2014 – 2026 · VERI · CIK 1615165 · FY ends Dec 31
Veritone Leadership
The sibling-co-founder origin: brothers Chad and Ryan Steelberg founded Veritone in June 2014 after a media-and-advertising career that ran through dMarc Broadcasting (acquired by Google in 2006) and Brand Affinity Technologies. The CEO seat handed off from Chad to Ryan effective January 1, 2023; Ryan also assumed the Chairmanship on January 22, 2024, and Chad resigned from the Board on March 12, 2025 while continuing as a strategic advisor through Steel Holdings, LLC. Two named executive officers (Ryan Steelberg, CFO Michael Zemetra), six directors on a classified three-class board, single-class one-vote-per-share common stock. Sourced from the April 23, 2025 DEF 14A proxy statement, the FY2025 10-K, and the post-proxy 8-K record.
Sibling pages: Veritone Financials · Roster row: Veritone on /orgs/ · AI pure-plays: /ai/orgs/.
The 2014 sibling co-founders
Veritone is the only US-listed AI pure-play whose two co-founders are brothers. Chad and Ryan Steelberg co-founded dMarc Broadcasting in September 2002 and sold it to Google in 2006, where both worked in Google's Radio Division for roughly a year (Ryan as Head of the division, Feb 2006–Feb 2007). After leaving Google in 2007 they co-founded Brand Affinity Technologies, which filed for Chapter 11 in December 2014 — six months after they had already incorporated Veritone. From Veritone's June 2014 founding through December 2022, Chad served as Chairman and CEO; effective January 1, 2023 Ryan succeeded him as CEO, and effective January 22, 2024 Ryan added the Chairman seat. Chad continued on the Board until March 12, 2025 and remains engaged as a paid strategic advisor through Steel Holdings, LLC, an entity affiliated with him.
Operating CEO since January 1, 2023 and Chairman of the Board since January 22, 2024; has served as a director since the company's June 2014 inception, and held the President title from March 2017 to December 2022. Pre-Veritone: President and CEO of Brand Affinity Technologies, Inc. (October 2007 – June 2014); Head of the Radio Division of Google Inc. (February 2006 – February 2007); co-founder and President of dMarc Broadcasting (September 2002 – February 2007), the advertising company Google acquired in 2006. B.S. in Biology from UCLA. Per the proxy, voluntarily reduced his base salary to $1 in May 2023; the Compensation Committee restored his base salary to $665,000 effective January 1, 2025. Beneficially owns 12.7% of Veritone's common stock as of March 31, 2025 (5,712,806 shares including options exercisable within 60 days).
Chairman and CEO from Veritone's June 2014 founding through December 2022; transitioned out of the operating CEO role on January 1, 2023 and resigned the Chairman seat on January 22, 2024. Continued to serve as a Class III director until his resignation effective March 12, 2025. Per the FY2025 10-K's Related Party Transactions note, Chad remains engaged via a series of consulting agreements with Steel Holdings, LLC (an entity he is affiliated with) — the original January 2023 agreement, the January 2024 amended-and-restated agreement that ran through December 31, 2025, and a new January 2026 agreement at $12,500 per month through December 31, 2026 covering technical advisory services, strategic government sales, and business-development support. As of March 31, 2025 he is still a 5%+ beneficial owner (4,241,455 shares; 9.5%).
Family-relationship disclosure (FY2024 proxy, “Family Relationships”): “There are no family relationships between any director, executive officer or person nominated or chosen to become a director or executive officer, except that Chad Steelberg and Ryan Steelberg are brothers.” Brand Affinity Technologies disclosure: per the proxy's “Legal Proceedings” note, BAT filed for Chapter 11 on December 15, 2014 (Case No. 8:14-bk-17244 SC); the Bankruptcy Court closed the case on December 5, 2016. Both brothers had previously served as officers, directors, and beneficial owners of BAT.
CEO transition timeline — Chad to Ryan, January 1, 2023
Two CEOs in Veritone's eleven-year history, both Steelbergs. The Chad-to-Ryan handoff aligned with the strategic refocus on aiWARE software and Talent Acquisition (PandoLogic) and preceded the two divestitures — Veritone Energy Solutions Group in June 2023 and Veritone One in October 2024 — that reshaped the company into the continuing-ops-software business it is today.
Source: FY2025 10-K Related Party Transactions, “Appointment of Ryan Steelberg” subsection: “Ryan Steelberg, the Company's Chief Executive Officer, was appointed Chairman of the Board effective January 22, 2024, replacing Chad Steelberg who resigned as Chairman of the Board effective the same date. Chad Steelberg continued to serve as a member of the Company's Board until his resignation effective as of March 12, 2025.”
Current executive officers
Two named executive officers as of April 16, 2025 per the 2025 DEF 14A proxy statement; the proxy explicitly states “We did not have any other executive officers (as defined in Rule 3b-7 under the Exchange Act) during fiscal year 2024.” Click any row for the bio detail.
Ryan Steelberg
51
Active · President and Chief Executive Officer; Chairman of the Board
2014 (founding)
Co-founder. CEO since January 1, 2023; Chairman since January 22, 2024; director since the company's June 2014 inception. Held the President title from March 2017 through December 2022. Pre-Veritone: President and CEO of Brand Affinity Technologies (October 2007–June 2014); Head of Google's Radio Division (February 2006–February 2007); co-founder and President of dMarc Broadcasting (September 2002–February 2007), acquired by Google in 2006. B.S. in Biology from UCLA. The proxy notes that effective January 19, 2023 the Company entered into a new employment agreement with Mr. Steelberg in connection with his CEO appointment, superseding the prior 2020 agreement.
Michael L. Zemetra
54
Active · Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer
October 2020
EVP, CFO and Treasurer since October 2020. Pre-Veritone: EVP and CFO of LiveXLive Media (April 2018 – October 2020); VP of Finance and Divisional CFO of the Cloud Services Division of J2 Global, Inc. (April 2017–March 2018); CFO and Chief Accounting Officer of Global Eagle Entertainment (June 2013–August 2016); SVP and Chief Accounting Officer of Demand Media, Inc. (now Leaf Group) from May 2008 to June 2013; began career in the Technology and Entertainment groups of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. Master's in Accounting from USC; B.A. Business-Economics from UC Riverside; California CPA. The proxy notes that Mr. Zemetra entered into a new employment agreement on January 19, 2023, superseding the prior 2020 agreement, in connection with the post-CEO-transition compensation review.
Ages, positions, and tenure as listed in the 2025 DEF 14A “Executive Officers of the Company” section. Veritone's named-executive-officer roster is unusually small for a US-listed AI company — only the CEO and CFO are formally designated as executive officers under Rule 3b-7. Other senior leadership (heads of Talent Acquisition, Software Products & Services, Engineering, Legal, and so on) is not surfaced at the executive-officer reporting level and therefore is not catalogued here.
Board of directors — classified, three classes, six seats
Six directors as of April 16, 2025, organized into three staggered classes (Class I, II, III) under Veritone's classified-board structure — the same structural choice BigBear.ai uses, and a meaningful contrast with the annual-election structures used by Palantir and Cerence. Five of six directors are independent under Nasdaq listing standards (Keithley, Kurtz, Morales, Taketa, Zilis); the sixth is Ryan Steelberg as the management director. The board does not have a lead independent director — Ryan Steelberg combines the Chairman and CEO seats with no separate counterweight in that role.
Ryan Steelberg
51
Class III · Chairman of the Board · President & CEO · Director (term 2026)
2014
Management director (not independent). Combines the Chairman and CEO seats; per the proxy, “Our Board believes that it is in the best interests of the Company and our stockholders for Mr. Steelberg to serve as both Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, given his knowledge of and experience with the Company, his familiarity with our industry and his strategic vision. We do not currently have a lead independent director.” See the executive-officer row for the operating-role bio. Does not serve on any committees.
Francisco Morales
51
Class III · Independent · New, Mar 2025 · Member, NomGov Committee (term 2026)
March 20, 2025
Newest director. Appointed by the Board on March 12, 2025, effective March 20, 2025, to fill the Class III vacancy created by Chad Steelberg's resignation. Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of 5.11 Tactical, the global tactical-apparel-and-gear maker for law enforcement, military, and first responders, founded in 2003; previously served as 5.11's CEO from September 2018 to January 2024. Holds a B.S. in Fashion Apparel Management, Business and Textiles from Philadelphia University and an M.B.A. from the Thunderbird School of Global Management. Per the appointment 8-K, Mr. Morales is expected to serve on the Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee. Source: March 14, 2025 8-K, Item 5.02.
Michael Keithley
62
Class I · Independent · Chair, NomGov · Member, Compensation Committee (term 2027)
June 2024
Joined the Board in June 2024 to fill the Class I vacancy created by Jeffrey P. Gehl's resignation; per the 2025 DEF 14A, appointed Chairman of the Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee in August 2024 (succeeding Mr. Gehl in that role) and concurrently appointed to the Compensation Committee. Career: Chief Information Officer at United Talent Agency (March 2017 – April 2024), responsible for the firm's technology platform and advisory services to clients on emerging digital business models, distribution platforms, and technology issues. Previously CIO and CTO at Creative Artists Agency (1991 – 2016), where he led decades of technological-and-digital-strategy work for the talent-agency industry. Currently serves on the board of Bfilter Inc. and on multiple startup and venture-capital advisory boards. B.S. Business Information Systems from Arizona State University. The Hollywood-talent-agency lineage is the structural feature of his board service: it ties Veritone's media-and-entertainment use-case strategy to two of the agencies whose technology platforms he previously ran.
Richard H. Taketa
53
Class I · Independent · Chair, Compensation · Member, Audit Committee (term 2027)
May 2019
Independent director since May 2019 and Chair of the Compensation Committee. Career: President of Taketa Capital Corporation (private-equity investment and consulting firm) since September 2018; previously President and CEO of York Risk Services, Inc. (January 2014 – September 2018), the technology-enabled insurance-services provider, where he also served as Chairman from October 2014 to July 2017; held a series of senior roles at York including President of Commercial Business, COO, and Chief Strategy Officer. Joined York via its acquisition of Southern California Risk Management Associates (CEO since 2004). Co-founder and managing director of Eventide Capital, a small private-equity firm; earlier corporate-securities-lawyer at DLA. Concurrent boards: Palomar Holdings, Inc. (since 2019) and Farmers and Merchants Bank of Long Beach (since May 2024). Named EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2017 (New Jersey). Recurring guest lecturer at Stanford GSB. B.A. from Colgate University; J.D. from Stanford Law School; member of the California Bar (inactive).
Knute P. Kurtz
69
Class II · Independent · Chair, Audit · Member, NomGov Committee · (re-elected June 13, 2025; term 2028)
June 2017
Independent director since June 2017 (post-IPO) and Chair of the Audit Committee; designated audit-committee financial expert. Re-elected at the June 13, 2025 Annual Meeting (14,922,122 votes For). Career: Managing Partner of the Orange County office of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP until his retirement in June 2016; led market-facing assurance, financial / tax, and advisory services for public and private clients across the Southern California, Phoenix, and Las Vegas cluster of offices, and served as Market Leader for PwC's Private Company Services practice in that region. Spanned 38 years and six PwC offices across the U.S. Lead advisor and audit partner to public and private clients including capital-market work on IPOs, M&A, and debt offerings. B.S. from Nicholls State University.
Michael Zilis
55
Class II · Independent · Member, Audit & Compensation Committees · (re-elected June 13, 2025; term 2028)
December 2023
Independent director since December 2023; designated audit-committee financial expert. Re-elected at the June 13, 2025 Annual Meeting (15,023,737 votes For). Career: EVP and CFO of Ingram Micro Holding Corporation since January 2020; joined Ingram Micro in 2006 as SVP and Corporate Controller. Between 2012 and 2020 held a series of regional-leadership roles at Ingram Micro including EVP and President of Asia Pacific (2017 – 2020) and prior to that Emerging Markets and Latin American regional operations. Pre-Ingram: VP and Corporate Controller at Avnet, Inc.; began career with 10 years in the commercial audit practice of Arthur Andersen LLP. Licensed CPA (inactive). B.S. Finance and Accounting from Boston College.
Committee composition (per the 2025 DEF 14A)
- Audit Committee: Knute P. Kurtz (Chair), Richard H. Taketa, Michael Zilis. All three qualify as audit-committee financial experts under SEC rules.
- Compensation Committee: Richard H. Taketa (Chair), Michael Keithley, Michael Zilis.
- Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee: Michael Keithley (Chair), Knute P. Kurtz, Francisco Morales.
Ages, classes, and committee assignments as listed in the 2025 DEF 14A (with the post-proxy March 14, 2025 Item 5.02 8-K supplying the Morales appointment and the June 16, 2025 Item 5.07 8-K supplying the Annual Meeting vote results). Independence determinations: Nasdaq listing rules for general independence, Rule 10A-3 for the Audit Committee, Rule 10C-1 for the Compensation Committee. The 2026 DEF 14A had not yet been filed as of this writing; under SEC rules Veritone must file its proxy within 120 days of fiscal-year-end (i.e., by April 30, 2026 if officer/director information is incorporated into the 10-K by reference).
Voting structure — single class, classified board, large outside holder
Veritone has a single class of common stock; each share carries one vote. There is no dual-class super-voting structure of the kind Tempus AI uses (Class B carrying 30 votes per share) or that Palantir uses (Class F co-founder concentration). As of June 13, 2025, 44,854,836 shares of common stock were issued and outstanding; the June 13, 2025 Annual Meeting approved an increase in authorized common shares from 75,000,000 to 150,000,000.
Classified board. Directors are divided into three classes serving staggered three-year terms — Class I expires 2027; Class II was re-elected to 2028 at the June 13, 2025 Annual Meeting; Class III expires 2026. The classified structure reduces the number of director seats up for election in any given year and is shared with BigBear.ai among the AI pure-plays on this site.
5%+ beneficial owners as of March 31, 2025 (44,834,462 shares outstanding, per the 2025 DEF 14A): Esousa Group Holdings LLC at 17.9% (8,023,716 shares; New York-based investment vehicle), Ryan Steelberg at 12.7% (5,712,806 shares including options exercisable within 60 days; held through RVH LLC, The RSS Living Trust, and direct ownership), Chad Steelberg at 9.5% (4,241,455 shares; remains a 5%+ holder despite resigning from the Board in March 2025), Banta Asset Management, LP at 7.6% (Newport Beach-based investment manager), and Private Management Group, Inc. at 5.5% (Irvine-based investment manager). Combined, all executive officers, directors, and nominees as a group held 14% (6,263,148 shares).
The Esousa position is the structural anomaly relative to the other AI pure-plays. Esousa Group Holdings is the largest single beneficial owner of Veritone common stock; the FY2025 10-K's related-party section discloses a series of registered direct offerings and private placements transacted with Esousa-affiliated entities through 2024 and 2025. The 2025 DEF 14A's beneficial-ownership table is the canonical snapshot.
Source: 2025 DEF 14A, “Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management”; FY2025 10-K Related Party Transactions (RDO Purchase Agreement and Steelberg Purchase Agreement details); June 16, 2025 Item 5.07 8-K for the Annual Meeting share count and vote outcomes.
Post-proxy governance events
Three governance-adjacent events filed on Form 8-K since the 2025 DEF 14A. They sit on the leadership page (rather than only the financials page) because each one shaped a Board-level oversight decision — a vote outcome, an Audit-Committee restatement determination, an auditor change.
Held June 13, 2025; ~61.16% of shares represented. Knute P. Kurtz (14,922,122 For / 971,701 Withheld) and Michael Zilis (15,023,737 For / 870,086 Withheld) re-elected as Class II directors for terms expiring 2028; Grant Thornton LLP ratified as the FY2025 independent registered public accounting firm; the say-on-pay advisory vote passed; the authorized-common-shares increase from 75M to 150M passed; the officer-exculpation amendment (Proposal 5) failed; and the 2023 Equity Incentive Plan share-pool increase (+2.5M shares) passed. Source: June 16, 2025 Item 5.07 8-K.
On April 8, 2026, management and the Audit Committee determined the previously issued unaudited Q3 FY2025 condensed consolidated financial statements (three and nine months ended September 30, 2025) should no longer be relied upon. The cumulative pre-tax errors included an approximately $2.2M overstatement of revenue tied to a non-monetary on-premise software transaction, additional ASC 606 step-1 and clerical-billing errors of about $0.2M / $0.9M for the three- and nine-month periods, and various agent-vs-principal misclassifications and goodwill / foreign-currency translation adjustments. The page surfaces this on the leadership side because the Audit Committee's non-reliance determination is a board-level oversight act under Item 4.02 — the underlying numbers are a financials-page concern. Source: April 14, 2026 Item 4.02 8-K.
On April 23, 2026, the Audit Committee approved the dismissal of Grant Thornton LLP. Grant Thornton's audit reports on the FY2024 and FY2025 consolidated financial statements were not qualified or modified as to uncertainty, audit scope, or accounting principles, but did include explanatory paragraphs noting substantial doubt about the Company's ability to continue as a going concern. The 8-K also enumerates the material weaknesses Veritone had identified in its internal control over financial reporting in the FY2024 and FY2025 10-Ks — entity-level controls, consolidation / foreign-currency translation review, IT general controls (user access, change management), the information / communication process, and revenue recognition for non-routine transactions. Source: April 28, 2026 Item 4.01 8-K. A successor-auditor 8-K had not been filed as of this writing.
Notable departures
Two senior departures since 2024: co-founder Chad Steelberg's stepped resignation (Chairman in January 2024, then director in March 2025) and independent director Jeffrey P. Gehl's resignation at the 2024 Annual Meeting. Chad's exit is intentionally read as a transition, not a clean break — he continues as a paid strategic advisor through the Steel Holdings consulting agreements.
Departure dates and committee roles per: March 14, 2025 Item 5.02 8-K (Chad Steelberg board resignation; Francisco Morales appointment); FY2025 10-K Related Party Transactions (Steel Holdings consulting-agreement chronology); 2024 DEF 14A (Gehl resignation: “On April 12, 2024, Jeffrey P. Gehl notified the Board of his intention to resign as a member of the Board effective immediately prior to the commencement of the Annual Meeting”).
Read these primary sources
Most of the page's content is paraphrased from the URLs below. They are the authoritative places to read what Veritone has said in its own SEC filings.
Veritone SEC filings
The 2025 DEF 14A is the canonical source for the executive-officer roster, the board roster (with the Morales-replaces-Chad-Steelberg substitution carried by the March 2025 8-K), the committee composition, the classified-board structure, and the 5%+ beneficial-ownership table. The FY2025 10-K supplements with Item 10 (incorporated by reference to the next proxy) and the Related Party Transactions disclosures around the Steel Holdings consulting agreements. The post-proxy 8-Ks land the Annual Meeting outcomes, the Q3 FY2025 restatement, and the auditor change.
# 2025 DEF 14A — canonical source for officers, directors, voting structure
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1615165/000114036125015213/edge20043868x1_def14a.htm
# 2024 DEF 14A — Gehl resignation language and FY2023 cohort
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1615165/000119312524113880/d828828ddef14a.htm
# FY2025 10-K — Item 10 and Related Party Transactions
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1615165/000162828026025214/veri-20251231.htm
# Item 5.02 8-K — Chad Steelberg resignation; Francisco Morales appointment
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1615165/000119312525054366/d914088d8k.htm
# Item 5.07 8-K — 2025 Annual Meeting vote results
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1615165/000119312525141437/d222929d8k.htm
# Item 4.02 8-K — Q3 FY2025 non-reliance determination
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1615165/000162828026025100/veri-20260408.htm
# Item 4.01 8-K — dismissal of Grant Thornton LLP as auditor
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1615165/000162828026027994/veri-20260423.htm
# Veritone on EDGAR — full filing history
https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001615165
# EDGAR submissions JSON — full filing index for Veritone
https://data.sec.gov/submissions/CIK0001615165.jsonVeritone's own pages
The company's IR site hosts the corporate-governance landing page (committee charters, governance guidelines) and a leadership-bio summary.
# Veritone corporate site
https://www.veritone.com/
# About Veritone
https://www.veritone.com/about/
# Investor Relations — Governance landing
https://investors.veritone.com/governance
# Investor Relations landing
https://investors.veritone.com/Sources: Veritone's own SEC filings — specifically the April 23, 2025 DEF 14A proxy statement for the executive-officer roster, the six-director board, the committee composition, the classified-board structure, and the beneficial-ownership table; the FY2025 10-K filed April 15, 2026 for the Steel Holdings consulting-agreement chronology and the founders' pre-Veritone history; the post-proxy 8-Ks (Items 5.02, 5.07, 4.02, 4.01) for the Morales appointment, the 2025 Annual Meeting vote results, the Q3 FY2025 restatement determination, and the Grant Thornton auditor change. Last updated May 2026.
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