About
The Short Bio
I grew up in Nashville and did my undergrad (BBA – art history, marketing, & accounting) at Emory in Atlanta and grad school (MAS – accounting) at U of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. I sat for and passed the CPA exam and worked as an auditor for PricewaterhouseCoopers. In 2003, I moved to NYC and became VP Finance / Controller for WireImage (acquired by Getty Images for $208M in 2007) and angel invested in 2 startups: NewCondosOnline & InternetMarketingInc. From 2005 to 2007, I moonlighted on nights and weekends as professional photographer covering celebrity and sporting events. My images have appeared in major print publications from Rolling Stone to People Magazine. In 2008, I relocated to LA, put down the camera, married to the loveliest woman in the world, and founded AudioMicro, Inc, which was named as the USA’s #5 fastest growing media company via the 2015 Inc 500 and was acquired by Zealot Networks in 2014-15 for $25 Million. After a brief hiatus building new construction homes in Studio City, I came out of early retirement in early 2017 and founded HAAWK, Inc. which was named as the USA’s #16 fastest growing media company via the 2024 Inc 5000. HAAWK was acquired by SESAC Music Group (Blackstone) in 2024 and continues to operate as a wholly owned subsidiary. I’m a huge fan of entrepreneurship and I enjoy brainstorming new business endeavors. In my free time I enjoy playing tennis, golf, and card games.
The Longer Bio
Ryan Born started his career in the Atlanta office of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) Assurance and Business Advisory Services Practice where he gained experience in an array of industries. He later transferred to New York City to broaden his experience in the firm’s Tax and Legal Services division. After PwC, he served as VP of Finance and Financial Controller at WireImage.com during which time the Company was acquired by Getty Images for $208 million. After WireImage, Ryan angel invested in Internet Marketing Inc. (a 2012 Inc 500 company) and NewCondosOnline.com, the largest one-stop resource for finding and comparing new condo developments, where he also served as CFO. He relocated to Los Angeles in 2007 and founded AdRev / AudioMicro, Inc, which ranked as the #5 fastest growing media company in the USA as part of the 2015 Inc 500, the #1 fastest growing company in the San Fernando Valley (by the SF Valley Business Journal in 2014), the #6 fastest growing company in LA (by the Los Angeles Business Journal in 2014), and the #40 fastest growing company in North America (by the 2015 Deloitte Technology Fast 500). In 2014, Zealot Networks acquired a majority the company for $20 Million and later increased its ownership position in mid-2015. AudioMicro, Inc. operated 4 brands – AdRev (a YouTube asset administration service & multi-channel network), DashGo (a music distribution platform that distributes music to retailer such as iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, YouTube Music Key, Sound Exchange, Shazam and many more), AudioMicro (a micro stock music & sound effects licensing platform) and ImageCollect (a subscription based celebrity photo library). The Company was backed by DFJ Frontier, part of the largest VC network in the world with over $7B under management, and Fotolia LLC, a leading stock photo marketplace with over 30 million images that Adobe acquired in December ’14 for $800 million. In 2017 he came out of early retirement and founded HAAWK, Inc. which grew to be ranked among both the USA and North America’s fastest growing media and tech companies via the Inc 5000 and Deloitte Fast 500 rankings. In 2024, SESAC Music Group (Blackstone) acquired HAAWK and the business continues to operate as a wholly owned subsidiary with Ryan at the helm.
Ryan graduated Beta Gamma Sigma with an undergraduate degree in Accounting/Marketing & Art history and a Studio Art minor from Emory University. He possesses a Masters of Accounting Science degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and holds a CPA license with the State Board of Accountancy of his home state, Tennessee.
