Mr. Leonard Armato - Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, Director and Tour Commissioner
Mr. Armato has been Chairman, Chief Executive Office, Tour Commissioner and a Director of the Company since 2001. Mr. Armato has been representing premier athletes for more than 15 years, including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Hakeem Olajuwon, Ronnie Lott, Oscar De La Hoya and Shaquille O'Neal. He has also represented companies such as Fila and LA Gear, in sports rights negotiations and sports marketing programs. In 1997, he partnered with Ericcson and Nike to create the World Championships of Beach Volleyball. As founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of MPE, Mr.Armato has specialized in transforming athletes and celebrities into worldwide brands by aligning such athletes and celebrities with coalitions of international advertisers. Mr. Armato founded AVP in 1983 and returned to the Company in 2001 to help revive the AVP Tour by utilizing his experience in creating global marketing and sponsorship relationships with premier national and multinational companies. Mr. Armato graduated from the University of the Pacific with a degree in History in 1975 and received his Juris Doctorate from the University of San Diego Law School in 1978.
Mr. Philip Guarascio - Director
Philip Guarascio has been a member of the board of directors of AVP since 2002. Mr. Guarascio has been a consultant for the National Football League since October 2000 and has been a consultant for the William Morris Agency, a talent agency, since October 2001. In 2000, he retired as the Vice President of Marketing and Advertising for General Motors' North American operations. Mr. Guarascio earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English at Marietta College in Ohio.
Mr. Michael C. Pearce - Director
Michael C. Pearce is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Golf Trust of America, Inc., a publicly traded company (ASE: GTA), since
November 2007 and previously served as an advisor to Golf Trust on matters pertaining to corporate development. He is also a private investor with
concentration in the securities of distressed publicly-traded companies, real estate and trust banking entities. He has served as Chief Executive Officer
of iEntertainment Network to complete a corporate recapitalization and repositioning of the company and Senior Vice President of Sales and
Marketing of publicly-traded Internet company, VocalTec Communications. He also has experience in various technology industry management
positions, including Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Ventana Communications (Thomson Corporation subsidiary), Vice President of
Sales at Librex Computer Systems (Nippon Steel subsidiary), and National Sales Manager at Hyundai Electronics America. Mr. Pearce attended
Southern Methodist University.
Mr. Jason Hodell - Director
Jason Hodell is the Founder and Managing Partner of Plainview Capital located in downtown Baltimore, Maryland. He has served as the Portfolio Manager of the firm’s investment funds from inception in 2003. Mr. Hodell was previously the Senior Director of Business Operations at Digex, a publicly-traded managed IT services and complex web-hosting firm that was acquired by MCI in 2003. Mr. Hodell also served in the Technology Investment Banking group of JPMorgan, Inc. where he focused primarily on technology mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Hodell received his
B.S. in Economics (Mathematical) from the United States Military Academy at West Point where he was awarded the Commandant’s wreath for
academic and military honors upon graduation. He served as an Infantry Officer in the U.S. Army and is Airborne Ranger qualified. He received his
MBA in Finance from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Mr. Jeffrey Jacobs - Director
Jeffrey Jacobs began his career as a litigator and then transitioned into sports law where he represented professional athletes and radio and
television personalities in their contract negotiations and career management. In 1984, he was hired by Oprah Winfrey as her personal attorney and
they co-founded and built Harpo Entertainment Group into a worldwide brand and media company. Mr. Jacobs left Harpo Entertainment Group after
18 years as President and is currently an adjunct professor of entertainment law at Loyola University Chicago School of Law. Mr. Jacobs’
philanthropic involvements include founding the CIVITAS INITIATIVE in 1993 and serving as a trustee of the University of Chicago Medical Center
and the Santa Barbara Children’s Museum. Mr. Jacobs is an investor in several media and sports entities, including the New York Yankees and Yankee
Entertainment Sports Network. Mr. Jacobs is a graduate of the Loyola Chicago School of Law.
Mr. Brett D. Yormark - Director
Brett Yormark is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Nets Sports and Entertainment. Prior to joining the Nets, Mr. Yormark was
vice president, corporate marketing, at NASCAR, from 2000 to 2005, and managing director, corporate marketing, at NASCAR, from 1998-2000.
Prior to joining NASCAR, Mr. Yormark was senior vice president for corporate marketing for the New Jersey Nets from 1995 to 1998 and vice
president for corporate marketing in 1994.
Mr. Steve Lindecke – Director
Steve Lindecke is co-founder and Managing Partner of the Elevation Group of Companies headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio. Prior to founding
Elevation, Mr. Lindecke was employed by IMG for 17 years as a Vice President and in various other capacities including event management, athlete
representation and national sponsorship sales. His business experience includes management of several Olympic sports tours, development and risk
management of developmental programs, representation of numerous Olympic athletes, and sales of sponsorship and endorsement rights. Mr. Lindecke
holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Case Western Reserve University and a Masters of Business Administration from
Weatherhead School of Management.
Mr. Nauman S. Toor – Director
Nauman S. Toor currently manages BlackRoot Capital, a private investment firm he founded. From April 2001 until December 2006 Mr. Toor
served as a Managing Director of Jefferies & Company, Inc., an investment banking firm. He was also previously the head of media investment
banking at Jefferies, where he began working in 1994. Mr. Toor began his career in investment banking with Kidder Peabody & Co. in New York. Mr.
Toor holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Ohio Wesleyan University and a Master’s degree in business administration from Harvard
Business School.
Mr. Jeffrey Wattenberg – Director
Jeffrey Wattenberg is a private investor and independent consultant to various entities seeking to raise venture capital for the past 20 years. He
founded Briefserve.com, the largest digital, legal brief archive in the United States, which was subsequently acquired by Westlaw. He was an early
stage investor and consultant to Kineret Kosher Foods which was acquired by Hain Foods and Celestial Seasonings. He was also an early stage
investor and consultant to two telecommunications companies: Worldport Communications, Inc., which was acquired by Energis UK, and
Interamericas Communications, which merged with ATT’s Latin American operations. He was the former Chief Executive Office and President of
Othnet, Inc., the entity with which AVP completed its reverse merger in 2005, and previously served on the board of directors of AVP, Inc. and the
State Street Ballet of Santa Barbara. Mr. Wattenberg earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Rochester and Pace
University.