With a unique approach to technology-centered work, Thomas Plunkett is an expert technologist who has built several of the most vibrant communities on the internet.
Integral to his success in digital media has been a unique ability to bridge technological expertise with a savvy and anthropological understanding of the people who make up the internet.
Plunkett’s earliest experience as a technology leader was at Bold, one of the first social networking sites, which enjoyed explosive growth before becoming a casualty of the dot-com bubble in 2000.
‘Tom is one of probably about five of the absolute best technologists in digital media.’
Later, Plunkett was CTO at Gawker. In addition to being a leader at one of the first truly successful digital-native media businesses across Gawker’s affiliated publications, Plunkett also created Kinja, an innovative community platform that he built to host many of the most vibrant communities on the internet.
Since leaving Gawker, Plunkett has been Chief Product & Technology Officer at Fast Company/Inc Magazine, Apartment Therapy, and until shifting to his advisory role, Fragment Media Group. Now in that capacity, Plunkett will continue to help steer Fragment’s community-oriented vision.
“Tom is one of probably about five of the absolute best technologists in digital media,” said Fragment Media Group CEO Nicholas White. “His background isn’t straight computer science, however. Like the rest of us at Fragment, he’s broadly curious and as a result, comes at opportunities from a unique perspective. It was, I think, that point of view that drove him to build at Kinja, a uniquely community-focused publishing platform.”
Fragment media is dedicated to revolutionizing the ways members interact with media, centering our own communities in that movement. White said that Plunkett’s expertise has already been and will continue to be a key part of those ambitions.
“With his collaboration, we hope to build a new publishing platform that does more than ever before to support and enable rich, positive communities both on- and offline.”
