01/12/00
ConsumerREVIEW.com Strengthens Executive Team with New Senior Vice President of Business Development and Sales; Company Forms Advisory Board of Top-Notch Industry Talent
 
Santa Clara, CA., January 12, 2000 - ConsumerREVIEW.com, the leading source of quality consumer-generated product reviews, today announced that it has named Greg van den Dries as its senior vice president of business development and sales. He brings to the position more than 15 years of experience in building brands, developing Internet software and services and forming strategic partnerships. The company has also announced the formation of a dynamic advisory board whose members include John Bautista, director at Venture Law Group; Bertina Ceccarelli, executive vice president of marketing for GiftCertificates.com; Stephanie Gnibus, founder of Gnibus Public Relations; and Brian Goffman, principal at Austin Ventures.
 
As senior vice president of business development and sales, Greg will be responsible for new site partnerships, international development, affiliate program development and advertising sales. Prior to joining ConsumerREVIEW.com, Greg served as vice president of corporate marketing at S3, a leading graphics semi-conductor company. While at S3, Greg oversaw Internet marketing strategies, marketing communications, channel marketing and worldwide developer relations. Greg assisted in due diligence of company acquisitions targets, which resulted in S3's acquisition of Diamond Multimedia.
 
Previously, he was the CEO and president of Natural Computing, a developer of Internet appliances. Greg's prior experience includes business development positions at Communities.com and Worlds, both online graphical chat system makers. Additionally, Greg was a vice president at Creative Labs. He was a member of the initial executive management team, which took Creative Labs public in August 1992. Under Greg's guidance, Creative Labs US revenues grew from $5 million in 1992 to over $700 million in 1995.
 
"We're thrilled that Greg has joined the ConsumeREVIEW.com team," said Max Mancini, CEO of ConsumerREVIEW.com. "As we focus on distributing our quality review content to the mass market, Greg's vast sales, marketing and technology expertise will help us succeed in forging the key relationships needed to take us to the next level. Additionally, John, Bertina, Stephanie and Brian bring a wealth of Internet industry experience to our board of advisors and will provide added strategic value to the company."
 
ConsumerREVIEW.com Advisory Board
The ConsumerREVIEW.com advisory board members will help the company execute on its objective of consistently providing quality consumer-generated reviews to the mass market. They have extensive expertise in the areas of business development, corporate law, marketing and public relations.
 
John Bautista is a director at Venture Law Group where he specializes in representing public and private high-technology companies and venture capital funds. He has expertise in the areas of corporate and securities law, venture capital financings, public offerings, public company representation and technology licensing. Previously, John was at the law firm of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. John left WSG&R in early 1993 to help start Venture Law Group.
 
Bertina Ceccarelli is executive vice president of marketing for GiftCertificates.com where she is responsible for the growth and development of the brand and consumer transactions. Prior to GiftCertificates.com, Bertina served as senior vice president of marketing for Snap and helped lead all NBC-delivered promotional efforts, brand development, corporate communications, investor relations, as well as Snap market research and analysis. Previously, Bertina served as vice president of consumer marketing and programming operations at NBC Interactive where she oversaw the development of online promotional content, marketing and NBC.com operations. Bertina's previous experience includes management positions at Homearts, Liberty Cable and Proctor & Gamble.
 
Stephanie Gnibus has more than 13 years experience in news reporting and public relations and has been managing her own public relations firm since April 1999. Prior to founding Gnibus Public Relations, Stephanie spent three years with PointCast Incorporated as director of public relations, where she led her PR team in securing more than 9,000 article placements, 250 broadcast stories, 80 top industry awards and 80 speaking engagements. Before PointCast, she served as an account supervisor at a San Jose public relations agency. Stephanie began her career in broadcast journalism, spending nearly five years in television news reporting and anchoring.
 
Brian Goffman is a principal at Austin Ventures where he focuses his investment activity on business-to-business services and business-to-consumer electronic commerce. Prior to Austin Ventures, Brian led U.S. business development at PointCast where he helped initiate the company's content, distribution, e-commerce, and technology efforts. Prior to PointCast, he was an early employee at Reuters NewMedia, where he helped develop and implement Reuters' strategy for the Internet and corporate intranets.