# Ryan Steelberg
> Chief Executive Officer, President, and Chairman of the Board, Veritone, Inc. (NASDAQ: VERI) at veritone
- Profile type: Person
- Profile status: baseline
- Last updated: 2026-05-03T00:00:00.000Z
- Canonical URL: https://thestateofstreaming.com/people/ryan-steelberg/
- Also known as: Ryan S. Steelberg
## Summary
Ryan Steelberg is the co-founder, CEO, president, and chairman of Veritone, Inc. (NASDAQ: VERI), the enterprise AI company built around the aiWare cognitive-engine platform. A serial entrepreneur whose prior companies include AdForce, 2CAN Media, and dMarc Broadcasting (acquired by Google in 2006), he is a recurring named voice on AI-IP economics — most pointedly his framing of studio-AI licensing deals as a 'shift from behind the model to in front of the model.'

## Profile facts

- Current title: Chief Executive Officer, President, and Chairman of the Board, Veritone, Inc. (NASDAQ: VERI)
- Current company: veritone (https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies/veritone/)


## Career trajectory

- 1996-01-01 — Co-founder, AdForce. Co-founded the internet advertising network with his brother Chad Steelberg; AdForce went public and was later acquired by CMGi.
- 2002-01-01 — Co-founder, dMarc Broadcasting. Built radio-advertising automation platform; acquired by Google in 2006.
- 2014-01-01 — Co-founder and President at veritone. Co-founded Veritone with his brother Chad Steelberg as an enterprise AI platform built around cognitive engines for unstructured data.
- 2024-01-01 — Chief Executive Officer, President, and Chairman of the Board at veritone. Holds combined CEO, President, and Chairman roles at the publicly traded enterprise AI company (NASDAQ: VERI).


## Media appearances

- 2024-01-01 — interview: AI Vital for Movies, Entertainment: Veritone CEO, Orange County Business Journal (https://www.ocbj.com/technology/ai-vital-for-movies-entertainment-veritone-ceo/)
- 2024-01-01 — interview: AI & content analysis: Veritone CEO & President Ryan Steelberg, Zscaler CXO Revolutionaries (https://www.zscaler.com/cxorevolutionaries/insights/ai-content-analysis-veritone-ceo-president-ryan-steelberg)

_This page uses only public-professional information: SEC-filer roles, on-the-record interviews, company-published bios, and public-professional social profiles. No personal contact information, family details, or non-professional activity is included. No AI-generated portrait is used._

## Key facts

- Co-founder, Chief Executive Officer, President, and Chairman of the Board of Veritone, Inc. (NASDAQ: VERI), an enterprise AI company that co-founded with his brother Chad Steelberg in 2014. — Veritone Investor Relations: https://investors.veritone.com/corporate-governance/executive-team
- Brings more than 25 years of executive management experience in technology, marketing, business development and sales; founded multiple companies in the digital advertising and AI spaces and has raised several hundred million dollars in equity financings. — Veritone Investor Relations: https://investors.veritone.com/corporate-governance/executive-team
- Co-founded internet advertising network AdForce (which went public and was later acquired by CMGi), digital media company 2CAN Media (also acquired by CMGi), and dMarc Broadcasting, which was acquired by Google in 2006. — Highperformr: https://www.highperformr.ai/people/ryansteelberg
- Veritone operates the aiWare enterprise AI platform, which the company describes as supporting 862 cognitive engines across more than 3,060 customers; products span content licensing, voice synthesis, and content analysis for media and entertainment customers. — Veritone — About Us: https://www.veritone.com/about-us/
- Frames the new wave of studio-AI licensing deals — including Disney's licensing arrangement with OpenAI — as a 'shift, or IP expansion, from behind the model to in front of the model,' arguing rights holders are moving from training-data position to consumer-facing surface position. — LinkedIn (Ryan Steelberg): https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryansteelberg
- Holds a Bachelor's degree in Biology from UCLA (1992–1996). — EverybodyWiki: https://en.everybodywiki.com/Ryan_Steelberg


## Related

- veritone (Co-founder, CEO, President, and Chairman) — https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies/veritone/
- the walt disney company (Subject of his AI-IP licensing commentary (Disney-OpenAI)) — https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies/the-walt-disney-company/
- alphabet (Acquired prior company dMarc Broadcasting in 2006) — https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies/alphabet/


## External coverage

- Veritone Investor Relations: Executive Team — Veritone Investor Relations (https://investors.veritone.com/corporate-governance/executive-team)
- Veritone Investor Relations: Board of Directors — Veritone Investor Relations (https://investors.veritone.com/corporate-governance/board-of-directors)
- Veritone: Veritone — About Us (https://www.veritone.com/about-us/)
- LinkedIn: Ryan Steelberg — LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryansteelberg)
- EverybodyWiki: Ryan Steelberg — EverybodyWiki (https://en.everybodywiki.com/Ryan_Steelberg)

## Profile
Ryan Steelberg is the named voice for the AI-IP-licensing-economics conversation that the trade press has been narrating without a consistent operator-side anchor. As co-founder, CEO, president, and chairman of publicly traded Veritone (NASDAQ: VERI), he sits at the intersection of three things the industry is converging on: enterprise AI infrastructure (the aiWare cognitive-engine platform), licensed voice synthesis (with built-in consent frameworks), and content-analytics tooling for media and entertainment customers.

The framing worth citing is his read on the new wave of studio-AI deals — including Disney's three-year licensing agreement with OpenAI bringing more than 200 Disney, Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars characters into Sora — as a 'shift, or IP expansion, from behind the model to in front of the model.' The phrase compresses a structural argument: rights holders that were previously training-data inputs (or training-data plaintiffs) are now negotiating consumer-facing surface placement instead, with compensation tied to model performance rather than upfront licensing fees. It is a sentence we did not read in the trade-pub coverage, and it is the sort of operator framing we attribute to him on first reference.

The career arc is consistent: AdForce (1990s, acquired by CMGi), 2CAN Media (acquired by CMGi), dMarc Broadcasting (acquired by Google in 2006), then co-founding Veritone with his brother Chad in 2014. The pattern is digital-advertising and audio-data infrastructure across three decades — exactly the substrate the current AI-IP wave is built on.

## Tags

- ceo
- founder
- ai
- veritone
- voice-synthesis
- content-licensing
- ip-economics

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