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Management
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Michael Weiss: CEO & President
Michael Weiss is a serial entrepreneur who has been at the forefront of how, when and where people consume media for decades. In the 70s he was college promotion manager at Columbia Records in Miami before becoming one of Chicago’s top club deejays. In the late 70s Weiss opened one of the world’s first videos stores, pioneering home video retailing. In the 80s at J2 Communications, he launched the first direct-response TV campaigns for marketing videos, a tactic that has since become widespread in the industry.
In the 90s, as the founder of WebRadio.com, he was one of the pioneers of streaming media, taking the company from inception to a $441 million valuation in less than a year. Radio Ink Magazine declared: “Michael Weiss of WebRadio, Steve Case and Bob Pitman of AOL, Jerry Yang and Mark Cuban of Yahoo! and Bill Gates of Microsoft are the media barons of tomorrow whose companies will become the new media giants that will control the eyes and ears of the world.”
In the 21st century, he was founder and CEO of the company that created the Morpheus P2P application, one of the fastest consumer adapted technologies and heralded as “The One” by Time Magazine. It amassed over 30 million unique monthly users within the first year and remained the #1 most downloaded software on the Internet for over a year, reaching 200 million downloads.
He has organized and led several industry trade associations, lobbied government leaders and testified before Congress. At PersonalWeb, Weiss also handles Business Development and Technology Licensing.
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Wasef Kassis: Chief Technology Officer
Wasef Kassis is a hi-tech veteran and entrepreneur with a successful track record in software development, product management, and technology strategy. Wasef became CTO of StreamCast Networks after serving as VP of Engineering. Wasef managed the design, development and distribution of the Morpheus P2P file sharing application, which garnered over 200 million downloads worldwide.
He managed all technical departments including web development, software development, quality assurance, graphic design and information technology. Previously, he was CTO at NetCity Broadcast, where he designed and led the development of proprietary software used to stream media for Internet broadcasting.
Previously, as Director of Technology for GEO Interactive Media and WebRadio.com, he managed the quality assurance, development and customer service departments for its proprietary plug-in free streaming media technology, a first for the Internet. In addition, he managed the network infrastructure servicing hundreds of commercial radio stations’ webcasting efforts.
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Charles Thomas: Director of Technology
Charles Thomas earned a Master’s Degree from The University of Texas at Tyler in Mathematics and a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science/Mathematics.
Charles is an excellent bridge between the company and the University due to his prior working relationships with many of UTT’s computer science professors where he served as either an assistant or TA for several years.
He was most recently employed by the City of Tyler in their IT Department.
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Kevin Bermeister: Non-Executive Chairman
Kevin Bermeister is a philanthropist, technologist, real estate entrepreneur, investor and an active author of opinion editorials for the Huffington Post. He is a major benefactor and supporter of numerous charitable organizations and was recently awarded the Yeshiva Center Leadership in Philanthropy Award and has received numerous similar awards in the past.
Bermeister is currently Chairman and CEO of Brilliant Digital Entertainment, Inc., and its subsidiary, Altnet, Inc. Bermeister has developed substantial businesses in the computing, multimedia and Internet industries. In 1982 he established Ozisoft, one of the first interactive multimedia companies and Australia's largest video games distributor. In 1994 he established the $70 million interactive Sega World Sydney theme park operated through a joint venture which included Sega Enterprises Japan, Mitsubishi Corp. and Mitsui Corp. In 1996, Bermeister founded Brilliant Digital Entertainment Inc. and developed various Internet interests including a deal with Joltid Limited to establish Altnet Inc. a company focused on peer to peer network solutions for content providers, consumers, and enterprise. Altnet became a distributor of the Kazaa music service, distributing music via subscription pursuant to agreements with the major record labels and independent labels, and recently entered into a transaction to contribute the Kazaa business to Atrinsic, Inc. Altnet is focused on distributed computing and content management solutions for the digital entertainment markets. One of Altnet’s initiatives is Global File Registry, a content delivery and authorization solution being developed by PersonalWeb that bridges the divide between content owners and ISP’s.
Bermeister sits on the board of various companies and has been a founding investor in several successful startups including Skype. He resides in and is based in Sydney Australia.
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Employees
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Courtney Sheets: Business Development Manager
Courtney’s relentless travels around the world (around 9 countries in the last 5 years) have landed her in Tyler, Texas. She came to Tyler three years ago to start her education at The University of Texas at Tyler and after changing her major four times landed on the ever-changing degree of communications and public relations. She is scheduled to graduate in May of 2013 and is excited about what new opportunities await her. She is currently the Social Media and Public Relations Intern and enjoys the challenges of creating content for StudyPods.
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Clarissa Andrews: Marketing Coordinator & Executive Assistant
One of three Andrews sisters, Clarissa is a blue-eyed, blonde –haired, gun-toting, fun-loving, number crunching gal originally from the Rockies. She has more or less been a “rolling stone that has gathered no moss” most of her life, residing in six different states, until now, as a she has been a resident of Tyler, Texas for several years.
Never having seen the Goldie Hawn movie, Private Benjamin, she enlisted in the Air Force straight out of high school to see the world, but her unit was never deployed. Instead she spent her time as an EMT and on the target range, where she became top marksmen.
Five years later, she traded in her weapons for hair feathers, enrolled at The University of Texas at Tyler. She graduated from UT Tyler with a BA in Accounting and Marketing in December 2011. When not keeping PersonalWeb’s tech guys in line at the office, she is the marketing coordinator.
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Joshua Jarvis: Software Developer
As a developer at PersonalWeb, Joshua works with C#, ASP.NET, and other related technologies. He is currently pursuing a B.S. in Computer Information Systems from The University of Texas Tyler, and plans to graduate in the spring of 2012.
Joshua has been a lifelong resident of East Texas and currently lives in Tyler, Texas.
As a highly motivated individual, Joshua looks forward to many more years of positive software development.
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Julie Apoderado: College Marketing Coordinator
Julie Ann Apoderado has a difficult time controlling her natural-born ninja skills. Fortunately, working as the College Marketing Coordinator at PersonalWeb keeps her busy and prevents the occasional round-house or sneak attack.
As the liaison to student organizations, she spends a majority of her time meeting new people and learning new things, resulting in intermittent nocturnal behavior. However, said behavior often agitates the previously mentioned ninja nature, frequently resulting in a pursuit for new distractions.
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Kamren Scott: Director of Marketing
Kamren Scott’s interest in graphic design, public relations and marketing began while working on a student publication in high school. She studied graphic design and photography at Tyler Junior College and served as editor in chief of the student newspaper. She graduated from TJC in 2009 with Graphic Art and Photography Associate of Applied Science degrees.
In 2012, she graduated from The University of Texas at Tyler, where she also served as editor in chief of the student newspaper. She received a B.S. in Journalism with an emphasis in news and editorial and a minor in art. She has done design, editing, writing and public relations internships with the Tyler Morning Telegraph, the Discovery Science Place and Lindale News and Times. She has won more than 20 Texas Intercollegiate Press Association awards in areas including magazine, newspaper and ad design, photography, feature writing and in-depth reporting.
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Kevin Watts: Quality Assurance Technician
Kevin doesn’t need lots of lengthy, adjective riddled sentences and paragraphs to describe him. No, Kevin needs just one word—Awesome.
He currently attends The University of Texas at Tyler where he studies Computer Information Systems and will be graduating at the end of 2012. In addition to working with software and technology, Kevin plays the guitar, has road rage, and enjoys many other awesome activities
At PersonalWeb Kevin ensures the quality of the software is, for lack of a better term, awesome.
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Lauren Barnes: Social Media & PR Intern
Lauren is a coffee enthusiast, student, journalist and our newest intern. She got started in communications when the CEO of BSCENE Magazine noticed her outgoing personality and genuine people skills.
She currently attends The University of Texas at Tyler where she studies Mass Communication and Public Relations. She also serves as the Arts and Entertainment Editor for their student newspaper, the Patriot Talon. She plans to graduate in May 2014.
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