Management

Norm Goldstein, Chief Executive Officer and Founder
Norman is an entrepreneur with a strong background in licensing, fashion, direct marketing, and internet concept development industries. As EVP Licensing and Business Development at Walker Digital (Walker Digital launched Priceline.com), Norman managed a large patent portfolio of inventions and business process patents. Norman is a named inventor on 6 US patents.

As President and CEO of Univex Licensing Group, Mr. Goldstein pioneered, developed and managed a joint venture with The Sharper Image Corp. to create 16 licenses of their brand in many categories. Mr. Goldstein was the founder and CEO of Margin Equities Inc. a manufacturing and importer of specialty and promotional products for large corporate accounts such as Disney, American Express, IBM, Merck, and M&M Mars. Mr. Goldstein was President of Peter Max Licensing Inc. where he generated 12 licensing agreements for the Pop Culture Artist in addition to opening a new gallery. Mr. Goldstein is a New York State Mediator and Arbitrator, a Board Member of Positive Directions charity, serves on the Advisory Board of the University of Bridgeport School of Engineering, the National Parents Board of Syracuse University, the Board of Visitors of the School of Informational Studies at Syracuse University, Syracuse Campus Community Entrepreneurship Initiative (Enitiative) National Advisory Board, Target's Reading Advisory Group and Amazing Kids Board of Directors. Norm is also a Mentor/Coach to business entrepreneurs.

Mr. Goldstein launched By Kids For Kids Co., a company dedicated to inspiring, motivating and stimulating children to use their creativity and imagination. He has been recognized by Congress with the 2005 ET3 TEC Championship Congressional award. He was also named a “2006 Purpose Prize Fellow” - recognizing him as a leader in the movement to invent new ways to solve Society’s toughest problems. In 2007, CNN chose Mr. Goldstein as one of the Ten National Innovators changing lives in America. He is also an elected Board member and Treasurer of the United Inventors Association (UIA).

Art Shulman, President
Art Shulman leads the transition from ideas to revenue and focuses on speed to profit. His expertise in identifying engines of growth, and understanding how to sustain growth, has come from recent work as CEO of a small software company, from within the Walker Digital Invention Laboratory, and management of organizations ranging from start-ups to hundreds of millions in revenue. Fast and smart are his bywords.

Art helps organizations master their goals in less time, with less expense, and with the right priorities. He believes that managing growth involves identifying and protecting assets, and focusing on efficiency and careful cost/benefit ratios. He believes that successful cultures incorporate the will to innovate.

Before joining BKFK he was CEO of OPUS-ISM, a pharmacy software company where he restructured the organization while successfully positioning it for sale three years ahead of schedule. At Walker Digital, Art served as President & COO of several key ventures. He spearheaded the creation and launch of Priceline Gasoline that broke even and attracted over 750,000 paying customers in just five months. He was responsible for sales at N.E.W. Customer Services Companies, a $200,000,000 private firm supporting Best Buy, Sam's Club, American Express and Visa. His retail career culminated in becoming CEO of publicly held Harvey Electronics, where he reversed a decade of losses and created 6 consecutive years of operating profits.

Laura Ploss, Chief Operating Officer
Laura has had over 24 years in operational management. Prior to BKFK she was the Director of Operations for eNewsRelease, an online press release distribution service. She began her career in the Travel Industry where she spent 18 years in retail and corporate travel management. While working with Carlson Wagonlit Travel she established and managed onsite corporate travel offices in General Electric and Xerox Corporate Headquarters. She managed the travel coordination for Xerox’s annual Senior Management and monthly Board of Directors meetings. Laura has volunteered for many years as production and stage manager in community theatre and youth dance recitals.

Rebecca Ryan Hunter, Vice President of Marketing
Rebecca brings a great deal of experience in online brand development and management. She has been in marketing and development since the early days of the internet, working with non-profit associations and Fortune 100 companies. In her community outreach work at Rain Bird, Rebecca was instrumental in developing and producing online curriculum for rain forest education. During her time as Managing Producer at Grey Interactive, Rebecca managed global production and development for P&G and Nortel Networks and was a key new business development team member. In her time as Internet & New Media Director at iN DEMAND Networks, Rebecca developed eCRM databases, developed online marketing materials for video-on-demand and worked on the launch team for two new high-definition networks.

Ramon E. Peralta, Jr., VP, Creative Director
Ramon has over 19 years of experience in award-winning, market-proven, print collateral, marketing material, iphone/ipad app and website design specializing in corporate identity and branding. Ramon’s passion for entrepreneurial design was borne out of 10 years as Creative Director for Jay Walker at Walker Digital, the Stamford based idea laboratory and business incubator holding over 300 US Patents. Ramon served as Senior Art Director on the start-up launch team behind Priceline.com, a Walker company and invention. Most recently, Ramon's logo and identity work was selected to be published in "Typography and Enclosures" the fourth book in the Master Library series by LogoLounge. A Life Member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., Ramon volunteers as Eastern Regional Project Alpha Coordinator. Project Alpha is a collaboration between March of Dimes and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. and is designed to provide education, motivation and skill-buidling issues of responsibility and relationships for young males ages 12-15 years.

Rumee Singh, Director of Digital Production
Rumee creates innovative solutions to the new demands and opportunities in the digital community. With a diverse background in journalism, web development, design and engineering, Rumee has managed and led development teams with a creative mindset. She has over six years of experience in producing content for the web and managing web projects. Previously, Rumee served as an Online Production Editor at New Asian Cuisine - managing, designing, coding and creating content for websites and newsletters for the Asian food community. She also worked in Nepal for two years as a news producer, where she produced video news segments for the BBC and Channels News Asia, Singapore.

Judy Klym, Director of PR
Judy Klym worked for 4 1/2 years at Cadbury Schweppes where she was the Marketing Communications Manager for Snapple, Elements, Stewarts, Mystic, Yoo Hoo, Nantuckets Nectars and Orangina. She oversaw the public relations and advertising on all of the brands. Prior to that she worked for Commerce Bank in Kansas City in the marketing department as a brand manager and for Harmon Smith Advertising as an account exective on the Hill's Pet Nutrition and Fort Dodge Animal Health accounts.

Christine Casey, Ed.D, Director of Educational Initiatives 
Dr. Casey’s 30 year career in education has focused on creating educational opportunities for underserved populations through leveraging creative partnerships with community and private industry. While serving as the Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction for the Stamford Public Schools in Stamford, CT, she led the team that created one of the first “high tech” high schools in the nation; the nationally award winning Academy of Information Technology. Dr. Casey currently consults state wide in Connecticut and regionally in New York specializing in creating programs for students with disabilities and underserved populations; grant writing, developing funding sources and coordinating pilot activities.