Merrill Brown

Merrill Brown is the founder and principal of MMB Media LLC, which provides clients with management and strategy consulting, corporate, editorial and program development, business analysis and marketing services. Since the founding of MMB Media, clients have ranged from companies in the news, information and wireless businesses to a large foundation. Brown serves as Chairman of the Board of NowPublic.com, the leading citizen journalism company in the world.

Brown is also a partner in Propeller LLC, a New York consultancy, and served from 2005 through December 2007 as National Editorial Director of News for the 21st Century: Incubators of New Ideas (News 21), part of the Carnegie-Knight Initiative on the Future of Journalism Education.

Before establishing MMB Media, Brown served as Senior Vice President, RealNetworks’ RealOne Services from August 2002 through August 2003 and was responsible for all facets of the RealOne programming business including programming, subscription sales, marketing, advertising sales and technology. During his tenure, RealOne expanded subscription programming offerings in news, sports, entertainment and music and grew from 750,000 paid subscribers to over 1,000,000.

Brown became the first Editor in Chief of MSNBC.com in August 1996 after serving as acting managing editor for the July launch of the service. He became Senior Vice President in August 2000. During his tenure, the fledgling company grew to become one of the most visited news offerings on the Web, maintaining a position as the No. 1 online news provider since 1999.

Prior to joining MSNBC in May 1996, Brown was a media and communications consultant whose work included strategic development work at Time Inc., NBC, U S West and a score of other media ventures (1995-96). While at Time, he served as consulting senior editor of Money magazine, developing online and Internet services for the publication. He also served as acting editor for Time Magazine Daily (the periodical's daily online news operation) and as a consulting editor for Time magazine. During that time, Brown also served as a launch consultant for NBC Desktop Video, designing the network program plan and creating the network's on-air look for NBC's business news service delivered to personal computers.

Evan Clarrissimeaux

Chairman of the Board, Co-Founder, Senior Director, Mobile & Devices

As a founding member of Smashing Ideas, Evan comes with over 10 years experience in digital production managing major brand and entertainment property companies such as Disney, Nickelodeon, Ford, and Kraft among others. Having been involved with Macromedia Flash since its inception, he has built fun, interactive rich media for the web, TV and mobile devices working on such projects as Postopia.com and the Madonna "Music" video for Shockwave.com. Evan began as an educator at the Ethical Culture Schools in New York and later at the University Child Development School in Seattle focused on teaching art and technology to children. He has spoken at conferences both in the US and abroad.

Sandy Climan

Sandy is president of Entertainment Media Ventures, Inc., a Los Angeles-based company active in media investment and strategic advisory work, as well as motion picture and television production. Current EMV engagements include projects for Ford Motor Company, Harrahs Entertainment, Tanner and Haley Destinations Clubs, Turbine Entertainment, Saleen, Inc., Imagination Entertainment and Contemporary Services Corporation (CSC), the leading company in crowd management and hospitality services for live sports and entertainment events. In the worlds of film and television production, Mr. Climan most recently has been a producer of the Howard Hughes bodygraphical picture "The Aviator," directed by Martin Scorcese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, for which he received the British Academy Award and the Golden Globe in 2005. During the 2002-2003 television season, Mr. Climan served as co-executive producer of the CBS primetime series "Robbery Homicide Division," starring Tom Sizemore. Mr. Climan has also served as executive vice president and president of worldwide business development for Universal Studios, Inc. (formerly MCA, Inc.), where he oversaw corporate international strategy, strategic marketing and the following Universal Studios operating units: Consumer Products, Home Video, Pay Television, New Media and Spencer Gifts. Prior to Universal, Mr. Climan was a member of the senior management team at Creative Artists Agency, a leading talent and literary representation firm, working with both talent and corporate clients. Mr. Climan helped build CAAs corporate group from its inception, representing and advising a wide range of companies, including Sony, Matsushita, Coca-Cola, Credit Lyonnais, Seagram, COMSAT, Bell Atlantic, NYNEX and Pacific Telesis. As a talent agent, Mr. Climan represented many major actors, directors, writers and producers, including Danny DeVito, Robert De Niro, Robert Redford, Kevin Costner and Michael Mann.

Stephen Jackson

President & CEO

Steve joined Smashing Ideas in February 2005 having been active in the new media industry for over 12 years. Prior to joining Smashing Ideas, was President and CEO of Applied Semantics, a Santa Monica, CA-based producer of software applications (AdSense) for the online advertising, domain name and enterprise information management markets. The company realized a half billion unique impressions a month across its domain-name network, with a click-through rate of 50 percent on many of the listings. Applied Semantics was acquired by Google in 2003.

Before joining Applied Semantics, Steve served as senior vice president and general manager of iXL, Inc. during which time he created the global Media & Entertainment division, which produced innovative consumer-focused Internet sites and revenue-generating business-to-business online initiatives. Under Steve's direction, the division grew annual revenues from $2.5M to over $15M in under 18 months. iXL went public in 1999 and reached a market capitalization of $3.5 billion with 38 offices globally. An entrepreneur and early Internet provider, Steve was founder and CEO of Spin Cycle Entertainment which he sold to iXL. While overseeing the implementation of numerous Web sites for Spin Cycle clients, Steve directed and produced six TV shows for Universal Studios as well as the Microsoft television special on the launch of Windows 95. Steve's company (a Smashing Ideas client in 1998) was credited with creating Universal's first Java-enabled online game with Jurassic Park, as well as the first utilization of streaming audio for a Waterworld online game over nine years ago.

Luis Aguilar Lemarroy

Luis is a technology enthusiast. Prior to founding Alacos, he focused on implementing open source systems and applications in small and midsize corporations. He previously worked for SIEMENS for several years in Germany where he researched new technology trends. Recently he published an interactive training CD-Rom about how to use computers and created How to guides for installing Mail, WEB, FTP and DNS Servers in Linux Systems. His interest in making technology accessible to the developing world has led to his interest in the Open Source Movement and the Linux operating system. He was educated at the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich and holds a Masters degree.

Glenn Thomas

Glenn focuses on digital innovation and technology development for companies and brands around the world. Since 1994, he has developed best in class online media technologies and programs for clients such as Publicis, DoubleClick/Google, Yahoo/LaunchCast, Intel, Microsoft, Kraft, Disney, Nickelodeon, WeightWatchers.com, Microsoft, and Macromedia. He's a founder and board member of Smashing Ideas, an award-winning Flash interactive services company developing mobile gaming technology. He has authored or co-authored several books about using Flash for the web and mobile devices. He has been an advisory board member for SXSW Interactive and presented numerous panels on interactive media at conferences throughout the world.

Ben Yenter

Co-Founder and General Manager, Smashing Ideas Portland, OR Office

Ben's roots are in advertising and marketing and doing good things for good companies. In 1996 he co-founded Smashing Ideas Inc. and over the next 11 years built and managed relationships with a long list of fortune 500/1000 companies. In addition to a working in the private sector, Mr. Yenter has managed a variety of projects with non-profits and foundations including The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Nelson Mandela Foundation, The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations and AMIE, the American Moroccan International Exchange. In 2006 Mr. Yenter opened Smashing Ideas Portland to leverage the Portland talent pool. In an effort to develop relationships in adjacent markets and to establish new service offerings, he focused his efforts on the growing energy efficiency market, landing a three year contract to run the marketing of the Northwest ENERGY STAR Homes and Products Program. Mr. Yenter also serves on the Board of Directors of ITB, a Seattle based textile design and manufacturing company and on the Advisory Boards of Zotes Products LLC, a Salt Lake City, Utah based consumer products company, and Fluid Market Strategies Inc., a Portland, OR based environmental and energy efficiency program management consultancy.