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.
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.
Lawrence H. Meier is a director in the law firm Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC, where he chairs the Intellectual Property Practice Group.
Meier is a registered patent attorney with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and represents a wide range of clients, from start-ups to Fortune 100 companies, in connection with copyright, patent, trademark and trade secret matters. He handles a wide range of intellectual property (IP) transactions, has more than 20 years of patent prosecution experience in the electrical, computer and mechanical arts, and assists clients with all aspects of trademark clearance and protection. He also represents clients in IP litigation in state and federal courts, in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in arbitration and mediation proceedings.
Before joining DRM, Meier was a Senior Intellectual Property Attorney with the IBM Corporation.
Larry Meier holds a bachelor's degree from Miami University, and earned his law degree from Vermont Law School, where he now teaches as an adjunct professor.
John Abele is the Founder Chairman of Boston Scientific Corporation, a 19,000 employee, $8 billion world wide company that is a pioneer and leader in the field of "Less Invasive Medicine."
Abele holds numerous patents and has published and lectured extensively on the technology of various medical devices and on the technical, social, economic, and political trends and issues affecting healthcare.
His major interests are science literacy for children, education, and the process by which new technology is invented, developed, and introduced to society. Current activities include chair of the FIRST Foundation which works with high school kids to make being science-literate cool and fun and development of The Kingbridge Centre and Institute, a conferencing institution whose mission is to research, develop, and teach improved methods for interactive conferencing: problem solving, conflict resolution, strategic planning and new methods for learning.
John Abele is a graduate of Amherst College.
Andrew Kessler is a former hedge fund manager who now writes on investment trends in technology and communications.
His first book, "Wall Street Meat: Jack Grubman, Frank Quattrone, Mary Meeker, Henry Blodget and me" was published in March of 2003. His next book, "Running Money: Hedge Fund Honchos, Monster Markets and My Hunt for the Big Score" was published by HarperCollins oin September 14th of 2004. "Running Money" was added to the New York Times Business Bestseller list on November 7, 2004.
Andy is a frequent contributor to the Wall Street Journal op-ed page and has written for Wired, Forbes Magazine, The Weekly Standard, LA Times, The American Spectator magazine and techcentralstation.com and thestreet.com websites.
Andy Kessler was co-founder and President of Velocity Capital Management, an investment firm based in Palo Alto, California, that provided funding for private and public technology and communications companies. Private investments included Real Networks, Inktomi, Alteon WebSystems, Centillium and Silicon Image.
In the early '80's, Andy spent 5 years at AT&T Bell Labs as a chip designer, programmer, and spender of millions in regulated last minute, use it or lose it budget funds. In 1985, he joined PaineWebber in New York, where he did research on the electronics and semiconductor industry.
In 1989, Andy joined Morgan Stanley as their semiconductor analyst, and following in the footsteps of Ben Rosen, he added the role of technology strategist and helped identify long-term, secular trends in technology. In 1993, he moved to San Francisco to join Unterberg Harris, where he ran a private interactive media venture fund, with investments that included N2K, Exodus and Tut Systems.
Andy Kessler received a BS in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University and an MSEE from the University of Illinois.
Sanford I. Weill is Chairman Emeritus of Citigroup Inc., the diversified global financial services company formed in 1998 through the merger of Citicorp and Travelers Group. Weill retired as CEO of Citigroup on October 1, 2003, and served as Chairman until April 18, 2006.
Weill, who had been Chairman and CEO of Travelers, became Chairman of its predecessor, Commercial Credit Company, in 1986, successfully leading the company through a public stock offering by its then-parent, Control Data Corporation. Commercial Credit acquired Primerica Corporation in 1988 and adopted its name until 1993, when Primerica acquired The Travelers Corporation and adopted the Travelers Group name. In 1997, the company acquired Salomon Inc. and combined it with its Smith Barney unit to form the global securities and investment firm, Salomon Smith Barney.
Prior to 1986, Mr. Weill had been President of American Express Company and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of its Fireman's Fund Insurance Company subsidiary.
His affiliation with American Express began in 1981 when the company acquired Shearson Loeb Rhoades. Shearson's origins date back to 1960 when Mr. Weill and three partners co-founded its predecessor, Carter, Berlind, Potoma & Weill. He served as the firm's Chairman from 1965 to 1984, a period in which it completed over 15 acquisitions to become the country's second largest securities brokerage firm. In 1993, when Travelers Group acquired Shearson Lehman Brothers' retail brokerage and asset management businesses, he was reunited with the firm he founded.
Sandy Weill is a graduate of Cornell University.
Jessica Bibliowicz is president and CEO of National Financial Partners, a New York City-based independent financial services distribution system. She signed on as CEO when the company was formed with $125 million of capital from Apollo Management LP, a leveraged buyout firm.
Jessica is a graduate of Cornell University and the daughter of Sanford I. Weill, chairman and CEO of Citigroup. She lives with her husband and two children in Metro NY.
Michael Brown founded Brown & Michaels in 1980 with Ralph R. Barnard (now retired)as "Barnard and Brown". Brown was admitted to the New York State Bar in 1981, and is also admitted to practice in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York. He has prosecuted many patent applications in a wide variety of fields, from animal vaccines to computer software, avionics and automotive products, household appliances to radio communications.
Michael F. Brown received a degree in Industrial Engineering from Cornell University's College of Engineering. He also holds a law degree from Cornell University.