SmartBrief : About Us : SmartBrief Directors & Advisors

Senior Management Team

Rick Stamberger

President & CEO

Rick Stamberger is president and CEO of SmartBrief. He has spent much of his career at the intersection of business, public policy and nonprofit sectors.
Prior to founding SmartBrief, Stamberger was a founding partner of Quest Partners LLC, a management consultancy based in Boston. Quest developed the wireless industry's first online information service. He also served as a principal of National Strategies, Inc., a business and public policy consulting firm specializing in telecommunications and technology issues. Stamberger served as executive vice president and a director of a Washington, D.C.-based technology firm owned by nine cable television companies and NBC. He began his career in Washington with the National Cable Television Association. He was also deputy director of a successful U.S. Senate campaign in California. He served as a White House Fellow in 1984-85 in the Office of the Vice President.

Stamberger is chairman of the board of directors of the Van Eck Funds. He is also an independent trustee of the Van Eck Market Vectors ETF Trust. He has been an active board member of numerous nonprofit organizations and was the executive producer of "John Gardner, Uncommon American," a documentary for public television that aired in 2001. Stamberger is a graduate of Williams College and the Harvard Business School.

Merritt Colaizzi

Publisher

Merritt develops and publishes SmartBrief-branded products that target readers by specific management topic, across a broad spectrum of industries.

Before joining SmartBrief in 2002, Merritt was Director of Content at Streetmail, a Massachusetts-based e-mail news company focused on local communities around the country. She entered the world of online publishing after working to start up the Program in Leadership Studies, an interdisciplinary curriculum at Williams College.

She has a B.A. in art history from Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. and a master's degree from Williams. To jump start her not-so-linear career, Merritt spent three glorious years in Italy – mostly in the Veneto region – teaching Renaissance art, directing Elderhostel programs and eating superbly.

She's wacky for dogs, music, and out-of-the-ordinary eyeglasses.

Jack Fordi

Vice President, Advertising Sales and Operations

Jack runs SmartBrief's advertising sales organization, which includes the sales force, ad operations and support teams.

Prior to SmartBrief, Jack was a sales director with a division of Gannett Co., Inc. Before that, he was a vice president of sales with Intralinks, a New York- based application services company for the financial services industry. Jack began his career with Phillips Business Information, (now Access Intelligence), a leading BtoB publisher where he held multiple sales and sales management positions.

Jack is a graduate of Elon University, N.C., where he earned a B.S. in business administration.

Jack has played the guitar since age 2.

Christine Harrington

Vice President, New Product Development

Christine is responsible for New Product Development at SmartBrief, and oversees its custom publishing business.

Christine has been working in news media for nearly 20 years, with experience on both the editorial and business sides of the industry. Prior to joining SmartBrief, Christine was VP-business development at FDC Reports, a division of Reed Elsevier that produces a number of pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical technology business-to-business news services, including "The Pink Sheet" and "The Gray Sheet." Christine started her journalism career as a reporter at FDC Reports, where she subsequently held a variety of news management positions, including executive editor.

Christine's other experience includes serving as VP-editorial for
Streetmail, a former publisher of interactive e-mail newsletters in communities across the U.S. In addition, Christine was director of media
and public affairs for Georgetown University Medical Center. She also worked on the production staff for NBC Sports at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Korea, and taught English at Song Sim College in Bucheon, Korea.

Christine is a graduate of Williams College and a Red Sox fanatic.

Chris McNeilly

Vice President of Software

As the Vice President of Software (or, Geekherd) at SmartBrief, Chris McNeilly manages the technology team that prides itself on being efficient (or, cheap).

For nearly 18 years, Chris has been involved in online publishing and electronic commerce specializing in text extraction and information retrieval.

Prior to SmartBrief, Chris worked for e-commerce sites Simplexity and Thomson Financial Interactive building out high performance Web sites. He was a senior member of the Natural Language Processing lab at Thomson Labs as well as a Research Scientist for the Center for Machine Translation, specializing in Data Extraction.

He has an MS from Carnegie Mellon University and a BS from Miami University. Chris can also write with his feet, a skill that although exceedingly rare, is nonetheless disappointingly undervalued by our society.

J.P. Moery

Executive Vice President, Association Relations

J.P. leads SmartBrief's partnership development and customer relations departments, with responsibility for expanding our portfolio of custom electronic newsletters and strengthening relationships with existing association partners.

J.P. previously served as senior vice president of the Federation Relations Division at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce where he oversaw the Association Committee of 100, the most prestigious group of association CEOs and executives in the country, the Chamber of Commerce Committee of 100, an elite group of the nation's leading Chamber CEOs, and Institute for Organization Management, the nation's premier nonprofit executive training program. Before joining the U.S. Chamber, J.P. was vice president of the Specialized Carriers and Rigging Association and executive director of the grassroots program for the American Trucking Associations.

J.P. is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma and is a Certified Association Executive. He currently serves on the board of visitors of Oklahoma University's College of Arts and Sciences as well as on the School Advisory Committee of Hollin Meadows Elementary School.

J.P. and his wife Diane live with their two daughters in Alexandria, Va.

Zachariah Mully

Director, Systems and Networks

Kept around only for his smashing good looks, Zack is the most tenured employee at SmartBrief, having started at the company in February 2000.

After building the company's first desk out of four monitor boxes and a piece of plywood from the dumpster, he's advanced beyond basic carpentry and has moved on to creating and managing the networks and systems that make SmartBrief tick.

A self professed expert of absolutely nothing, he continues to pursue his dream of getting his title changed to "VP, Duct Tape" by fixing, or attempting to fix, most anything within reach.

After leaving the Purple Valley with a B.A. from Williams College in Chemistry and Chinese, Zack calculated failure rates for a nuclear waste remediation robotics company before being lured downtown by SmartBrief. A fan of all things two-wheeled, he's regularly seen mugging for DC surveillance cameras on one of his many bikes.

Bryan Otte

Vice President, Human Resources & Administration

Bryan is responsible for driving SmartBrief's human resource strategies and programs, with the ultimate goal to recruit and develop SmartBrief's world-class, diverse workforce. In addition, Bryan is responsible for SmartBrief's administrative functions, including procurement, real estate, accounting, facilities, and business contingency planning.

Bryan's previous experience includes senior management positions with Time Life, Discovery Channel, U.S. News & World Report and Fast Company magazine, where he was a member of the launch team. Bryan began his career as a management consultant with Andersen Consulting. He holds MBA and BS degrees from the University of Colorado.

When Bryan has spare time, he volunteers for Montgomery county police, trains for marathons, and performs improvisational and stand-up comedy at corporate events and local Washington, D.C., clubs. Bryan and his wife Brenda live with their daughter in Bethesda, MD.

Eric Solat

Vice President of Partnerships

Eric Solat leads SmartBrief's initiatives to form partnerships with and provide solutions to leading associations and professional societies. Solat is a veteran in business development and solution selling. Prior to joining SmartBrief, Solat was vice president of Global Custody Services for Institutional Shareholder Services. At ISS, Solat led the sales, marketing and business development of all products and services that ISS provides to leading Global Custodian Banks worldwide. He helped create state-of-the-art advances in the processing of shareholder communications to the institutional investor community.

Working globally with clients including JPMorgan Chase, Brown Brothers Harriman and BNP Paribas, Solat developed a reputation for forging partnerships. Prior to ISS, Solat held leadership positions at Automatic Data Processing, overseeing the acquisition of their international proxy division. Solat holds a B.A. in accounting from The State University of New York at Binghamton and an M.B.A. in international business from Hofstra University.

Board of Directors

Thomas E. Wheeler

Chairman of the Board

Tom Wheeler is managing director at Core Capital Partners. Prior to joining Core, Tom was the president and CEO of the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association. CTIA is the international organization that represents all sectors of wireless communications: cellular, personal communication services and enhanced specialized mobile radio. Members include the world's largest service providers, manufacturers, wireless data and Internet companies and other contributors to the wireless universe. As president, Tom dealt regularly with the senior management of the leading telecommunications companies and worked at the forefront of telecommunications policy and business development.

Prior to his work at CTIA, Tom also served as president of the National Cable Television Association, the principal trade association of the cable television industry. NCTA represents cable operators serving more than 90% of the nation's cable television households and more than 200 cable program networks, as well as equipment suppliers and providers of other services to the cable industry.

Tom also is a frequent commentator on technology issues, and his opinion columns have been widely published in major daily newspapers such as The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times. In 2000, Doubleday published his first book, Take Command: Leadership Lessons of the Civil War, about the confluence of business, technology and leadership. His new book, Mr. Lincoln's T-Mails: The Untold Story of How Abraham Lincoln Used the Telegraph to Win the Civil War, will be published by HarperCollins in November.

Tom is currently on the boards of Earthlink and WiderThan.

He is a trustee of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, chairman of the Foundation for the National Archives and a director of the Public Broadcasting Service.

Richard D. Stamberger

President and Chief Executive Officer

Rick Stamberger is president and CEO of SmartBrief. He has spent much of his career at the intersection of the business, public policy and nonprofit sectors. Prior to founding SmartBrief, Rick was a founding partner of Quest Partners LLC, a management consultancy based in Cambridge, Mass. Quest developed the wireless industry's first online information service. He also served as a principal of National Strategies, Inc., a business and public policy consulting firm specializing in telecommunications and technology issues.

Rick served as executive vice president and a director of a Washington, D.C.- based technology firm owned by nine cable television companies and NBC. He began his career in Washington with the National Cable Television Association. He was also deputy director of a successful U.S. Senate campaign in California. He served as a White House Fellow in 1984-85 in the Office of the Vice President.

Rick serves as Chairman of the Board and in independent trustee of the Van Eck Funds, a family of mutual funds. He has been an active board member of numerous nonprofit organizations focused on leadership development and youth service. These include Greater DC Cares Inc., the CORO Foundation and Youth Service America. He was the executive producer of "John Gardner, Uncommon American," a documentary for public television that aired in 2001.

Rick earned his BA from Williams College and received his M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School.

Daniel F. O'Brien

Interim Chief Financial Officer

Daniel F. O'Brien is the interim chief financial officer of SmartBrief. He is a partner and founder of Quest Partners LLC. Since 1988, he has assisted executives in service industries develop differentiation strategies, assess the performance of key corporate processes, and design and lead organization-wide change efforts. With Rick Stamberger, he developed and implemented the original strategy for www.wow-com.com, the wireless industries first on line information service.

Dan's recent consulting clients have also included leading organizations in industries including: advertising and marketing communications, online consumer services, international banking, automobile distribution, business services, computer hardware and solutions, and executive education and training. He has also assisted several nonprofit service firms with strategic planning.

Dan and Rick have collaborated successfully for more than a decade. Prior to founding Quest, Dan was a member of the mergers and acquisitions group of Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.

He received his M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School and his A.B. from Harvard College in biochemistry, and is a graduate of Boston Latin School.

Steven Price

Member of the Board

Steven Price is a Senior Managing Director of Centerbridge Partners, L.P. Steven joined Centerbridge in April 2006. Prior to that, he was a general partner of Spectrum Equity, which he joined in April 2004. Previously he was president and CEO of LiveWire Capital, an investment and management group that focused on the media, telecom and IT industries. Prior to that, Steven served as president and CEO of PriCellular Corporation, a publicly traded cellular telephone company. From October 2001 through May 2003, Steven was deputy assistant secretary of defense for Spectrum, Space and Communications.

Steven also practiced law at Davis Polk & Wardwell, investment banking at Goldman Sachs & Co. and acted as special assistant to the U.S. Ambassador to the START Talks for the U.S. State Department. He is on the Board of Directors of The Foundation for the National Archives and UJA-Federation of NY; serves on the Brown University Advisory Board for Computing and IT and serves as a consultant to the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Defense Science Board.

Steven earned a B.A. from Brown University, graduated magna cum laude, is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and holds a JD from Columbia University.

Gregory C. Simon

Member of the Board

Gregory C. Simon is president of the Center for Accelerating Medical Solutions. Prior to joining CAMS, Greg was a principal at Infotech Strategies, with special expertise in health technology, biotech, education technology and communication technology. Earlier, Greg was CEO of Simon Strategies/Mindbeam, a consulting firm focusing on clients in biotechnology, health care, technology and information technology among other issues.

In January 1999, Greg and Rich Bond, former chairman of the Republican National Committee, formed the openNET Coalition to promote the rights of all consumers to obtain affordable, high-speed access to the Internet from the provider of their choice. Greg was the chief domestic adviser to Vice President Al Gore from 1993 to 1997, specifically on economic, science and technology issues.

From 1985 to 1991, Greg was the staff director of the Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee of the House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space and Technology.

Greg, an Arkansas native, earned his law degree at the University of Washington in Seattle.

SmartBrief Board of Advisors

Frederick Moses

Frederick Moses has more than 25 years of financial and operations experience in leading media companies, including Hanley Wood, LLC, Phillips International, Cowles Media and Elsevier Business Press. Fred is currently the chief operating officer at Hanley Wood, one of the 10 largest business-to-business media companies in the United States and the premier business-to-business media company that serves the residential and commercial construction industries. He is the senior executive responsible for information technology, production, manufacturing, distribution, facilities, direct marketing and inside sales, human resources, overall business operations and acquisition integration.

At Phillips International, a $300+ million consumer publishing, consumer products, business-to-business information and conference company, his responsibilities included the company's Internet Ventures, working with both the consumer and business divisions, as well as CFO of the business information division. Fred was a member of parent company senior leadership team; a member of executive committee; and a key finance executive for the company's strategic alternatives/sale process.

Prior to Phillips, Fred spent six years at Cowles Media Company, a $500+ million Midwest, multidivisional media company with daily newspapers, consumer products, book publishing and business-to-business information divisions. He served as finance director, and then CFO, of the book division, Fred's corporate responsibilities included internal and external reporting, tax, planning and controllership activities for the overall company as well as strategic assessments for acquisitions and divestitures.

Fred began his publishing experience as vice president and controller at Elsevier Business Press, the $300+ million U.S. holding company for Elsevier now merged with Reed Business Group. Fred spent five years with Deloitte & Touche, is a certified public accountant and graduated magna cum laude from Rider University, Lawrenceville N.J.

Susan Robertson

Susan Robertson is the chief marketing and communications officer at ASAE & The Center for Association Leadership. She leads a wide variety of programs including membership, member services, marketing, design and production, communications, publication, editorial and professional credentialing. Her responsibilities include the editorial and design of production of the award- winning Associations Now Magazine, as well as overseeing the branding and image development for the association and its subsidiaries.

Prior to joining ASAE, Susan was the vice president of marketing and communications for U.S. Office Products, a multibillion dollar business products company, owning brands including Mail Boxes, Etc. and Blue Star Group. As a senior marketing and communications professional, she was the executive director of the Office Products Dealer Alliance of the Washington- based National Office Products Association. Prior to this, she was the executive director of the National Dealer Alliance, a national marketing and technology network for entrepreneurs in the contract office furnishings industry. Susan began her career with Ethan Allen, Inc. as part of the education and development staff of their corporate offices in Danbury, Conn.

She is a member of the Executive Committee and Board of Directors of Youth Service America, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting service opportunities for young people throughout the world. Susan received her B.S. from the University of Maryland in 1978.

Scott Kurnit

Scott Kurnit is currently an investor and strategic adviser to technology and media companies. As founder, chairman and CEO of About, Inc. (currently owned by The New York Times Co.) he helped the company move to a public market value exceeding $1.5 billion and the fifth most visited of all Internet sites.

He has been involved in many firsts, including four patents. Scott led the team that put the first Web browser into an online service, started the first Pay Per View cable network, and co-led the team that implemented the first use of national caller ID.

He was president of Showtime Event Television when it generated the largest one- night gross in the entertainment business, and aired the first rock concert from the former Soviet Union. Scott has worked at the highest levels of Warner, Viacom, News Corp., PBS, IBM, MCI and Sears. He has been inducted into the American Advertising Federation's Hall of Achievement and won the prestigious Vanguard Award from the National Cable Television Association.

Scott currently sits on the boards of Brightcove, Dotomi, Goodmail Systems and advises Black Arrow, Critical Mention, Digital RailRoad, Flock, Found Value, Sphere, Verid and Wink. He is also a trustee of the Mianus River Gorge Preserve, the founding land project of the Nature Conservancy and the first National Natural History Landmark.

Bill Bellows

Bill Bellows has more than 25 years of executive leadership, management, operational and marketing experience in professional services, information technology, e-Commerce and consumer technology products. He has held key leadership positions in emerging-growth companies providing strategic management insight through various stages including equity investment, strategic alliances and market positioning.

He has served as a strategic consultant to executive management in large, publicly traded corporations, including Hewlett-Packard, Xilinx, Intel and Iomega. Bill was the co-founder of Copithorne & Bellows, one of the most successful global marketing consulting and public relations firms in technology. He served as president and COO of Veritect, Inc. -- the managed security services subsidiary of Veridian, a publicly traded homeland security company now owned by General Dynamics -- and played a major role in the successful divestiture of the company. Bill also served as chief marketing officer for RedCreek Communications, helping reposition the company for a successful sale and was the chief marketing officer for Simplexity, Inc., helping to build strong brand awareness for the company while playing a major role in raising venture and strategic financing.

Bill serves as a board member and advisory board member for a number of early- stage companies and is a lecturer in entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland.

John Walcott

John Walcott has worked for Knight Ridder, Inc., America's second-largest newspaper publisher, since 1997. Knight Ridder publishes 32 daily newspapers, including the Philadelphia Inquirer, The Miami Herald, The Kansas City Star and the San Jose Mercury News, with 8.5 million readers daily and 11.0 million on Sundays. As Washington bureau chief, John directs more than 30 full-time employees in Washington, as well as 10 overseas bureaus in Baghdad, Beijing, Berlin, Cairo, Jerusalem, Mexico City, Moscow, Nairobi, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo. His responsibilities include national, foreign and Washington news coverage in print and online, as well as information technology, capital and operating budgets and personnel.

John has been chief diplomatic correspondent at Newsweek magazine, national security correspondent at The Wall Street Journal and foreign and national editor of U.S. News & World Report, and he is an adjunct professor at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He has served as senior counselor to a Defense Department commission on basic training in the military, and as a consultant to The Advisory Board Company in Washington, he prepared a report on leadership development and information technology in the U.S. military as part of a study for corporate clients of best practices in the field.

John has been the recipient of numerous journalism awards, including the National Press Club Freedom of the Press Award and Edwin M. Hood Award for Diplomatic Correspondence, the Edward Weintal Prize for Diplomatic Reporting and a National Headliner Award. With David C. Martin of CBS News, he co- authored "Best Laid Plans: The Inside Story of America's War Against Terrorism" (New York, Harper & Row, 1988), and in 2005, Washingtonian magazine named him one of Washington's "50 best and most influential journalists."

John received a B.A. in English from Williams College in 1971.

Dirk Van Dongen

Dirk Van Dongen is president of the National Association of Wholesaler- Distributors, "the national voice of wholesale distribution." NAW is a federation of 100 national and 46 regional, state and local wholesaler-distributor associations representing more than 40,000 merchant wholesaler-distributor companies throughout the 50 states.

Dirk also serves as treasurer of the Wholesaler-Distributor Political Action Committee and president of the Distribution Research & Education Foundation.

In addition, he is past chairman of the Trade Association Liaison Council; co- chairman of The Product Liability Alliance, co-chairman of the Healthcare Equity Action League; and a past director of the American Tort Reform Association.

John Jastrem

John Jastrem joined Rapp Collins Worldwide as chairman and chief executive officer in Dallas on Nov. 20, 1998. Rapp Collins, a member of Omnicom Inc., is the global leader in direct response marketing and database management with $2 billion in annual capitalized billings. RCW specializes in delivering innovative technology solutions including the Internet, award-winning creative, and in maximizing customer relationship value. Clients include Dell Computer, Hyatt Hotels, Sony PlayStation, Adobe Software, Network Associates Inc., Isuzu, Mercedes Benz, Pfizer, SBC, Simplexity.com, Procter & Gamble, Reflect.com, U.S. Navy, Continental Airlines, Bell Canada, The Loyalty Group, Mead Johnson and Knoll Pharmaceuticals.

John joined Rapp Collins with extensive, successful experience helping companies improve their strategic value through the development and implementation of creative marketing and systems strategies. He was president and CEO of TEAM Consultants in Redondo Beach, Calif., a consultancy specializing in strategic planning, financing, interim management, technology- enabled solutions and mergers and acquisitions. Major clients included Hooven Direct Marketing, Colt's Manufacturing Company, Ripplewood Holdings LLC and several communication/Internet companies.

He also served as senior vice president, co-chief operating officer and chief financial officer at Knapp Communications Corporation in Los Angeles, the publisher of Architectural Digest and Bon Appetit magazines. After engineering KCC's turnaround to achieve record profitability in early 1993, he negotiated the sale of the company to Conde Nast.

John serves on the Board of Directors of Mediacom Ventures LLC, a private venture capital firm based in New York City specializing in the media, communications and Internet technology industries.

Glen L. Friedman

Glen L. Friedman, president and founder of Ideas & Solutions!, Inc. is a 25- year communications and media veteran. For more than 10 years, Ideas & Solutions! has specialized in providing leading and emerging companies with marketing/advertising development, strategic planning, competitive positioning and new business development. Additionally, Ideas & Solutions! provides strategic support and due diligence to private equity and venture capitalists firms when evaluating potential investments.

Prior to forming Ideas & Solutions! Inc., Glen was a successful executive in the communications industry. As vice president of marketing for DIRECTV, Glen was a key marketing decision-maker and strategic planner, who was critical in defining the pricing, packaging and marketing strategy for the launch of the most successful consumer electronic product ever, the 18" satellite dish.

Previously, Glen was the general manager of Century Cable where he directed all aspects of the business, including: technical operations, customer service, MIS, marketing, employee/labor relations and government affairs. As the vice president of marketing for Manhattan Cable (now Time Warner Cable) he led all marketing, promotion, sales, advertising and programming acquisition, accelerating the growth of one of the largest, most complex cable operations in the country.

Glen has a B.S., Management and Organizational Behavior from Babson College, Wellesley, Mass. He also completed the Executive Financial Management Program, University of Denver, Denver. He serves as an Advisory Board member of the Santa Monica Boys and Girls Club, and a board member of the Westside YMCA of Los Angeles. He is a member of CTAM, former president CTAM, NYC Chapter, and former vice president Mid-Atlantic CTAM.