hi5 expands leadership team as company experiences dramatic growth, appoints Board Chair, CFO, business development and marketing executives. The additions to the executive team come at a time of dramatic growth of the company’s core business. Monthly unique visitors on the popular hi5.com social networking service increased from 31 million to over 56 million in the first six months of this year - a 79 percent increase, making it the fastest-growing major social network in the world.

To support that growth, the company has hired a number of senior executives to develop key functional areas. To head up the company’s finance, human resources, and administrative functions, Jeff Stephens joined hi5 as chief financial officer. Previously, Jeff was senior vice president finance and administration and corporate controller at QuinStreet, Inc., a leading online marketing and media company, as well as corporate controller at Sonnet Financial.

David Kim has joined as vice president, Business Development & Strategy. David manages partnerships, revenue initiatives, and strategic planning for the business. Ram Gudavalli, was promoted to the role of vice president, Engineering. Since joining hi5 in 2004, Ram has been instrumental in developing highly scalable technology and in helping to build a world-class engineering organization.

Michael Trigg joins hi5 as vice president, Marketing. Mike was previously co-founder of Truviso, a real-time data analytics company, and VP of Marketing at Spoke. Finally, the company also announced Karen Richardson, an advisor to Silver Lake Partners, as an addition to the hi5 Networks board of directors and chair of the board. Richardson accompanies Jon Feiber, General Partner at MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures, and founders Ramu Yalamanchi and Akash Garg on the company’s board.

“We’ve experienced tremendous growth in the last year, and I’m thrilled we have assembled a world class team to capitalize on our market position,” said Ramu Yalamanchi, CEO of hi5. “The depth and diversity of experience of our leadership team is a huge asset and will help take our business to the next level.”