Leadership

Jerry Ropelato founded TechMediaNetwork (originally TopTenREVIEWS, Inc.) in 2003 and serves as Chief Executive Officer. Jerry's extensive 28 years in technology and management, combined with his entrepreneurial experience, has helped him start two successful businesses and bring to market dozens of software products - totaling more than 30 million software installations. Mr. Ropelato has gained a reputation for his contributions to Internet marketing and ability to lead websites to top traffic rankings.

Prior to TechMediaNetwork Mr. Ropelato served as Chief Operating Officer of ContentWatch, and Chief Technology Officer of iAccess. In 1993, he founded Vitrex, Inc., an IT outsourcing company. Vitrex grew to 200 employees and received an Inc. Magazine #57 growth rating in 1998. Jerry has held positions with notable Iomega Corporation as manager of their software development team and various consulting positions that span a 12-year period in his early career.

Mr. Ropelato is an accomplished public speaker, recognized Internet Safety expert and author of two technology/marketing books "iSeries Visual Age for Java" and the soon to be released, "Internet Catapults". He is an active member of many corporate and university boards of directors. Mr. Ropelato received his Bachelor of Science degree in accounting and data processing from Weber State University.

Stan Bassett is President of TechMediaNetwork. With his strategic marketing and sales experience in the retail channel, Stan drives TechMediaNetwork' review strategy.

Before TechMediaNetwork, Stan was Executive Vice President of MarketStar, an Omnicom company, where he was responsible for the strategic management and business development of retail clients such as Sony, LG, Canon, Motorola, Office Depot and Whirlpool. He developed innovative field marketing campaigns to deliver predictable, measurable results, including account satisfaction, retention, profitability and loyalty.

Stan received a Bachelor of Science degree from Brigham Young University in financial planning. He has completed Omnicom's Senior Management Program and is a two-time Omnicom Catalyst Award Winner in Marketing and Sales Integration.

Randy is the CFO responsible for all financial oversight for the company. Prior to TechMediaNetwork, Randy served as CFO of NextG Networks, a leading provider of innovative wireless infrastructure solutions to carriers and played a vital role in the acquisition of the company by a private equity/venture capital syndicate. Prior to that Randy served as CFO at InterVideo, Inc., a DVD software provider. He guided InterVideo through their initial public offering. InterVideo was later acquired by Corel Corporation. Prior to InterVideo, Randy served as Vice-President of Finance at Optibase Ltd., a provider of digital media transmission devices. Prior to Optibase, Randy served as CFO of ViewGraphics, (which was later acquired by Optibase), CFO and cofounder of Decide.com, a consumer web site for wireless and other telecommunications products and services, and CFO of Castelle, a networking peripherals company that he assisted in taking public. In addition, Randy held various financial management positions at Daisy Systems Inc. and Iomega Corporation. He has also served as President of the Silicon Valley Chapter of Financial Executives International (FEI) with its 676 chapter members, a professional organization for senior corporate financial executives. He has been a Lecturer in Finance at the Leavy School of Business at Santa Clara University.

Randy earned a B.S. in business management from Brigham Young University, another B.S. in accounting from Weber State University, an M.B.A. from Utah State University, and a Doctor of Management from Case Western Reserve University and a Post-Doctoral Bridge from the University of Florida in Finance and Accounting.

Mark Westlake is the Chief Revenue Officer responsible for all revenue for the company. Prior to TechMediaNetwork, Mark has served as a member of the executive management team for a number of well know web properties: Executive Vice President of Sales and Content of HowStuffWorks, a division of Discovery Communications and as the Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing of About.com, a top 10 Web site owned by The New York Times Company. In each of these positions, Mark helped build very successful web businesses and assisted in the sale of each company - Howstuffworks to Discovery for $250 million and About to The New York Times for $410 million.

Prior to About.com, he served as the Chief Revenue Officer of Streetmail.com and held other sales management positions at Juno ... (United Online) and Cox Interactive Sales, a division of Cox Enterprises. At Cox Interactive, Mr. Westlake helped launch AutoTrader.com, CIMedia, Gamesville (part of the Lycos Network), ETOnline, The Sportingnews.com and Tribune Interactive. In addition to his online experience, Mr. Westlake held sales positions within traditional media companies such as Hearst, Family Media and Times Mirror, as well as agency experience at Geer DuBois and Margeotes Fertitta & Weiss.

Mark is actively engaged in the online industry. He is a member of the advisory board for the Seller Summits run by Upstream Group and a founding member, former board of director and finance committee member for 212, an interactive advertising association serving the metro New York interactive ad community. Additionally, Mr. Westlake sits on the advisory board for the USA Triathlon Association.

Rob has been producing internet content since the mid-1990s. He was a writer, editor and Director of Site Operations at SPACE.com starting in 1999. He served as Managing Editor of LiveScience since its launch in 2004. He now oversees news operations for the TechMediaNetwork's growing suite of technology, science and business news sites. Prior to joining the company, Rob was an editor at The Star-Ledger in New Jersey. He has a journalism degree from Humboldt State University in California.

Prior to joining TechMediaNetwork, he served as the SVP of Operations at TheStreet, a leading online financial news publisher. Kurt was responsible for product strategy and traffic growth across TheStreets' network of sites. Kurt has held positions in internet companies such as iVillage, Juno Online Services, FortuneCity/MyPhotoAlbum as well as early eProduct work at Fodor's Travel Publications, a division of Random House Publishing.

Kurt has a BS in Accounting from Wilkes College with minors in Computer Science and Economics. Kurt also earned an MBA with a concentration in Information Systems from Long Island University.

In his spare time, Kurt either heads into the outdoors with camera in hand or relaxes with a guitar in his hands.

Gerald brings 25 years of IT and business management experience to Tech Media Network's IT and IS departments. He also leads the expanding Partner Program for the company. Prior leadership positions include the direction of software development at ADP, Iomega, Ceridian and Health Benefits America. He was also VP Consulting at Vitrex Inc., where he directed over 150 IT consultants. Gerald has designed, developed and implemented numerous CRM, ERP, MRP, HR, finance, accounting and eCommerce software systems.

Gerald is also a well-regarded teacher and serves as the Chairman of the Employer Advisory Team at the Ogden-Weber Applied Technology College (OWATC), where he advises on curriculum development, and mentors aspiring technology students. He's also an engaging and charismatic keynote speaker, able to make complex subjects engaging and accessible, geared to educate and inspire any audience.

DeLonie Call joined TechMediaNetwork as Vice President of Human Resources with 20 years experience in management and executive-level human resources positions.

She has extensive HR leadership experience in technology companies including Vice President of Human Resources for ClearOne Communications, where she received recognition for her contribution to attracting and retaining talent.

She also held positions of Director of Human Resources at Iomega Corp. and Vitrex, as Vice President Human Resources. She served as a member of the Dean's Advisory Council for the Goddard School of Business at Weber State University.

Ms. Call graduated from Weber State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in business management and economics.

Edward D. Brown, publisher and president of Bedford Communications, has over 30 years of experience in the publishing industry. He began his career at book publisher Simon & Schuster, and has experience in publishing hardcover and paperback books as well as guides and magazines. Mr. Brown has published and packaged hardcover main selections for specialty book clubs including Field & Stream, Popular Science, Better Homes and Gardens and Columbia House.

For the last 25 years he has been a pioneer in the publication of several well-respected titles. His current titles cover a wide range of tech topics concerning mobile computing, communications, and entertainment.Mr. Brown is a graduate of Carnegie-Mellon University.

Responsible for the overall editorial vision for LAPTOP Magazine & Laptopmag.com, Mark Spoonauer is widely regarded as an expert in mobile and wireless technology. He has been Editor in Chief of LAPTOP since 2003 and has been technology journalist for more than a decade. Mark has spoken at several key mobile tech industry events, including CES and CTIA Wireless, and makes regular media appearances. Prior to joining LAPTOP, Mark was the reviews editor of Mobile Computing & Communications. His work has also appeared in Inc., Wired, and Popular Science, amongst other publications. Mark graduated from Villanova University with a B.A. in English.

Michael Eltzroth is the Vice President of Business Development and co-founder of TechMediaNetwork. Michael's extensive sales and management experience, over 25 years, began in 1981 and includes consulting positions with top manufacturers General Motors, Honda and Acura.

With the explosive growth of the IT Industry, Michael joined Vitrex Corporation in 1995 as a Senior Account Manager where he consistently earned top sales recognition, leading to his promotion in 1998 as Director of Outsourcing and Strategic Partnerships. He was a key contributor to Vitrex, Inc. earning the prestigious Inc. 500 Award in 1998.

Michael has extensive experience working with Fortune 500 companies in the areas of sales, technology, and strategic partnerships. Possessing a combination of technical knowledge and marketing savvy, Michael creates strategic global relationships with his clients that produce results.

Mr. Eltzroth received his Bachelor of Science degree in communications and business management from Purdue University.

Based in New York City, Gary Strauss joined TechMediaNetwork in April 2010 as VP of Sales. Gary leads the display advertising monetization efforts and sales strategy for Tech Media, the 2nd largest publisher of original digital content in the technology and news field. Founded in November 2009, Tech Media produces brands such as TopTenReviews, SPACE.com, LAPTOP, LiveScience, TechNewsDaily and many others.

Gary has had a multi-dimensional advertising sales career, is a 20 year plus veteran of the media industry and has been involved with online media since 1997 when he joined DoubleClick as a Sr. Account Manager. Gary has a proven track record of revenue contributions and is dedicated to achieving outstanding sales results for both "underdog" and market leader companies including start ups. Prior to his current tenure at TechMediaNetwork Gary had been an integral part of several successful digital sales organizations in various leadership positions including Go2Net/Infospace (Director of East Coast Sales), Imaginova (VP Sales) and Director of Online Sales at Rodale Publishing and Sporting News.

Gary likes the NY Knicks, is an ardent NY Ranger fan and enjoys playing golf. He coaches youth basketball and is on the Board of Directors of the Tom Deierlein Foundation.

Lisa is the VP responsible for working closely with site owners and sales management to identify and implement key sponsorship and integrated marketing programs to drive business growth and achievement of revenue objectives.

Lisa has more than 14 years of client and agency experience in digital marketing, brand building and early-stage business planning. She is skilled at advising start-ups and early stage companies on their marketing and product strategies and helping to build the teams and processes to achieve next-stage growth objectives. She was an early team member at a number of startups including About.com and ooVoo, the consumer video conferencing service she helped launch in 2007, building its user base from zero to more than 11 million registered users worldwide in 2010. While a member of the sales/marketing team at Women.com, the first women's content portal, she created and launched the Home Made Simple brand for P&G - a content marketing program which continues as a multi-platform brand 11 years later.

Lisa has a Rhetoric & Communications degree from the University of California, Davis.