Company

Business Plan

Shoom's management team has extensive experience in publishing, advertising, finance, complex Web-site development, unique Internet-based information services, intranet-based electronic delivery systems, and custom interfaces to the wide variety of protocols used throughout the advertising and publishing industries.

Biographies

Administration & Finance

William J. Freschi, Jr. has been chief executive officer of Shoom since its inception and chairman of TransData International (TDI), Shoom's majority shareholder, since its inception in 1995. During his tenure, he helped to create the first land-based wide-area electronic ad-delivery system between advertisers and newspapers and received a U.S. patent on the store-and-forward process essential for aggregating sends and deliveries, which was adopted by The Associated Press. He also helped to develop the first systems for creating ad slicks electronically and distributing them from advertisers to ad agencies. In addition, he wrote the general specifications for the first Internet-based electronic tearsheet system, now widely used as Shoom eTearSheets.

Prior to TDI, Freschi was a director of SpeedFam-IPEC, a Nasdaq firm he helped to start that was later acquired by Novellus Systems. He also was a principal with the Deutsche Bank-Alex Brown investment banking firm. Previously, he founded Transportation Cost Management Systems, a data processing-service provider that processed, audited, and settled transactions between major shippers and carriers. As CEO of that company, he built it to national presence and sold it to Chase Bank for 22 times invested capital. Formerly, Freschi was a management consultant with KPMG-Bearing Point, where he designed and implemented more than forty data processing-based information systems. Prior to KPMG, he designed and implemented management systems, including PERT systems for General Dynamics and A. S. Hansen Consulting Actuaries.

Freschi taught finance in the MBA program at Golden Gate University and was a CPA in the State of California. He holds a bachelor's degree in economics from Georgetown University and a master's degree in business administration from The Anderson School at UCLA.

Dan Cole, president and chief operating officer, has more than 25 years of experience in the design, system analysis, and implementation of information delivery systems. Prior to the formation of Shoom Inc., he was a managing partner of the consulting firm Shoom.net. While there, he created strategies to both integrate client Web sites with their business processes and also ensure that their company's online presence was optimally deployed to achieve business goals. Previously, Cole was senior vice president of research and development at Radio & Records (R&R), publisher of the number-one trade newspaper for the radio and music industries. There, he designed and developed many successful interactive information products, resulting in more than $10 million annually in new revenue. Formerly, as senior vice president of information technology, he managed the management information services (MIS) department as well as teams of software engineers, sales personnel, and customer-service representatives to support new products he developed and ramped. These products included the industry's first online radio airplay and music-tracking system as well as individualized fax and e-mail news and information delivery systems. He also designed R&R's highly successful Web site, which was targeted to industry professionals, and developed a secure automated system that enables record companies to deliver new music to radio stations in broadcast quality and in a highly targeted and flexible manner. Cole has a bachelor's degree in English from Kent State University and a bachelor's degree in computer science from Coleman College.

Michael J. Lynch is executive vice president and general manager. He has 30 years of experience in the newspaper industry, in which he held a variety of senior advertising and marketing positions. Before coming to Shoom, he served as executive vice president of advertising and marketing for Media News Groups California Newspaper Partnerships (Northern Division), which includes the ANG Newspaper Group in the San Francisco Bay Area. Previously, he was corporate vice president of advertising for the Journal Register Company, following a stint as advertising director for the firms New Haven Register. Formerly, he was category advertising director for the Chicago Sun-Times, after serving as retail advertising director for Media News Groups flagship newspaper, the Denver Post. He began his newspaper career at Knight Ridders San Jose Mercury News, where he was regional sales manager, business development director, and national advertising director, respectively.

Doug Campbell, chief financial officer, has more than 25 years of experience in accounting, finance, and administration. In addition to his responsibilities with Shoom, he is president and chief operating officer of Ad Express Canada, Shoom's Canadian affiliate, and chief financial officer of TransData International (TDI), Shoom's majority shareholder. Previously, Campbell was involved in numerous acquisitions, as well as management of high-tech startups and other companies with both high growth and tight cash flow. Formerly, he worked with Price Waterhouse, where he specialized in owner-managed corporations and applied his skills in taxation, cash-flow management, business acquisitions, and expense controls needed by entrepreneurial businesses. Campbell earned his Canadian Chartered Accountant designation while with Arthur Andersen. He holds a bachelor's degree in commerce from Laurentian University and has lectured in accounting at both community colleges and universities.

Production, Product Development & R&D

Jeffrey T. Downes is systems director for the United States. Previously, he was network system administrator for Ad Express. Formerly, at the predecessor of Autologic Information International, he held positions in systems management, product integration, software quality assurance, and customer support. Most of these positions involved publishing prepress and printing operations. Downes has worked extensively with UNIX, Linux, OS/2, Mac, and all Windows operating systems. He holds a bachelor's degree in printing management from the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Sales, Marketing & Customer Service 

Sharon L. Ryoji, vice president of customer service, joined Ad Express in 1994. During the previous twenty years, she and a partner started, owned, and operated a multimillion-dollar worldwide air courier/air freight company. This company catered to motion picture and television studios and their advertising agencies, allowing her to build relationships that have been instrumental in developing Ad Express's business in the entertainment industry. Her experience also extends to most large advertising agencies and their involvement in national automotive and financial-printing accounts. She attended California State University at Northridge, where she studied toward a bachelor's degree in business.

John Kephart, vice president of sales, has more than 30 years of experience in the newspaper industry. He is also president of Newspaper Consultants of North America (NCNA), a newspaper industry-consulting firm serving several major Canadian and U.S. daily newspapers. Previously, he was vice president of strategic marketing for the Landon Media Group, which, in 2002, acquired a newspaper representative firm he co-founded in 1998, Newspaper Partners Incorporated (NPI). He first joined the Shoom team as a consultant in late 1999, while serving as president and chief executive officer of NPI. For the next 18 months, he traveled the U.S. with Shooms management and IT personnel, presenting electronic tearsheets to both the newspaper industry and its advertisers. Together, they succeeded in incorporating industry input into the Shoom solution and setting up the first U.S. newspaper test markets. Prior to NPI, he was senior vice president and western regional manager for Sawyer-Ferguson-Walker Company, a newspaper advertising and consulting firm. He holds a bachelors degree in political science and American history from Ball State University.