Reno R. Rollé
Founder & CEO
Rolle previously held the position of CEO for Shop America USA. Based in Bradford England and operating in U.S., Shop America specialized in long- and short-form direct response television (infomercial) marketing. During this time Mr. Rolle co-created the hit book and marketing campaign for "Natural Cures 'They Don't Want You to Know About." This book held the #1 spot on the NY Times Best Sellers List for 18 weeks in 2005 and 2006, has sold in excess of 7 million copies and is widely considered the best-selling self-published book of all time.
Prior to his experience at Shop America, Mr. Rolle was a founding principle of the National Lampoon Acquisition Group, LLC an investment group that orchestrated the recent acquisition of J2 Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:JTWO) a small cap public company that owned the most recognized brand in comedic entertainment, National Lampoon. Mr. Rolle founded National Lampoon Home Entertainment in 2002 to produce and distribute National Lampoon branded DVDs.
Between 1997 and 2001 Rolle was the co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Synergy Worldwide, Inc., a product engineering, design and marketing company. In 1999 Synergy produced "Mastering The Flow," a blackjack card counting program that became the longest running, most successful gaming infomercial ever. In September 2000, Synergy was honored with the distinguished "R&D 100 Award" for Mr. Roll?'s invention, The "Spin Fryer". This award, referred to as the "Oscars of Inventions," recognizes the most technologically significant inventions in history. Past winners include: anti-lock brakes, the fax machine, the ATM, and polarized film. The Spin Fryer was subsequently licensed to Salton, Inc. (NYSE:SFP) for marketing and distribution under the George Forman line of kitchen products.
From 1994 to 1997 Mr. Rolle was a co-founder of HSN Direct, a direct response television joint venture with Home Shopping Network, Inc. (NASDAQ: IACI) Mr. Rolle's primary responsibility was to negotiate and manage the majority of HSND's contracts, including marketing and distribution, production, talent and joint venture agreements. In addition, Rolle oversaw all aspects of new business development including: media, production, regulatory compliance and operations.
Highlighting Mr. Rolle's tenure with HSND was his role in the development and launch of the Ab Isolator and EZ Crunch abdominal exercise products. These infomercials both generated in excess of $150 million dollars in worldwide sales and spawned an entire consumer product segment targeting abdominal exercise. Estimated sales of this category easily exceed $1 billion dollars worldwide.
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Jay J Koh
Vice President of Productions
Jay Koh has been involved in every aspect of Film and TV production: from making “coffee runs” to directing feature films, Koh has been involved in over 165 Film and Television projects in the past 15 years. A critically acclaimed writer, director, and producer, his film and video clients know him as “the man who delivers on time, on budget.” Koh combines his knowledge of Hollywood studio methods with “no-budget” independent sensibilities. He has produced and directed everything from million-dollar national spots to “credit card” digital films. The culmination of his production experience has given Jay a unique methodology for approaching any production: Maximize budget, Streamline production, and yet preserve creative integrity. Koh has also garnered recognition with Electronic Retail Association’s highest award for outstanding household product campaign in 2005 and generated over 100 million dollars in revenue for his direct response television clients. Away from his business involvement, Jay Koh is an active leader and educator in his community: He dedicates his spare time teaching leadership skills to the brightest and the best high school students of Washington State in its summer leadership program. He is also the executive director of King Street Media, a media non profit foundation dedicated to funding socially significant films and new media for the public education. Koh is also the founding director of the Merlin D. Epp Scholarship fund: a fund dedicated to high school student leader education through global cultural exchange. Koh is a graduate of University of Washington and the Vancouver Film School in British Columbia.
Robert J. Rosenblatt
Founder/Advisor
Mr. Rosenblatt recently joined Tommy Hilfiger Inc. as COO. Prior to joining Hilfiger, Mr. Rosenblatt was President of the Home Shopping Network United States (HSN). While at HSN, Mr. Rosenblatt helped drive impressive sales and profit increases at the 16 world's most widely distributed shopping network. He was responsible for all aspects of HSN's domestic business including Broadcasting, Finance, Fulfillment, Information Technology, Marketing, Merchandising, Sales and Service and hsn.com.
Mr. Rosenblatt is credited with creating an entrepreneurial culture at HSN that has led to the tremendous growth of hsn.com and new business opportunities such as the acquisition of the Improvements catalog.
During his tenure, HSN has advanced to become the 4th largest cable television network and he has helped HSN grow its revenue to $2 billion in worldwide sales. Previous to HSN, Mr. Rosenblatt was senior vice president and chief financial officer of Bloomingdale's, a division of Federated Department Stores. Mr. Rosenblatt is also board member of the Electronic Retail Association (ERA), the Florida Council on Economic Education, the Pinellas Education Foundation and the Junior League of Tampa.
Daniel S. Laikin
Founder/Advisor
Daniel S. Laikin is currently Chief Executive Officer of National Lampoon, Inc. (OTCBB:NLPN), a media and entertainment company that creates and distributes comedic content through a number of platforms, including the National Lampoon Network. He has been a director of the company since 2000 and was employed as Chief Operating Officer from May 2002 until February 2005 when he became Chief Executive Officer.
Until 2000 Mr. Laikin served as Co-Chairman of Biltmore Homes, Inc., an Indiana-based home building and real estate development company. He also served as a managing partner of Four Leaf Partners, LLC, a closely held investment company, concentrating on the startup and financing of high tech and Internet-related companies. He is also on the Board of Directors of Obsidian Enterprises, Inc. (OTCBB:OBDE).
Anthony Sullivan
Founder/Advisor
The defining moment in Mr. Sullivan's transition to America and the world of Direct Response Television was the discovery of a new and innovative cleaning device that became known as the "Smart Mop." That campaign exploded with the advent of a new-to-the-UK style of programming being aired on satellite television; the infomercial. The infomercial industry was young to the UK, so at 22 Anthony decided to move to California. He pounded the streets, home shows and state fairs selling the smart mop in 42 states across America and in 1994 his talents were noticed by a buyer at the Home Shopping Network, (HSN). He was invited as a guest spokesperson on HSN and immediately excelled at live transactional television.
Anthony's on-air demonstrations became the talk of HSN. He brought a new level of excitement to what had become a bland, stale format. He combined powerful demonstrations with street-smart pitches and sold tens of millions of dollars worth of product on the national network. In 1996, HSN hired him as a full time show host and he proceeded to clock thousands of hours of on-air time.
Shortly thereafter he formed his own production company, Sullivan Productions which was recognized two years in a row for producing the two Best Commercials of the Year by the Electronic Retailing Association, (ERA). In 2000 Sullivan Productions received top honors for the "Taplight" campaign and in 2001 Sullivan's "OxiClean" campaign received critical acclaim and was featured on the front page of Advertising Age. Since 1998 Sullivan Productions has produced over ten #1 commercials that have been ranked by the esteemed trade publications Jordan Whitney and Infomercial Monitoring Service (IMS). Sullivan Productions is still the only production company to have the number one, two and three spots in the same week as recorded by Jordan Whitney.
William Gladstone
President and Founder of Waterside Productions, Inc.
Mr. William Gladstone is President and Founder of Waterside Productions Inc., one of the nation's most respected literary agencies. Conceived in 1982, Waterside has represented some of the most successful authors in history, creating more than 5,000 titles with combined sales exceeding 100 million copies.
Among his manifold achievements in book publishing and distribution, Mr. Gladstone represented the original authors of the "For Dummies" series including "DOS For Dummies" in 1991 and "Windows For Dummies" the best selling computer book ever written, with over 10 million copies in print. The list of notable authors represented by Waterside includes such luminaries as Eckhart Tolle, Peter Norton, Linus Torvalds, Dr. Ervin Lazlo, Thom Hartmann, Dick Wolf and many more.
In 2003 Mr. Gladstone assisted in the creation of Kevin Trudeau's Alliance Publishing Company and co-developed the groundbreaking distribution platform for Trudeau's "Natural Cures 'They' Don't Want You to Know About." Under Gladstone's watchful eye, Natural Cures became the fastest selling, most successful self-published book in the history of book publishing, with sales of more than 4 million copies in the first 12 months. This blockbuster held the #1 spot on the NY Times Best Sellers list for 18 weeks, while generating in excess of $100 million in book revenues and an additional $50 million in related newsletter sales.
Mr. Gladstone served as North American spokesperson for UNESCO, authorized Barcelona Forum 2004 and is North American Director of the international "Think and Do Foundation"--The Club of Budapest, representing artists and world leaders, including the Dalai Lama, Peter Gabriel, Dr. Jane Goodall, and the majority of living recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Mr. Gladstone has served on the board of numerous public and private corporations in media, publishing, electronic gaming, and training. He served as Senior Editor at Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Publishing and was Editor-in-Chief of Arco Publishing. Mr. Gladstone has worked on major network television specials, PBS documentaries and is the author of three nonfiction books. He is fluent in Spanish and received a BA from Yale and an MA from Harvard.
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