The Board is comprised of an entrepreneurial group of business leaders from a diverse cross walk of industry and sectors. The board is dedicated to complimenting management by acting first as a sounding board for all major decisions. Furthermore, the Advisory board will assist management from time to time in their endeavors to place high level management, evaluate business plans and lastly to invest and or assist in a capital raise for a portfolio company.
George J. Nemphos is the managing partner of Duane Morris' Baltimore office. Mr. Nemphos practices in the areas of corporate and securities law. He has represented both private and public companies in venture capital and angel financing, mergers and acquisitions, securities law compliance and general corporate matters. Mr. Nemphos' clients have included emerging businesses, high-tech and telecommunications companies, private equity and venture capital funds, manufacturing companies, and companies in the capital markets, life sciences and homeland security industries.
In 2001, Mr. Nemphos was named one of the "40 Under 40" business leaders in Baltimore by the Baltimore Business Journal. Mr. Nemphos is a graduate of the 2006 GBC Leadership program, a program which hand-picks Baltimore area leaders from business, non-profits and the government to become strategists for the future of the region.
Admitted to practice in Maryland, Mr. Nemphos is a 1994 magna cum laude graduate of the University of Baltimore School of Law, where he was a member of the Heusiler Honor Society and a member of the Tax Moot Court team. Mr. Nemphos also holds an LL.M. in Taxation from the Georgetown University Law Center and is a graduate of Boston University.
Andrew Cohen holds a BA degree in Business Administration from Emory University. Like the previous 4 generations of his family, Mr. Cohen chose to enter the retail profession. To date, he has spent his entire professional career within the retail industry. His career began immediately after graduating from college when he entered the Macy’s retail management training program. Mr. Cohen spent two years, at Macy’s, developing his retail skills before returning to Maryland to open his first self-owned and operated specialty retail store. Within 5 years, Mr. Cohen opened 3 separate retail concepts.
Mr. Cohen eventually chose to focus on one of the 3 concepts, Water Water Everywhere. During the next 16 years, he expanded the concept to 23 locations nationwide. In 2006, Mr. Cohen sold his retail chain to a private equity firm. To this day he remains a minority owner, trusted advisor and a member of the Board of Managers. His fellow and former board members include Rick Sarmiento (founder and former CEO of White House/Black Market), James West (former vice president of real estate for Chico’s), Pat Murphy (former chief merchandising officer for Chico’s), and Sally Frame Kasaks (current CEO for Pacific Swimwear, former chairman and CEO for Ann Taylor, former president and CEO for Abercrombie and Fitch, former chairman and CEO for Talbots, Inc.).
During Mr. Cohen’s 20+ years in retail, he has developed and refined his skills in the multitude of components that make up a successful specialty retail chain. Those components include product purchasing, planning and development, financial management, human resources, information technology, marketing, store operations, real estate management, store construction management, lease administration, inventory control, and distribution center management.
Mr. Cohen currently serves as an advisor to many private and non-profit companies. He has also been a member of The Maryland Food Bank board for 9+ years and has held the title of vp for 3 of those years. His most refined skills include leadership, people development, communication, culture development, mission/vision and values formation, growth management, process development, real estate strategy, and execution and exit strategy creation.
Building upon more than 25 years of entrepreneurial, management, and software engineering experience, Mr. Meister currently provides strategic business and technology consulting to his clients. Prior to consulting, he was President and Chief Operating Officer of Sonum Technologies where he provided strategic direction for the commercialization of the company’s promising technology and general management of day-to-day operations. In Mr. Meister’s tenure, he grew Sonum from a small research and development team to a functional, scalable entity with R&D, Engineering Development and Sales and Marketing teams. He also led several rounds of private financing for the company.
Mr. Meister was co-founder and Vice President of Aether Systems, the wireless and mobile data solutions provider. At Aether Systems, Mr. Meister helped grow the company from an entrepreneurial technology consulting firm to a publicly-traded leader in wireless data applications and services, with over $100 million in annual revenue and more than 1,000 employees in global offices. Mr. Meister was in charge of the initial engineering efforts at Aether Systems, and then progressed into strategic business development and operational roles as the company expanded into new markets and services. Involved in the initial IPO for Aether, Mr. Meister was also a leader of merger/transition efforts when integrating newly purchased companies into the Aether family.
Prior to Aether Systems Mr. Meister was VP of Engineering/Operations with Mobile Solutions, a startup in Wireless Data Communication Software. Mr. Meister has also held positions in operations and technology with UPS/Roadnet and the National Security Agency. Mr. Meister holds a M.S. in Computer Science from the Johns Hopkins University and a B.S. in Computer Science from Northeastern University.
Eric M. Levitt is a Baltimore native who graduated from St. Paul's School for Boys and earned a BA from Franklin and Marshall College in 1988. Upon graduation Mr. Levitt started working as a project manager for a mid sized regional homebuilding and land development company. During the years of 1988 - 1995 Mr. Levitt had worked his way up to Vice President of Construction overseeing all facets of home building and land development. In 1995 Mr. Levitt along with a partner founded Regional Homes and built hundreds of homes and developed hundreds of residential building lots in Maryland and Pennsylvania.
Regional Homes was a homebuilding, land development, and commercial real estate investment firm. The assets of Regional Homes were purchased by a national fortune 500 homebuilding company in 2005 prior to the residential real estate downturn. Mr. Levitt's expertise is in land aquisitions and commercial real estate investments. He is now a principle in Regional Investments and several other real estate partnerships.
Kirk Huddles is a Principal at Gemini Partners, Inc; a Los Angeles, CA based full service investment banking firm specializing in small to middle market debt and equity financings (www.geminipartners.net). Prior to Gemini, Mr. Huddles was a Managing Partner for Point Capital Partners, a NJ based merchant banking firm specializing in energy and real estate investments. Mr. Huddles assisted in the structuring and capital raise for several one off partnerships on behalf of Point Capital representing over $30M of equity capital. Mr. Huddles continues to serve as a Principal for Equator Enterprises Inc.; a Baltimore based marketing firm he founded dedicated to raising institutional capital for certain select alternative investments firms primarily from the Taft Hartley, Municipal and Endowment markets. Equator, in its capacity as a marketing agent, has represented global and domestic Hedge Fund of Funds, Private Equity Partnerships, Real Estate Partnerships and Single Strategy Hedge Funds having participated in over $150M worth of successful placements. Mr. Huddles received a BA from the University of Richmond and an MBA from the McDonough Graduate School of Business, Georgetown University.
Mollie has spent 17 years in the media business, presently serving as the president of BDMetrics, Inc., an event-centric media company focused on providing online technology and media solutions for the tradeshow industry. Prior to BDMetrics, Mollie served as the chief executive officer for TidalTV, Inc. As the company's second employee, Mollie was the driving force behind the development of the company's broadband television platform and overall business model. Her efforts led to $15 million in funding as well as partnerships with content providers including CBS, National Geographic, Scripps Networks and more.
Before her role at TidalTV, Mollie served as chief sales and marketing officer of Advertising.com, a subsidiary of AOL. Her many achievements at Advertising.com led to her being named the “Best Marketing Executive” by the American Business Awards and one of the Baltimore Business Journal’s “Top 40 under 40.” Mollie also served on many industry councils including the Interactive Advertising Board of the Direct Marketing Association and the CMO Council of the Interactive Advertising Bureau.
Mollie's extensive experience also includes roles at leading media companies such as Discovery Communications, where she was the director of ad sales marketing; Phase2Media, where she was the vice president of affiliate sales; and Meredith Corporation, where she was the director of sales development of the company’s flagship publication, Better Homes & Gardens. Mollie began her career at Time Inc.’s PEOPLE Weekly, where she spent nearly seven years in marketing and sales development roles. She received a BA from Trinity College, graduating Phi Beta Kappa.