Michael Rybarski
Michael is Chairman, and co-founder of TributeDirect, Inc. the nation’s first nationwide, direct-to-consumer provider of a complete suite of end of life products and services, including funeral advice and planning, funeral and memorial products and financial instruments and tools.
Prior to Tribute, Michael served as Chairman of VMG International, a firm that invests in, and participates in the commercialization of technology and startup companies. Directly relevant to his role at TributeDirect, he consulted to, and subsequently served as Chief Marketing Officer, Worldwide, of Service Corporation International (SCI), the world’s largest funeral services company.
At SCI, Michael created the Dignity Memorial brand, which is now carried by the 1,200 SCI United States funeral homes. Dignity-Branded funeral homes provide the majority of SCI’s approximately $2 billion in annual revenues. Through its innovative package concept, Dignity programs added in their first year, approximately $90 MM in operating profit to the firm. Mr. Rybarski also supervised the marketing strategy for SCI’s National Cremation Society, its cemetery division, and pre-need insurance sales forces.
David Gow
David has directly relevant experience in taking startup companies through a successful IPO, and creating financing and financial systems and models for startup as well as large corporations. David was the CFO who took Ashford.com, the leading Internet site for selling luxury and upscale products, through its successful and very large IPO. David was also the CEO of Ashford as he transformed the company into an integrated Internet, retail and corporate sales firm before he sold it to GSI Commerce.
Prior to Ashford, David was the Director of Strategic Planning for Compaq Computers, and also head of sales operations planning for the North American Division of Compaq. David came to Compaq from McKinsey and Company, the strategic consulting firm, where he had worked on strategic planning issues for Compaq and other firms. David holds a Masters from Harvard University. He received a B.A. in economics from Williams College.
William Walker
Bill is an entrepreneurial attorney who specializes in company structure and mechanisms for private and public offerings. Bill has used his background as a former SEC attorney to help launch numerous businesses. His special expertise is in creating new business opportunities and legal structures to support those opportunities. Bill has broad experience in IP licensing. Bill is a Founding Partner in VMG and received his J.D. from the University of Houston
Martin Estill
As CEO of EmLogis, Martin brings over 25 years experience in providing comprehensive sales, marketing and strategic management solutions to technology and energy companies. Having served in the roles of Founder, CEO or Vice President of Sales and/or Marketing of several small to medium sized technology companies, he has extensive real world, first-hand experience in successfully starting and running businesses.
Martin’s comprehensive business background delivers unique insights essential for an integrated sales and marketing effort such as “go-to-market” strategies for new products or new companies. Companies that Martin has worked with include JD Edwards (NASDAQ), Maverick Geophysics (Petroleum GeoServices: NYSE), Neon Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ) and GeoQuest Systems (Schlumberger: NYSE). His first career was in oil and gas exploration where he was a principal in an independent oil and gas company. Martin is a Founding Partner of VMG International. VMG is the group that acquired the purchase rights to the OWS assets and created the initial business plan and research for EmLogis. Martin has a Bachelor of Science degree from San Diego State University.
Glenn Massey
Glenn is President and CEO, and co-founder of TributeDirect, Inc. Prior to Tribute, Mr. Massey founded Smoke Signal Communications, a registered CLEC, and a provider of Pre-Paid Local Dial Tone to consumers. Glenn grew Smoke Signal from startup to $70 MM in revenues in four years.
Directly relevant to his role at TributeDirect, Glenn utilized direct response television advertising and a strictly monitored cost per customer acquisition model to build Smoke Signal’s sales. Ultimately, Smoke Signal was generating 23,000 calls per day through its self-developed and managed call center consisting of more than 400 employees.
As Vice President for Western Media, International, the country’s largest marketer of direct response television advertising, Glenn had access to perhaps the most sophisticated media buying systems in the country. He was responsible for $50 MM in Account Media Management with clients that included Toyota, the US Armed Forces, and Nextel.
