PAST GUESTS
February Guests:
| February 5th: Joe Rejeski
Did you hear the one about the stand-up comedian who started a computer support firm? Five years ago, former stand-up comedian, Joe Rejeski, started the I.T. outsourcing and consulting firm, avenue X group. Avenue X group provides personable computer support and consulting for offices who need to be rescued from rude, incompetent network administrators. No geeks allowed. Only smart, friendly people who want to show you how to use technology to grow your business. In addition to working seven years as a comedian, and appearing in film, television and numerous commercials, Joe has worked in I.T. for seventeen years. He has supported and consulted with hundreds of companies, trained many I.T. professionals to become successful Microsoft Certified System Engineers (MCSE) and built a reputation for providing insightful, practical solutions to firms of all sizes. February 12th: Mistina Picciano Mistina Picciano offers more than 15 years of experience in marketing and corporate communications. As president and founder of Market It Write, she leads an integrated copywriting agency that provides a full line of advertising, writing, and publishing services for direct, traditional, and content marketing programs. In a former life, she managed one of "America's Greatest Brands" as vice president of communications at Guardsmark. Mistina fueled the firm's print-based content marketing campaign for nearly a decade before taking the entrepreneurial plunge in 2004. As a public speaker, Mistina educates business owners on improving communications and creating integrated marketing systems. She is a former board member of New York Women in Communications (NYWICI), where she still maintains active membership. Other professional affiliations include, the Association of Real Estate Women (AREW), and ASIS International. |
 Joe Rejeski
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February 19th: Financial Panel With: CPA, Michael Goldfine Financial Literacy Expert, Orly Amir |
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January Guests
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January 1st: George Bischof: George is an estate-planning attorney with offices in midtown Manhattan. His firm helps individuals and families with estate planning, including basic documents (wills, trusts, health-care proxies, and powers of attorney) and more sophisticated estate tax planning. The firm also represents estates in probate or intestacy. Specialized arrangements include life insurance trusts, special-needs/supplemental-needs trusts, and pet trusts. Specific client needs include planning for non-U.S. persons and same-sex couples. George received his J.D. from Yale Law School and then received an LL.M (in Taxation) from NYU School of Law; undergraduate degree was a B.A. in Philosophy, from Amherst College. George is a member of the American Bar Ass’n, the New York State Bar Ass’n, and the Ass’n of the Bar of the City of New York.
January 8th: Jena La Flamme Jena a certified weight loss coach with over 8 years of experience, and her own designer wellness center in the heart of Manhattan, called the Jena Wellness center. Jena serves busy professionals who want to lose weight, and keep it off, in a sane manner that doesn't keep them on a diet for the rest of their life, or feel like a full time job to maintain. In addition Jena is a writer. Her health columns are seen in Pilates Style and New York Spirit magazines and in her weekly "Secrets of Weight Loss” e-newsletter. She has also appeared in Glamor, on the Discovery Health Channel, in the Daily Times, Time out and more. You can learn more about Jena at www.jenawellness.com. |
 George Bischof
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January 15th: Michael Weitz Michael Weitz is a certified career, leadership, personal, and executive coach who goes beyond typical formulas to create fresh approaches for his individual clients. A leader in the coaching field, Michael’s methods draw upon the best from the disciplines of leadership, human behavior, coaching, adult learning, philosophy, science, and the arts. Clients work with Michael from around the world including the United States, Canada, the UK, Australia, Switzerland, Germany, Israel, Kuwait, Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, China and Japan. Corporate clients include leaders from the Boston Consulting Group, Brown Brothers Harriman, Computer Associates, KKR Capstone, The AXA Group, Swiss Re, The Hay Group, Columbia Business School, IMD, Hadassah College, Xerox, UBS, and Merrill Lynch. In addition to his corporate work, Michael privately coaches executives, entrepreneurs, and job changers in the areas of leadership, career, personal growth, and professional development. Michael has been featured in Fitness Magazine, The Coaching Show, WIBC Indianapolis, and Coach TV in the USA, as well as Maariv, The Jerusalem Post, The Calcalist, and Channel 3 Weekend News in Israel. His favorite media appearance of all was as a surprised passenger in the hit game show Cash Cab. Upcoming projects include working with the speakers of the TEDx Conference in Tel Aviv this April 2010. He is the outgoing Chair of the 2009 Global Marketing Committee for the International Coach Federation (ICF), and the past Vice President of the award-winning New York City chapter of the ICF. The ICF is the worldwide body for professional coaches with over 15,000 members in 90 countries. |
Michael Weitz
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January 22nd: Ruben Quinones Ruben Quinones joined Path Interactive in early 2007 and is currently Director of Sales and Social Media. In his strategic role, Ruben provides forward thinking leadership for the company’s social media marketing processes and manages the day to day social media operations for the firm. Ruben also is responsible for business development, consulting, and key project management for client Paid Search, Search Engine Optimization and Online marketing campaigns. A seasoned online marketing professional, prior to joining Path Interactive, Ruben’s related experience includes founding and marketing a one of the Internet’s first vertical search directories, directed at property managers, and was an advertising internet consultant for Verizon Information Services for national brands and small businesses. Ruben is also a blogger, contributing blogger, and prevalent speaker on Social Media topics. Ruben Quinones is a graduate of Nyack College in Nyack, NY. |
Ruben Quinones
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December Guests
December 4th Jay was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona. He attended the University of Arizona earning an undergraduate degree in English literature and Italian. He came to New York in August of 2000 to attend Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. Entered the world of private practice as a sole practitioner upon graduating and started his practice in Stamford, Connecticut helping corporations and individuals in distressed debt litigation. This slowly morphed into a focused practiced of mortgage foreclosure defense work. Jay moved to New York City having been hired to litigate a breach of a factoring agreement. This was his big entre into the commercial litigation that he practices today. He currently handles and oversees hundreds of lawsuits. He is licensed in both the State of Connecticut as well as New York and his clients range from fortune 500 companies to individuals merely seeking advice. December 11th: Eileen Lichtenstein Eileen Lichtenstein, MS.Ed., EFT-ADV is a Keynote Speaker, Seminar Leader, Peak Performance Success Coach and Consultant-Trainer. Her unique style blends mind-body modalities with traditional coaching-training competencies. The founder and CEO of Balance & Power, Inc. Eileen has been in the educational, training and coaching arena for 25 years as a former professor at Hofstra University, a biofeedback therapist and a graduate of Corporate Coach University. She creates and facilitates trainings and workshops for the corporate and private sector and is based in Baldwin, New York. Eileen believes inner strength and being centered are keys to life and business management: her work embodies stress-anger management/reduction and work-life balance for individuals and groups, developing strategies to facilitate success and has recently authored SOAR!™ with Resilience: The interactive book about Overcoming Obstacles& Achieving Success. December 18th: Sherman Pheiffer Sherman Pheiffer is a psychoanalytically trained psychotherapist and couples therapist with over 30 years of experience in private practice in New York City. His very extensive experience and years of psychoanalytic training have served to sharpen his "compassionate objectivity". His style is direct, honest and open. He calls it as he sees it. Sherman has been practicing psychotherapy and psychoanalysis since 1976. Sherman is the president of The Training Institute of the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis. He has two master's degrees, in psychology and social work and post-graduate training in psychoanalysis. He holds NY State licenses in Social Work and Psychoanalysis. He is currently on the faculties of three post-graduate psychoanalytic training institutes where he also serves as supervisor and training analyst. Sherman also has significant training and experience in couples councelling and Group Therapy.
November Guests:
| November 6th: Meredith Sobel
Meredith Sobel operates Sobel Wellness as a health minded personal chef and culinary nutritionist. Clients gain a wonderful new relationship with food while losing and maintaining weight. Her mission is to change her clients’ relationship with food and with life and foster the belief that healthy food does not have to be boring. She has been educated at both Columbia and Harvard and is currently a student at Columbia’s Teachers College in the Nutrition Education program. In addition to cooking in private homes and counseling, Meredith is a part time teacher in the HealthNET program with Columbia University’s Community Impact. She has lectured on issues in healthy lifestyle throughout New York City for Bloomberg, LP, The American Cancer Society and Barnard College. When not foraging one of New York’s Greenmarkets for the season’s best addition to a her clients’ weekly dishes, she’s biking around one of the five boros or training for a marathon. She’s a strong believer in never giving up and that you can have health at any size and that there’s a sexy, happy and assertive person within all of us. November 13th: Dr. Richard Atkins Dr. Richard J. Atkins is the founder / CEO of Improving Communications, a New York-based corporate education firm. He has had several New York-centered travelogue articles published in BMW Owners News. Rich has interviewed and written about numerous celebrity personalities including Vertical Horizon musicians Craig Macintyre and Matt Scannell, Rush's Neil Peart, Semisonic's Jacob Slichter, producer/guitarist Doug Derryberry (Bruce Hornsby's band), and luthier/guitar maker Michael Tobias. Dr. Atkins's Media Terrorism™ presentation has been delivered at Long Island University and other locations. He has been a guest panelist on News-12's Jobline, and has been quoted in articles appearing in South Florida's Sun-Sentinel, Long Island Business News, and the Erie Times-News. His doctoral research on canine learning styles was the subject of an article titled "One Size Does Not Fit All" in the March 2006 issue of Dog Fancy Magazine. Dr. Atkins is a member of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). Rich's other interests include: motorcycling (85,000+ miles), cigars, cheese, theater, antiques, genealogical research (12 generations of family tree so far...), and music (electric bass guitar and the Chapman Stick Touchboard). His travel destinations have included most of the United States, Mexico, Canada, Ireland, Northern Ireland, England, Scotland, France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Greece, and Turkey. Rich lives in New York with his wife Patricia, children Ciara and Robert, and their dog, Casey (who was one of the pets used to provide comfort and solace to survivors at the Family Center for victims of the World Trade Center attack).
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 Meredith Sobel
212-222-8187
Richard Atkins
516-317-2900
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November 20th: Valerie Gurka Valerie Gurka is the Founder of FearlessBusiness.com. She helps start-up companies grow their wings. She has an extensive background in sales strategy and corporate management. She was formerly the First Vice President of Sales Strategy at TD Ameritrade and has received #1 Ranking in Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine. She has an internet TV show every Wednesday at 1:30 PM called Fearless Business. |
 Valerie Gurka 212-879-6996
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October Guests
October 2nd: Cliff Rubin Cliff Rubin is the president and founder of JonasWeb Website Design, which is celebrating its tenth year in business designing websites for numerous different types of clients, from authors to musicians to varied small-to-medium-sized businesses, organizations and charities. JonasWeb offers everything a client might need, including hand-coded custom designed pages, Flash animation, custom scripting and programming, eCommerce solutions and web hosting; full web design services for sites that run the gamut from the most basic to the most complex. In addition to the requisite technical and design skills, Cliff prides himself on being reliable, responsible and easy to work with, traits that are not always easy to find in the technology field. Before Cliff began doing web design professionally, he was a musician and spent most of the 90's playing guitar and bass in a touring rock band, and can still be found making the occasional appearance on a New York City rock club stage. He lives just outside the city with his wife, two children, and turtle.
October 9th: Victoria Olsen Victoria Olson has invested fifteen years in providing preventative maintenance health care, in the form of direct body work, as a Licensed Massage Therapist. Through her work in New York City spas, salons, gyms, yoga studios, doctor’s offices, and private practice—plus volunteering at charity and sports events—she has personally touched tens of thousands of bodies; and through this touch has been granted access to dimensions of the human experience rarely exposed on a mundane level. Receiving the trust and openness of her clients, she has been able to penetrate deeply into hidden realms of body and mind, facilitating for her clients a more engaged experience of themselves. Victoria founded Tap Energy in 2007 to facilitate expansion of her healing work. She is mission oriented and passionate around Personal Toxic Waste Management. Her current focus is on nutritional cleansing and superfoods, assisting clients to create the brain chemistry of lasting satisfaction. Side effects can include weight reduction, greater ability to handle stress, increased immune protection, and reducing immediate and long-term medical issues/costs—and, most importantly, much more fun right now. Victoria specializes in utilizing simple, effective, viable measures to make her clients more available to themselves. October 16th: Mark Diaz Mark Diaz is the Head Strength Coach and owner of Physiqology, Inc. His experience in strength training and physical preparation spans a 26-year period. He played football and track and field throughout high school for the Sawyers in Saugerties, NY. He graduated in 1989. After a brief stint of active duty in the Navy, he walked on to the football team at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA. In 1994, Mark graduated with a Bachelor of Arts. He also graduated with an insatiable desire for knowledge of sports performance enhancement. In 1994, he became a certified personal trainer through the American Council of Exercise (ACE), and in 1995, a Medical Exercise Specialist (MES) through the American Academy of Health, Rehab, and Fitness Professionals (AAHRFP). Mark moved to New York City in 1996. He worked as a personal trainer at both Crunch Fitness and Equinox, and became a top producer and leading authority at both clubs. He formed his first company – Triskelion Strength – in 1997. He has worked with top level athletes in the NFL from the Arizona Cardinals, Green Bay Packers, and San Diego Chargers. From the NHL, Mark met and trained players from the St. Louis Blues. He also coached PGA pros. In the Olympic disciplines, he garnered experience with competitors in bobsleigh, hockey, long jump, luge, pole vault, and sprinting. Mark is also a permanent member of the Poliquin Strength Institute staff of instructors. He has written columns for New York fitness magazines, www.charlespoliquin.com, and www.realfighting.com. His specialty, in his own words, is physiqology – the science of personal training. When athletes, corporate executives, and weekend warriors want an integrated, scientific approach to fitness, they call Mark Diaz at Physiqology. Mark Diaz October 23rd: Bryan Adams Bryan R. Adams is the Founder/Publicist FAB Communications, Inc. Prior to founding the FAB Communications, Bryan R. Adams worked exclusively in the music industry. Beginning in 1990, he was responsible for developing and enhancing the public profiles of many recording artists. As Manager of Media Relations at Tommy Boy Music, he worked with Coolio, RuPaul, Naughty By Nature, Queen Latifah, De La Soul, and House Of Pain. Bryan was responsible for Coolio’s first national magazine cover. Bryan’s love of networking enabled him to expand his vision and client base. A respected publicist, Mr. Adams has appeared on panels at the College Music Journal Convention, Philadelphia Music Conference, and Vibe Music Seminar and has lectured at churches, colleges, and small business workshops in the New York area. In 2007, he became a volunteer instructor at the Support Center for Non Profit Management. He has interviewed Dick Gregory, noted authors Karl Evanzz and A.J. Franklin, advertising pioneer Byron Lewis, popular ABC News anchor Robin Roberts, and boxer Ruben “Hurricane” Carter during his stint as a journalist. He is a film buff. In 1999, FAB Communications served as the casting director for a series of MTV AIDS testing awareness PSA’s, directed by Joel Schumacher (“St. Elmo’s Fire,” “Falling Down”). As a member of a local film club, he was able to produce his first short film in 2006.
September Guests:
| September 4th: Evan Swartz
Evan Swartz is Director of Business Development at Sign Expo Tribeca. Evan enjoys helping his customers succeed by developing the right solution for their business. Evan has knowledge in all aspects of signage and graphics from design, fabrication, permitting and installation. You owe it to your business to contact Evan. SignExpo is a family-owned business which has kept its headquarters in Tribeca, New York, for over 25 years, specializing in high quality signage solutions. Sign Expo has solutions for the diverse business environment in the city from props for the film industry to wrapping entire buildings with digital printed media. Our graphic designers, technicians, engineers and installation experts will work with you to design and install the most effective sign for your business. Originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Evan obtained degrees in both Marketing and Psychology from Philadelphia University. He is a now resident of Queens, New York where he resides with his wife and daughter.
September 11th: Henry Berzinn Henry Berszinn has invested 20 years in creating learning motivation and sales incentive programs for manufacturing, financial services, health care and pharmaceutical companies. He founded Professional Motivation Technologies (PMT) in 1992. PMT has pioneered in combining quizzes with incentives to motivate sales people to familiarize themselves with the products they are selling. He grew up on small dairy farm in Sullivan County, NY. Henry studied engineering at Columbia University before switching to NYU and graduating with a BA in Economics. He Served in US Army in South East Asia and Attended Baruch College received Masters in Public Administration. Henry was the First coordinator of Veterans Affairs at Baruch College Henry contributed a chapter called "Motivating Field Marketing Intelligence" to Global Corporate Intelligence. His programs have been featured in Marketing News, Training, Sales and Marketing Management, The Successful Dealer and Incentive. Henry is married (33 years next week) with 2 adult children. His wife, Mary Ann Lee, is a Career Transition Consultant for the Alumni Affairs Unit of Ernst & Young. His business Philosophy is Under promise – Over Deliver. The customer always comes first.
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 Evan Swartz
212-925-8585
evan@signexpo.com
Henry Berzinn
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September 18th: Joe Rejeski Did you hear the one about the stand-up comedian who started a computer support firm? Five years ago, former stand-up comedian, Joe Rejeski, started the I.T. outsourcing and consulting firm, avenue X group. Avenue X group provides personable computer support and consulting for offices who need to be rescued from rude, incompetent network administrators. No geeks allowed. Only smart, friendly people who want to show you how to use technology to grow your business. In addition to working seven years as a comedian, and appearing in film, television and numerous commercials, Joe has worked in I.T. for seventeen years. He has supported and consulted with hundreds of companies, trained many I.T. professionals to become successful Microsoft Certified System Engineers (MCSE) and built a reputation for providing insightful, practical solutions to firms of all sizes. |
Joe Rejeski www.AvenueXgroup.com
(866) 4IT- HELP
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