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Multi-industry disciplines as
company operators
Affinity is a small group of talented and successful entrepreneurs and senior
executives who get excited about helping small businesses grow. Our
partners have been instrumental in the founding, development and
operation of over 100 companies in a variety of industries including:
- Telecommunications
- Manufacturing
- Entertainment
- Consumer
products
- Construction
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- Aviation
- Internet
- Food
- Retail
- Real estate
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- Sports marketing
- Direct marketing
- Publishing
- Distribution
- Transportation
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Affinity Partners are company operators and can identify
with a business owners issues. As founders or executives of successful
companies, we have worked through most situations small companies
encounter.
Managing Directors
Paul Butcher
Managing Director
Mr. Butcher recently joined Affinity Partners and
is working with early stage media and technology companies. He spent the
past 12 years with the world's largest sports marketing firm
International Management Group (IMG). At IMG he lead several of their Internet
initiatives and was active in business development. He was instrumental
in the growth of several new businesses including the David Leadbetter
Golf Academy and Stewart Racing and more recently Mysportsguru.com. He
also managed several high profile professional sports clients providing
financial and wealth management as well as sponsorship and contract
negotiations.
Mr. Butcher was qualified as a Chartered Accountant
with Arthur Andersen in London and has a degree in Economics and Finance
from Southampton University, England.
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Ian Davison
Managing Director
Mr. Davison joined Affinity to lead the firm's
technology advisory practice. He is a seasoned high-technology
entrepreneur responsible for several successful startups. He founded
Xedia, which designs, manufactures and distributes a high-performance
network switch product focused on bandwidth-intensive applications for
the computer internetworking market. Xedia was recently sold to Lucent
for $250+ million. Prior to Xedia, Davison founded Octocom, which became
a world leader in remote network access and communications management
technology, merged with Telebit, and was ultimately sold to Cisco Systems
for $200 million. Mr. Davison has a First Class Honors Degree in
Electronics Engineering from the University of Nottingham, England.
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Carlos Gendron
Senior Associate
Twenty+ years experience as an entrepreneur, sales
and business development executive, on management team of several
successful start-ups. Experienced in consumer products, marketing and advertising,
Internet & Interactive technologies, partnerships and business
development...Prior to Affinity Partners, Carlos was Senior Manager of
Business Development at LeadMasters, a professional services company in
Stamford, CT. LeadMasters that develops new business opportunities for
its B2B clients in the Insurance, Technology and Business Services &
Consulting sectors. Carlos was also Senior Sales Manager for advertising
and sponsorship for M-Business Magazine for the Northeast, Eastern Canada
and Europe (M-Business is a high technology business magazine focused on
the mobile and wireless economy, and is published by CMP Media), Vice
President of Sales of Greenfield Healthy Foods, a food start-up (sold in
1994 to Campbell Soup Company), and President/owner of Carlos Gendron
& Associates, LLC, a business consultancy specializing in the
importation, sales and distribution of consumer goods...Carlos is a
graduate of New York's City College School of Architecture's Masters
Program, with an Associate's degree in Engineering.
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Brian M. Gilhuly
Managing Director
Mr. Gilhuly is a founder of Affinity and leads the
firm's finance and investment banking areas. He has led many successful
financings, acquisitions and divestitures for Affinity clients. A
financial background coupled with operational experience from
entrepreneurial ventures provides valuable insight to Affinity’s clients.
Previously, he founded Fairfield Development Associates, an investment
company facilitating real estate development and new venture funding. Mr.
Gilhuly is also a founder of Uproar Home, a home furnishings and design
company with retail and wholesale manufacturing operations. Formerly, Mr.
Gilhuly practiced as a Certified Public Accountant with both public and
private practice experience. His private experience focused on working
with closely held businesses consulting on a variety of issues including
strategic business forecasting, financing and equity placement, new
business development, tax planning, and operations management. He began
his career in the public practice of Coopers and Lybrand.
Mr. Gilhuly is an honors graduate of Providence
College (B.S.) with a major in Accounting and a minor in History of
Western Civilization.
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John T. Ragland Jr.
Managing Director
Mr. Ragland is a founder of Affinity Partners and
is focused on early stage company financing and business development. He
is the founder of mysportsguru.com, the leading online sports instruction
web site. He raised $15 million in capital for the venture and the Forbes
Best of the Web Company was recently merged into myteam.com. Prior to
mysportsguru, Mr. Ragland was Executive Vice President, Greenfield
Healthy Foods, a Division of Campbell Soup. Mr. Ragland was a Co-founder
of Greenfield and was responsible for the general management activities
since the Company's inception in 1992. In 1994, The Campbell Soup Company
acquired Greenfield under a $50 million dollar contract. Prior to
Greenfield, Mr. Ragland was Vice President of Communications Corporation
of America (CCA) responsible for all sales and marketing. CCA was a
start-up Company that contracted with one of the largest
telecommunications companies to market their new telephone calling card
through the industry's first affinity revenue sharing program. MCI
Communications acquired CCA in 1990. Prior to CCA, Mr. Ragland was EVP
for Sports Video Network, one of the largest point of sales interactive
video networks ever installed at the time. The Company was sold to
Herman's World of Sports. From 1985 to 1988, Mr. Ragland worked for ABC
Sports and Trans World International, coordinating remote television
facility operations for major sporting events.
Mr. Ragland holds a BS degree in Business
Administration and Finance from Pepperdine University.
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Advisors
Bradford C. Brown
Bradford C. Brown is the Chairman of the National
Center for Technology and Law at the George Mason University School of
Law in Arlington, Virginia. The "Tech Center is a national research
center and think tank that examines cutting edge issues relating to the
information-based economy. Brad is a member of the Editorial Advisory
Board of Informationweek magazine and writes a monthly column with David
Post called "On the Horizon." In 2001 he served as a corporate
strategy consultant to Friedman Billings Ramsey, a financial holding
company offering investment banking, venture capital, and institutional brokerage
services based in the Washington area. During the 2000 Presidential
campaign, Brad served on George W. Bush's Information Technology National
Steering Committee. Previously, Brad was the Executive Vice President of
Technology Affairs and Deputy Managing Director of Shandwick in
Washington, D.C. part of the $4 billion Interpublic Group in New York
City. Prior to joining Shandwick, he started Western Strategies, a
division of Nelson Communications Group (NCG), and managed offices in
Washington and Sacramento. He also chaired the company's Technology
Practice Group and served on the NCG Executive Committee. During the
first Bush Administration, Brad served as the former President's Chief
Counsel for Technology at the U.S. Department of Commerce and as the
primary legal counsel for the 3,600-person Technology Administration,
which includes the National Institute of Standards and Technology. He has
written a number of articles for publications including The Washington
Post, the Austin American Statesman, the Washington Business Journal, the
San Diego Business Journal, and the Pepperdine Law Review. He is widely
quoted on issues relating to technology policy. Brad has also co-authored
a desk book for the Attorney Desk Library series published nationally by
Clark Boardman Callaghan. He recently joined the Board of Advisors of The
Metrics Group, LLC, a start-up that automates the analysis of U.S. patent
citations to assess a company's technology position.
A graduate of Providence College with a Bachelor of
Arts, Brad also holds a Masters Degree from Harvard University and a
Juris Doctor from The Catholic University of America.
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Stephen Diorio
Stephen Diorio (Westport, CT) helps leading
organizations find ways to use technology to grow.
He is an established authority in sales and
marketing strategy with over 15 years of experience helping top
organizations develop high growth strategies.
He has helped over 100 of the world's leading
marketers and their agencies to develop growth strategies that take
advantage of technology, including; IBM, American Express, Gillette, GE
and the Interpublic agencies.
He is the author of Beyond e: The 12 Ways
Technology Will Transform Sales & Marketing Strategy (McGraw-Hill)
which provides a blueprint for using technology to grow and was selected
as one of the top business books of 2002 by Business Book Review.
He is the founder of IMT Strategies - a research
and consulting firm that helped marketing leaders use technology to grow
their businesses and produced leading edge best practices research.
Mr. Diorio has held marketing management positions
at Citicorp Direct Marketing and GE Sales and Marketing and was a
principle with Oxford Associates (Now Market Bridge Consulting)
He had has published a number of research studies
on CRM, permission marketing, e-business and interactive direct marketing
strategies and is widely quoted in the media including Business Week, CBS
Radio, and Sales & Marketing Magazine.
Mr. Diorio has performed extensive speaking and
training on technology-enabled selling strategies for leading
associations and organizations including; 3M, GE, American Express,
Yahoo!, The Direct Marketing Association, DCI, the Syracuse University
Graduate School Of Sales & Marketing.
He holds an MBA in Marketing from the University of
Chicago and a B.S. in Engineering from Bucknell University.
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Dave Gwozdz
As a founding member of DoubleClick, in January of 1996,
Dave helped launch what has become one of the Internet's biggest
corporate success stories. From a basement in Atlanta, he help to build
the original sales organization for what is now a $1.7 Billion, NYC
based, Internet advertising solutions corporation with offices in 16
Countries.
In the race to capture share of the growing online
advertising market, Dave worked with the founding partners and devised
and implemented DoubleClick's original media sales products and
strategies. On both U.S coasts he built, trained and managed multiple
industry leading sales teams in all areas of online advertising,
sponsorships, promotions and e-mail. Holding the positions of Advertising
Sales Director, Regional Vice President, and National Sales Director. He
also evaluated technology companies and web-based media companies helping
to identify potential strategic alliances and business development
partnerships.
During his 5 and a half years building
DoubleClick's media group, Dave initiated and managed high level relationships
with virtually all of the country's top marketers and their Advertising
Agencies including IBM, Disney, Intel, The GAP, Microsoft, COKE, DELL,
American Airlines, etc… Along the way, he helped advise hundreds of
fledgling Internet startups on sales and marketing strategies.
He has represented DoubleClick as speaker and
panelist at numerous Internet events, conferences, and trade shows. And
has appeared on CNNfn, CNET, and The Wall Street Journal.
In total Dave has spent 15 years in the media business,
holding various sales and sales management positions with CMP Media,
McGraw-Hill and Ziff Davis.He also Founded and sold Hot Link Media, one
of the first online advertising companies in existence. He is currently a
partner at Seacliff Ventures, a Connecticut based strategic consulting
and investment company helping Internet startups which he founded in
2001.
Dave holds a BA in Business Management from
Providence College.
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Robert H. Hallam
Bob Hallam’s broad experience in research,
communications, marketing and management reflects the skills and scope of
his business career. Mr. Hallam has managed a research division of a
Fortune 500 Company, created his own research company, was one of the
senior partners of the largest marketing consultancy firm in the US. and
has managed a region of the world s largest image management firm.
Consultancy projects supervised by Mr. Hallam have
included work with AT&T, American Can, Corning Class Works, Citicorp,
Gillette, Gulf Western, Eastern Airlines, Haines, IBM, Lever, 3M, and Sun
Oil among others.
Mr Hallam began his career with Scott Paper
Company, progressing from its quality control training program through
various marketing positions leading to the Director of Marketing
Research. He subsequently started his own marketing research firm, merged
it two years later and became President of the merged company. Moving on
to Marketing Corporation of America, he held various positions over the
fourteen years as partner, leaving MCA in 1986 as Vice Chairman.
Mr. Hallam went on to become Managing Director at
Landor Associates, running the East Coast operation of the worlds largest
strategic design and image management firm.
Mr. Hallam has been recognized as one of the more
pragmatic marketing consultants, combining analytical and conceptual
skills with how to skills. Strategic Planning, Marketing Planning,
Distribution Strategies, Market Research, and Image Management are
focused areas of Mr. Hallam’s career.
Mr Hallam served on the Executive Committee of The
Wharton School and was on the Advisory Committee to the Chairman of the
Marketing Department. A graduate of Wharton’s Undergraduate and Graduate
schools, Mr. Hallam has also attended the Survey Research Institute at
the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
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