Government commerce firm Onvia appoints new CEO

Onvia, an enabler of business-to-government commerce, has appointed Russ Mann as its new president and CEO.

The Seattle-based company runs a marketplace that makes it easy for businesses to work with government agencies. It is trying to bring the $2 trillion government procurement sector into the modern age of ecommerce.

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“We are delighted to bring on Russ Mann to lead the next phase of Onvia’s growth,” said D. Van Skilling, chairman of Onvia, in a statement. “Russ has a proven record of growing shareholder value at technology and ecommerce companies in B2B and B2C, through sales and marketing optimization and new product innovation, as well as through strategic alliances, business development and corporate acquisitions.”

The previous CEO, Hank Riner, is retiring. The company announced that he would retire last March and began a search for a replacement at that time. Riner will stay on as a consultant.

Onvia’s B2G Intelligence System equips companies — from global enterprises to small businesses and contractors — to grow their public sector business and helps government agencies gain procurement efficiency. Onvia applies advanced data science, ontology, and machine tagging search technologies to transform unstructured government contracting data into meaningful commerce intelligence, actual lead generation, and CRM workflows for buyers and sellers in the B2G marketplace.

Mann brings Onvia extensive and relevant corporate transformation and transaction experience at the board and executive levels. He had been CEO of Covario, a venture-backed search marketing software and services company with globally recognized enterprise clients.

There, he grew the gross billings, patented several analytics innovations, and completed three software company acquisitions. The company was later acquired by Dentsu Aegis.

Mann currently serves on the board of Ooma, a publicly traded cloud-based telephony company serving consumers, as well as small and medium-sized businesses. Mann joins Onvia from Outerwall — recently taken private by Apollo Equity for $1.6 billion — where he led the turnaround and growth in profitability for the Gazelle ecommerce group, a marketplace for buying and selling recycled electronics.

“I’m very excited to join Onvia at this time,” said Mann, in a statement. “It’s an honor to join such a great team, serving the loyal customer base who achieve real value from Onvia’s B2G commerce intelligence. Onvia is already a leader in the B2G marketplace with the most robust data coverage, advanced IP, insightful market analysis, strong government agency partnerships and broad network of government suppliers as customers.”