofounder and chief operating officer. Before that, starting in 1996, he held several senior positions at Citysearch, a subsidiary of IAC/InterActiveCorp, including vice president, strategy and planning; vice president, product; and vice president, media partnerships.

Booth participated in numerous activities at Citysearch, including the creation of media partnerships with television and radio stations, the launch of city guides with leading newspapers like the Los Angeles Times, the design and implementation of a national local search product, the creation of the prototype of Citysearch’s performance-based sales model, and acquisitions such as that of Entertainment Publications.

Booth graduated summa cum laude from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a Bachelor of Science in finance.

Rick Ducey
Managing Director

Rick Ducey is managing director, leading our corporate strategy, consulting practices and our Continuous Advisory Service programs. He brings a tremendous amount of management experience and expertise to this role, and is an expert in digital media innovations, competitive strategies, new product development and new business models, including digital ecosystem collaboration strategies.

A frequent speaker on the transforming media ecosystem, Ducey also serves as the program director for BIA/Kelsey’s Video Local Media advisory service, which focuses on the business and technology strategies in local video networks, devices and content market segments. He assists clients with their business planning and revenue models, strategic research, market assessment, and designing and implementing strategies for leveraging video media assets and inventory in local markets.

With more than 30 years of experience, including management positions, inside private industry and associations, Ducey is a sought-out expert for his coverage and analysis of how disruptive technologies; emerging competition; shifting consumer demographics and media usage trends are driving changes in the media ecosystem and what C-level executives must do to be successful. As a media strategist and technologist, Ducey has consulted with major media and Fortune 500 companies including Google, Microsoft, Dell, Time Warner, NBCU/Comcast, Gannett and Yahoo.

Prior to joining BIA/Kelsey in 2000, Ducey was senior vice president of NAB’s Research and Information Group. In this position, he was in charge of the association’s new technology assessment, audience and policy research, strategic planning and information systems, including all Internet operations. He also developed publications and seminars.

Ducey was recognized in academia as the 2011 Shapiro Fellow at George Washington University, where he teaches entrepreneurship in new media. He has also designed and taught innovative courses while on the faculties of Michigan State University, George Mason University, George Washington University and the University of Maryland. He has published over sixty referred scholarly and industry articles and papers and serves on editorial boards of leading academic journals in the telecommunications and media fields.

Ducey received his Ph.D. from Michigan State University, M.S. from Syracuse University and B.A. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Mark Fratrik
VP and Chief Economist

Mark Fratrik is a vice president of BIA/Kelsey. He serves as the company’s chief economist and is responsible for forecasting across all local media segments. He also manages BIA/Kelsey’s numerous proprietary databases and conducts primary research on various trends as they affect the broadcasting and related communications industries. Additionally, Fratrik is heavily involved in the company’s strategic and financial consulting projects, conducting research and analysis for clients on matters related to the broadcasting, digital media and related communications industries.

Throughout his career, Fratrik has researched and spoken at numerous conferences on the impact of the economy on the broadcasting industries, proposed and enacted regulatory changes, and new media technologies, including DTV datacasting. He is often quoted in the media and is a leading spokesperson concerning trends and forecasts for the media industry including analyzing competitiveness of media and related industries. He is the author BIA/Kelsey’s series of studies on the state of the radio and television industry.

Fratrik received his B.A. in mathematics and economics from State University of New York at Binghamton and his master’s and doctoral degrees in economics from Texas A&M in College Station, Texas. He served as an adjunct professor of economics at Johns Hopkins University for more than seven years.

Peter Krasilovsky
VP, Conferences and Sr. Analyst

Vice President Peter Krasilovsky is well-known for his insights into the shifts of media and commerce, and has been deeply involved in extending major media and commerce brands into new digital revenue streams and digital services.

With more than 26 years of experience, Krasilovsky has been highly visible in his work, which has ranged from new cable TV and telephone services to ecommerce and promotions. As a strategist, Krasilovsky has consulted with such companies and organizations as AT&T, AOL, The National Football League, NBC, Discovery Communications, Hearst and Meredith Publishing.

Krasilovsky is widely quoted on digital media and commerce trends, and has been writing the Local Onliner blog since 2006. Previously, he was a columnist and editor of several telecommunications and digital media newsletters.

In 1986, Krasilovsky began his career as Director of Research at The Cable Television Information Center. From 1990 to 1998, Krasilovsky was Vice President for Arlen Communications. In 1998, Krasilovsky joined The Kelsey Group, a predecessor of BIA/Kelsey, to launch the Local Online Commerce program.

Krasilovsky has an M.A. in communications management from The Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Southern California. His B.A. is in liberal arts from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York.

Charles Laughlin
SVP and Managing Editor

Charles Laughlin applies the skills he developed as a reporter and editor to the daily tasks of helping BIA/Kelsey clients understand what is happening in the world of Yellow Pages and offering insights into where the business is moving. His approach is built on doing the legwork necessary to understand what the industry’s key players are doing, what they are thinking about, and how they plan to adapt to the changing nature of the directional media business.

Since becoming program director of The Kelsey Report®, BIA/Kelsey’s flagship Continuous Advisory Service, Laughlin has expanded the scope of the program from an exclusive focus on new technologies for directory publishers to a broader look at how Yellow Pages is competing in the media marketplace — both analog and digital. He has been instrumental in expanding BIA/Kelsey’s product portfolio. In 2002 he led the development of Global Yellow Pages™, a comprehensive, 400-plus-page worldwide industry fact book that grew to 566 pages with the publication of GYP2007.

Laughlin earned a B.A. in English from the University of Illinois.

Steve Marshall
Director of Research

Steve Marshall manages BIA/Kelsey’s research initiatives. He began working with the firm as an associate researcher and analyst in 1996. Marshall has more than 25 years of experience in management consulting, focusing on the development of corporate and marketing strategies that maximize shareholder value. In the past five years, he has concentrated on serving emerging businesses and markets related to the Internet.

Previously, he founded Marshall Associates in 1995, a strategy consulting firm specializing in the telecommunications and new media industries. Clients included RBOCs, major CLCs, IXCs and other Internet-related companies. Project work included developing business strategies and business cases, conducting competitive and market assessments, and assisting with business development.

Before founding Marshall Associates, he was assistant vice president of corporate strategy for Pacific Telesis (since incorporated into SBC, now AT&T). Previously, he was a senior manager of Marakon Associates, an international consulting firm that specializes in strategies and management to maximize shareholder value. Marshall was based in Stamford, Connecticut, and London, U.K. He served multinational clients in the telecommunications, financial services and pharmaceutical industries. He also served as a consultant for First Manhattan Consulting Group and Boston Consulting Group.

Marshall has a B.A. in American history from the University of Michigan and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Celine Matthiessen
Director of Analytics and Insights

Celine Matthiessen performs competitive intelligence research for BIA/Kelsey clients, offering more than 15 years of experience in competitive intelligence with a deep background in marketing and advertising. Her areas of focus include consumer goods, consumer services, health care, pharmaceuticals, life sciences, biotechnology, media, advertising, publishing, entertainment, retail, wholesale, telecommunications, research, Internet and sales.

Previously, Matthiessen served as group manager of Competitive Intelligence at SuperMedia, where she established and managed a formal competitive intelligence department that supported the needs of a 4,000-member sales force and more than 500 employees in marketing, strategy, sales training, IT, business development and investor relations.

As principal of Red Leaf Consulting, Matthiessen managed a successful consulting business, performing on-demand, customized business and competitive intelligence for clients in the biotechnology, medical, Internet, telecommunications, advertising, consumer packaged goods and design industries.

Prior to Red Leaf, Matthiessen served as a research analyst at Baxter International, where she was part of a team of researchers that ran an internal sourcing department for the company’s U.S. and international locations.

Matthiessen is a member the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals, the American Marketing Association and Association for Independent Information Professionals. She holds a master’s degree in information science from Dominican University and a B.A. from Knox College.

Geoff Price
VP, Valuations and Financial Consulting

Vice President Geoff Price manages and operates BIA/Kelsey’s valuation consulting group. He has been with the company since 1988 and has appraised hundreds of media and telecommunications properties worth in aggregate in the tens of billions of dollars.

Price is responsible for the preparation of asset appraisals, valuation studies, strategic consulting assignments, and litigation support for clients in the communications and broadcast industries. He has also been responsible for assisting many publicly traded and privately held broadcast companies with their valuation needs associated with FASB 141/142. In addition, Price is part of the business development team and is responsible for client relationships with many of the largest broadcast companies nationwide. His appraisal and valuation experience is diverse, including reports for firms in the cellular, paging, SMR, cable, print, tower and broadcast industries.

Price earned a B.S. in finance from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia, and received his M.B.A. from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

Andrew Shotland, LocalSEOGuide.com
Contributing Analyst

Andrew Shotland is the proprietor of LocalSEOGuide.com and one of the top local search consultants in the industry. Shotland offers full-service search engine optimization, search engine advertising, website strategy and local search consulting with a specialty in Yellow Pages and local directories SEO. He has provided his services to numerous media, e-commerce companies, franchises and start-ups, including Bing.com, DexKnows.com, Yellowbook.com, Yellow Pages Group of Canada, Truvo, Telegate Media, Business.com, the Los Angeles Times, Cox Communications, New York Daily News, Ingenio/AT&T, D&B & Sequoia Capital, Friendster, MOG.com, ChaCha.com and Spoke.com. Local SEO Guide also provides small businesses with search marketing services.

In addition, Shotland is the editor of the popular Local SEO Guide blog, a local search engine optimization and local search marketing blog that provides simple tips, trends, how-tos and strategies for small businesses and marketers in the local search industry.

Shotland has more than 15 years of experience in the Internet. He was a founding member of NBC’s Internet group and a former general manager of NBC.com. While at NBC, he created NBC-IN, the first national network of local TV station websites. Most recently he was vice president of business and product development at Insider Pages, a pioneering local-social search engine that was acquired by Citysearch. At Insider Pages, Shotland developed local SEO strategies and techniques that helped attract more than 3 million monthly unique visitors and over 600,000 reviews of local businesses almost entirely via search engine referrals.

Michael Taylor
Director of Business Development

Michael Taylor is BIA/Kelsey’s director of business development and also works on the company’s consulting projects. He brings best practice experience in sales and marketing, as well as sales and marketing audit and due diligence experience. Taylor’s view of the marketplace is focused on both current industry trends and the long-range changing nature of print and digital media. A voracious reader and researcher, he seeks to make the connections between ideas and practices to create new insights and business models for clients.

Before joining BIA/Kelsey, Taylor was managing director and marketing director for The Berry Co.’s Sales & Marketing Solutions consulting group. Specializing in sales, marketing and operational management, he led several client efforts in Australia, the Czech Republic, Japan, Norway, the U.K. and the U.S., addressing diverse operational, organizational and marketing challenges. His European, Asian and domestic U.S. experience is vital in addressing client inquires on best sales and marketing practices as well as providing additional insights in the Global Yellow Pages™ report.

Before entering the Yellow Pages industry, Taylor spent 12 years in advertising as a brand strategist. He has also worked as a copy writer and as a TV and radio producer.

Taylor holds a B.A. in marketing and communications from Bowling Green State University in Ohio.

Jed Williams
VP, Consulting and Senior Analyst

Jed Williams manages the company's strategic consulting practice and empowers clients to build and execute successful digital media business strategies. He has expertise in market research and segmentation, forecasting, strategic planning, new product development, partnerships and competitive intelligence. His domain specialties include social media, mobile platforms, digital advertising and ecommerce.

Williams has led strategic consulting projects for AOL, Associated Press, Deseret Media, Google and Time-Warner Cable, among others. He is also a frequent speaker at industry events whose insights have been cited in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Financial Times, Bloomberg, Ad Age and the BBC.

Williams received his master’s in media business from the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at UNC-Chapel Hill, where he was named the Outstanding M.A. Graduate by the school. He has written extensively on creative destruction and disruptive media. His work has been published by the Columbia Journalism School and the Yale School of Management.