Meet the Cranberry Management Team

David McInnis has reassembled key players of his PRWeb team to bring you Cranberry. Here are a few of them. These bios are provided courtesy of PeoplePond, a Cranberry Venture Partners company.

David A. McInnis - Founder & CEO

David A. McInnis is founder and CEO of Cranberry Venture Partners, LLC, a company providing greater visibility and accessibility for its clientele’s Web content.  

The entrepreneurial McInnis founded PRWeb® in 1997. He is the original innovator of direct to consumer news release distribution and developer of PRWeb’s Online Visibility Engine.   

A graduate of Texas State University, McInnis worked for years as a marketing and database consultant in telecommunication and direct marketing industries. He served as the IT Director for Americall Corporation and CTO for several start-ups throughout the 1990's. 

McInnis developed the PRWeb® platform in 1997 and saw it mature into one of the largest press release newswires on the net. The company offered services common in major newswires, but PRWeb® was the first and only such service focusing on direct to consumer and social media distribution.  

McInnis sold the company in 2006 to pursue other endeavors, including Tangible Express, Cranberry Venture Partners, Peoplepond, CompanyPond.  More recently he has been involved in the creating a marketing company for the Cranberry DiamonDisc, the 1,000 year archival DVD.

Through his innovative use of technology, McInnis remains engaged in assisting business owners, authors, marketers and others to publicize and promote their brands through the placement of content to high-value online properties and major search engines.

In 2005, McInnis joined the efforts of Unitus, a microfinance accelerator. He believes this is one of the few programs that provide a sustainable solution to the world's economic woes. He is fully committed to helping the microfinance industry provide people with a way out of poverty. 

McInnis is a husband, father of four sons, a student pilot and a kite-flying enthusiast.  McInnis is the king of the BBQ pit.

Al Castle - CTO

Al Castle is the chief technology officer at Cranberry Venture Partners.

Al Castle has gained more than 15 years of experience within the technology industry, as a consultant, programmer, system analyst, network/system administrator and in team management.

He previously was the Information Technology Manager for Stargate Group, LLC and its telecommunications subsidiaries, where he worked closely with many Fortune 500 companies on multimillion dollar projects, managed research and software development, and established and maintained international network infrastructures.

Al then spent several years as PRWeb's chief information officer, leading the innovative team that created PRWebPhotowire, PRWebPodcast, RSSPAD, Newspad and 301URL. With a firm grasp of the industry and his ability to envision what's next on the horizon, Al helped establish the company as a leader in online news distribution. PRWeb sold to Vocus in August 2006.

Al is now the chief technology officer of Cranberry Venture Partners, which is working hard to build innovative and market-leading technology, such as WeaveMet, PeoplePond and CompanyPond.

Al is a member of the Bellingham Linux Users Group, a previous speaker for LinuxFest Northwest, and an open source software and Linux enthusiast.

Ken Packer - CFO

Ken Packer is the chief financial officer (CFO) at Cranberry Venture Partners LLC .

For almost 20 years his financial leadership abilities have been put to good use in the wholesale, education, manufacturing and Web services industries.  Packer’s college-level teaching experience and years as CFO at various companies have led him to new and creative enterprises, including his own skate/snowboard shop.

His financial know-how and business sense helps seal the fiscal success of startup companies pushing into new areas of technology and social networking, and adds rich texture to his skill-set.

Packer’s enthusiasm for golf and off-road motorcycling is exceeded only by that for his love of his four children.