Steven is Chief Executive Officer of Eurekster, the leader in community driven search technologies. He is one of the three co-founders of Gramercy Venture Advisors and is currently a non-executive director. Steven is an experienced corporate executive, venture catalyst, strategic advisor and New York and California attorney with over 17 years of professional experience in financial, operation and corporate management with Fortune 500 companies as well as multi-national start-ups. With his diverse background in private equity, management, operations, marketing, finance, licensing, information technology, business incubation, restructures/ restarts and international transactions, Steven provides corporate finance advisory, mergers and acquisitions advisory, and corporate development services to early to mid-stage clients primarily serving the media/entertainment, communications and information technology market segments. Prior to Gramercy Venture Advisors, Steven served as Chairman and CEO of eMemberDirect, Inc. (formerly PetPlanet.com), which he founded, secured venture capital for and eventually took public in 1999. Prior, Steven was a Principal of global venture catalyst, Double Impact, with which he merged his management consulting practice. At Double Impact, Steven advised emerging growth Internet publishing and technology companies on strategic relationships, mergers and acquisitions and business development. On behalf of New Zealand based client, Globalbrain.net, Steven sourced, structured and negotiated the exclusive multi-million dollar licensing and investment transaction with CNET and NBC joint venture entity (Snap.com). While also serving on the Globalbrain Board of Directors, Steven negotiated its subsequent high-profile sale to NBCi for US$32,000,000. A former intellectual property and media/ entertainment attorney, Steven previously ran business/ corporate development and licensing at Compton's NewMedia, a $125+ Million new media unit of the Tribune Company, and worked in the recording industry, where he co-founded an independent recording company, NYC-based Metropolis Records and then handled business development and affairs (including acquisitions) at the Special Markets division of EMI Music and CEMA Distribution. As both an operating executive and advisor, Steven has facilitated, negotiated and helped drive the commercialization of hundreds of consumer and business products. Steven is currently serving on various Advisory Boards and Boards of Directors. He is licensed to practice law in the States of New York and California and is a graduate of Columbia College/ Columbia University and St. John's School of Law. |