Ralf Jacob

Advisor at Ramp Catalyst

Ralf served as President and CRO for Verizon Digital Media Services. During his tenure, he grew the streaming business by >300% and established VDMS as the second-largest CDN worldwide. Ralf brought more than 21 years of technical and executive management experience to the organization, under his leadership VDMS’s LIVE events business skyrocketed to over 45k LIVE events each year. (Super Bowl LIV, World cup soccer, NBA finals, NFL, Oscars, Grammys). These events achieved notoriety by being the first LIVE events streamed in 4K at unsurpassed concurrency levels.

Ralf came to VDMS through Verizon’s acquisition of UpLynk, an online video platform specializing in the simplification of a broadcaster’s workflow, where he was CEO and co-founder catering to Disney, ESPN, ABC, FOX, Viacom, and others. Prior to his tenure with UpLynk, he served as VP of Deluxe Digital Studios where he led the development of new product ideas for Over-The-Top streaming initiatives, building and conceptualizing Second Screen apps for major Hollywood Studios and rolling out token-based digital/e-Copy online portals for HBO, Universal Studios and others.

Ralf began his career as a software engineer. His ability to thread technology with business strategy along with his proven development track record quickly propelled him into several executive engineering positions with technology companies like Ascent Media, Move Networks, Knowledge Broadcasting, and iXL. Ralf spent years building and leading highly effective engineering teams through his passion for technology, creative problem solving, and the ability to adapt to an ever-changing industry.

Ralf earned Bachelor degrees in Marketing and Computer Science from Fachhochschule Wiesbaden, Germany. He was a member of the German Olympic diving team.