The Company's executive officers and directors and their positions with MSGI are as follows:
Name Age Positions and Offices, if any, Held Director Since
J. Jeremy Barbera 53 Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer 1996
Richard J. Mitchell, III 51 Chief Accounting Officer, Treasurer and Secretary
Lt. Gen. James A. Abrahamson 77 Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors 2010
Joseph C. Peters 53 President and Director 2004
John T. Gerlach 78 Director 1997
Seymour Jones 79 Director 1996
David C. Stoller 60 Director 2004
Mr. Barbera has been Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of the Company and its predecessor businesses since April 1997, and has served as Director and officer since October 1996 when MSGI Direct was acquired in an exchange of stock. He founded MSGI Direct in 1987, which was twice named to the Inc. 500 list of the fastest growing private companies in America. Mr. Barbera pioneered the practice of database marketing for the live entertainment industry in the 1980’s, achieving nearly one hundred percent market share in New York. Under his leadership, MSGI originated the business of web-based ticketing in 1995 and became the dominant services provider in every major entertainment market in North America. Their principal areas of concentration also included: financial services, fundraising and publishing. MSGI was named one of the 50 fastest growing public companies in both 2001 and 2002 by Crains New York Business. In April 2004, Mr. Barbera completed the divestiture of the legacy businesses and re-birthed the company in the homeland security industry as MSGI Security Solutions, Inc. Prior to founding MSGI Direct, Mr. Barbera was a research scientist based at NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, working on such groundbreaking missions as Pioneer Venus and the Global Atmospheric Research Program. Mr. Barbera has more than 20 years of experience in the areas of technology, marketing and database management services. Mr. Barbera is a Physicist educated at New York University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Mr. Mitchell has been the Company's Chief Accounting Officer and Treasurer since December 2003. Mr. Mitchell was appointed as Secretary by the Board of Directors of the Company in December 2006. Mr. Mitchell has been with the Company since May of 1999, when the former CMG Direct Corp. was acquired from CMGi, Inc. Mr. Mitchell has since served in a variety of positions for MSGI, including VP, Finance and Controller of CMG Direct Corp., VP, Finance for MKTG Services, Inc. and Senior V.P. and General Manager of MKTG Services Boston, Inc. Prior to joining the MSGI team, Mr. Mitchell served as a senior financial consultant to CMGi. During his tenure with CMGi, he participated on the Lycos IPO team, assisting in preparing Lycos for it's highly successful initial offering in April 1996. As a consultant to CMGi, Mr. Mitchell was also involved in corporate accounting and finance, including involvement in the formation of companies such as Navisite and Engage Technologies. In addition, Mr. Mitchell participated in the mergers and acquisition team of SalesLink, a wholly owned subsidiary of CMGi,where he assisted in the post-acquisition financial reporting systems migration and financial management of Pacific Link, a fulfillment operation located in Newark, CA. Mr. Mitchell performed a variety of financial management and accounting functions for Wheelabrator Technologies Inc., a $1.5 billion environmental services company, from 1987 through 1994. Those responsibilities included Northeast Regional Controller for the Wheelabrator Clean Water Corp. division, Corporate Director of Internal Audit and Corporate Accounting Manager. Mr. Mitchell graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell with a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting.
Lieutenant General James A. Abrahamson, (retired USAF) has been Vice- Chairman of the MSGI Board of Directors since his appointment in 2010. From 1992 to 1995, Lt. Gen. Abrahamson served as Chairman of the Oracle Corporation. Prior to holding his Chairmanship at Oracle, he held the position of Executive Vice President for Corporate Development, and then President of the Transportation Sector, for Hughes Aircraft Company as well as a member of the Hughes Aircraft Company Board of Directors. While on active duty in the Air Force, Lt. Gen. Abrahamson became one of the military's most experienced program directors. He led the Strategic Defense Initiative (President Reagan's "Star Wars" Program) from April 1984 until he retired from the Air Force in January 1989, at the rank of Lieutenant General. He also directed the development of the F-16 Multi-National Fighter and served as the NASA Associate Administrator for Space Flight, managing NASA's Space Shuttle from its second flight through 10 safe and successful missions. Lt. Gen. Abrahamson currently serves as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of StratCom, LLC; SkySpectrum, LLC; and Sky Sentry, LLC. Each of these companies is associated with the development of airships for civil and military applications. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of GeoEye (NASDAQ: GEOY) and Chairman of the Board of Global Relief Technologies. Lt. Gen. Abrahamson earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Master of Science degree in the same field through the Air Force Institute of Technology program at the University of Oklahoma. He completed Squadron Officer School in 1958, Air Command and Staff College in 1966, the Air Force Test Pilot School in 1967, and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces in 1973. He served in the Air Force as a Test Pilot, Fighter Pilot, and Program Manager for 33 years, prior to moving to senior positions in civil industry .
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Mr. Peters has served as President of the Company since November 2004 and has served as a Director of the Company since April 2004. Mr. Peters served President George W. Bush as the Assistant Deputy Director for State and Local Affairs of the White House's Drug Policy Office - commonly referred to as the Drug Czar's Office. There his duties included supervision of the country's High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Program. Mr. Peters also served as the Drug Czar's Liaison to the White House Office of Homeland Security and Governor Tom Ridge. Previously, Mr. Peters joined the Clinton White House, to direct the country's 26 HIDTA's, with an annual budget of a quarter billion dollars. Mr. Peters also represented the White House with police, prosecutors, governors, mayors and many non-governmental organizations. Mr. Peters began his career as a State prosecutor when he joined the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office in 1983. He later served as a Chief Deputy Attorney General of the Organized Crime Section, and in 1989 was named the first Executive Deputy Attorney General of the newly created Drug Law Division. In that capacity, Mr. Peters oversaw the activities of 56 operational drug task forces throughout the State, involving approximately 760 local police departments with 4,500 law enforcement officers. Mr. Peters consults to national and international law enforcement organizations on narco-terrorism and related intelligence and prosecution issues. He is an associate member of the Pennsylvania District Attorney's Association and a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, where he sits on their Terrorism Committee. Mr. Peters has devoted his entire career to public service.
Mr. Gerlach has been a Director of the Company since December 1997. Mr. Gerlach is Chairman of the M&A Committee and a member of the Audit and Compensation Committees of the Board of Directors. He is currently Senior Executive Professor with the graduate business program and Associate Professor of Finance at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT. Previously, Mr. Gerlach was a Director in Bear Stearns' corporate finance department, with responsibility for mergers and financial restructuring projects, President and Chief Operating Officer of Horn & Hardart and Founder and President of Consumer Growth Capital. Mr. Gerlach also serves as a director for Uno Restaurant Co., SAFE Inc., Cycergie (a French company), Akona Corp., and the Board of Regents at St. John's University in Collegeville, MN. Mr. Gerlach is also a member of an advisory board for Drexel University’s College of Business & Administration.
Mr. Jones has been a Director of the Company since June 1996 and is a member of the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors. Mr. Jones has been Professor of Accounting at New York University since September 1993. From April 1974 to September 1995, Mr. Jones was a senior partner of the accounting firm of Coopers and Lybrand, a legacy firm of PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP. In addition to 40-plus years of accounting experience, Mr. Jones has more than ten years of experience as an arbitrator and an expert witness, particularly in the areas of fraud, mergers and acquisitions, and accounting matters. Mr. Jones also functions as a consultant to Milberg Factors Inc. and CHF Industries Inc., and serves as a director for Arotech Corporation.
Mr. Stoller has served as a Director of the Company since March 2004, and is a member of the Audit Committee. Mr. Stoller has been involved in public and private finance for the last 20 years. Mr. Stoller began his professional career as an attorney. He was partner and co-head of global finance for Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, LLP where he helped build one of the world's largest and most successful finance practices, participating personally in financings totaling more than $4 billion. At the end of 1992, Mr. Stoller joined Charterhouse Group International, a large New York City-based private equity firm, as chairman of its Environmental Capital Group. In 1993, Mr. Stoller, through the Charterhouse Environmental Group, launched American Disposal Services, an integrated waste management company that ultimately acquired and consolidated, with $34 million in equity capital, more than 70 waste management companies, located principally in the Midwest. American Disposal had a successful initial public offering in July 1996, and shortly afterward, Mr. Stoller, still chairman, became a general partner at Charterhouse and actively participated in raising $1 billion for Charterhouse's third private equity fund. American Disposal was sold in 1998 to Allied Waste for a price exceeding $1.3 billion. In August of 1998, Mr. Stoller left Charterhouse to launch Americana Financial Services, raising over $25 million in private equity capital. Americana (now the American Wholesale Insurance Group) is currently one of the top five largest private wholesale insurance brokerages in the United States. In 2002, Mr. Stoller launched TransLoad America LLC, which is principally in the business of transloading and transporting waste materials by rail, with an initial focus on the northeastern section of the United States. Mr. Stoller holds a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.A. from the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research, and a J.D. from Fordham University School of Law. He is also a graduate of the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program.
