Dave Gentry, President of RedChip Companies
M.A. Education, University of Florida Dave Gentry received his Masters of Education from the University of Florida in 1993. After teaching English at a public high-school for four years, he co-founded the First Amendment Coalition in 1994. He has received national and international attention for his work in defending free-speech rights on college campuses. His work with the First Amendment Coalition has been written about in the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, the London Times, and several other publications. He is a published writer and has appeared on numerous radio talk shows, including The Voice of America and the Kamber O'Leary Report. In 1996, he earned the Republican nomination for the 5th district of Florida in a run for the U.S. House of Representatives. Though he did not win the general election, he used his experience to further his career in public relations. After spending five years as an investor relations professional, he founded the Aurelius Consulting Group in 2001 and purchased RedChip Companies in August 2005.
Sanford Diday, Executive Vice President B.A. Political Science, Philosophy & Religion, Mary Washington College Prior to joining RedChip Companies, Mr. Diday served as a Regional Manager for the acclaimed national franchise Geeks on Call America, Inc. ®. As a Regional manager, Mr. Diday advised franchisees on operational effectiveness and efficiencies, and managed the build-out and operational success for more than ninety franchises nationwide. In addition, he drafted, updated, and implemented strong operational business plans and effective sales training programs both for new franchise owners and for franchisees looking to expand their business. His experience includes more than fifteen years in the development of operations, sales, marketing, and media departments. Mr. Diday earned a bachelors degree in Political Science from Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, Virginia, as well as a Minor, and other course work, in Philosophy and Religion. After joining RedChip Companies, Mr. Diday rapidly established himself as a leader among the management team as the Managing Director. He quickly advanced to the position of Executive Vice President where he has been active in developing and successfully implementing RedChip's renewed and burgeoning conference enterprise. Further, Mr. Diday has overseen the sales, marketing, and IT operations departments, and has been instrumental in helping the company meet and exceed both previous and new performance levels throughout the company. Mr. Diday enjoys reading history, philosophy, religion, and business and personal excellence literature. In addition, he enjoys golf, soccer, football, and lifting weights. He is also an avid wine collector who enjoys viticulture.
Brad Kline, Vice President of Sales
B.A. Finance, Liberty University Mr. Kline began his career in financial public relations in 1996. Prior to joining RedChip Companies, Mr. Kline served as the Regional Sales Manager for First Fidelity Financial Group. He is a registered representative securities broker holding series 7 & 24 licenses. Mr. Kline joins RedChip as the Vice President of Sales leading the expansion of the sales and investment banking divisions. He earned a B.A. in Finance from Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia.
Jason (Zesen) Chen, President of RedChip China
Ph.D. Mathematics, University of Massachusetts Dr. Chen was the pioneer that introduced commercial Internet technology to China in 1994-1995. He co-founded the first Chinese Internet company GC Information to integrate telecommunication and Internet services. In 2000, Dr. Chen co-founded the financial service solution company Northern Star to introduce financial engineering technology to China. Dr. Chen also worked at Northern Jiaotong University and Shanxi province central planning committee. In the U.S., Dr. Chen served as a senior scientist for AT&T labs, Associate director for SBC business marketing and other positions in the hi-tech industry and in academia. Dr. Chen invented over twenty U.S. patents across telecom, networking, and multimedia industries. Dr. Chen holds his Ph.D in mathematics from the University of Massachusetts (Amherst, MA), MS from Northern Jiao-Tong University (Beijing) and B.S from the University of Science and Technology of China (Hefei).
Jon Cunningham, Director of Investor Relations
B.S. Health Science, Western Illinois University Prior to joining RedChip Companies, Mr. Cunningham was a registered investment advisor for the Principal Financial Group and held series 7, 52, 63, 65 licenses, as well as Life and Health insurance licenses. Prior to joining Principal, Mr. Cunningham was a stockbroker for Olde Discount Corporation. Earlier in his career Mr. Cunningham managed the Midwest Division of Quality Assurance for Amtrak in Chicago. In his spare time, he enjoys running.
John Welch, IT Director
B.S. Aerospace Engineering, Tri-State University. Prior to joining RedChip Companies, Mr. Welch developed applications for a 5 billion dollar/year mortgage banker and was a programmer with the Ohio state software development team for Ohio schools' accounting systems. In addition to his experience in the IT field, Mr. Welch held engineering positions in the plastic injection molding industry, included co-founding Spectrum Design Group Inc., a full service engineering design firm. Mr. Welch joined RedChip Companies in September 2007, where he oversees all IT operations of the company and maintains its corporate and affiliate websites: www.redchip.com, www.runonideas.com, and www.aurcg.com. Mr. Welch earned his B.S. degree in Aerospace Engineering from the Tri-State University in Angola, Indiana and has completed extensive course work in software development.
Jeff Dashefsky, Associate Director
B.S. Biology, University of Hartford Mr. Jeffrey M. Dashefsky recently completed work for a full service SEC law firm that specialized in all matters pertaining to publicly traded companies. Mr. Dashefsky has an extensive background in the health care industry. From 1990-2000, he was the regional manager for Surf Drug and Medical, a multi-services provider, selling pharmaceuticals, durable medical equipment, respiratory services, home health, disposables, and infusion services. The targeted accounts were physicians, medical centers, skilled nursing facilities, outpatient clinics, and managed care insurance groups. Mr. Dashefsky earned a BS in biology from the University of Hartford. Mr. Dashefsky completed the paramedic program at the University of Maryland, College Park.
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