Technology >> CEO Interviews >> July 24, 2000
TIM CHOATE is President and Chief Executive Officer of FreeShop.com,
Inc. With more than 10 years of management experience in the Internet
and computer industries, Freeshop.com founder Tim Choate is a renowned
industry expert in online direct marketing and an eCommerce pioneer. He
has been Chairman, President and CEO of FreeShop.com, Inc., since March
1998. Prior to joining FreeShop, Mr. Choate served as a Vice President
of Micro Warehouse. In 1994, he co-founded Online Interactive, Inc., the
former parent company of FreeShop, and was its chairman, President and
CEO until June 1997. Before 1994, he was President of Softdisk
Publishing LLC, a software publishing company. Mr. Choate thorough
marketing experience began with his role as Senior Marketing Manager at
Prodigy, an Internet access and content provider, where he developed and
launched the New Products Division for Business Week, a division of the
McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. He is on the Board of Directors for several
technology companies, including Digital River, Inc., a provider of
electronic commerce outsourcing solutions, and laplink.com, a software
publishing company. Mr. Choate earned a Bachelor of Science in
Economics, with a concentration in Marketing and Entrepreneurial
Management, from the Wharton School of Business at the University of
Pennsylvania. Profile
TWST: Could you begin by giving us a background summary on FreeShop?Mr. Choate: FreeShop actually began about six years ago, and we began
with the idea of what was unique about the Internet