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CORPORATE OFFICERS
Jonno Wells, CEO, comes to Surfline from technology media company CMP Media, where he held various publishing, operational management, sales and business development positions over 16 years in the San Francisco Bay Area. He served as Vice President of Client Services of an interactive advertising agency and was involved in the management of a start-up streaming media venture. His customer-focused approach developed by creating media solutions for many leading companies including Warner Bros., Nissan, Intel, HP and Microsoft. Jonno holds a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Wells hails from the beaches of Newport and enjoys spending time in the water on a quad-fin fish these days.
Sean Collins serves as President, Chief Surf Forecaster, and Founder for Surfline. Collins was the first person to accurately forecast swells on a regular basis in the '70s and early '80s. He pioneered and created the first ongoing surf forecast available to the surfing public via Surfline and 976-SURF in 1985. Over the past 25 years, he has developed a sophisticated, proprietary system of wave forecasting - much of which is currently used in LOLA, Surfline's Global Swell Model. Through Surfline, Collins provides weather and forecasting services to every lifeguard agency in California, the Coast Guard, US Navy Seals, National Weather Service, numerous television and movie production companies, multiple domestic and international governmental agencies and nearly every surf company in the world. Collins also developed the very first live "Surfcam" in 1996, the precedent for famous Surfline camera network available on Surfline.com today. He was named one of the "25 Most Influential Surfers of the Century" by Surfer Magazine in the summer of 1999, the "8th Most Powerful Surfer in the Surf Industry" by Surfer Magazine in the summer of 2002, and in the TOP 100 People who wield the most Power and Influence in Southern California by the Los Angeles Times WEST Magazine in the summer of 2006. Collins also directs an exclusive crew of Big Wave riders to chase the largest waves on Earth at any moment - including Mike Parsons, Brad Gerlach, Shane Dorian, Laird Hamiltion, Greg and Rusty Long, Jamie Sterling, and many more. Collins has been surfing and wave exploring by land, air, and sea for more than 40 years and is still holding vast knowledge of many secret spots south of the border. The Surfline office staff also knows a good south swell is confirmed and on the way when Collins disappears out of the office on one of his many solo surf trips to Baja.
David Gilovich serves as Executive Vice-President for Surfline.com. Prior to joining Surfline, Gilovich served as Vice President of Marketing for Gotcha Sportswear, where he directed the marketing efforts for three international fashion brands. Previously he was the Editorial Director of Western Empire Publications and was responsible for leading Surfing Magazine past Surfer in total paid circulation in the late '80s. Despite the growing crowds, Dave is determined to surf Lower Trestles to the bitter end.
MANAGEMENT TEAM
Graeme Rae serves as Product Manager for Surfline.com Since 1993, Rae has served as the manager, developer and creative source behind Surfinfo.com, a popular surfing Internet site focused on the East Coast of the United States. Rae holds a Ph.D. in Ocean Engineering and served as an Assistant Professor of Ocean Engineering at Florida Institute of Technology from 1993 and as a Visiting Professor of Ocean Engineering at Florida Atlantic University through 1997. His British accent is often mistaken for Australian, which pisses him off. He also steadfastly refuses to admit that 204's doesn't have waves.
Mike Matey VP of Marketing, comes to Surfline with more than 15 years experience in the technology sector, where he has held consumer marketing positions with Musicmatch / Yahoo, Vivendi Universal, MP3.com, Microsoft, Chiat/Day Advertising, and most recently Intuit (TurboTax). Mike specializes in digital media marketing with a focus on driving subscription, e-commerce and advertising-supported revenue models. His passion is to find the emotional connections with consumers and develop marketing campaigns that play to that relationship. Mike holds a B.S. in Journalism (Advertising emphasis) from the University of Missouri. Mike grew up surfing the beaches of Southern California, and when it comes to picking his dawn patrol spot, he is all over the Surfline near-shore models.
Marcus Sanders serves as Managing Editor for Surfline.com. Sanders has spent exactly 367.5 hours over the last 15 years defending his native Canada to South Park-watching Yankees, though he has no plans of returning. He tries diligently to pick up one piece of trash off the beach every day, but sometimes, especially when the waves are good, he forgets. Sanders earned a B.A. in humanities from San Francisco State University and worked at Surfing magazine as contributing editor. His writing has appeared in Surfing, Surf Guide, Australia's Surfing Life, Deep, Surf Europe and bathroom walls from Agadir, Morocco, to Taipei, Taiwan.
Robin Walker is Vice-President of Advertising sales. After working as a Financial Advisor/Rule 144 Specialist at Morgan Stanley during one of the deepest and longest bear markets in recorded history, Robin Walker joined Surfline to sell ads, catch a few waves and party with the Foster's Girls. In addition to having been an All-Big West Selection tennis player, Robin is a self-styled go-getter who does not understand the word "No" -- so don't even try using it around him. Robin likes light beer, warm-water point breaks and "selling stuff." PLEASE CALL FOR ADVERTISING RATES!
Brian J. Mezger, Director of Technology, leads the company's efforts on infrastructure, development and innovation. Previously, he was Director of Interactive Services at Airborne Media, a multi-platform media company, and Director of Interactive Product Development for Freedom Communications, Inc. His extensive experience comes from leading teams in the development and successful executions of enterprise-level interactive products and solutions ranging from complex content delivery systems, ad operations and systems, web analytics, search and large-scale SEO, user-submitted content tools, and third-pary solution integration. Brian holds a B.S. in Business Administration from CSUF, born and raised in Southern California, and couldn't imagine not living close to the ocean. "The Surfline team and partners are by far the most dedicated, and passionate group I've ever worked with - true 24/7."
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Jeff Berg Jeff Berg is Chairman of the Board of Surfline, Inc. Jeff also is Chairman/CEO of Airborne Media LLC and serves on the Board of Directors of Swell Commerce, Inc, which he co-founded, and Surfrider Foundation. He founded Matador Capital Management in December 1993 and was the company's President and Chief Investment Officer through 2006. Matador managed over $800 million of discretionary assets via hedge funds. Jeff also was Chairman of Accent Health from 1995-2000, a place based media company now owned by Discovery Channel. He pilots an Aero Commander throughout the Caribbean, Central America and Baja in support of the company's quality control programs.
Neil F. Budde joined online news aggregator DailyMe.com as president and chief product officer in April 2008 after three years at Yahoo!, where he was first general manager of Yahoo! News and then vice president and editor in chief of News, Finance and Sports. Previously, he was founding Editor and Publisher of The Wall Street Journal Online, the largest paid news site on the Internet. He also was Vice President and Chief Product Officer for Dow Jones Consumer Electronic Publishing. In 2002, Budde was named one of four finalists for the World Technology Awards in the category of Media and Journalism. In 1998, he was named Business Journalist of the Year by TJFR (a newsletter covering business journalism). Mr. Budde earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism from Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, KY, and an MBA from the University of Louisville in Louisville, KY.
Josh Litwin is one of the Founders and Principals of Memento Press, a retailer of books, calendars and journals that captures customer's photos and texts; their most precious memories. Before Memento, Josh was the Chief Operating Officer for Ofoto, the world's leading online digital photo services company. Prior to Ofoto, Mr. Litwin provided strategy consulting and executive coaching services to a number of online businesses through Protrero Advisors. From 1998 to 2000, Josh was head of operations for Babycenter, the leading baby products superstore on the web. Prior to its acquisition by Etoys in 2001, Babycenter won top industry awards including the 2000 Webby Commerce award, unseating Amazon's three-year run. BabyCenter remains the leading company in its category, now owned by Johnson and Johnson. Josh holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and graduated cum laude with a degree in electrical engineering and computer science from Princeton University. Josh is a sailor and a surfer.
Philip N. Kaplan is currently Director of Strategy for Internap, a leading Internet content delivery company. Before Internap acquired Vitalstream, a company Phil co-founded, he served as President, Chief Operating Officer and a director of VitalStream, Inc. since its inception in March 2000. Mr. Kaplan was also co-founder of AnaServe, Inc. where he held the position of senior vice president, secretary and treasurer from its formation in 1995 until its acquisition by Concentric Network Corporation in August 1998. Mr. Kaplan remained employed by Concentric until April 1999. Mr. Kaplan received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics with a minor in Russian language from the University of California, Davis.
Sean Collins - see bio in the "Corporate Officers" area above.
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