Greetings and welcome to my professional narrative.  As you will see this is more of a story than the cold, hard listing of facts one finds on a typical resume though many of the points one would find in a resume can be found here.  If you would like a formal resume please feel free to contact me and I will send one along.

Like most folks that have started and run companies I have a very broad general management background with experience stretching from sales to operations, product development to equity placements.  Of course most general managers have a particular set of strengths that defines their style and as you will read mine has been proven in the area of sales, product management and evangelism.

In addition to style people can also be defined by their industry.  While my experience would be hard to place into a particular industry bucket it can be broadly defined as new technology.  Whether it is hardware, software or Software as a Service (SaaS) in the interactive TV, education, content, social network or mobile spaces the companies I have worked with are almost always focused on emerging markets.

The final defining characteristic of my professional career has been the consistent and successful utilization of international teams.   In developing products over the years I have identified and managed teams in Russia, India and China in order to accomplish goals cost-effectively. 

Throughout this narrative I have included links to some of the tangible manifestations of the companies with which I have been involved to try and give you a better feel for what I have accomplished with the fantastic co-workers I have had the honor of knowing over the years.  In addition it might save you some research time.

Here we go.

Beema Inc.  1996-Present

Beema began life in 1996 when I and a couple of my co-workers from ICTV decided we wanted to focus on the content side of the burgeoning interactive TV industry as opposed to the hardware side of the business toward which ICTV was focused.  With the blessing of our friends at ICTV we founded Beema and I assumed the role of President responsible for many thing, most importantly revenue.

Our core competence was and is video production, particularly in the realm of animation.  Because the market and our customers required it we also became very adept in the myriad of ways our animated content could be delivered.  The ever evolving technologies for delivering content led to a constantly evolving company that became proficient in each new delivery medium while staying true to our core competence, animation.

Our first projects were projects delivered on CDs, DVDs and screens at tradeshows.  My responsibilities beyond acquiring customers included: collaborating with the customer to understand the message that the customer wanted to deliver; conceptualizing with the creative team how we would deliver the message; creating the actual message (I was usually the primary script writer); and, delivering the final product to the customers satisfaction. 

Beema began generating revenue immediately and experienced rapid revenue growth every year through 2002, with a 530% total increase in sales and a total headcount of 15 people.  Even during the Post-Bubble period Beema added many large companies to its customer list including: eBay, Applied Materials, Dreyfus Financial, Baxter Healthcare, The Gartner Group, Cisco and IDG.

As the Internet evolved, delivering video via web sites and email became possible.  More and more companies wanted to utilize the power of video to deliver their message but didn't have the budget that goes with productions that will be placed on broadcast TV.  To deal with this demand for lower cost productions Beema raised some capital from Bay Area Angel Investors and developed a way to bring the same efficiencies to animation production that Getty Images brought to photography.  

With this capital we brought a web site from concept to completion that allowed businesses to choose characters and scenes online and then request customizations that would be delivered in a fraction of the time and cost of creating the same animation from scratch.  An example of how these animations could be used can be seen here.  An example of one of our characters being used as a speaker introduction can be seen here.

As the ravages of the bursting Internet Bubble were rippling through Silicon Valley and the rest of the world I worked with my partner in Beema to devise a plan that would allow Beema to survive the downturn and preserve our investors stake in Beema while continuing the R&D necessary to evolve to online system we created. 

In 2007 our continued R&D efforts bore new fruit and we were able to reduce the variable cost of making animations to almost nothing.  As a result of this new cost structure my partner and I completely redesigned the user interface and focus of the web site toward our new target audience, consumers.  Utilizing a team of developers in India we turned design into reality which resulted in the site you can see today at Beema.com.

Through all of the years my role as President of Beema has included many hats.  Revenue and cash flow being the life blood of any business is probably the most important. Through a combination of focused selling, private equity placements, responsible credit lines and prudent management Beema has journeyed from 1996 through all of technological evolutions and market tribulations to the company you see today.

Product management is the other role that probably most significantly defines my time with Beema.  Whether it is managing a single product like an animated production for Semicon, or an elaborate production like the web site you see at Beema.com, getting the projects from concept to completion to revenue is why Beema is still in business today.

Of course evangelizing can never be understated.  Whether the task is closing a new customer, raising capital from investors, presenting at industry events, firing up employees or convincing partners and investors on a particular course of action, evangelizing is essential to success.  While the day to day evangelizing one does in business isn't usually recorded for the world to see a recent interview I did on behalf of Vision Literacy, an adult literacy program on whose board I serve, will provide some insight into my presentation style.  Some clips of the interview can be seen here. 

During the Post-Bubble period when Beema was trying to preserve capital and our investor's stake I worked with a company called.........

Software Secure 2004-2007

Software Secure Inc. is an educational testing software company that develops solutions to prevent cheating on exams.  As the Vice President of Sales I was responsible for increasing sales of a new product in a new space and helping to define future products based on customer feedback. 

During my time with Software Secure sales were increased 470% to reach $1.5 MM per year.  This sales success was achieved by formalizing the sales process, increasing sales staff, listening to customers and then advocating and ultimately shepherding the creation of new hardware and Software as a Service (SaaS) products to complement the legacy product. 

As the company expanded into the hardware and SaaS areas I took a lead role in defining the product, establishing the team to bring it together and managing the process to final delivery to paying customers.  The SaaS development team was based in Russia and the hardware manufacturing was done in China.  The hardware design team was based in Texas and this was all managed from the Company's offices in Massachusetts.

A general sense of Software Secure's main product offering as it existed during my time with the company can be seen in this news piece on the Company.  A picture of the hardware device that watches over examinees through a combination of video, audio and fingerprint verification can be seen here.

While sales and product management are the roles which have tangible results in the form of revenue and new products neither goal would have been accomplished without a healthy dose of evangilizing.  Evangilizing internally and externally to audiences at trade shows, face to face in sales meetings and with employees helped a pure software company transition to offering SaaS and hardware services to the Company's product and bottom line.

ICTV Inc. (Now Active Video Networks) 1991-1996

ICTV’s product at the time I worked there was an interactive TV platform that delivers an array of services ranging from video games and movies–on–demand to Internet access.  My responsibilities at the company included sales, product management, fund-raising, operations, finance, human resources, marketing and business development.  During my time with the Company I held the titles of: Chairman – Product Development Committee; Vice President – Business Development; and, Vice President – Finance and Human Resources.

In my role as Chairman of the Product Development Committee, I was charged with developing in conjunction with the heads of the hardware, software, firmware and interactive programming departments, the exact specifications for the first interactive TV system.  Coming to agreement on the specification for this system required a complex balancing of tradeoffs between the interactive programming and marketing departments that wanted the most robust system possible and the hardware and software teams that had very specific cost, size and heat ceilings.

In addition to developing the specification for the physical equipment I also worked in conjunction with ICTV’s Interactive Programming Department to build the user interface and applications that ran on our proprietary system.  The user interface had to be designed to work with standard size TV remote which meant no mouse or keyboard could be utilized.  While it might seem like the days of that sort of restriction are past us, the boom in smart mobile devices means imaginative UI design and techniques are once again extremely important.  You can see some of the interfaces we developed for interactive video games and shopping by clicking here.

Once the first generation product was built my responsibilities shifted toward business development.  As Vice President of Business Development I worked with the Company's top executives to obtain our first customers which included Cox Communications and resulted in over $5 million in revenue.  During this time I was the Company’s primary spokesman at tradeshows and on various TV programs. 

In my role as Vice President - Finance, I reported directly to the Board of Directors on all financial matters and managed all external tax and audit teams.  I developed the five-year financial models that were used to raise $30 million in five separate private placements from individual and corporate investors, including IBM and Cox Communications.  I was also responsible for securing a $1 million credit line for capital purchases, which improved the company's financial position.

As VP - Human Resources, I was responsible for managing the growth of the company from a budget of $2.3 million and seven employees in 1991 to $9.2 million and over 100 employees and contractors in 1994.  I also managed a subsequent 35% reduction in force as the company went through a necessary repositioning to tighten the company’s focus on Internet and currently available entertainment applications.

Through all of my varied roles at the company the primary factor that drove my success was the ability to evangelize in focused manner to help everyone agree on a course of action.  Whether directed toward equity placements, business development at trade shows or on TV, negotiating agreement between departments to define the product, encouraging new hires to join the company or bolstering spirit as the workforce is being reduced; clear and focused evangilizing was a major factor in our success.

TIA LTD. 1989-1991

The TIA (Tobacco Institute of Australia) is an industry association responsible for managing all legislative threats to, and public relations for, the businesses of its member companies.  The TIA represented a $4 billion (Aust.) industry comprised of four large international corporations - R.J. Reynolds, Rothmans Pall Mall, Phillip Morris and WD & HO Wills.  Given the industry, this is one of the most difficult public relations and issues management assignments in Australia or the United States as humorously depicted by Aaron Eckhart in Thank You For Smoking.

During my time with the TIA I was responsible for organizing campaigns that led to the defeat of potentially restrictive legislation opposed by the industry in Tasmania and the Northern Territory.  Campaign tactics included a blend of grass roots organization, media management, advertising and direct lobbying which swayed the votes of legislators originally in support of the respective bills.

Additional state and federal lobbying campaigns gave me access to, and influence with, the Premiers of each state and territory as well as the Prime Minister of Australia.

Our media campaigns involved numerous interviews with local and national radio and television programs as well as every major newspaper in the country.  As you might guess media management and interviewing skills were especially important in this litigious industry as one ill-considered statement can have significant financial consequences.

In addition to lobbying, I was responsible for managing all aspects of the Institute’s $10 million budget which included employment of ten law firms around the world, three advertising agencies, six public relations firms and twelve employees to deal with the issues facing the industry.  Simultaneously, I managed the five offices we operated in various states and territories.

During my final months at the TIA, I served as Acting CEO after my boss resigned.  Upon being offered a position with ICTV, which included equity in the company, I returned to the United States.