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Robert S. Marshall, President & CEO

Bob Marshall co-founded AWS in 1993 and currently serves as the company's president and CEO. Marshall pioneered the networking of weather instrumentation and cameras using the Internet, and has built this capability into the single largest network of weather stations and Internet cameras in the world. Marshall is responsible for the business strategy and operations of the company, and has led AWS to become one of the largest private weather media companies by building a series of unique and profitable business units.

Marshall led the conception and growth of the WeatherBug desktop application,
which was launched in 2000. With more than 34,000,000 downloads to date, WeatherBug has become one of the top news and information sites on the Internet (comScore Media Metrix). Marshall established WeatherBug as the leader in the
rapid rise of desktop applications, and through the development of unique capabilities such as life-saving alerts and storm warnings, AWS has defined WeatherBug as a top Internet media property and the premiere Internet desktop application.

In the field of education, Marshall founded AWS on the vision to improve math and science in schools through the use of engaging, live, local weather information. Marshall leads the growth of AWS in education, and WeatherBug Achieve is now used in more than 7,000 member schools nationally. It has won numerous educational awards including the Media and Methods Educational Technology of the Year award in 2002, and the District Administrator award in 2003. Marshall was recognized as the award recipient of the State School Boards National "Friends of Education" award in 2003, a distinction awarded to Bill Gates in 2002.

In broadcast television, Marshall defined AWS as the leading provider of real-time, local weather and applications for broadcast television. The on-air programming has grown to over 100 broadcast partners nationally, reaching nearly 80,000,000 US households every month.

In 2002, the company signed a milestone agreement for Homeland Security with the National Weather Service to provide the critical weather data from its unique network to the Federal Government for the protection of lives and property.

Outside AWS, Marshall currently serves as chairman of the Committee on Technology Education (COTE) in the state of Maryland, under the Maryland Business Roundtable for Education (MBRT). The COTE committee is responsible for the development, implementation and monitoring of the "Maryland Plan for Technology in Education." Marshall also serves on the Advisory Board for The Johns Hopkins University Center for Technology in Education, a premiere educational technology research organization.

Prior to launching AWS, Marshall served as a program manager and lead engineer at BBN (formerly Bolt, Beranek and Newman, the company credited with starting the Internet) on a number of advanced military sensor, signal processing and networking programs. Marshall is a cum laude graduate of the University Of Maryland College of Engineering.

Christopher D. Sloop, Senior Vice President, CTO
Chris Sloop is one of the original founders of AWS and currently serves as the company’s chief technology officer. Sloop is responsible for the technical development of all AWS products. Sloop is the original developer of the AWS Airwatch System and was responsible for developing AWS’ innovative broadcast and Internet technology. In addition to engineering management, Sloop is proficient in C++, MS SQL, ASP, JAVA, and HTML. Sloop is a magna cum laude graduate of the Millersville University of Pennsylvania with a B.S. in Physics and Computer Engineering.

 

Andrew G. Jedynak, Senior Vice President and General Manager
Andy Jedynak has directed the growth of the WeatherBug from a concept in 2000 to one of the top Internet properties worldwide. Jedynak joined the company in 1999 to build its business development initiatives. In addition to his current responsibility for the consumer business division, he is actively involved in AWS’ business growth and expansion efforts, forging strategic alliances, and building new revenue streams.

Prior to joining AWS, Jedynak spent nine years at NBC working within a number of disciplines, including sales, marketing and television producer. Later, as manager of New Media, he developed what was widely considered NBC's most profitable and innovative local Internet business. He was a key player within the NBC Television Stations Division, acting as project manager for Internet product development, and introducing a number of New Media and cross-media “best practices.”

In his role in the New Media and Television industries, Jedynak has spoken before a number of audiences, including Internet World, the Association of National Advertisers, the iMedia Summit, The Ad Club, the World Research Group’s National Online Privacy Conference, and the National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE).

Jedynak graduated from the University of California in 1988 with a double emphasis: Communications and Computer Science. While there, he was editor in chief of “Informative Network on Computers”, a pre-World Wide Web online and print publication which focused on and predicted the evolving role of Internet in everyday life. His papers include “The Role of the Sponsor in the Evolution of Internet as a Fourth Mass Medium” in 1988.

Before beginning his career in Television and New Media, Jedynak played professional basketball in Europe.

 

Daniel W. O'Connell, General Counsel and Chief Privacy Officer
Daniel W. O'Connell was appointed general counsel and chief privacy officer of AWS in January, 2004 after previously serving as the company’s vice president, Finance and Administration. He is responsible for overseeing all of AWS’s legal and legislative affairs, and heads up the company’s industry leading online privacy efforts through interaction with key industry leaders, regulators and legislators. In addition, O’Connell advises on and supports the company's strategic financing and business development initiatives. O’Connell joined AWS in November, 1999.

Prior to joining AWS, O’Connell spent 12 years in the private practice of law, representing corporations and individuals in a variety of civil and commercial matters. He holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Villanova University's School of Commerce & Finance, and a JD from The Catholic University of America's Columbus School of Law.

 

John M. Saaty, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer
John M. Saaty joined AWS in January 2002 as vice president, Marketing and Strategy. In November 2002, Saaty became senior vice president, WeatherBug Business Division where he directed WeatherBug business units covering education, business services, and media services. In January 2005, Saaty became chief marketing officer, overseeing all marketing and business development activities across the company.

Prior to joining AWS, Saaty was vice president of Marketing for Cysive, Inc., a multi-channel software solutions builder in Reston, VA., where he was responsible for building and managing comprehensive corporate marketing, business development, and product marketing capabilities, as well as directing the company through an IPO and a secondary offering to raise $180MM. Previously, Saaty was brand manager with Intel Corporation where he was responsible for brand management and marketing programs for microprocessors such as the Pentium Pro, Pentium with MMX Technology, Pentium II and Pentium III, as well as Intel chipsets.

Saaty has an MBA with dual majors in marketing and entrepreneurial management from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

 

John Doherty, Senior Vice President, Professional Services
John Doherty joined AWS as Vice President, Government Services in 2002 after a 20-year career at AT&T. Doherty headed up the sales and marketing of AWS' weather data product services for Homeland Security and government use. In January 2005, Doherty was promoted to senior vice president responsible for AWS Professional Services which includes the Business Services, Education, and Government Services business units.

In his most recent role, Doherty served as vice president of Government Markets at AT&T. In this position, he was responsible for directed sales, program management, marketing and new business development for AT&T's public sector procuring over $850MM in annual revenues. He held a number of other positions at the telecommunications giant where he led sales and marketing to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, NASA, the Department of Energy, Interior, Agriculture, State, Health and Human Services and the EPA.

 

Rich Spaulding, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Rich Spaulding joined AWS in June 2004. Spaulding is responsible for leading AWS's overall financial, human resource, legal and administrative organizations. Prior to joining AWS, he was senior vice president and CFO with ePresence, Inc. (nasdaq:EPRE) where he played an integral role in its initial public offering and the ultimate sale of the business to Unisys in June 2004. He also played an integral role in the IPO of ePresence’s internet subsidiary Switchboard, Inc. (nasdaq:SWBD) in March 2000, which raised nearly $100MM to support Switchboard’s future expansion. Spaulding was a member of Switchboard’s Board of Directors until its ultimate sale to Infospace in June 2004.

Prior to joining ePresence, Spaulding held several management positions with C.R. Bard Inc. and was a certified public accountant with Arthur Andersen and Company. Spaulding holds a BS with honors from Wake Forest University and an MBA with distinction from Babson College.

 

Michael Rosen, Senior Vice President, Advertising Sales & Marketing
Michael Rosen joined AWS in January 2005 to lead the national advertising sales organization.

Rosen, previously senior vice president, Media Sales & Marketing for Bloomberg L.P., created the first formalized marketing department for Bloomberg Television and Radio and oversaw all Bloomberg advertising sales: Internet, radio, print and television. Prior to running media sales, Rosen grew the distribution of Bloomberg Television in the US, which realized significant double digit growth under his leadership.

Prior to joining Bloomberg in 2000, Rosen served as director of Marketing and Business Development for News Corporation’s News Digital Media Group. There he created Fox’s first Internet strategy for their Owned & Operated Fox Broadcast television stations. Previously, Rosen worked at Showtime Networks, Inc. in numerous capacities including sales, marketing and Interactive development.

Rosen earned an MBA in Marketing from NYU Stern School of Business and his undergraduate degree from Syracuse University. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Financial Communication Society and is active in many industry organizations including The Ad Council, the Cable Advertising Bureau, the Association of National Advertisers, and the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM).

 
 
 
© AWS Convergence Technologies, Inc. 2005