crowdSPRING

After emigrating to the United States from Kiev, Ukraine in 1979, Ross dreamed about starting a technology business. For the past 13 years, as a successful trial attorney, Ross counseled and represented clients (from small internet startups to Fortune 100 companies) in complex disputes involving intellectual property in United States state and federal courts and before the World Intellectual Property Organization. In 2006, Ross was named an Illinois SuperLawyer® and one of “40 Illinois Attorneys Under Forty to Watch” for intellectual property and complex commercial litigation. Passionate about technology and realizing that his former law firm would never allow shorts and sandals at work (he tried), Ross decided to pursue his dream (and to change his wardrobe). Follow Ross on Twitter.

Mike is an Emmy Award® nominated Producer, and Production Manager with more than 20 years of experience as a senior manager in the film and television production industry. He has worked on dozens of feature film and television projects including "Wall Street," "Bull Durham," "Steven King's The Stand" (Miniseries), and "Men in Black II." In prime-time dramatic television, he supervised on TV series such as "New York Undercover" and "Third Watch."Mike has received numerous honors individually and as a team member, including an Emmy Award nomination, DGA awards, and a George Foster Peabody Award. Mike received his MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management. He is a member of the Directors Guild of America and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

Pete has over a decade of experience in building and marketing companies, both large and small. While at Leo Burnett in Chicago, Pete launched and managed national print, direct, radio and TV campaigns for Marlboro, Coca-Cola, Altoids and Delta Air Lines. Pete left Burnett to launch his own online businesses where he oversaw the development, branding and marketing of three online graphic design and printing businesses, which eventually became some of the largest printing sites on the internet.Most recently, Pete was Director of Marketing for 1-800-GOT-JUNK? in Vancouver where, after starting as the only person in marketing, he built the marketing department and led the startup's international expansion to three continents and helped take the organization from $12M in revenue to over $160M in just three years.

With a decade of PR and marketing experience, Bethany most recently was the Director of PR for Sittercity.com, where she landed large media appearances including The View, the Today Show, The Early Show, The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch and the Ellen DeGeneres Show, but will never reveal her secrets of how she did it. Bethany left Sittercity to teach the guys at crowdSPRING how to play ping-pong. Bethany's role as a Communications Manager for the National Restaurant Association Education Foundation led her to direct the marketing and PR efforts for both National Food Safety Education Month and the slightly more exciting Monterey Wine Festival (she barely remembers those years — that was some good wine!). Bethany honed her passion for media relations and over-the-top events first at Hauser-Bragg Communications and then at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide. She spent three years at University of Kansas cheering on the Jayhawks and then received her B.A. in Public Relations from Columbia College Chicago.

Tal colors outside the lines. He's been writing software since age 4, and has worked in areas as diverse as operating system drivers, 3D simulation, enterprise integration and social networking. Additionally, he's been a long-time contributor to open source and free software, and has written articles for JavaWorld magazine. Most recently, he's launched Three Crickets, a software house specializing in scalable backend technologies. When he's not coding, Tal works on completing his doctorate in cultural anthropology at the University of Chicago, getting his yoga teaching certification and self-producing his music. Other factoids: he speaks around nine languages, is a staff sergeant (now reserve) in the Israeli military, and has dreams about motorcycles and weather patterns. Unfortunately, Tal has no capacity for sarcasm, which makes it difficult for him to hold his own among the rapier wits of crowdSPRING's world-weary, wise-cracking team.

John is a true nomad. He came to the US from China at the age of 16, and while working towards his college degree, he enjoyed life and culture in Michigan, California, Utah, and Illinois. He eventually settled down and earned a computer science degree from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. While in school, he conducted research in GIS studies of archeology and animal diseases. Since graduation, he contributed to the success of several technology startups with his broad skills, leadership, and entrepreneurial spirit. When he's not pushing the boundaries of technology, John enjoys playing guitar and working on his secret video game project. He also enjoys many sports such as basketball and swimming. His current life-goal is to beat Jerome in ping-pong. The day of Jerome's fall is nigh.

Chris studied Religion, Philosophy and Anthropology before realizing that he really wanted to focus on Web Design (he first achieved the rank of Eagle Scout). Chris worked as a Web Designer at MSU Virtual University, was the Online Creative Director at The State News, a Web Designer for Jackson Community College and freelanced for some time before we persuaded him that he was making very risky career decisions and should come work instead in a stable environment of a brand new startup. Chris has a life-long passion for music, and when he's not playing with pixels at crowdSPRING he can usually be found listening, writing or recording in his spare time.

Jerome, the one and only Frenchman at crowdSPRING (his email signature is "The French Guy"), moved to Chicago 8 years ago. He was born and raised in Poitiers, strategically close to Cognac and Bordeaux. Jerome attended the Regional School of Fine Arts. Then, this musician, DJ, Sci-Fi geek, and art lover decided to start fresh in Chicago. After working for numerous companies such as Groove Distribution, Dr Wax and a few others, Jerome launched his own independent record labels (Still Music, Past Due and LFM) in 2004. Four years later, with more than a 100 artists, 3 groundbreaking compilations and DJ tours in Europe, Canada and the US, Jerome felt that only the smooth and laid-back atmosphere of a start up could meet his relentless need for challenges. Bien sur! Though Jerome has a managerial background in customer service for French corporation Vivendi, he was attracted to crowdSPRING mostly for the raging ping-pong competitions.

With a degree in Journalism and Public Relations from App State in hand, Kevin decided to leave his home in North Carolina and move to Chicago. After mastering public transit and winter, Kevin bounced from odd job to odd(er) job before finally settling down as the in-house copywriter for Mess Marketing. There, he worked on print, direct mail and online campaigns for Camel, Old Style, Kilo Kai and Riot Fest. Outside of work, Kevin can be found at any number of local shows, working on his comedy (?) blog, geeking out on comic books or planning his next tattoo. He's thinking something stately and timeless...Taz, perhaps?