Right Media Creator Not Frightened By Change

Embrace change and get experience, a millionaire businessman told students at the University of Richmond’s Robins School of Business yesterday.

"Change is the only thing we can be sure of," said Michael Walrath, who graduated from UR in 1997. "Find value in the experience."

Walrath earned an English degree and spent his early days after college as a bartender. One of his first business jobs was as an assistant in a stock brokerage firm. He made $200 a week.

But last year, Walrath sold his online advertising exchange firm Right Media to Yahoo Inc. for $720 million. He created Right Media in 2003 and remains with the company as its senior vice president.

That same year, he was named an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in the media, entertainment and communications category for founding and leading Right Media.

He redefined online advertising by connecting buyers and sellers of Internet ads through a real-time network. More than 30,000 publishers, advertisers and online networks participate.

"Mr. Walrath helped transform the industry," said Jorge Haddock, dean of UR’s business school.

Yesterday, Walrath received the Executive of the Year Award from the school during a ceremony at which 20 students were inducted into the Beta Gamma Sigma honor society and other students won merit scholarships and awards.

Walrath told students that he learned some valuable lessons while working at the online advertising firm DoubleClick in the late 1990s before, during and after the Internet crash.

Rather than fear the company’s demise, Walrath saw that he could learn about the industry.

He picked up additional projects that had been abandoned and taught himself how to manage them.

That experience, he said, was his "business school" training.

"Think about change," Walrath said. "Think about the value of experience."

Contact Emily C. Dooley at (804) 649-6016 or .

—–

To see more of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.timesdispatch.com.

Copyright (c) 2008, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

NASDAQ-NMS:YHOO,