San Francisco—Ed Grossman, former president of UBM Tech's Business Technology Media group, has formed a new technology marketing company called Activate. The company will provide clients with content marketing, lead nurturing, media and event services, along with insights into the technology-buying process. Several other executives formerly with UBM Tech or its predecessor unit UBM TechWeb are working with Grossman in his new venture as employees, consultants or advisory board members. Martha Schwartz, former chief sales officer for UBM Tech, is Activate's chief revenue officer. Also joining Activate are Mary Wallace, former director of client marketing services at UBM Tech, who is VP-client services, and Tara Shapiro, a former strategic account director at UBM Tech, who is strategic sales director. Tom Smith, former VP-marketing strategy and operations at UBM Tech, will lead the content marketing function on a consulting basis. Fritz Nelson, former senior VP-editorial director of the InformationWeek Business Technology Network, and Art Wittmann, former VP-editor of Network Computing, are also on the team of content marketing specialists who have agreed to work on the startup. The advisory board members include Nelson; Virgo Publishing CEO John Siefert (formerly senior VP of UBM's InformationWeek Business Technology Network); and Scott Vaughan, former UBM Tech CMO.