Rothenberg

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Nick Rothenberg

Managing Partner

USWeb

Like many of those at the forefront of the electronic revolution, Nick Rothenberg arrived via academia through the anthropology department, not the computer lab.

That’s not as far-fetched a connection as it sounds, says Rothenberg, founder of the Internet development firm W3-design, and now one of three managing partners at the Los Angeles office of the Internet services firm USWeb (USWeb, which is headquartered in Santa Clara, bought W3-design last November). Anthropology is, after all, about cultures and communities.

“We were looking at how to form communities online before ‘communities’ was a buzzword,” Rothenberg says of his days at USC, where he majored in anthropology. “Our clients are looking at the same kinds of issues: how to promote a sense of community around their brand or online offering; how to follow the path from community to commerce, and achieve a tangible return on investment in what they’re doing online.”

USWeb provides strategic consulting, design and planning services to a diverse group of clients that range from Harvard Law School to Harley Davidson, and that includes 27 companies on the Fortune 100 list. The company also built the Web site for the 1998 Academy Awards.

Rothenberg, 32, heads the company’s entertainment and media division, and also serves as a founding member of Mayor Richard Riordan’s Digital Coast Roundtable, a public/private partnership seeking ways to smooth the digital revolution’s road through Los Angeles.

“(Rothenberg) understood at a very young age the need to treat the Internet as a business and not as a sandbox,” said David Hankin, vice president of business affairs for Sony Online Entertainment, who also serves as president of the Digital Roundtable. “He has an unbelievable understanding of the integration of technology and people, and how people use technology.”

Richard Greene

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