Veritone Names Thor Valdmanis, Locke Truong, Ryan Bazler to Senior Leadership Roles; Chad Steelberg Quoted

Veritone has appointed Thor Valdmanis as senior vice president of Corporate Communications; Locke Truong as vice president of marketing for Media and Entertainment and Monetization; and Ryan Bazler as vice president of Marketing for aiWARE, the company announced Monday.

“Veritone’s world-class technology is ready to take the main stage and lead the AI everywhere revolution,” said Chad Steelberg, CEO of Veritone. “Adding Thor, Locke and Ryan to the team will assist us in delivering our message loud and clear: Our powerful AI operating system is ready to help usher in a new world order, a true fellowship between man and machine.”

In his new role, Valdmanis will advance the company’s strategy as Veritone expands into new markets in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Throughout his career, Valdmanis has built upon his strategic positioning, brand building, partnerships and fundraising experience. 

Prior to joining Veritone, Valdmanis was adviser to the CEO of Connecticut Innovations, where he supervised the company’s $350 million strategic venture capital arm focused on financing and supporting innovative start-ups. 

He also served with Dow Jones, where he advised the CEO and led company-wide new business and branding initiatives, working closely with the company’s top 250 global clients. In the role, he delivered more than $1 million brand marketing campaigns for top clients and successfully led Dow Jones CEO engagement campaign. 

“I am thrilled to join Veritone, a pioneer in the AI industry,” said Valdmanis. “My job will be to help build a brand and a business that is widely recognized as being both best-in-class and on the right side of history.”

Truong previously served as head of global product marketing at Ingram Micro. In the role, he led go-to-market strategy within the cloud marketplace. At Ingram, Truong guided the company’s transformation from a traditional wholesale distributor to a modern digital commerce business. 

“AI is increasingly empowering media & entertainment companies to automate processes, increase their operating efficiencies and diversify their content monetization. With its culture of speed, innovation and disruption, Veritone is well-positioned to lead the AI revolution,” Truong stated. 

Bazler most recently served as director of product marketing at Kofax, where he spearheaded innovations and programs to drive AI-based enterprise document capture. Bazler has more than over 20 years of software product management and product marketing experience, ranging from product definition to go-to-market strategy.

“Where legacy process automation companies fall short, Veritone begins, leading the real-time AI everywhere revolution with its aiWARE operating system,” said Bazler. “In my opinion, Veritone is a decade ahead of the market and accelerating. We are barely scratching the surface in terms of the transformative power of Veritone’s cognitive solutions and I look forward to helping unleash its full potential to the world.”

About Veritone

Veritone (NASDAQ: VERI) is a leading provider of artificial intelligence (AI) technology and solutions. The company’s proprietary operating system, aiWARE™ powers a diverse set of AI applications and intelligent process automation solutions that are transforming both commercial and government organizations. 

aiWARE orchestrates an expanding ecosystem of machine learning models to transform audio, video, and other data sources into actionable intelligence. The company's AI developer tools enable its customers and partners to easily develop and deploy custom applications that leverage the power of AI to dramatically improve operational efficiency and unlock untapped opportunities. Veritone is headquartered in Costa Mesa, California, and has offices in Denver, London, New York and San Diego.