Michael Birnbach

Notable work and positions

Common Crawl Foundation - Finance and operations lead (since 2011)
XPRIZE - Chief Financial Officer
Factual Inc. - SVP of Finance and Operations and Treasurer (prior role)

Biography

Michael Birnbach is a Los Angeles-based finance executive who has managed the finance and operations of the Common Crawl Foundation, the nonprofit that produces and maintains an open, free-to-use repository of web crawl data, since 2011. He currently serves as Chief Financial Officer of XPRIZE, having previously spent a decade as part of the executive team at the data company Factual as senior vice president of finance and operations and treasurer, where he helped the company grow from roughly 25 to more than 200 employees, expand its operations globally, and complete its merger with Foursquare. Before joining Factual, Birnbach advised private equity groups on national real estate portfolio acquisitions and provided private wealth management for individuals and Fortune 500 companies at Oppenheimer and Smith Barney/Citigroup. Earlier in his career he worked in the entertainment industry, first on the agency side at ICM and then on the production side at Warner Brothers and MGM. He earned a BS in Economics from Chapman University and is active in industry groups including the CFO Leadership Council and the Los Angeles CFO Roundtable.

Career highlights

• Common Crawl Foundation 2011-present · Has managed finance and operations for the nonprofit organization that maintains one of the largest open web archives used for research and public knowledge infrastructure.
• Factual-Foursquare merger · Helped lead the finance and operations function through Factual's global expansion and eventual merger with Foursquare.