J.G. Sandom
Chairman & CEO
Born in Chicago, raised in Europe, and a graduate of Amherst College (where he won the Academy of American Poets Prize and The Corbin Prize), Sandom moved to New York City in 1979 where, for the next five years, he worked as a freelance copywriter, public relations and advertising executive, and corporate spokesperson trainer for such companies as Hill & Knowlton and Ketchum, Inc.
In 1984, J. co-founded Einstein and Sandom Interactive (EASI), the world’s first interactive advertising agency. It grew to become the nation’s largest digital marketing services firm when it was purchased by D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles in 1994. J. continued to manage EASI on behalf of DMB&B through 1996. EASI clients included: Procter & Gamble, General Motors, Trans World Airlines (TWA) and Mars Inc., among others; plus several non-DMB&B EASI clients such as Citibank, Fannie Mae, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Compaq, McDonnell Douglas, Merck & Co., Bristol-Myers Squibb and Miles Laboratories, among others.
From January 1997 through October 1999, J. served as Director of Interactive at OgilvyOne Worldwide, a division of Ogilvy & Mather, a WPP company, where he grew the digital enterprise from a loss of $2M to an estimated $100M in revenues in 30 months in North America, and from 12 “permalancers” to 650 digital marketing specialists worldwide, with worldwide billings of $300M. In 1998, OgilvyInteractive was named “Best Interactive Ad Agency” of the year by Adweek, and won two premier Cyber Lions awards at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. OgilvyInteractive’s clients included: IBM; GTE; Perrier; Sears, Ameritrade, Ford Motor Company and Jaguar Cars, among others.
From November 1999 through October 2003, J. served as President and CEO, and then Vice Chairman of RappDigital Worldwide, the interactive arm of direct marketing/direct response agency Rapp (formerly Rapp Collins), now a business unit of DDB Worldwide, an Omnicom Company. Within a year of inception, RappDigital became one of the nation’s “Top Twenty” interactive ad agencies, according to Adweek. J. built the executive team, purchased equity stakes in offshore Web production company Critical Mass (Calgary, Canada) and email marketing company Innovyx (Seattle), productized cyber-analytics and e-Care (digital call center) offerings, recruited the first clients, and managed the business until it was on its feet. He was responsible for executive management of the company and its growth to more than $40M in revenues in the U.S., with 300+ employees worldwide, and offices throughout North America, Europe and Latin America—at a time of industry contraction. RappDigital Network clients included SBC Communications, Mercedes-Benz, Philips Consumer Electronics, Pfizer, Exelon, Kaiser Permanente and Reuters, among others.
From 2004 to 2021, J. launched and served as Chairman of MarCom holding company HTM (High Tech Marketing), which provided digital marketing communications services via The InterAd Consulting Group (assisting ad agencies and corporate clients in the design and actualization of profitable interactive advertising strategies), and Cyber Branding Solutions (helping small and medium-sized businesses optimize their brands online). In addition, he is the founder, and remains Chairman of Cornucopia Press (dedicated to helping indie authors self-publish and promote their work). Since 2022, J. has served as Chairman and CEO of the Spring Holding Group, Inc., parent company of Cremstar, Styx Logistics, MemoryBox and EverGreen Aquamation.
J. is also an international #1 best-selling novelist, the author of eleven titles including: 404 and The Wave; The God Machine and Gospel Truths (Random House), The Wall Street Murder Club (Random House, optioned by Warner Bros.); as well as several young adult novels including dEATH in dAVOS, Confessions of a Teenage Body Snatcher (formerly titled Resurrection Men, Penguin), and the award-winning Kiss Me, I’m Dead (formerly titled The Unresolved, Penguin), which The Washington Post called, “a subtle gem.”
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/j-g-sandom/0/124/28
https://www.amazon.com/J.-G.-Sandom/e/B001KDAKEC
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandom
Penny Goodwill
Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
With over 20+ years of experience in the digital space, Penny has successfully created literally hundreds of applications, using numerous authoring systems, on multiple platforms, targeting a variety of sectors and audiences.
In 1994, Penny joined K2 Design, one of the world’s first digital ad agencies. She was employee #12.
Within two years, the company had 60 and made its initial public offering. In her four years with K2 Design, Penny helped define the synthesis of bleeding-edge technology with the developing marketing needs of Fortune 500 companies, working with clients such as MCI, HP and Prudential.
In 1998, Penny joined OgilvyInteractive Worldwide as a Senior Developer. Within six months, she was promoted to Senior Project Engineer. Two years later, she was named Director of Engineering, reporting directly to the President, and became an OgilyOne Senior Partner. In her new role, Penny was the senior engineering contact for all agency clients, personally overseeing the technical production of projects ranging from enterprise level content management systems, e-commerce implementations and desktop apps to corporate, brand, consumer and B2B websites for clients such as American Express, IBM, Cisco, Six Flags, Continental Airlines, Kodak, Sears and Unilever, to name but a few.
In February, 2008, Penny joined MakeOversolutions, Inc. as part of the company’s leadership team. Originally based in Toronto, Canada, the start-up’s core offering was a Virtual MakeOver tool built in Flash that allowed a user to upload an image of herself and try on thousands of hairstyles and makeup looks.
Penny was responsible for building the company’s New York footprint, personally overseeing the technical staff, re-architecting the third-generation makeover licensed software, developing the iPhone App, and launching the rebranded and re-architected website.
When Penny joined the Canadian company, it serviced 100,000 users through its website, and had 10 licensed clients. In 2½ years, the new MakeoverSolutions website and makeover tool had 3 million registered users, the licensed tool had 54 deployments in 27 languages worldwide, and the system was serving 9 million unique users per month, generating over 100 million impressions.
Next, Penny founded OnTheGeo, LLC, with two partners in September, 2010. The company’s primary offering was a small radio frequency geo-location device & iPhone app designed to help people keep track of their most precious possessions; pets, keys, et al. It utilized mesh networking. This was the first hardware application designed to serve as a tracking device to go through the Apple MFI Program.
From 2012, Penny has consulted with small companies on a variety of projects, including two for Cenveo: 1) Re-architecting and building the e-commerce engine for LightningLabels.com. This was a highly customized Magento build, utilizing a responsive layout, yet demanding high security. 2) Gathering requirements, defining specifications and building out the Image Processing Server and Online Design Tool for Print360.com. The purpose of this tool was to improve end-to-end order flow, enabling order completion with custom design directly over the web, thereby eliminating the need for call center completion of orders. The customer uploads the image they wish to have printed, it displays within the selected die lines, and they have full function control for zoom, crop, resize, overlay, etc., prior to saving and placing the order to print.
Penny has served as a technical advisor to General McCaffrey, Director of the Office of National Drug Council Policy (ONDCP), testifying at Congressional hearings regarding Online Privacy. She is also the co-founder of two non-profit organizations: one designed to advocate for equal marriage rights; and the other, based in Costa Rica, serves to rescue stray and neglected dogs, establish free spay/neuter clinics, and to educate local communities about animal care.
Penny is a Computer Science graduate of New York University School of Professional Studies.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/penny-goodwill-4b29aa
Michael Thomas Krause
Funeral Director & Supervisor
Cremstar of PA
Funeral Director and Supervisor for Cremstar of PA, Mike brings a half century of funeral industry experience to the company.
Raised in Pennsauken, NJ, he graduated from Camden County Technical High School in 1972 and Camden County College in 1975. From 1975-1976, Mike attended the Mortuary Science Program at Mercer County College, and graduated in June 1976, receiving his New Jersey Funeral Directors License in July 1976, and his Pennsylvania Funeral Directors License a decade later, in January 1986.
In 1985, Mike founded his first funeral home in Burlington, NJ, the Krawulski Funeral Home, which he eventually relocated to Merchantville, changing the name to the Michael T. Krause Funeral Home. A few years later, he purchased the legendary Roedel Funeral Home, founded in Camden, NJ, in approximately 1893 by the Roedel family. Mike then merged the two names to form Roedel-Krause Funeral Services. While managing his funeral business in New Jersey, Mike also worked for the next thirty-five years as Funeral Director at the Joseph Levine & Sons Funeral Home of Philadelphia, PA. He retired from there in 2022 to join Cremstar. He is currently Funeral Director and Supervisor for Cremstar of PA.
A resident of Browns Mills, where he lives with his wife of forty-three years, Barbara Worrell-Krause, Mike is the father of two sons, Andrew M. and his wife Nicole, and Victor M. Krause. A Eucharistic Minister, Mike is a member of St. Ann’s Church. He is also a 3rd Degree Member of the Knights of Columbus.
Mike is a member of the New Jersey State Funeral Directors Association and former member of the Burlington County Funeral Director Association, where he served for many years as their Executive Secretary and President. He is currently an active member of the New Jersey Funeral Directors Association and the West Jersey Funeral Directors Association.
Thomas Saragusa
Funeral Director & Manager
Cremstar of NJ
Funeral Director and Manager for Cremstar of NJ, Tom brings three decades of experience to the company.
Tom was born and raised in Bradley Beach, NJ. He graduated from St. Rose High School in Belmar in 1989 and began the funeral service program at Mercer County Community College while serving an apprenticeship under his father at the Reilly Funeral Home in Belmar. Tom graduated from Mercer in May of 1992 and received his funeral directors license in August that same year.
In 1996, Tom had the opportunity to become a partner in the Ocean Grove Memorial Home, a business established in 1956. Tom worked with the previous owner for nine years as he slowly began retiring from his career in funeral service. In 2005, Tom purchased the rest of the business and has been the sole owner ever since.
Tom has been married to the former Carolyn Armenti since 1999 and they have two children, a daughter Gabriella and a son, Thomas Jr.
Tom is a member of the New Jersey State Funeral Directors Association and a member and past President of the Monmouth and Ocean County Funeral Directors Association.
He joined Cremstar in 2021 and currently serves as Funeral Director and Manager of Cremstar of NJ.
BOARD OF ADVISERS
Dr. Clay Routledge – World-renowned expert in the psychology of memory, nostalgia, and death; author of more than 85 scientific papers and the recent book Nostalgia — A Psychological Resource; and a frequent contributor to The New York Times, CBS News, The New Yorker, and Psychology Today, where he pens the popular blog, “More Than Mortal.”
Jaky Jean Joseph – Director in BofA Securities Municipal Banking and Markets Group, where he has structured over $15 billion in municipal bond financings in various sectors; specializes in debt issuance, structuring, and analysis for largely government clients, leveraging customized proprietary analytical and cash-flow models; member of the National Association of Securities Professionals, serves on Swarthmore College’s Board of Managers, as well as on the boards of various other non-profits.
Matthew Snow, MD – Private practice in Cardiology and Internal Medicine, South Miami Cardiology, P.A., with an emphasis on geriatric care; formerly Director of Critical Care Physicians at South Miami Hospital.
Alberto N. Moris – Founding partner of Moris & Associates, a boutique law firm specializing in corporate and real estate transactions, in addition to commercial litigation. A graduate of the University of Miami (1987) and Emory University School of Law (1990), Alberto is multilingual in Spanish and French, and has been an Adjunct Professor at Nova Southeastern University School of Law, teaching International Business Transactions to Third Year law students since 2007.
Jeff Minsky – Sits on the AAAA’s Digital Video Innovation Committee, the DPAA Agency Advisory Committee, and the AAAA’s Media Conference Planning Committee; co-authored the AAAAs/IAB Terms and Conditions for Digital Advertising; and is currently working to productize various VR platforms and environments, from clothes shopping to life celebration events.