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Urban Planet Mobile is solid executive leadership and creative teams of talent creating short form, original audio content for the burgeoning mobile market.

 

Brian A. OliverSmith, President & CEO

Brian applies his 18+ years sales and marketing expertise working for Fortune 500 companies and his entrepreneurial business development background to the leading of Urban Planet Mobile. Brian's background as an executive with a technology start-up along with his tenure consulting with entrepreneurs, guiding them in growing businesses and expanding opportunities, as well as having started and built a niche audio publishing company. Brian was the first to take short audio stories to iTunes and sell them as individual tracks. This background gives him the unique skill set required to both oversee the creative development of the products and the business development of building strong relationships with partners for marketing and distribution. He is recognized as an expert in spoken word audio production and a leader in innovative delivery and distribution.

M. Catherine OliverSmith, JD, Executive Vice President

Catherine oversees building content, developing new lines for expanded markets and creating marketing and PR tailored to each market segment. Her 16+ years leadership in marketing communication and publishing provide her with a unique background of productizing content in both audio and print, overseeing projects from concept to market, along with developing all marketing communication, including print and web are directly applicable to her role with Urban Planet Mobile.

Quran Karriem, MFA, Creative Director

An avid musician, designer and programmer, Quran is a digital media specialist that oversees the development of the products lines in audio and flash, managing a team of engineers, designers, and voice talent. In addition, he creates original music for our product lines.  He holds a bachelor’s degree in music composition and master's degrees in sound design and interactive design.

Lee Huggins, Operational Consultant

Lee Huggins' 20+ years leadership success in entrepreneurial, data-intensive environments aids Urban Planet Mobile in creating structure for working in the complex global mobile marketplace. Directly relating to his work with Urban Planet Mobile is his experience as Senior Vice President and General Manager of VeriSign’s Commerce Divisionwhere his responsibilities included P&L, Operations and Product Development for six business units with 300+ employees and offices in North and South America.  He developed and implemented Technology and Strategy organizations in eCommerce, mCommerce, Telephony, Billing, Payments, Networks Applications, and Operational and Business Support Systems.

Jim Dodrill, JD Legal Counsel

With over 15 years experience in securities and business law, Jim's firm was listed as the 8th most active firm in the U.S. representing investors in private investments in public entities (2008). Having started his career with Latham & Watkins in NY, he left to start his own golf equipment, apparel, and accessories design and marketing company, guiding the business from inception through IPO in 3 1/2 years. In 2000, he started James G. Dodrill, P.A., exclusively focusing on providing corporate and securities legal advice to a global client base of select companies. Jim is a graduate of Brown University and The University of Miami School of Law, magna cum laude.

Triton Value Partners, Management Advisory Group

Triton offers full-service managerial consulting to provide mission critical experience, services, and resources to design, execute and accelerate partner companies' growth and to optimize value creation.

Paul H. Freischlag, Jr., Managing Partner Triton Value Partners

With his experience as a global executive working in South America and the Far East financial markets to build strategic operations and develop winning strategies for large public corporations, private equity and start-up ventures, Paul's considerable skills are being applied to Urban Planet Mobile's international development and expansion to vault the company forward to achieve exponential growth in corporate value creation. Paul has consummated in excess of $20B in debt and equity financing in his career that includes working with Royal Ahold, Household International, KKR (The Stop & Shop Companies), Provantage Health Services, and Price Waterhouse.

Donald B. Gasgarth, Managing Partner Triton Value Partners

With a successful background in venture capital, investment banking, and brokerage business, Don applies his 20+ years experience in funding of start-up companies in the telecommunications space to the further development of the Urban Planet Mobile. His focus is on leveraging strategic partnerships and relationships to create a multiplier effect on corporate value quickly. His experience includes founding board member Ptek Holdings (PTEK), early stage investor in VerticalOne(SONE), Relevant Knowledge (JUPM) and working as a broker for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Dickinson and Co.

Jeffrey K. Zwitter, Managing Partner Triton Value Partners

Applying his 20+ years of Senior Management and Partner level experience in Investment Banking, Venture Capital and Business Development to expanding Urban Planet Mobile's opportunities by actively indentifying and structuring deals to fund growth, while using his significant Telecom and Digital start-up and early stage background along with his Sales and Marketing experience to suggest expanded and alternative revenue generation. In additional to his executive level sales experience with epipeline, inc., Jeff also was a Sr. VP of Investments with J.W. Charles Securities, J.W. genesis Financial Corp, and D. Bleck and Co. 

 Brody Bryant, CALA Region Business Development

Brody's 16 years telecommunications experience has focused on business creation and development in the CALA region. Having led teams throughout Latin America with BellSouth, VeriSign, and Nextgen Clearing, he has establish powerful relationships with the carriers and distributors. His extensive experience and connections in the region allow Urban Planet Mobile to immediately engage in high level discussions and develop partnership relationships with the top mobile companies in South and Central America.

Liz England, PhD., TOEFL Product Development Consultant

A PhD in Second Language Acquisition and Teacher Education, an elected member of the TESOL (International) Board of Directors (2004-2007),  and as an Academic Specialist for the English Language Programs Office, US Department of State, Liz England has worked with hundreds of teachers in different countries. Liz brings to bear her vast expererience internationally as a English Second Language educator to provide curriculum and product development guidance, as well as introductions to strategic partners in the State Department and abroad.

Yoichi Horikoshi, MFA, Product Developer

With experience teaching English in his home country of Japan, Yoichi not only is an expert audio designer, he also has DJed in LA, NY, Miami and Tokyo,lending his musical talents to the creation of the urban SAT Remix, TOEFL Vocabulary, and other lines. With music being proven to assist with learning and retention, his expertise adds significant value in developing Urban Planet Mobile's varied educational products.

Sarah Kovensky, MEd, Writer, SAT, TOEFL, GRE Consultant

Sarah received a BA and MA from Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, MD. She has taught for all age groups from pre-school through senior citizen, including as the Writing Center coordinator at The Citadel in Charleston, SC, an ESL instructor in Baltimore, MD and Savannah, GA, and a Princeton Review SAT instructor.

Anita Dualeh, MAT, English Learning Curriculum Consultant

Having taught overseas throughout Asia for more than six years, Anita returned to the United States where she developed English language curriculum for the State of Minnesota. Anita has expertise in training teachers in creating language learning programs, ESL education, and curriculum design.

Blake Boulerice, English Learning Writer Consultant

Blake pursued additional language learning education overseas with a Fulbright Scholarship following finishing his undergraduate degree in linguistics at Harvard. Blake has English language teaching experience, including building curriculum and teaching in the United States and internationally.