Chuck Seltzer, CEO & Founder
Chuck Seltzer is a 30-year veteran in retail marketing and merchandising. He launched Seltzer Marketing, Co., Inc., a sales and marketing group in 1978, which was based in Manhattan and specialized in toys, candy, stationery and seasonal products for over 25 years. A few of his key clients throughout the years were American Greetings, PEZ Candies, Rose Art Industries, Lisa Frank, Inc., Avery Dennison, Rolodex, Costco and Toys'R'Us. His expertise in the licensing arena was a major draw for new clients from the days of Cabbage Patch Kids to the hottest properties of the day. Chuck was also a member of many manufacturers’ creative advisory boards directing licensed product development.
Chuck founded Transport Entertainment LLC in 2003, which develops, produces and distributes original, as well as, proven hit TV formats from around the world for network and cable television, across a variety of genres, including comedy, drama, game, and reality. Transport also identifies integrated marketing opportunities for leading advertisers and develops television programs where branded products can be organically integrated. Currently, Transport is partnered with Ben Silverman (The Office, Ugly Betty, The Biggest Loser), Vin DiBona (America’s Funniest Home Videos) and Ryan Seacrest (American Idol) on a variety of TV formats. The company is Los Angeles based and represented by Hans Schiff at Creative Artists Agency.
Victor Rubba, Chief Technology Officer
Victor Rubba is a 15-year IT veteran, founding crazedCoders in 2004 to develop custom software solutions based on Microsoft.Net, Lotus Notes technologies, Adobe Flex, Adobe AIR, and Adobe Livecycle Data Services. He also started a division focused on mobile development; in particular, iPhone, Android & BlackBerry applications and games.
He began his career as a network specialist, configuring servers, laying cable and setting up networks supporting NT and Novell. Victor then moved on to IBM Global Services, as an application developer, working in their eBusiness division as a team leader. He spent 3 years at ICS Bermuda, Ltd., as Application Development Division leader and then accepted the position of Senior Business Solutions Developer at XL Capital, responsible primarily for the planning, development and execution of migration of all applications from Lotus / Domino to ASP.NET / SQL server and Winforms / SQL Server. Additional responsibilities included Lotus/Domino support and Lotus Exchange migration. He also immersed himself into the Microsoft world, becoming an official curriculum trainer to the internal staff. Victor Rubba holds a Commerce degree from the University of Alberta.
Board of Advisors
Dan Smith President, Retailwise Consulting
Dan Smith has developed a reputation as the premier IT strategy consultant in the retail industry. His clients are a Who’s Who of multi-channel retail including Target Corp, Saks Fifth Avenue, The Bon Ton, Federated, Brown Shoe and Neiman Marcus. Leveraging extraordinary depth in retail technology strategy, Dan is a highly respected confidant of CEO’s, CIO’s and COO’s across all channels of retail.
Prior to founding Retailwise, Dan served as EVP and CIO of Saks Fifth Avenue Enterprises where he led the complete restructuring of the MIS and MIO functions.
Lee Weinberg Partner Dreier Stein Kahan, LLP
Lee Weinberg is a partner in the firm’s Transactional Department with significant deal-making experience. Lee has advised a wide range of clients in more than $20 billion in domestic and international transactions and financings. His practice area includes mergers and acquisitions, corporate and finance growth with an emphasis on business matters involving technology, media development and distribution.
In 2007, Lee was recognized as a Southern California "Super Lawyer" by Law & Politics and the publishers of Los Angeles Magazine.
Lee is also an accredited private investor and member of the Tech Coast Angels Executive Committee. In addition to practicing law, Lee has extensive entrepreneurial background including founder and CEO of Sales Mountain, a mobile and internet infomediary. He has spoken at numerous panels on Entrepreneurship and M& A, is published in Euromoney and Business Law News and has served as the Moderator of the M&A Roundtable since 2005.
Shelley Nandkeolyar President and CEO, Blair Corp
Shelley Nandkeolyar, recently appointed CEO of Blair Corp upon the acquisition of the company by Orchard Brands, has extensive experience in managing ecommerce operations.
Nandleolyar formerly was president of Home Depot Direct. He initially joined Home Depot as vice president of interactive marketing and e-business, charged with redesigning HomeDepot.com. Prior to joining Home Depot Nandkeolyar was executive vice president and president of Internet/direct commerce at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and responsible for the company’s direct commerce business segment, which included Marthstewart.com and the Martha by Mail catalog.
Nandkeolyar, a 20-year veteran in marketing and merchandising, launched Williams-Sonoma’s online business including WilliamsSonoma.com, PotteryBarn.com and PotteryBarnKids.com. Before joining Williams-Sonoma, he held marketing positions in Asia and Europe as well as North America, including a development stint on the direct-to-consumer business involving catalog and online channels, at Levi Strauss and Co.
Nandkeolyar is a prominent authority on leadership, ecommerce strategy and ecommerce technology adoption. He has recently chaired seminars and been a featured speaker at the annual National Retail Federation (NRF) convention, eTail 2008, and many other industry conferences and conventions.