Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer
As the founder of Care2, Randy had the inspiration for harnessing the power of market forces to support social and environmental causes. Randy launched Care2 in 1998 as an online email and ecard service (originally called "care-mail") that donated a percentage of revenues to environmental nonprofits. The company quickly expanded its focus to include additional free services and content such as news, green living, shopping and community features.
Prior to founding Care2, Randy was a consultant with Commtech International Management Corporation, which manages a series of venture capital funds. At Commtech he was involved in forming and guiding start-up companies. Commtech principals provided the incubator and were early investors in Care2, and two Commtech Directors still serve as Care2 board members.
Before joining Commtech, Randy was a pioneer in online greeting cards as a co-founder of E-Cards.com in 1995.
Randy is a proud composter, avid naturalist, and once trekked across Borneo with two Penan tribesmen. Randy loves spending time with his two young children, his wife, Nancy, a dog, Daisy, several hermit crabs and a variety of mostly nameless fish. He holds a BA from Harvard University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
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Chief Operating Officer
Marlin joined Care2 in 1999 as the COO, bringing with him 18 years of high tech marketing and general management expertise. At Care2, Marlin manages the P & L of the company and the senior management team, including the heads of business development, engineering, marketing, content, sales and finance. Marlin is one of the primary drivers for developing and maintaining a profitable business model for the company.
Marlin also works closely with Care2's Advisory Board, comprised of five executives from leading internet community and media companies. The role of the Advisory Board is to help identify new business opportunities, provide feedback on strategic initiatives and facilitate connections with potential business partners. The advisors are based in San Francisco and New York, and meet quarterly. A private investment bank, Markwood Capital Alliance, is also involved with Care2's Advisory Board.
Prior to Care2, Marlin was VP of Marketing for the Enterprise Storage Division at Quantum, where he played a significant role in turning a money-losing business into a $700 million industry leader. He has also held marketing management positions at HP and was a management consultant at Bain and Company. Earlier in his career, Marlin was a consultant for Commtech International Management Corporation, which later became his connection to Randy and Care2.
Marlin holds a BS in Engineering from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. In his spare time he is a founder and Chairman of the Foundation for a start-up charter elementary school.
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Editor in-Chief
As Editor-in-Chief, Robyn leads Care2's content strategy and execution, including editorial focus, content acquisition, and overall site integration. Robyn has extensive international experience, business experience from diverse industries, and a proven track record of leading teams to deliver quality content for a broad range of audiences.
Prior to joining Care2, Robyn was Managing Editor at Staffing Industry Analysts, where she received excellence awards for electronic and print newsletters, feature writing, and breaking news coverage from the American Society of Business Publication Editors. She was also the editorial lead for the company's successful Web site re-launch and content management implementation.
Before her life in publishing, Robyn held various management roles in technology and manufacturing. In 1995, Robyn led the operational launch of Novell's offshore programs in Ireland for the EMEA region. As a result, she was brought on as head of programs for Bertelsmann's Sonopress Ireland division, where she implemented a company-wide change management process, greatly improving quality and customer retention. She holds a BA in Communications: Media Studies from Loyola Marymount University.
As a yogi and Reiki practitioner, Robyn is passionate about holistic health and wellness, green living, and animal advocacy, and believes that everyone can make a difference.
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Founder and Chief Technical Officer
Matt is carbon-neutral and solar powered. His work at Care2.com combines a lifelong enthusiasm for environmental conservation with 18 years of experience imagining, designing, and developing software products and services. He is an eco-activist and a systems architect, an expert on CFLs and SQL, and equally at home discussing the minutiae of search engine optimization or grid-tied photovoltaic arrays.
He joined Randy in 1998 to build Care-Mail.com into one of the web's leading ecard destinations. His ongoing advocacy of open-source tools, scalability, and high availability created the platform for Care2's ongoing success. His recruitment of Care2's crackerjack Engineering team has provided the infrastructure for the past 10 years' worth of innovative web development on both Care2.com and ThePetitionSite.com.
As CTO, Matt oversees all aspects of technology at Care2, including leadership of initiatives in site search, SEO, and email deliverability.
On weekends, Matt can be found composing and recording music on his overgrown corner of rural Sonoma County, where he lives with his wife and son.
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Founder and Vice President, eCards and eMail
As one of the most awarded animators on the web, the Swedish artist Camilla Eriksson started out as a cartoonist in the 80's. Her cartoons Quarantine, Planet of Musse and 40-40 are syndicated in Europe by Bull's Press and in Asia by Sun Media Group. She has also authored and illustrated 2 children's books for Raben's Publishing. In the mid 90's Camilla turned to animation creating MillanNet, one of the largest original Gif and Flash animation repositories on the web. In 1998 Camilla co-founded Care-Mail, which later changed its name to Care2.com. One year later she relocated to San Francisco to be able to work closer to the company. As a Vice President of E-Cards and E-mail, Camilla has been responsible for building and developing the postcard section of Care2. In addition to creating her own 2,000+ animated e-cards, Camilla has hired some of the greatest animators, photographers and artists there is today to help her create one of the best and most diversified postcard sites on the Internet.
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Vice President, Business Development
Clint joined Care2 in 2005 to lead the business development and campaign fulfillment teams, as well as to establish Care2's new Washington, DC office. In this role, Clint markets Care2's expanding menu of promotional services to Care2's nonprofit partners, helping them to recruit new members and donors from Care2's dynamic community of activist-minded cultural creatives.
Prior to Care2, Clint worked for seven years at nonprofit TV network PBS, first leading business development for the Interactive Division, and then company-wide. He also spent three years running the PBS Adult Learning Service, a profit-generating business supplying online and video-based courses to colleges. During this time Clint led the initiative to equip PBS member stations with the Web tools and know-how needed to cultivate members online. Previously, Clint worked for the Bertelsmann-owned book publisher Bantam Doubleday Dell (now Random House) as Business Manager for New Media.
In a past life, Clint spent seven years working as a news reporter in Washington, DC and overseas. In 1988 he won the National Press Club Outstanding Washington Correspondent award for an investigative newspaper series on toxic chemical polluters. He later reported from Moscow, from 1991-93, on the Kremlin coup and USSR collapse, for Newsweek Magazine and the Associated Press. He holds an MBA in Marketing from Wharton, and a BA in History from Brown University.
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Vice President, Sales
Randy is responsible for building the Care2 sales team and driving advertising and business sponsorship sales. A veteran of the sales arena, Ferrell came to Care2 in 2000 from The American Taekwondo Association's Black Belt Academy, where he was #1 in all-time sales and established strong ties to the community as the Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Ferrell also received awards for being #1 in sales for Workout America while building a regional network of health and fitness clubs, and for achieving top worldwide sales for Coppertone Spectra. Ferrell brings a wide range of sales executive skills to Care2, including an extensive track record of hiring, training and motivating high-powered sales teams. He received his initial sales and marketing training at Florida State University and Gulf Coast Community College.
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Vice President, Engineering
Bill has more than 20 years experience designing and deploying global media and data solutions. Companies that Bill founded or co-founded have produced over $4B in market capitalization. He is a sought after speaker on issues of ultra-large scale media solutions and distributed computing. Bill holds a number of fundamental patents in the area of network infrastructure, scalable systems, and electro-optics.
Bill joined Care2 from Revcube Media where he was CTO. At Revcube, Bill developed a real-time cross channel optimization system for on-line advertising. Prior to Revcube, Bill was the founder (or founding member) of several pioneering Internet startups including Hungry Minds, Canonix, Quokka Sports, and Ikonic Interactive. As CTO of Hungry Minds, Bill designed and deployed integration systems for all major universities globallly, providing academic auditing as well as assessment.
Bill holds an MSEE from the University of California at Irvine, and degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science from California State University Stanislaus.
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Vice President, Causes and Advocacy
Joe Baker joined Care2 in August 2006. Joe manages the Campaign Team, which runs online campaigns for nonprofit partners, helping them to recruit new members and donors from Care2's community. Joe also oversees Care2's Cause Channels.
Prior to Care2, Joe was the Executive Director of N-TEN. He also worked for Amnesty International USA as the Director of Internet Communications after serving as Grassroots Advocacy Director and Deputy Director, Western Region. In addition to his extensive nonprofit management experience, Joe spent seven years performing and managing research in telecommunications and software engineering.
Joe has a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and a B.S. in Economics/Systems Science from UCLA.
Joe serves on the Board of Directors of Death Penalty Focus, the Advisory Board of GiveForward.org and volunteers for the Sierra Club and Amnesty International.
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Director, Product Management
Laurie joined Care2 in October 2007 and is responsible for Care2's product strategy and execution. Laurie has produced award winning interactive products for over eight years ranging from brand building websites to educational software. Laurie published eight software titles for LeapFrog and was honored with the T.O.T.Y. industry awards for Most Innovative, Best Educational, and Best Toy of the Year for the Fly Pentop Computer. Prior to Care2, Laurie worked for a boutique digital advertising agency with clients such as Microsoft, Alberto Culver, and Leapfrog. She led cross functional project teams through entire project lifecycle for a variety of project types including viral marketing, email blasts, e-commerce, videos, sweepstakes, rich media banner campaigns, print, online casual games, and experiential brand sites.
Laurie holds a BA in "Computing in the Arts" from UCSD and is working towards an MBA at Berkeley's Haas School of Business.
Laurie is an advocate of animal rescue and has two pound puppies named Bruiser and Bear. Her husband Andrew Peterson contributes to Care2's Healthy & Green Living section as a health and safety blogger.
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Causes Managing Editor
As Causes Managing Editor, Cynthia manages Care2 Causes and its network of bloggers.
Cynthia Samuels has been working with blogs and bloggers for four years, has been part of BlogHer, the women's blogger organization for three of its four years of existence and has spoken at three BlogHer conventions. An avid blogger herself, Samuels has served blog-related clients in the fields of health, reproductive rights, parenting and women's rights, among others.
Beyond her work with bloggers, Samuels has an extensive background online, on television and in print. Previous online experience includes lengthy stints at iVillage, Amazon and EXCITE. She also has considerable journalism experience, creating content for several news and public affairs programs including nine years at the TODAY SHOW and seven at CBS News.. Author of It's A Free Country, a Young Person's Guide to Politics and Elections (Atheneum, 1988) she has also published numerous New York Times and Washington Post book reviews and several other articles and reports.
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