Leslie Ackerman is a Business Educator at the Alternatives Federal Credit Union based in Ithaca, New York. The is the director of "Business CENTS" which is a small business development program offering a "how to" business training course, seminars, one-on-one business counseling and marketing support for people interested in starting or expanding a business.
Irwin Mark Jacobs, one of the founders of the Company, has served as Chairman of the Board of Directors since the Company began operations in July 1985. Jacobs served as chief executive officer of the Company until July 2005. He served as the Company's president prior to May 1992.
Before joining the Company, Jacobs was executive vice president and a director of M/A-COM. From October 1968 to April 1985, Jacobs held various executive positions at LINKABIT (M/A-COM LINKABIT after August 1980), a company he co-founded. During most of his period of service with LINKABIT, Jacobs was chairman, president and chief executive officer and was at all times a director.
Irwin Jacobs received his B.E.E. degree from Cornell University and his M.S. and Sc.D. degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Ed Mace has had a distinguished thirty-five-year career in the hotel business. He has served as a director of the San Francisco-based REIT, BRE Properties since 1998.
Previously, he served as President, Vail Resorts Lodging Company and Rock Resorts International LLC (both subsidiaries of Vail Resorts, Inc.) from 2001 to 2006. Mace served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Fairmont Hotels & Resorts,U.S. /Mexico division, from 2000 to 2001 and as President and Chief Executive Officer of Fairmont Hotels, from 1996 to 2000. He was the Midwest regional director of management consulting for the Real Estate Industry Group of KPMG from 1994 to 1996.
Ed Mace holds an undergraduate degree from Cornell University.
Shelley Rosen is CEO and Founder of Airlift Ideas, Inc. Airlift Ideas is based in Chicago and specializes in creating brand vitality by assisting companies in developing business-building ideas. Rosen's has over 20 years of experience in advertising and marketing, on both the client and agency sides. As an executive at McDonald's Corp., she directed major efforts in the areas of new business development, brand leadership and issues management. She most recently led the global strategy for McDonald's on the Balanced Lifestyles issue bringing over $500 million in new business and repositioned the brand. This led to the introduction of new menu items globally, building alliances with advocates in the U.S. government and leading scientists and expert doctors around the world. Prior to this role, Shelley was responsible for new business invention and brand positioning reporting to the CEO of McDonald's. In addition to working for Fortune 50 brands for leading advertising agencies like, Leo Burnett, Young and Rubicam and Foote, Cone and Belding she has also managed accounts for blue chip companies. Her client experience ranges from emerging to established brands and companies including; Frito-Lay, Pepsi-Cola, Taco Bell, McDonald's, Chevron Oil. Shelley Rosen holds a Bachelor's Degree from the University of Michigan.
Kenneth Shields is a Director at Procter & Gamble.
JB Allred is the founder of Allred and Associates. Allred & Associates, Inc. is an innovative design and engineering company specializing in the development of sophisticated products for medical device manufacturers.
Aron Rosenberg is the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer for SightSpeed.
Rosenberg has over seven years of research, development, operational and management experience at both startups, academic institutions and large corporations. Most recently Aron was the Senior Researcher at Cornell University's DISCOVER Lab where he was responsible for day-to-day operations and long term research. He is also the author of publications in the field of high performance video. His work experience also includes various roles at Carr America, Naval Surface Warfare Center, and DSR, Inc.
Aron Rosenberg holds a Bacelor's degree in Engineering from Cornell University with a Major in Electrical Engineering and a Minor in Human-Computer Interaction.
Henry J. Gysling is currently the Director of Technology at Air Flow Catalyst, Inc. Gysling recently retired from the Eastman Kodak Research Laboratories after 33 years of service. His work there centered on inorganic materials and their applications in a variety of catalytic processes. He has published 60 journal articles and reviews and has 45 issued U.S. patents in various areas of materials science and catalysis.
Since 1985, Gysling has been an adjunct faculty member at the Rochester Institute of Technology .
Henry Gysling received his B.S. in Chemistry from St. Joseph's College in Philadelphia and a Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from the University of Delaware.
Roy Danis is a veteran of 27 years in the Beverage business. He started his career with The Seagram Company in Dec. 1978 and spent 14 years there rising in the ranks through various sales & marketing positions. He worked on many of the company's key brands including Senior Brand Manager - Crown Royal, the company's number one profit contributor. In 1993, Seagram promoted Roy to the position of Director of Sales & Marketing for their Tropicana Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of Seagram. In 1995 Roy was recruited by Diageo, to be their Vice President of Sales, Eastern Division. In 1997 he was recruited by Pernod Ricard to become the Vice President of Sales & Marketing for their U.S. import company, responsible for such brands as Jameson Irish Whiskey and Jacobs Creek Wines from Australia.
In 1998, Roy left Pernod Ricard to start his own wine import company, focusing exclusively on Australian Wines. He did this for 3 years before being contacted by W.J. Deutsch & Sons, Ltd. to head up sales and marketing for this family wine importer, based in White Plains, NY. He was hired as their Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing, in October 2001. The Deutsch Co. was selling just over 1 million cases of wine products in the U.S. at that time. In this capacity, Roy was directly responsible for the strategic direction of the entire company's portfolio. Roy was intimately involved with and oversaw the historic launch of the Yellow Tail brand in the U.S., clearly one of the most successful wine brands ever to appear on the U.S. market. Today the W. J. Deutsch Co sells approximately 9.5 million cases of wine in the U.S. In January 2005, Roy was promoted to Executive Vice President, Sales & Marketing
Roy Danis holds a Bachelor of Science from Cornell University and a Masters of Business Administration in Marketing from Boston College.