NEW YORK—Jonathan Crutchley—chairman at Online Buddies Inc., the parent company of Manhunt and Jack’d—announced the return of Hector Comacho and Phil Henricks.
Camacho, who served as director of advertising for the company from 2007 to 2012, has come back to serve as chief executive officer.
Henricks, who was director of marketing from 2003 to 2008, returned as vice president of strategy and business development.
Camacho will be in charge of the corporate strategy for Online Buddies, overseeing internal management and the direction and growth of the company’s multiple products, as well as driving innovation. Henricks will work closely with Camacho, spearheading marketing campaigns aimed at strengthening the visibility of Online Buddies’ popular brands.
“Hector Camacho and Phil Henricks played important roles at Online Buddies during our early stages,” said Crutchley, who works at the Online Buddies headquarters in Cambridge, Mass. “They helped build the company from a scrappy startup to an Internet behemoth. Both went on to do amazing work for other corporations, finding success and gaining valuable industry experience; the kind Online Buddies needs at this juncture. We are delighted to welcome them back.”
“As a product company managing leading gay brands across multiple platforms, it is important that we consistently deliver value to our members,” said Camacho. “My vision for Manhunt is to create a one-stop-shop that evolves beyond dating and hookups to additional services that keep members online.
“Meanwhile, Jack’d will continue to grow into an even larger community of young, gay and open-minded mavericks,” he added.
“Our challenge will be keeping up with the ever changing technologies while maintaining a stable and robust environment for members,” said Henricks. “I look forward to working closely with Hector Camacho and the marketing team as we figure out the most seamless and efficient ways of offering our members exactly what they want.”
A Tufts graduate, Camacho began his career in retail banking. He transitioned into the dating industry in 2007 at Online Buddies. After five years, he moved to Montréal, Canada, joining Gamma Entertainment as its senior product director for the Buddy Profits project, where he oversaw iconic gay brands like Falcon Studios, COLT Studio Group and Hot House Entertainment. While there, Camacho helped grow Gamma Entertainment’s portfolio of gay membership sites from twelve to over forty; including stewarding two prominent acquisitions.
Henricks headed the marketing at Manhunt during its most crucial years of growth. The team he assembled helped make it a global gay brand. He left the company in 2008 to lead successful strategic marketing campaigns at similar gay dating platforms, most notably Gaydar and Recon.
Since 2001, Online Buddies has been connecting men seeking new friends, dates and long-term relationships. With more than 75,000 new profiles added to its products each week, the company serves more than 10 million members in virtually every country in the world.
The newest addition to the Online Buddies family is Jack’d, a leading location-based gay dating app. Nearly 5 million men around the world have joined Jack’d since its launch in 2010 and it consistently ranks among the top four gay social apps in both the App Store and Google Play.
Online Buddies’ flagship product, Manhunt, is a category leader and consistently ranks among the world’s top gay websites.
For more information, visit Online-Buddies.com.
