There's little substitute for experience. Our management team average 13 years each in the field and have held positions in a diverse number of high profile interactive companies. They are responsible for identifying, managing, and challenging talented new media professionals to create winning solutions for our clients.
Meet the team and learn more about our distinctive range of capabilities:
Keith Deaven CEO and Co-Founder
As Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Keith has led mediabarn through three years of creative expansion. Much of this can be attributed to the fine-tuning of an innovative business model which combines the benefits of a creative studio, placement agency, and usability lab under one roof.
In just a short span of time, Keith has built the organization into an interactive powerhouse, with clients that range from technology giants to some of the world's most widely recognized media brands including Discovery Communications, National Geographic, AOL, and PBS.
Prior to mediabarn, Keith spent nearly 10 years at America Online in a variety of roles, most notably the Executive Director of the Producer Team for AOL's internal creative studio. There he learned what was necessary to design and build world class Internet products from some of the most talented people in the industry.
Keith received a B.S. degree from Penn State University, where he continues to assist the School of Information Sciences and Technology as a project sponsor and speaker in project management. Keith is lesser known for his role on Romper Room, and if you're reading this, it's because he has not seen that we've included it in his bio. Shhhhh…
Jason Pentecost Principal and Co-Founder
As Principal and Co-Founder of mediabarn, clients and associates rely heavily on Jason for his breadth of interactive experience and his keen perception of where the industry is heading. He works closely with our key clients and is never too far from anything that goes on at the 'barn.
Always ahead of the curve, Jason has led our teams in the development of new products and web applications and is a champion of emerging new technologies including mobile advertising, interactive television, and heritage tourism. His passion for innovation and diverse background in technology is widely sought after for producing for video, print, web, and now with two boys, sidewalk art.
Before co-founding mediabarn, Jason worked at AOL for nearly ten years, defining technical design and setting technical standards for the AOL service while managing a team of designers. He was called on by AOL's most strategic clients including The NFL, The Coca-Cola Company, TiVo, Pfizer, and ABC to help develop successful online properties and was behind some of the network's groundbreaking firsts, including the first use of animation and incorporating audio on the service.
Jason received a B.A. in History from the University of Arizona, and a J.D from Widener School of Law.
Mauro Scappa Director of Placement Services
Mauro joined us in 2004 bringing with him over six years of creative staffing, recruitment and account management experience - as well as an impressive network of contacts. A former freelance designer and developer himself, he has seen both sides of the coin, imparting him with an equal understanding and respect for our clients and talent.
His combination of experience in creative, recruitment and account management fuels his commitment for providing our clients with unparalleled service and insight for any given staffing engagement.
His most recent role before mediabarn was with Aquent, where in just 2 years, he netted over $5 million in sales. Responsible for creating effective and targeted sales and recruitment strategies, he focused on high-end design staffing solutions for large advertising, PR, marketing agencies and design studios.
Greg Herring Vice President, Creative Services & Business Development
Greg joined our management team in early 2007 to front our mission in delivering high quality design and intuitive user experiences to our clients. Responsible for the day-to-day operation of our creative services division, he also works closely with our clients and team to identify new strategic opportunities and innovative service offerings.
Prior to mediabarn, Greg worked at AOL, where over the course of 12-year tenure, he held a variety of leadership roles in service organizations. With a focus on combining sound strategies with disciplined execution, he led teams in managing some of the company's largest and most complex integrated content, advertising, and ecommerce partnerships.
From the ground up, he built and scaled an interactive publishing operation that supported the entire flagship AOL Service. He also produced high visibility mass market interactive properties and was responsible for the on-site production of some of the Internet's first live events.
Greg earned a Bachelors degree in Engineering from Penn State University and has completed executive education coursework in System Dynamics at M.I.T. Sloan School of Management.
Sara Mastro Director, Creative Services
The newest addition to the mediabarn management team, Sara is responsible for leading the teams that create intuitive user experiences for our clients' websites and applications. Her background in information design and user experience is the basis for our methodology in creating smart user experiences that win the loyalty of their users.
Sara started her career at Texas Instruments, developing branding and conducting market research for their personal product lines. While there, she was awarded the Texas Instruments Design Excellence Award.
Since then she has amassed over 10 years of experience, working with multimedia companies to produce award-winning interactive products and websites for Discovery Health, Hewlett Packard, Compaq, McGraw Hill, Weatherbug, and the USDA Forest Service. She most recently served as Director of User Experience at Discovery Education, overseeing the design and usability of all K-12 online products.
Sara is an active member of the Usability Professionals Association (UPA) and the Association for Computing Machinery.
Sara earned a B.S. in Graphic Design from Florida State University and attended Savannah College of Art and Design for her MFA in Computer Art.
Steven Gallagher Technology Director
Steven Gallagher recently joined mediabarn as its Technology Director. He is responsible for leading the technical direction for mediabarn and our clients' products.
Before joining the mediabarn team Steven began his web career with Magnet Interactive / AKQA as a web developer. He starting web coding in 1994 working with such marque clients as Nissan, Infiniti, The Smithsonian, The Mayo Clinic, Microsoft, and Accenture. His career progressed to the Web Group Manager position at Greenfield/Belser where he proudly helped the World Wildlife Fund and the DC Environmental Film Festival launch their much anticipated site redesigns.
Steven has extensive experience with all aspects of content-managed websites design and development. He is a general all-around tech geek who enjoys movies, biking, soccer, billiards, and yes, video games.