Blaise Zerega

CEO and President

Blaise comes to FORA.tv from Condé Nast Portfolio where he served as deputy editor and led the magazine's technology coverage. Prior to holding that position, Blaise was managing editor and played a critical role in the high-profile launch of both Portfolio.com and the magazine. Both properties have earned their industry's highest honors. Before joining Portfolio, Blaise was the managing editor of WIRED. He was also the editor of Red Herring magazine, once the bible of Silicon Valley, and the news editor at Forbes ASAP. He traces his entrepreneurial itch to his experience at Reference Software, which was bought by WordPerfect in the early 1990s. He makes frequent media appearances and has been on such programs as Today and The View as well as on NPR and CNN -- but he's most proud of his videos on the FORA.tv blog. Blaise graduated from New York University and received his graduate degree in English from the University of Texas at Austin.

Bob Appel

Senior Vice President, Operations

Like so many record executives, Bob's entrée into the music business was driven by the decision to quit performing and jump into the business side of the industry. He went from guitar riffing to principal of the New York City club, The Knitting Factory, to doing A & R for Windham Hill, to Vice President of A & R and Creative Services at Six Degrees Records in San Francisco. Aside from signing acts and producing records, Bob spearheaded the digital music sales efforts at Six Degrees, driving production, content creation, website construction and e-commerce systems, as well as partnerships with digital distributors such as iTunes, Emusic, and Ioda. Bob's passion for global issues, digital media, and classic-rock lyrics, made him a perfect fit as a member of the founding team.

Allan Claghorn

Director, Engineering

Allan built the FORA.tv site: writing each line of code during its initial concept and overseeing everything that goes into the full-blown glory that you enjoy today. He is the man behind the curtain, responsible for back end design and development of FORA.tv . He has nine years experience developing online community and interactive media sites with extensive experience building corporate networks. An avid gamer, Allan also drinks a lot of coffee.

Rob Flynn

Vice President of Sales and Marketing

Rob Flynn joined FORA.tv after eleven years in public media, where he led communications and development efforts at the PBS NEWSHOUR and MacNeil/Lehrer Productions. After raising more than $100 million in production funding and developing relationships with some of America's most influential corporations and foundations, he figured it was time branch out. But his time at the NEWSHOUR gave him a taste for thought provoking, credible and nuanced journalism only FORA.tv could satisfy. His aim is to partner with blue-chip content companies and develop innovative sponsorship opportunities at FORA.tv that attract America's leaders and thinkers, satisfies their curiosity and reaches them like no other media property can. Prior to his tenure at MLP, Rob led marketing efforts in the early days of The Golf Channel and helped America's cable television industry present its game-changing broadband technology. He got his start in the New York City advertising business, serving such clients as General Foods, General Mills and General Electric.

Trevar Mazza

Director, Media Production

Trevar Mazza's aesthetic neurosis led him to a career in media production after obtaining a B.A. in Telecommunications with a focus on media design and production from Indiana University in 2002. After a bit of wondering and a lot of freelance gigs, Trevar reenlisted as a graduate student at San Francisco State University. He quickly dropped out after hooking up with FORA.tv as a founding team member. Today, Trevar oversees the day-to-day management of all things media at FORA.tv. He's a self-described social media addict and a borderline Apple fanboy.

Eric Pfeiffer

Vice President of Content

Eric Pfeiffer arrived at FORA.tv after stints at a number of successful (and not so successful) startups. His latest success was as Editorial Director of AllBusiness.com, a website for small businesses that was sold to Dun & Bradstreet for $55 million in 2007. Before he fell in love with the challenging, crazy startup life, he was a devoted magazine editor and writer. His work has appeared in numerous national magazines including WIRED, MIT Technology Review, CIO Insight, and Business 2.0. As a features editor at Forbes ASAP, Forbes's technology magazine, and at Red Herring, he worked with some of America's great writers and thinkers including Peter Drucker, Gore Vidal, Kurt Vonnegut, and Tom Peters. It's no surprise that he's now addicted to watching the great minds at work on FORA.tv.

Stuart Schulzke

Director, Content Development

Stuart Schulzke narrowly avoided a legal career with a timely turn into new media. He holds two graduate degrees from the University of Oxford, worked on the Congressional Human Rights Caucus and has consulted on efforts to consolidate the rule of law in post-communist states. He has also written some tedious academic articles which have been published in three different languages but probably weren't read in any. He views the FORA.tv mission somewhat religiously and aims to convert the world.

:: CRONAN ::

Designer Emeritus

Michael Cronan is founder and partner with Karin Hibma of :: CRONAN :: design and branding firm in Berkeley, California. Michael has developed the name and visual identities for scores of companies including TiVo, Verio and Atheros, and has successfully developed design strategies and identity programs for clients including Apple, Levi Strauss & Co., Estee Lauder, Electronic Arts, and Williams-Sonoma. He is the former president of the American Institute of Graphic Arts, San Francisco Chapter and a member of the AIGA national board of directors and served as an adjunct professor of graphic design at California College of the Arts from 1982 to 1990. Michael has been recognized for design excellence nationally and internationally. His work is in the permanent design collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Denver Art Museum, London's Victoria and Albert Museum and the Library of Congress.

Don Baer

Board Member

Don Baer is a business executive and communications strategist with experience in new media, television, public policy and journalism. Based in Washington, D.C., he holds senior positions in two WPP firms, as Worldwide Vice Chairman of Burson-Marsteller and Chairman of Penn, Schoen and Berland, advising leading technology and media companies.

Previously, he was a member of the Executive Committee and Senior Executive Vice President, Strategy and Development of Discovery Communications, home of the Discovery Channel; he launched or acquired numerous media businesses and produced award-winning programs. In the 1990s, he served President Clinton as both White House Director of Strategic Planning and Communications and Chief Speechwriter. He was a top editor at U.S. News & World Report, covering national politics and managing news staffs. A former media lawyer, Baer serves on several for-profit and not-for-profit boards, including the PBS Foundation Board of Trustees.

Sean Doherty

Board Member

Sean is the founder of Odyssey Management Capital. He founded Odyssey in 2002 with the goal of acquiring technology and telecom businesses that, at that time, most investors viewed as "out of favor." During 2003-2005, Odyssey completed the acquisition and consolidation of a group of fiber and wireless telecom companies. In 2006, Odyssey sold this wholesale broadband fiber business, Progress Telecom, to Level3 Communications. Sean is best known for his role as founding COO of @Home ' the giant broadband services company. Later, Sean became president of the company's business services division ' @Work.

In 1984 Sean was the founder/CEO of Tradenet, where he developed one of the world's first instant messaging products and built an installed base of trading and brokerage customers that ultimately spanned 20 countries. In 1992 he founded Team Software where he developed the first IM product for private corporate networks and the Internet. Sean was the Chairman of Progress Telecom before its sale to Level3. He is currently the Chairman of Channels.com.

William R. Hearst III

Chairman, Principal Investor

Will is an active investor with a particular interest in the technology and media sector. He joined the venture capital firm of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, as a managing partner in 1995. Today, he continues his work with KPCB as a limited partner, and sits on the boards of Applied Minds and RGB Networks. In addition to his KPCB portfolio boards, he also sits on the boards of the Hearst Corporation, Hearst-Argyle Television, TurnHere and FORA.tv.

Additionally, Will has served on the board of trustees of the Hearst Foundation since 1993. In 2003, he was named President of the Foundation. He is an active trustee on several not-for-profit boards, including the California Academy of Sciences, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, San Francisco Film Society, The Hamlin School, and Grace Cathedral of San Francisco.

Will was editor and publisher of the San Francisco Examiner from 1984 until 1995. He is a 1972 graduate of Harvard University, holding an AB degree in Mathematics.

Charlie Jablonski

Board Member

Charlie currently serves as a venture advisor to Allegis Capital and various media, technology and investment funds. A Silicon Valley veteran, he recently served as Executive Chairman, President and CEO of Myrio (now part of Nokia Siemens Networks), which helps telephone companies deliver digital video to homes, and before that, as Chief Operating Officer of Geocast Network Systems, a pioneering data broadcasting startup.

Previously, Charlie spent 16 years as the Vice President of Engineering and Technology at NBC. His responsibilities included Owned Stations Operations and Engineering, Strategic Technology, Network Distribution, International Operations and the Olympics, for which he was awarded four Emmys. Charlie is a past President and currently a Fellow of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. He chairs the Emmy Awards Committee for Science and Technology.

Milo Medin

Board Member

Milo is Founder, CTO and Chairman of M2Z's Board of Directors. M2Z Networks is a free wireless broadband service. Prior to co-founding M2Z Networks, Milo was co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of @Home Networks which pioneered the deployment of a nationwide cable modem services. As CTO of @Home, Milo designed the broadband service architecture and helped revolutionize broadband access by working with cable carriers and equipment manufacturers to establish the technology standards for the industry.

Previously, Milo was a Project Manager at the NASA Ames Research Center. Renowned as an expert in network and communications technologies, Milo has participated in two National Academy of Sciences panels on telecommunications technology and policy. His expertise is frequently sought by government and State committees. In November 2006, Milo was named to California's Broadband Task Force by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Brian Gruber

Founder

Brian combined his dual passions ' new media and public ideas ' to found FORA.tv in late 2005. As the first head of marketing for C-SPAN, Brian built the network's affiliate sales and marketing organization, which launched C-SPAN II with the largest subscriber base ever for a cable network at the time.

Brian has held senior marketing positions with media companies including Scripps Howard Cable, Heritage Cablevision, Jones Intercable, and Charter Communications, as well as direct marketer Ogilvy & Mather Direct. He was the chief marketing officer for FOXTEL, Australia's leading cable television service, which Rupert Murdoch deemed "the most successful cable TV launch in the world." Through his G/media and Principals.com consultancy firms, he engineered marketing solutions for numerous domestic and international new media clients, including Comcast, TechTV, Australia's Immortal Dimensions, and China Broadband. A resident of San Francisco, California and part-time stage actor, Brian received a Master of Arts for Broadcast Management at Pepperdine University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Arts & Sciences at Queens College, City University of New York. He is the father of two grown daughters, Jennie and Andrea, who are already much, much smarter.

Adobe Ventures

Investor

Driven by an ongoing commitment to encourage innovation, Adobe continues a long history of investing venture capital in promising private companies. The corporation seeks opportunities in which Adobe and innovative entrepreneurs can benefit from a closer relationship. Over the next three to five years, Adobe plans to invest approximately $100 million in companies leveraging Adobe platform technologies, particularly those delivering applications based on Adobe' Integrated Runtime (AIR'). Adobe AIR builds on the ubiquitous reach of Adobe Flash' Player and Adobe Reader' software to create a versatile foundation for capturing and holding audience attention through more active and effective applications and media.