team
Stephen Stokols, CEO
Stephen started his career with Accenture, where he helped to build its eBusiness group from the ground up. He left after 3 years to co-found JustWhatiWant.com, an online start-up profitably sold in 2000. Stephen went on to work briefly in venture capital for CMGI where he helped rationalize its online portfolio and focus ongoing investments. In this role, he later focused efforts on AltaVista, redefining its strategy and positioning it for its eventual sale. Stephen was subsequently lured to Qwest Communications where he revitalized Qwest's online presence as Director of eCommerce, growing online revenues from sub $10 million to over $220 million in under 12 months.
Stephen most recently served as BT's Senior Vice President of Strategy and Business Development. He joined BT in 2004 as its youngest VP leading BT's 450-person eBusiness unit where he increased eCommerce revenues 300% to over £1B. In January 2006, Stephen was promoted to his latest position with a focus on identifying disruptive business models and bringing to market progressive revenue streams. In this role, Stephen also drove execution and P&L for BT's disruptive mass market initiatives. He lead initiatives putting BT in the forefront of online communications, user generated content, online advertising and open WiFi resulting in 2007 revenues of £120M.
Stephen holds a MBA from UC Berkeley and a Masters in Finance from London Business School.
George Berkowski, Product Director
George started his career with Trilogy, Inc. in the U.S. before he was promoted to lead business development activities of the company's European headquarters in Paris. George then went on to serve as the VP of Marketing and Business Development at MirCorp, a start-up consultancy specializing in space tourism and extreme experiences (MirCorp made Dennis Tito the first space tourist by arranging his visit to the International Space Station). George also led the creation and delivery of numerous related campaigns for clients such as Sony, NBC Universal, MTV, Coca-Cola, RadioShack and Renault.
Most recently, George served as the Head of Internet Strategy for BT Retail where he lead e2e delivery of all consumer web applications, leading cross functional teams across IT, marketing and product development. George's most recent initiative, BTContact.com, a converged online communications hub, attracted over 100,000 users in less than 2 months and has received accolades from Telecom 2.0, TechCrunch, and Lightreading.com and was featured at the 2007 Future of Web Applications conference.
George holds an Masters in Business from Ecole Superieure de Commerce de Paris, and a Bachelors of Science in Aeronautics / Astronautics and Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Nic Ferrier, CTO
Nic is a hacker. He has worked on great big systems for the UK Civil Service, BT and Thompson and small applications as well as volunteer work for the GNU project. He's the sort of guy who will debug a java app - while it's still running inside the webserver or fix a display problem by changing the XSLT compiler. He is also capable of explaining what he's doing... or at least being entertaining while you don't understand him; he helped form the London XSL User's Group.
We know for a fact though that he's never watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the tannhauser gate.
Steven Sesar, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development
Steven brings to WooMe over 10 years experience in business development, product development and consumer marketing. Prior to WooMe, Steven led the business development efforts for Shopzilla, the Internet's leading comparison-shopping engine that was acquired by E.W. Scripps in 2005 for $585 million. Steven played an integral role in positioning Shopzilla for acquisition, brokering partnerships with leading media and technology companies including AOL, Viacom, HP, Lycos and Synacor. In 2006, Steven's role was expanded to lead consumer acquisition initiatives, where he leveraged innovative marketing practices resulting in significant revenue uplift.
Prior to Shopzilla, Steven co-founded GTI Solutions LLC, an IT consultancy. As General Manager, he grew the client base to include Oracle, Siebel Systems, AutoDesk and BEA Systems. Steven started his career with Arthur Andersen's Business Consulting group, where he served as the Technology, Media and Communications industry expert for the Los Angeles office and helped grow the business into a multi-million dollar unit. Steven also worked as a business development manager for technology startup Blue Wireless, where he was responsible for negotiating content licensing deals with companies including ESPN and Tribune Media and managing content partner relationships. Steven holds an MBA from UC Berkeley and a BS from UCLA.
