Mark Elderkin

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Mark Elderkin (born September 27, 1963) is an American entrepreneur who co-founded Gay.com in 1994 with his husband Jeff O. Bennett. [1] Elderkin served as President of PlanetOut Inc. when the company went public in 2004. He retired from the company in 2006. He founded Gay Ad Network [1] in 2007, which was named as one of the Inc. 5000 fastest growing private companies in America [2] and a leader in gay media [3] . In 2024, he launched Elderkin Wealth Management, a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) firm.

Elderkin was a child prodigy of the clarinet. He graduated from UC Berkeley Haas School of Business with an MBA and Boston University with a BS in Systems Engineering. He has served on the Board of GLAAD and mentors young entrepreneurs. [4]

Elderkin lives in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and West Hollywood, California with his husband Jeff Bennett. His daughter Chloe Bennett Elderkin is a student at University of Southern California Leonard Davis School of Gerontology. [5] [1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Toussaint, David (September 11, 2014). "Meet Gay Dad Mark Elderkin, CEO of Gay Ad Network". Gay with Kids. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
  2. "Gay.com founder's next move: Online ads", PlanetOut.com , 14 August 2007, retrieved 2008-10-17
  3. Aitamurto, Tanja (2008-05-01). "Gay Ad Network makes a river from small streams, while PlanetOut struggles". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2025-06-24.
  4. Ellis, Alan; Schaub, Kevin; White, Melissa (2002), "Interview: Mark Elderkin and Rhona Berenstein", The Harvey Milk Institute Guide to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Internet Research, Haworth Press, p.  30, ISBN   1-56023-353-2
  5. "Contributors", Family Equality Council, archived from the original on 2008-09-29, retrieved 2008-10-17