Dr. April Benasich, Scientific Advisor

Dr. April Benasich is a tenured Professor of Neuroscience and the Director of the Infancy Studies Laboratory at the Center for Molecular & Behavioral Neuroscience (CMBN) at Rutgers University, Newark. She is also the Co-Director of the Carter Center for Neurocognitive Research.

Dr. Benasich’s research seeks to uncover the early neural mechanisms necessary for normal cognitive and language development and is studying the “speed of encoding” in babies as it relates to language comprehension and improved cognitive skills. Dr. Benasich received her Ph.D. from New York University in Experimental and Clinical Psychology.

She also has a BSN in Nursing and fifteen years of medical experience, including supervisory Pediatrics and working with high-risk infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. As an Associate Research Scientist at Johns Hopkins University she served on the Research Steering Committee of a large national randomized clinical trial of an early intervention program for low birth weight infants.

 

David Rosenblatt, Business Advisor

David Rosenblatt is the Executive Chair of Group Commerce, a platform that personalizes daily deals and reaches millions of consumers.  He most recently served as President of Global Display Advertising for Google from October 2008 to May 2009, which he joined in March 2008 with Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick, a provider of digital marketing technology and services. David had worked at DoubleClick since 1997 as part of the initial management team, and during his tenure he held several executive positions, including serving as CEO of DoubleClick from July 2005 through March 2008, and as President of DoubleClick from 2000 through July 2005.

David currently serves on the boards of Twitter, IAC and GSI Commerce. Prior to joining DoubleClick, he spent several years as an investment banker at S.G. Warburg & Co, in Hong Kong, London and New York.

Mr. Rosenblatt graduated Magna Cum Laude from Yale University and the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.  Today he lives in New York with his wife and four children.

 

Syma Sambar, Licensing and Merchandising Strategy

Syma Sambar is a freelance consultant in the entertainment industry specializing in children’s licensing and merchandising. Formerly Vice President of Creative Resources at Chorion Inc., Syma spent 8 years adapting and launching well known published works into merchandise products for the US and international markets. Her clients were the crème de la crème of the children’s publishing industry, including Eric Carle (The Very Hungry Caterpillar), Rosemary Wells (Max & Ruby), Roger Hargraves (Mr. Men and Little Miss), Ian Falconer (Olivia) among others.

Prior to joining Chorion, Syma spent several years at Nickelodeon, licensing and developing award-winning interactive products based on highly-rated television shows. Syma is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in Communications. She grew up in London and obtained a bi-lingual education from the Lycée Français Charles De Gaulle. She is fluent in French and Arabic and speaks some Spanish and Italian.

 

Jerrold B. Spiegel, Legal Advisor

Jerrold Spiegel is a partner with Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz PC, where he heads the law firm’s Technology, eCommerce & Privacy Practice Group. In addition to technology related intellectual property laws, Mr. Spiegel also helps media technology and innovative companies organize and reorganize, structure entrepreneurial ventures and access financing.

Jerry regularly gives lectures on electronic media, Internet law and eCommerce at the Stern School of Business as well as at professional associations. He was named a New York-area “Super Lawyer” for Business/Corporate work by Law and Politics magazine 2006.

In addition Jerry is the author of the “Legal Landmines” chapter in the Web & New Media Pricing Guide published by Hayden Books (1996) and the “Covering Your Legal Bases” chapter in Buying Web Service: The Survival Guide to Outsourcing, published by Wiley & Sons (1998). He is a member if the Web Video Leadership Forum, and was a chairperson of the New York New Media Association’s Media & Entertainment SIG, where he coordinated the Movers & Shakers program. He writes regularly for the World eBusiness Law Report. He is a cum laude graduate of the NYU School of Law.

 

Jonathan Teller, Sales/PR Advisor

Jonathan Teller is Founder and Managing Partner of eos Products, a consumer products manufacturer in New York.  Previously, Jonathan was responsible for managing Angry Elephant Capital, LLC, a diversified private investment fund with offices in New York and Shanghai.  Prior to that, Jonathan was a principal of Coast Intelligen, Inc., a California manufacturer of power generation systems.  Jonathan also co-founded Intellisys Energy LLC, a financing business for the development of small to mid-sized power projects in the US where he established a related joint venture with Invensys (LSE: ISYS.L).

Jonathan has served as Senior Vice President at Business Development LLC, a venture investor-backed company in New York that provides high-level business development services to global technology businesses.  Before that, he spent eight years at Credit Suisse in New York in several roles, including Vice President of Institutional Fixed Income Sales as well as Head of Global Strategic and Business Planning for the Global Fixed Income Division, in which he reported directly to both the Vice-Chairman and Global Treasurer.

Jonathan graduated cum laude with a B.A. in Philosophy from New York University.

 

Doug Weich, Retail Technology Advisor

Douglas Weich is the Founder and CEO of Sophelle, a leading IT consultancy devoted to helping major retail organizations plan and implement technology initiatives. He has helped guide some of the nation’s leading retailers through highly complex technology transitions that have resulted in enterprise-wide gains in efficiency and productivity. Doug speaks at various retail industry conferences and is sought regularly by national media outlets for his insight on retail technology trends.

Prior to Sophelle, Doug co-founded and served as CTO for RetailExchange.com, an innovative leader in excess inventory solutions for manufacturers and retailers. As IT Specialist in the Retail and Direct Marketing practice for EDS Management Consulting Services/ATKearney, he advised leading national and international retailers on best practices. Doug also served as VP of IS at Wholesale Depot, where he implemented leading-edge point-of-sale, merchandising, warehouse, distribution, financial and database marketing systems. He began his career at Coopers & Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers).

Doug has a B.S. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and graduated Beta Gamma Sigma from Northeastern University. Today he splits his time between Manhattan and Framingham, Massachusetts, where we lives with his wife and two daughters.

 

Josh Reibel, Digital Education Advisor

Josh has been working in educational technology for over 20 years, holding leadership positions in both commercial and nonprofit organizations. Josh is President and COO of Wireless Generation, prior to which he was president of eSCORE.com, a provider of online, interactive educational services for parents and children. There, Josh oversaw all operations, product development, and marketing for eSCORE.com’s parent services unit.

Before joining eSCORE, Josh managed Columbia University’s Institute for Learning Technologies (ILT), a research and development wing of Teachers College and Columbia University that helps schools and businesses advance the use of new media technologies in K–12 and higher education. He served most recently as associate director.

Before becoming associate director at ILT, Josh started and directed the Institute’s program evaluation and consulting services. Under his leadership, this unit helped numerous businesses, community organizations, cultural organizations, schools, and departments of Columbia University define new media strategies and evaluate programs and products.

Prior to his posts at Columbia, Josh was a high school philosophy and English teacher at The Dalton School in New York City where he also managed multimedia curriculum projects. Josh holds an AB from Harvard, and MA and Ed.M. degrees from Columbia.

 

Jarrad Berman, Customer Acquisition Advisor

Jarrad Berman is the Senior Director of Development and Acquistion for OpenSky.com, a new social network for shopping that connects its members to the best people and most extraordinary products in food, style, health and design. Berman joined the company on the heels of its April 5, 2011 launch. Since that time OpenSky has attracted more than 1.3 million members who are making more than 8 million connections to the site’s experts including: Martha Stewart, Bobby Flay, Cynthia Rowley, Liz Lange, Tom Colicchio, Molly Sims, Kelly Rutherford, Mariel Hemingway, Tony Horton, Padma Lakshmi, Michael Ruhlman and Holly Robinson Peete. The company has raised $50 million in venture funding and was recently named to the list of The World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company Magazine.

Prior to his role at OpenSky, Berman was the 2nd employee to join venture-backed start-up ideeli, Inc. in 2007, where he oversaw membership growth for the shopping site. At the time of his departure ideeli Inc. had earned itself the top spot on the INC. Magazine 500 List of Fastest Growing Companies in America and in 2011 boasted $77.7 million in annual revenue.

In addition to his pivotal role in the e-commerce industry, Berman is an investor and advisor to multiple start-up companies including Little Pim and BrightLot. He is a graduate of Lehigh University with a BS in Finance and currently lives in New York City with his wife Tracey.