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Spooz, Inc. Management Team
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OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS |
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Paul D. Strickland, Jr. – Chief Executive Officer, Chairman and Director |
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Mr. Strickland began his career in 1983, as an analyst for a trading partnership
where he designed and implemented complex computerized trading systems for traders
on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade and the Chicago Board Options Exchange.
During his career, Mr. Strickland has held seats on three major commodity and securities
exchanges as a floor trader and was a pioneer in the development of modern index
arbitrage techniques during the 1980s. |
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Mr. Strickland has held trading, managerial and consultant positions with several
institutional and proprietary trading firms such as; Bear Stearns, G-Bar Partners,
First Options Group, LIT McDonald, Petco/Peters, and Transitions Group. Mr. Strickland
is generally recognized as a trading, compliance and brokerage operations expert
in the commodity futures area, and has over 20 years experience building complex
trading models. |
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Mr. Strickland has been continuously registered with the National Futures Association
since 1985 and at various times carried registrations as an Associated Person (“AP”),
Commodity Trading Advisor (“CTA”), an exchange member (CBOE) broker/dealer, and
Registered Investment Advisor with the SEC. |
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Darryl Dennis – Chief Marketing Officer and Director |
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Darryl Dennis has over 25 years of successful executive level marketing and business
management with five international companies. In 1997, Mr. Dennis’ development of
the B2B online market platform, thevirtualmarket.com, received recognition by Microsoft
as one of the top three ecommerce sites for 1997. As Vice President of Marketing
for publicly traded Centrack International, a B2B heavy equipment portal, the company
grew to a $900,000,000 online e-marketplace in less than 18 months, plus achieved
the most successful online equipment auction in its industry for 1999. |
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As VP of Marketing for CommerNet, Mr. Dennis developed the highest revenue generating
web portal infrastructures available in the trade publication and trade association
markets. Mr. Dennis was also VP Marketing of DeLight Industries for over ten years
and grew the regional consumer products company to international stature with 1600
dealers in seven countries. |
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John Unwin – Chief Technical Officer |
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As a senior interim manager/board member of listed companies, John Unwin delivers
technically innovative products into new market spaces, improves bottom line, and
is able to communicate to investors, customers, and media. |
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Previously Mr. Unwin was technical director at Easyscreen Plc and CTO at Future
Dynamics where he was responsible for the delivery of high capacity trading platforms
for Futures and Options, middle and back office systems used by large institutions
such as eSpeed and Refco both in Europe and the USA. Prior to his role at Easyscreen,
Mr. Unwin had 15 years experience in IT delivering real time systems to Reuters
and Alcatel combined with delivery of transaction processing systems to Leeds Holbeck
Building Society and Asda. |
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John earned his bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering from Sheffield University
where his specialty was computer aided analysis of magnetic fields. Mr. Unwin is
an active member of the Fix Protocol organization. |
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Tom Opper – Chief Sales Officer |
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Prior to joining Spooz, Mr. Opper spent 22 years helping companies develop existing
and new markets, build and restructure marketing, sales, business development operations,
and implement successful marketing and sales strategies. Typically, Mr. Opper has
worked with business start-ups, turnarounds, and companies striving to break through
to the next level of growth. |
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Mr. Opper is experienced in strategic and tactical planning and implementation,
strategic alliances, business process re-engineering, brand and market expansion,
marketing communication channels, lead generation and management, client development
and management, sales management, and contract negotiation. His experience, combined
with an MBA in Marketing Strategy and Corporate Governance from Cardean University
and a Six Sigma Green Belt certification from Villanova University, offers a skill
set that is transferable and relevant to any organization striving to grow organically. |
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Catherine D Rains – Treasurer |
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Ms. Rains founded Spooz Publishing Group, Inc. with Paul Strickland in 1999. Prior
thereto, she was employed in managerial positions with several medium to large sized
Austin-based law firms. Prior to the founding of Spooz, Ms. Rains was the Director
of Human Resources at Linebarger Heard, a 600 employee (150 attorneys) law firm.
Reporting to the CFO, Ms. Rains managed the general ledger and a number of joint
venture companies, administered all employee benefits including insurance and a
401(k) plan and implemented all employee policies. In 1988, Ms. Rains established
Catie’s Counting, an accounting services business, which she still maintains. Ms.
Rains has a comprehensive background in general office and facilities management
and accounting, including accounts receivable, accounts payable, general ledger
and payroll. |
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KEY EMPLOYEES |
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Douglas Foster, Director of Financial Engineering |
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Douglas Foster began his career as a fixed income trader at the Chicago Board of
Trade (CBOT) where he remained for ten years. During his tenure as a trader, Mr.
Foster was one of the early pioneers of electronic trading at the CBOT; where he
worked to trade the Project A trading system while enhancing its functionality.
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Upon leaving his position as a trader, Mr. Foster continued to work in the software
technology field at Easyscreen, PLC, a London based trading software company, with
offices in London and Chicago. While there, he designed and worked on the development
of both front-end software and risk management tools for Global Markets. Mr. Foster
expanded his work with trading at Kingstreet Trading LLC, where he created trading
tools to enhance the trading process. He managed all trading, market vendor services,
and software technology projects. Mr. Foster has also developed and managed his
own fixed income trading group as well as the firm’s portfolio risk. Mr. Foster
has also consulted with trading industry software companies on research and development
of various projects designed to enhance technology in the trading arena.
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Jim Hensel Business Development Manager |
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Mr. Hensel was with CNN’s live on-location broadcast staff assigned to president
Regan 1980-1984. Mr. Hensel’s abilities at creative problem solving helped establish
the CNN forte of providing news broadcast viewers live access to places and events
as never before. Following CNN, Jim worked as a freelance Journalist for CBS News,
ABC News and various foreign news outlets 1984-1988.
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From 1989-2007, Mr. Hensel worked with the Chicago Board of Trade Fed Funds Futures
contract toentice market participation. Mr. Hensel was one of three market makers
who boldly provided liquidity to top tier banks that lead to this contract establishment
as the industry standard benchmark of Interest rates. Initially, this futures contract
was illiquid which lead Mr. Hensel to create many innovative hedging techniques
to manage the risk in holding a position for an extended period of time. Jim’s hedging
techniques spread quickly along the yield curve and into options and other vehicles
to limit risk or increase the profit potential of a given trade. |
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BOARD OF ADVISORS |
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The Spooz Advisors were individually selected for their expertise in certain business
disciplines. Each member of the Board of Advisors is active in the pursuit of Spooz’s
goals and objectives and participates on one or more committees.
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Donna Genett, PhD., Chairperson |
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Dr. Genett is President of GenCorp Consulting and has over 16 years of experience
working with organizations to enhance performance, productivity and profitability.
She is an author, international speaker, and organization development psychologist.
She specializes in start-ups, mergers and acquisitions, and organizational structuring.
Her executive experience adds breadth and depth to her consulting services.
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John Katovich, Esq. |
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Mr. Katovich is a practicing attorney specializing in management and business development
in the securities and futures industries. He has extensive experience in trading,
clearance and settlement, business administration, human resources, finance, funding,
licensing, IP, and general legal matters. Mr. Katovich currently serves as regulatory
counsel for companies and exchanges developing new and unique trading products.
He served as General Counsel for the Pacific Stock Exchange for 12 years and General
Counsel for OptiMark Trading Systems, Inc., where he played a key role in the development
of patented, computer-based methods for improving liquidity and efficiency in auction
markets. |
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John A. (Tony) Hines |
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Mr. Hines served as President of Cybertek Capital Management Inc. a company providing
consulting services to clients. He is the former Director of Canadian Operations
for Microsoft Corporation in Seattle and has held senior operations and financial
management positions in Canada and the Untied States over a twenty-five year period.
Mr. Hines will aid management in Spooz’s business and financial planning initiatives
and strategic alliance programs. Mr. Hines is a Chartered Accountant with a Masters
of Business Administration degree from the University of Western Ontario.
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Errol Stone
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Mr. Stone is CEO of 141 Capital, Inc. a Chicago based trading firm. Mr. Stone served
as EVP of Spooz, Inc. for five years and is a member of its board of directors.
Prior to joining Spooz, Mr. Stone was the Vice President of JumpStart Revenue, Inc.
with responsibility for operations, administration and professional sales. Mr. Stone
has consulted to senior executives of high-tech companies from start-up through
exit strategy, regarding organizational development, operations management, strategic
planning, funding and compensation.
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Mr. Stone was a founder, director and Vice President of Operations and Finance of
Equidaq Corporation, the first and only Internet-enabled marketplace for trading
equities not listed on public exchanges. Mr. Stone was a senior attorney at the
Securities and Exchange Commission; practiced securities, corporate, and real estate
law, and was a Senior Counsel at Bank of America. He received his undergraduate
degree from Tufts University, and his Juris Doctorate from Boston University School
of Law.
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