Robert DeFranco, Co-founder, CEO

Robert DeFranco is the CEO of 211me, a celebrity iPhone applications company. 211me creates unique and engaging celebrity-based iPhone applications so that fans and actors, musicians, and athletes can connect in a more immediate and personal way.

Mr. DeFranco was previously the VP, Business Development for MobileLime, a mobile payment and marketing company before founding 211me in 2007. Mr. DeFranco worked for several high-tech companies in the communications, media and e-commerce verticals, including Troux Technologies, Vcommerce, and FirstSource.

Robert started his career in the entertainment industry in film and TV production, working on more than 30 films, television shows and commercials. He eventually co- founded the entertainment company, Division 1 Entertainment, and co-wrote and directed the film TELLING YOU and sold the film to Miramax Films.

Robert holds a BA in Telecommunications and Electronic Media from The Ohio State University.

Mark Pirri, Principal Software Engineer

Mark leads our iPhone mobile application development team. A long-time Apple developer and early iPhone adopter, Mark previously led a team of developers at a Portents, LLC, a storage management/contracting company which he co-founded in 2002. During his tenure, he was responsible for architecting and building a number of advanced systems with beautiful and functional user interfaces. He has also designed and worked on applications for the BlackBerry and Palm OS platforms.

Mark holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Heidi Lehmann, Industry Advisor

Founder, CEO of MoxieQ

Heidi E Lehmann is an experienced marketing technology entrepreneur with a specialty in selling through emerging technologies and media to ad agencies and brands and establishing key strategic relationships that enable rapid scale and industry credibility.

Currently Heidi is the founder and CEO of MoxieQ, a mobile centric entertainment destination with a “gay sensibility” that is a blend of original and syndicated content and targets one of the most affluent and influential demographics in digital media. MoxieQ launched in May 2009 at the NYC and LA GLAAD Media Awards and includes content partners such as GLAAD, Ryan and Caroline, LOTL, Witeck Combs and Weatherbug. MoxieQ has a cross platform presence across mobile phones and the PC.

Previous to MoxieQ, Heidi was the co-founder and VP Strategic Alliances for Third Screen Media, a mobile software and services company that sold to AOL in May 2007. At Third Screen Heidi was responsible for building out its network of Tier A publishers that included Weather Channel, CBS, ESPN, USA Today, and Fox, and establishing the first ever carrier advertising pilots with both Sprint and Verizon, which led to Verizon being a hard won carrier partner. Heidi also established pilots and relationships with the major on-line portals, in particular Yahoo and AOL, which eventually went on to buy TSM.

Prior to Third Screen, Heidi was a partner and head of operations at New York based Emerging Interest, a marketing technology consultancy whose core product was a business accelerator “road show” that strategically linked different emerging technology companies with decision makers at over 150 advertising agencies and brands nationwide. Over 500 road shows were produced within a two year period and many new emerging technology companies got their first agency or brand opportunity as a result.

Heidi has also led business development and sales at early-stage Boston-based emerging technology companies Artificial Life, a natural language and discourse management "bot" company and Kaon Interactive a 3-D object capture technology; as well as Westborough MA based Autosite.com which sold to Autoweb in 1999.

Heidi has a Bachelor of Arts from Hood College and a certificate in film production management from UCLA. She currently splits her time between New York City and Kansas City. She loves museums and BBQ.

Scott Bernstein, Industry Advisor

Vice President, Global Marketing
National Amusements, Inc.

Mr. Bernstein leads National Amusements US and International marketing teams worldwide, including overall responsibility for National Amusements marketing plans and execution, brand management and the marketing and promotion of new concepts.  Scott reports to National Amusements’ President Shari Redstone.

Prior to joining National Amusements, Scott created and managed Blitz Live, the integrated media division of Blitz Media, Inc. Blitz Live specializes in helping companies effectively use alternative media and promotions to increase brand awareness and drive traffic in the increasingly crowded and competitive marketplace.  While at Blitz Media, Scott produced national and regional promotional campaigns for Wendy’s, Comcast, Bose, Nantucket Nectars and Qdoba Mexican Grill.

Previously, Scott served as US Marketing Director for the Hard Rock Café, International where he developed promotional programs in over 40 markets and spearheaded all new store openings domestically and internationally. He also managed programs and events on behalf of Hard Rock that included Hard Rock Live!, a live concert television series on VH-1, AVP Pro Beach Volleyball and the Triple Crown of Skateboarding US Championships. Scott also served as Vice President of Marketing for Drive One, a venture backed consolidator in the driver training industry and as Marketing Director for the Comedy Connection chain of comedy clubs. 

Scott graduated from the University of New Hampshire Whittemore School of Business with a B.S. in Business Administration in 1986 and currently tours on speaking and consulting engagements on emerging marketing technologies for the American Marketing Association, the National Center for Sales Strategy, the Ad Club of Boston and Emerson College.

Jeremy Cornfeldt, Industry Advisor

Senior Vice President, General Manager
Carat Fusion, New York

Jeremy is responsible for overall management of the Carat Fusion New York office. In this role, Jeremy manages the office operations including oversight of the 60 employees, management of revenue goals and he serves as a strategic lead on clients that include Pfizer, Alberto Culver and Wyndham Hotels Group. In addition to serving as General Manager, Jeremy is also a key member of the Executive Leadership team for Carat Fusion and helps to shape the agencies overall strategic direction and position in the marketplace.

Prior to managing New York operations, Jeremy was responsible for managing the National Search and Affiliate Marketing team which included defining overall vision and search and affiliate marketing strategies that integrate with other Carat Fusion online and Carat offline services. His extensive marketing experience enabled him to help craft solutions for clients where search is not only an integral part of the marketing mix, but also supports the other online and offline efforts being executed by Carat. Jeremy developed a web audience growth strategy to support AOL’s strategy shift of providing their content to the general Internet population. This strategy helped AOL achieve double digit increases in online ad spending in ’06. Other clients he worked with include Wachovia, John Deere, Napster, Equifax, RE/MAX, Gateway, TiVo, Motorola, and Hyatt.

Before coming to Carat Fusion Jeremy worked for Vizium. There he built and managed the affiliate marketing practice. He also implemented consulting methodologies and established relationships with technology partners. Prior to Vizium, Jeremy worked for Andersen Consulting in on project teams where he implemented quality initiatives on client engagements including quality plans, performance metrics, expectations management and quality assessment reviews. He delivered the quality services throughout the life of the engagement by facilitating large group meetings and one-on-one training sessions with the project teams and the clients.

Before Andersen Consulting, Jeremy worked for the Forum Corporation where he was responsible for staffing client projects sold throughout the US, Canada, Europe, and South America, representing $25 Million in revenue. Other past clients include Home Depot, Vanguard, Bristol Myers Squibb, Merck, DuPont, American Express, Texaco, National Bank of New Zealand, Xerox, and Delta.

Jeremy enjoys skiing, fishing, and going to the beach and spending time with his wife and daughters. He earned his Bachelors of Arts in Communications from Bradford College and his Masters of Arts in Communication—Magna Cum Laude from Emerson College.