Ian Rhett

Ian Rhett is CEO of CivicActions, a role he assumed in the Fall of 2009. He brings a diverse background of team leadership, technology innovation and personal development to lead the CivicActions team. 

His Internet career began at a medium-sized advertising agency in Washington, DC in 1994, where he worked on advertising for interactive television. In 1995, he was the Online Director for the first New York Music Festival, where he organized 40+ volunteers and partners to launch a website wiring 15 nightclubs in Manhattan to webcast live text, pictures, audio and video.

Apple hired him into the Interactive Music Group, where he innovated webcasting at Apple in the mid 90's. The group grew from 8 to 85 within a year and webcast from events like the GRAMMYs and the 1996 Sundance Film Festival. He later prototyped a 24/7 live music network, streaming live audio and remote-controlled video from 5 nightclubs in 3 timezones.

He left Apple to co-found a webcasting production company in Los Angeles, serving entertainment, corporate and educational clients like the Emmy's, the GRAMMYs, Westwood One, Paramount Studios, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sun Microsystems, Apple, Microsoft and the US Department of Education.

Ian has served as Executive Producer at two Omnicom advertising agencies (Razorfish LA and Doremus SF), startup production manager for a BMG Music Group acquisition, technology consultant, has served in the US Navy and has worked as a private investigator, television host, and bartender - all skills he has used in one way or another since joining CivicActions.

He recently co-organized the first Design-a-thon, a 24 hour volunteer event for 30 designers, marketers and developers to create a professional marketing platform literally overnight for a startup non-profit.  He has served on the Boards of Children of Shelters (a San Francisco charity serving homeless children) and iSurvive.org (one of the first online communities of abuse survivors). He was Program Director of the Awe To Action conference in San Francisco and founded the Children's Philanthropy Foundation, a 501(c)3 with a mission to encourage workplace volunteerism and pre-IPO stock donations during the dotcom boom. 

Ian is the third-oldest of eleven siblings and an Eagle Scout. He moved to Nashville (before becoming CEO) to produce his first full-length record of cause-related music, following on the success of his first recorded song, "(Didn't Know I Was) Unamerican" which prompted performances in 8 states during the 2004 presidential election cycle.  An EP and online video supporting families of missing persons is in final production.