# Joel Ronning

> Joel A. Ronning founded Digital River in February 1994 and led the Minnesota e-commerce services company until November 2012. Now CEO of DATAMYTE, he also competes as Catapult’s sailing skipper, winning the 2016 J/70 World Championship, the 2025 J/70 U.S. National Championship and the Mixed-Plus division at the 2026 J/70 Midwinters.

- **Role:** CEO at DATAMYTE
- **Organizations:** Digital River, DATAMYTE, Open Road Ventures, Tech Squared, Mirror Technologies, MacUSA, Catapult sailing team
- **Nationality:** American
- **Known for:** Founded and led Digital River from 1994 to 2012., Received the 2000 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year e-Business-to-Business Services Award., Received Minnesota’s 2001 Tekne Leadership Award.

## Career timeline

- **1985** — Founded Mirror Technologies, a seller of Macintosh storage devices.
- **1990** — Founded Tech Squared, a desktop-publishing catalog venture; also founded MacUSA.
- **1994** — Founded Digital River in February.
- **1996** — Digital River conducted its first client web-store online sale in August.
- **1998** — Digital River went public in August.
- **2003** — Digital River reported $101.2 million in annual revenue and $17.1 million in net income.
- **2012** — Stepped down as Digital River CEO on November 1 and left the chairmanship at year-end.
- **2016** — Skippered Catapult to the J/70 World Championship in San Francisco.
- **2025** — Identified as DATAMYTE CEO in its April AI product announcement; won the J/70 U.S. National Championship in May.
- **2026** — Catapult won the Mixed-Plus division and placed fifth overall at the J/70 Midwinter Championship.

## Achievements

- Founded and led Digital River from 1994 to 2012.
- Received the 2000 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year e-Business-to-Business Services Award.
- Received Minnesota’s 2001 Tekne Leadership Award.
- Won the 2016 J/70 World Championship with Catapult, finishing 17 points ahead of second place.
- Won overall and in class at California Offshore Race Week in 2017 with the Santa Cruz 70 Catapult.
- Won the 2025 J/70 U.S. National Championship on Lake Minnetonka.
- Won the Mixed-Plus division at the 2026 J/70 Midwinters.

## Latest updates

- **2026-03** — Catapult won the Mixed-Plus division and finished fifth overall at the J/70 Midwinter Championship in Miami.
- **2025-11** — The International Melges 24 Class Association lists Ronning and Catapult third overall at the 2025 U.S. National Championship.
- **2025-05** — Won the J/70 U.S. National Championship on Lake Minnetonka with Victor Diaz de Leon, David Onan and Jessica Haverstock.
- **2025-04** — As DATAMYTE CEO, announced DataMyteGPT’s integration into Digital Clipboard.

## Links

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-ronning-1a198112

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/joel-ronning
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-24