Biography

I have over three decades of experience in identifying business opportunities in media and technology and taking companies from early conceptual stage to significant market player.

Most recently I was the CEO of FLX Media, a media entertainment company responsible for the production and global distribution of Eagle FC Mixed Martial Arts programming. Eagle FC was founded by one of the greatest fighters in MMA history, Khabib Nurmagomedov.

I am the founder and Managing Director of DEV (Digital Entertainment Ventures), investing in and helping to develop early stage technology, internet and digital media businesses. I was also the co-founder of seriesOne, a Fintech company that enabled innovative companies to raise money through securitized token offerings as well as traditional equity and debt securities.

Previously I was the Chief Executive and a member of the Board of Directors of MediaNet. The Company was formed in 2001 as MusicNet, with three of the major record companies combining as the majority owner, to respond to the sudden explosion in downloading through unauthorized peer-to-peer services such as the original Napster. The labels recognized that they needed to offer a legitimate path for consumers to acquire music online and it was MusicNet's mission to digitally distribute music as a service provider for major brands.

MediaNet powered music and media delivery in five territories in the US and Europe for many of the best known names in the business such as Microsoft, Google, Virgin, Samsung, Tesco and MTV. In 2009 we introduced MN Open to make delivery of streams, downloads, metadata, media search, contextual matching and recommendations easily accessible through APIs and Web Components to a broader array of app developers and retailers. As a result, the company added over a thousand new affiliates.

Prior to running MediaNet I worked at MTV Networks. I joined the company after selling them the interactive music video channel, The Box, a transaction that provided an excellent outcome for investors. I was at MTV for a year and helped transition The Box into MTV2.

In 1995 I joined the Board of Video Jukebox Network (VJN). Shortly after becoming a Board member, I was appointed CEO and ran the company for over five years. Our audience called VJN, "The Box", so we changed the company's name to The Box Music Network. The Box was a cable music video channel but its unique feature was the ability of the audience to influence the programming by selecting, for a fee, the video that would play next. To complement transactional revenue, we added a national advertising sales revenue stream and grew the distribution to more than 40 million homes. We also successfully launched The Box in several territories in Europe and South America.

The Box was the first company to digitize a huge music video library, deploy the digital files to cable systems throughout the country as needed and manage unique programming, real-time in hundreds of television markets simultaneously. We were an innovator in Rap and Hip-Hop music programming and were credited with introducing many major artists in the nineties.

Throughout my career I have been a presenter and contributor to major news publications. I regularly contributed to Forbes and my commentaries have been featured in Billboard and other print media. I have appeared on CNBC, CNN Business and PBS.