Our Team

Jay Schaefer is a former Chief Technology Officer for United Entertainment Media and Director of Internet Services and Technologies for Miller Freeman Inc./CMP publishing. Jay's experience includes over twenty years of software development ranging from embedded systems to database applications to online systems. Since 1990, Jay has been developing information systems using Internet technologies; he has spent the last six years developing, maintaining, and managing the technology supporting 300 plus commercial web sites serving over 3,000,000 pages per day in a 7x24 online environment. Jay has been the primary architect of highly redundant and scalable web systems that incorporate n-tier Perl and Java based applications connected to relational databases. He has managed both internally and externally hosted data centers and has experience with engineering and implementing Internet/Intranet/Extranet (EDI) applications, cost savings analysis and implementation, budget development and management, web site integration with back office functionality (Oracle financials, fulfillment, etc.), disaster recovery planning and business resumption, business analysis, 7x24 operations, mergers and acquisitions, business process re-engineering, and staff development. During his ten years with Lockheed, Jay provided internal consulting and systems engineering services for hardware and software based land, air, and space systems. From 1986 thru 1989, he was one of three partners in Advanced Timing Systems, manufactures of drag strip timing equipment. During this time, Jay was responsible for systems engineering and embedded systems programming. Jay received a BS degree in Meteorology from San Jose State University in 1985.

Sanford Forte, Principal, Interactive Development Systems (IDS), is a management consultant specializing in strategic consulting and business development. He is currently consulting with two startups in the for-profit sector: RFID applications, and personal digital media asset management. Sanford is also the founder of the California Open Source Textbook Project. Sanford has many years of experience in the Software/Hardware, Publishing (Trade and Academic), Internet, Music Manufacturing (MI), New Media, and Industrial Design sectors. Sanford's last corporate position was with United Business Media, PLC (UK). At UBM he directed Business Development for UBM's American operation, as well as playing a major role in the UK-based M&A group. The latter function involved diligence and negotiation in entertainment and technology-related areas. Sanford has also worked with Addison-Wesley and Prentice-Hall (academic publishing), Millimeter Magazine and New Media Magazine (new media projects), Akai, Roland, Gibson/Oberheim (digital audio and entertainment technologies), On Command Video (on-demand video to hotels), Radius and SuperMac (digital video), Springer-Verlag (GDR) (science publishing), Samsung and LG (Korea - consumer electronics), Apple Computer, Clayton-Dubilier-Ross (Kinko's Corporate Document Solutions Group), Stanford University (Office of Technology and Licensing), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Starr Labs , Aurora Group III (wireless technologies and digital asset management), Snagg, Inc. (RFID applications) and several others. Sanford holds degrees in Economics and Cognitive Science.

Vince Marzella, Director of Software Development. Senior Programmer Analyst and Development Team Manager with over eighteen years experience in designing and managing business information systems. He has designed and built corporate web portals, Order Management ERP systems, and large corporate databases for AT&T and Lucent Technologies. He holds a Masters of Science in Computer Information Systems.

Tim Kautz, Web/Multimedia/UI Design Director, currently consults on User Interface and human interaction. As Web Design Program Manager at IBM, Tim oversaw the entire IBM storage division web presence, some 13,000 individual pages, and managed web teams throughout the world assuring that corporate guidelines, brand imaging, and web standards were strictly maintained. At Atempo Inc., a company specializing in Backup and Restoration enterprise software, Tim designed and managed multi-language web sites and spearheaded online product tutorials and demonstrations. Tim continues to create compelling and instructional web experiences and GUI (Graphic User Interface) design. Tim possesses a strong traditional/classical art background as well, including illustration, life drawing, animation, storyboards, modeling and layout design, a life-long artist with a sharp eye for detail. One of the first to graduate from CSU Hayward with a M.A in Multimedia, an interdisciplinary degree that encompasses Human-Computer Interaction, learning theories, art, computer science, telecommunications, education, and business. Tim also holds degree in Electronics and studio art. Tim's profound desire is to make the web a better place, one site at a time.