Eric Picard has held several pivotal advertising technology roles at Microsoft, where he currently is starting a new effort related to mobile.  Previously he was the Technology Advisor to the Corporate Vice President of the Ad Platform Engineering team where he was part of the leadership team.  In this role he managed the long term ad platform vision and drove several major strategic initiatives.  He managed ad platform product strategy and emerging media product planning from 2004-2007, including identifying potential acquisitions and aligning the build/buy strategy for advertising.  He has participated in numerous acquisition and partnership efforts, including several successful acquisitions of companies such as Massive, Screen Tonic, AdECN, aQuantive and the recent Yahoo Search & Advertising agreement.

Formerly, Eric was founder and director of product management at Bluestreak a venture funded startup, where he oversaw advertising products such as third-party ad serving, advertising analytics, and rich media products. He helped pioneer rich media advertising in the late '90s and has been active in most of the critical industry conversations related to technology, including the IAB's Measurement Committee and Rich Media Task Force. A frequent speaker across the advertising industry, Eric has written a monthly column about advertising technology since 1999.

In a previous nautical life in his home town of Newport, RI, he was a commercial boat captain and scuba diver, and even was a lighthouse keeper for eight months. These days he is an avid skier and longs for the ocean of his youth.