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Vertali Media · People

The team behind every screen

A small team of staff, builders, and editors who keep Vertali Media running for the people who actually use it. Below is who's on the team, what they do, and how to reach them.

14 Staff

6 Executives

Atlanta, GA

24/7 Operations

Leadership

The people accountable for the platform

Three executives, three clear mandates. They run the company end-to-end and own the work that ships to you.

Cody Kirtley

Chief Executive Officer

Vertali Media · Platform Entertainment Group

Founder of Vertali Media and the architect of its editorial and operating model. Sets the long-term strategy, signs off on the catalog, and represents the company to partners, press, and Platform Entertainment Group. Stepping into a new executive role within PEG on July 1, 2026.

Founder Strategy Editorial

2021

Founded

Years

∞

Catalog

Aroha Whitmore

Chief Operating Officer

Vertali Media · Incoming CEO, July 1 2026

Runs the day-to-day operation — content acquisition, partner relationships, platform reliability, and the team that makes everything work. Took ownership of the catalog expansion, the recommendation engine, and watch party launches. Inheriting the CEO seat on July 1, 2026.

Operations Content Reliability

2024

Joined

+40%

Efficiency

Jul 1

CEO Date

Zac Blaxland

Chief Technology Officer

Vertali Media · Platform & Infrastructure

Owns the platform, the infrastructure, and every line of code that ships. Designed the data model behind the recommendation engine, the Trakt / Emby / Sonarr integrations, and the rate-limiting systems that keep usage fair. First call when something is broken.

Platform Data Security

100%

Owned Stack

24/7

On-Call

Integrations

Jordan Park

Chief Product Officer

Vertali Media · Product & Experience

Owns the product roadmap, the user experience, and the design system. Translates what users, support, and editorial actually need into what gets built. Background in consumer product work before joining the team to lead the platform rebuild.

Product Design UX

Roadmap

12+

Ships/Mo

NPS

Tracked

Sam Lewis

Chief Marketing Officer

Vertali Media · Brand & Growth

Owns brand, growth, and the public-facing voice of the platform. Runs the seasonal campaign calendar with Ellie, the partner co-marketing with Hayley, and the analytics that tell us whether any of it actually worked.

Brand Growth Analytics

Channels

Weeks/Yr

∞

Ego

Riley Chen

Chief Financial Officer

Vertali Media · Finance & Operations

Owns the books, the budgets, and the financial reporting to Platform Entertainment Group. Manages the catalog acquisition spend with Hayley, the infrastructure spend with Zac, and the runway that keeps the lights on.

Finance FP&A Treasury

Capex

Forecasts

The Team

The people behind the work

Eight team members who run programming, partnerships, support, community, engineering, data, and frontend. Every account touches their work on a daily basis.

Amelia Chalmers

Head of Programming

Curates the catalog and owns what gets added, scheduled, and surfaced. Runs weekly programming reviews, the show requests pipeline, and the special events calendar. Background in editorial at a regional broadcaster before joining the team full-time.

Editorial Catalog Requests

Hayley Ecuyer

Partnerships Lead

Runs relationships with publishers, networks, studios, and platforms. Owns the rights and licensing pipeline, contract renewals, and the regional rights council. The person you talk to when a title needs a distribution deal.

Licensing Deals Rights

Caitlyn Furneaux

Head of Support

Owns the support queue, the help center, and the user experience end-to-end. Reviews every ticket escalation, runs weekly quality reviews with the support team, and is the bridge between what users need and what the platform builds next.

Support Quality Voice of User

Ellie Innes-Noad

Community & Marketing Lead

Runs the announcement calendar, the special events creative, and the public-facing voice. Edits the announcements you read on the platform, the press releases, and the seasonal campaign work that ties catalog drops to editorial beats.

Editorial Comms Campaigns

Ava Cabena

Trust & Safety Lead

Owns DMCA, account integrity, fraud, and the policies that keep the platform safe and compliant. Reviews edge cases, works with counsel on escalations, and runs the background checks and verification work for sensitive actions.

Policy Compliance Account Safety

Morgan Reyes

Engineering Lead

Leads the day-to-day engineering work with Zac — owns the sprint planning, code review, and the on-call rotation. Background in distributed systems before joining the team. The person reviewers ping when a deploy needs a second set of eyes.

Backend On-Call Reliability

Alex Tanaka

Data & Recommendations Lead

Owns the recommendation engine, the watch event pipeline, and the analytics that feed the daily limits. Translates the "what should we show" problem into actual models and the dashboards that show whether they're working.

ML Pipelines Analytics

Jamie Okonkwo

Frontend Lead

Owns the web experience and the design system. Ships the user-facing changes with Jordan and the engineering team, and keeps the platform accessible, fast, and consistent across every page.

Web Design System Accessibility

How we work

The way this team runs

Four things we hold ourselves to when we're building, supporting, and making decisions about the platform.

We sign our work

Every change to the platform has a name on it. We don't hide behind "the team" — you can see who's responsible for what, above.

We ship, then we listen

We'd rather release something workable and adjust it next week than spend a year polishing. The recommendation engine, watch party, and events system all shipped that way.

We don't hide the limits

Daily caps, regional rights, missing episodes, special events — all of it is on the page, not something you find out in a support ticket.

Your ticket has a name on it

Support tickets go to Caitlyn and the team, not a black box. The same person who reads it usually writes back.

Working with us, or want to?

Partnerships and licensing go through Hayley. Press and media inquiries go through Ellie. Account issues go through Caitlyn and the support team. Compliance and trust matters go through Ava. If you're not sure where to start, write to us anyway — someone who can help will pick it up, usually the same day.

Get in touch