Eric Lee Smith, a pioneer in the development of new technology products and services for the financial services industry, joined InvestorForce in July 2005 as Vice President of Product Direction.
During his career, Smith has worked with a diverse group of clients that include: American Express; Credit Suisse First Boston; Ernst & Young; Fidelity Investments; Franklin Templeton; JP Morgan/Chase; Legg Mason; Morgan Stanley; PaineWebber; Quick & Reilly; Smith Barney Citigroup; and Vanguard. Prior to joining InvestorForce, Smith was President of Eric Lee Smith INNOVATIONS, LLC, a consulting firm he founded in 2003 that focused on designing financial services products, marketing plans and online technologies. Previously, Smith was the Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Giving Capital, Inc. From 1996 to 1998, Smith was Vice President for Research and Development at Reality Online, Inc. (a division of Reuters PLC). He was Vice President of the Strategic Products Group at Reality Online from 1992-1994, and that company’s Creative Director from 1988-1992. Smith’s experience also includes his entrepreneurial ventures, which, in addition to Giving Capital, Inc., include a number of consulting firms.
Early in his career, Smith was a professional game designer for Simulations Publications and the Avalon-Hill game company. His first game, “The Alamo,” was nominated for best war game of the year, and he later won that award twice, for “The Civil War” and “Ambush.” A graduate of Pratt Institute, Smith earned the New Product Development Professional designation from the Product Development Management Association.
Dan Ariely is the James B. Duke Professor of Behavioral Economics at Duke University, where he holds appointments at the Fuqua School of Business, the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, and the department of Economics. In addition, Dan is a visiting professor in MIT’s Program in Media Arts and Sciences, a founding member of the Center for Advanced Hindsight, a fellow at Diamond Management and Technology Consultants, and President of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making. He is also the author of Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions. He is currently working on a new book titled Dining Without Crumbs: The Art of Eating Over the Sink.
As a behavioral economist, Dan studies how people actually act in the marketplace, as opposed to how they should or would perform if they were completely rational. His interests span a wide range of daily behaviors such as buying (or not), saving (or not), ordering food in restaurants, pain management, procrastination, dishonesty, and decision making under different emotional states. His experiments are consistently interesting, amusing, and informative, demonstrating profound ideas that fly in the face of common wisdom.
Dan earned a bachelors degree in psychology from Tel Aviv University, his masters and doctorate degrees in cognitive psychology from the University of North Carolina, and a doctorate in Business Administration from Duke University.
His research has been published in leading psychology, economics, and marketing and management research journals, and has been featured occasionally in the popular press (The New York Times, the New Yorker Magazine, The Washington Post, The Financial Times, etc). From time to time he has provided commentaries for National Public Radio, The New York Times and CNN.
Jim Olin is the Broker and Business Development Officer for Sterling Realty. He managed the merger of three of Northwest Florida’s leading privately owned resort development, resort management and real estate sales companies into one powerful regional company servicing all facets of the resort industry. Jim brings to The Sterling Companies an extensive background in resort sales, rental management and the ability to grow the business. His leadership will propel The Sterling Companies from a regional powerhouse to a national player in the industry. Previously Jim Olin was Managing Partner, CEO and Broker for Sterling Resorts LLC and Sterling Realty LLC. In his capacity, Jim was responsible for the growth of the rental management company with over 3,000 units under contract for management over the next 3 years, as well as an active resort, residential and commercial real state operation with over 50 licensed agents in Florida, Alabama and Mississippi. Jim Olin is the former President and CEO of ResortQuest International (NYSE:RZT), the world’s largest vacation rental property management and resort real estate firm. Under his leadership at ResortQuest, Olin guided the network of more than 20,000 vacation rental properties in 52 premier resort destinations and developed alliances and partnerships that gave ResortQuest a truly global reach. ResortQuest has more than 5,000 employees and currently manages a vacation rental portfolio valued at over $7 billion. Olin also oversaw a real estate brokerage network of more than 350 agents, who traditionally managed in excess of $1 billion in real estate listings. Olin had been with ResortQuest and its subsidiaries for ten years. He was appointed COO of the company in January 2000 and was then promoted to President in April 2002. Previously, he was President and CEO of Abbott Resorts and Abbott Realty, based in Destin. As President and CEO of Abbott Resorts from 1992 until January 2000, Olin engineered the company’s growth from 900 units to more than 2,500 units, and real estate sales from $35 million to $250 million annually. Prior to joining Abbott Resorts, he served in various capacities within the tourism and economic development fields in Florida, beginning with the Florida Department of Commerce. Olin has been married for over 23 years to his wife June, and they have four children ranging in ages from 12 to 22.
Leonard Lodish, a chaired Marketing Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania was the former Chairman of the school’s Marketing Department. He is now the Vice Dean of Wharton West and the leader of Wharton’s Global Consulting Practicum that works with venture backed technology companies in Israel, Chile, Peru, Spain, China and India. A prolific author, Professor Lodish is internationally known for creating numerous marketing decision support systems as well as his research on marketing experimentation, entrepreneurial marketing, expert systems in marketing, and promotion and advertising decision support. He consults extensively with corporations around the world, and has worked with Procter & Gamble, Conagra and Merck, assisting them with marketing strategy, advertising and promotion decision support, among other issues. He is a director of numerous public companies including Information Resources, Inc., Franklin Electronic Publishers, Inc., and J&J Snack Foods, Inc.
Colin M. Evans is the Founder and Managing Partner of Sandwith Ventures, LLC, a San Francisco and Philadelphia based investment firm focusing on angel and early stage investments. Sandwith Ventures focuses investment in three main sectors: 1) retail and consumer oriented e-commerce; 2) Internet marketplaces and; 3) online marketing and advertising services. Previous to launching Sandwith Ventures, Colin was a Co-Founder, member of the Executive Team and Vice President of Sales and Business Development at StubHub.com, a successful online ticket exchange founded in 2000 and sold to eBay in early 2007. Colin oversaw four main functions while at StubHub including all sports and music sponsorships, business development partnerships, corporate sales and the LargeSeller program, which aggregated and serviced all the inventory providers on StubHub
Prior to StubHub, Colin worked as an Associate at TA Associates, a venture capital firm, at their headquarters in Boston. TA Associates provided late stage venture capital to high growth companies and Colin focused specifically on companies in the consumer products, financial services and business services industries. Prior to TA Associates, Colin worked at Bankers Trust (now part of Deutsche Bank) in the Private Equity division, BT Capital Partners. Colin graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with dual degrees in Economics, with Honors, and Bioengineering. Colin and Amy have a lot of family and friends in the Philadelphia area and split their time between the two cities.
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