First30Days Advisory Board

The First30Days Advisory Board is a network of experts who have agreed to help out with the development of our company on many fronts—from editorial content to brand building to business development to site features and more.

David Bach
Founder and Chairman, FinishRich Media
David Bach is the founder and chairman of FinishRich Media and the author of seven consecutive national best sellers, including Start Late, Finish Rich and The Automatic Millionaire. His most recent book is The Automatic Millionaire Homeowner. Bach is regularly featured as an expert on TV and radio as well as in newspapers and magazines and continues to appear as a featured money coach on "Oprah's Debt Diet". He has been a regular contributor to numerous other shows, including "American Morning", "Larry King Live", "The View", "The Today Show", "Weekend Today" and "The Early Show". He is a featured contributor and columnist with Redbook magazine and on Yahoo!, where his column The Automatic Millionaire with David Bach appears biweekly.

John Barabino
Director, Global Sales & Operations Strategy, Google
John Barabino is currently with Google's Policy and Government Affairs team in Washington D.C. He has been in internet business development for the past 11 years, working as an executive at several pioneering internet companies including Firefly (acquired by Microsoft) and DoubleClick. Previously, he was based at Google headquarters in Mountain View, CA, where he managed a number of different business units, including the worldwide syndication and distribution business for which he built a global strategic deal-making team that signed high-profile partners, such as AOL, Amazon, Ask.com and NTT. Barabino started his career in London with The Boston Consulting Group.

Gaby Darbyshire
Vice President, Gawker Media
Gaby Darbyshire is a vice president at Gawker Media, handling corporate development, finance and legal affairs. Gawker Media is the publisher of more than a dozen blog titles, including the popular and acclaimed Gawker, Gizmodo and Defamer. Darbyshire has been largely involved in the internet world since moving to San Francisco from London in 1999. In a short break from the web from 2003 to 2004, she helped start Oriel Wines, where she built out operations from inception to brand launch of a new global wine brand. Previously, she was director of strategy at 4charity.com in San Francisco, a provider of custom technology services to the non-profit industry. She did strategy and legal affairs for eGroups, a global consumer communications platform that would become Yahoo! Groups.

Alan Deutschman
Author and Journalist
Alan Deutschman is the author of Change or Die: The Three Keys to Change at Work and in Life. He is also executive director of Unboundary, a strategy-consulting firm whose clientele includes top executives at major companies, such as FedEx, Coca-Cola and Charles Schwab. In his 19-year career as a business journalist, Deutschman has been the Silicon Valley correspondent for Fortune, a senior writer at GQ and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, where he has co-authored the "New Establishment" power list for the past decade. Most recently, he was a senior writer for Fast Company. He has been interviewed as an expert on change and psychology by Katie Couric on "The Today Show" and by Paula Zahn on CNN. His books have been featured on the covers of the Sunday book review sections of both The Washington Post and The San Francisco Chronicle.

Alexis du Roy
Investment Director, Verlinvest
Alexis du Roy is investment director at Verlinvest, a private family investment company focusing on branded products, consumer goods and well-being services. He serves as a director on the board of various companies and is a board member of Restel Residences (nursing homes) and Spa & Salon International (beauty centers and spas, together with Unilever Ventures). Previously, he worked at the International Finance Corporation (World Bank Group) in various senior positions. In 2001, he joined the Lhoist Group as head of strategic studies, responsible for M&A activities.

Nancy Etcoff
Director, Aesthetics and Well-Being, Massachusetts General Hospital
Nancy Etcoff is a faculty member of the Harvard Medical School and the Harvard University Mind/Brain/Behavior Initiative where she teaches a seminar on "The Science of Happiness." She is also a practicing psychologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Psychiatry where she is the director of the Program in Aesthetics and Well Being. She has conducted research on the perception of beauty, emotion, well-being and the brain for more than 20 years, culminating in numerous awards and research papers in professional journals including Nature, Cognition and Neuron. Her critically acclaimed popular science book, Survival of the Prettiest: The Science of Beauty is the subject of a one-hour Discovery Channel program. Etcoff also maintains a private practice in clinical psychology, and serves as a consultant to corporations and organizations on the subjects of both well-being and beauty.

Jesse Kornbluth
Writer and Internet Editor
Jesse Kornbluth is a New York-based writer and Internet editor. He currently writes and edits Head Butler, a cultural concierge site he created in 2004. As Butler, he appears on NPR's "All Things Considered" and on Plum TV. As a journalist, he has been a contributing editor for Vanity Fair, New York Magazine, Architectural Digest and Departures, and a contributor to The New Yorker, The New York Times and other publications. Kornbluth's books include Airborne: The Triumph and Struggle of Michael Jordan; Highly Confident: The Crime and Punishment of Michael Milken; Pre-Pop Warhol; The Other Guy Blinked (with Roger Enrico); and Notes from the New Underground. He has written numerous screenplays and, for a decade, taught screenwriting at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

Ellen Levine
Editorial Director, Hearst Magazines
As editorial director of Hearst Magazines, Ellen Levine is responsible for strengthening current titles, developing new titles domestically and internationally and evaluating opportunities for brand extensions, books and digital alternatives. Before her appointment to the top editorial post at Hearst, Levine served as editor-in-chief of Redbook and Woman's Day, and as a senior editor of Cosmopolitan. Levine made publishing history in October 1994 as the first woman to be named editor-in-chief of Good Housekeeping since the magazine's founding in 1885. She was also instrumental in launching new titles at Hearst, including O, The Oprah Magazine in 1999, the most successful magazine launch to date.

Michael Lewittes
Entertainment Journalist and News Producer, "Access Hollywood"
Michael Lewittes has worked in the entertainment industry for the past 15 years, reporting on Hollywood's biggest stories and stars in both print and on television. Currently, Lewittes is the news producer of NBC's "Access Hollywood," and also contributes to E! and VH1. He began his career as Dr. Ruth's personal assistant and researcher on the Lifetime Television show "You're On the Air with Dr. Ruth." Lewittes has additional television experience as an on-air correspondent for E!'s "The Gossip Show." He also has extensive roots in print journalism, having served as daily gossip columnist at the New York Daily News, articles editor at Cosmopolitan magazine, weekend features editor at the New York Post and gossip columnist and news director at Us Weekly.

Heidi S. Messer
Co-Founder, LinkShare Corporation
Heidi Messer co-founded LinkShare Corporation, a pioneer in performance-based online marketing solutions and host to one of the largest international affiliate marketing networks. She served as LinkShare's president and COO from the mid-1990s through February 2006 following the company's sale in the fall of 2005 to Rakuten, the seventh largest internet company in the world, for approximately $425 million. Messer is an acknowledged authority on online marketing, cited by The New York Times, Chief Executive Magazine, The Nikkei, Women's Wear Daily and Internet Retailer magazine. She has also appeared on national television and radio programs such as "Business Talk Radio," "The Rocco DiSpirito Show," "CBS Morning News" and "Fox Morning Show." Prior to LinkShare, Messer practiced corporate law with Baker and Botts, LLP where she focused on the telecommunications, information and entertainment industries.

Jack Myers
Founder and CEO, Myers Publishing
Jack Myers is the founder and CEO of Myers Publishing, which provides business-to-business and consumer insights on media, marketing, entertainment and advertising, with primary focus on television and interactive media via JackMyers.com and the Jack Myers Media Business Report. His third book, Virtual Worlds: Rewiring Your Emotional Future, was published in May 2007. Previously, Myers was director of marketing and business development at CBS. Subsequently, over a 20-year consulting career, Jack served as strategic advisor to virtually every cable and broadcast network and major media company, several major regional and national marketers, many ad agencies, interactive media developers and a cross-section of television producers and studios. He has been nominated for both an Academy Award and an Emmy Award for the documentary "Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream."

Richard D. Parsons
Chairman of the Board and CEO, Time Warner Inc.
Richard D. Parsons is chairman of the board and CEO of Time Warner, whose businesses include filmed entertainment, interactive services, television networks, cable systems and publishing. Since becoming CEO, Parsons has led Time Warner's turnaround and set the company on a solid path toward achieving sustainable growth. Before becoming CEO, Parsons served as the company's Co-COO, overseeing its content businesses-Warner Bros., New Line Cinema, Warner Music Group and Time Warner Book Group — as well as two key corporate functions: legal and people development. Parsons joined Time Warner as its president in February 1995, and has been a member of the company's board of directors since January 1991. Before joining Time Warner, Parsons was chairman and CEO of Dime Bancorp, Inc., one of the largest thrift institutions in the U.S. Previously, he was the managing partner of the New York law firm Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler.

Lisa Sharkey
Senior Vice President and Director of Creative Development, Harper Collins Publishers Worldwide
Lisa Sharkey is the senior vice president and director of creative development for HarperCollins Publishers Worldwide, one of the world's leading English-language publishers and a subsidiary of News Corp. As director of creative development, Sharkey has overseen the acquisition of numerous titles, including Here's the Story, an autobiography by actress Maureen McCormick and The Undecided Voter's Guide to the Next President by Mark Halperin of ABC News and Time magazine. A two-time Emmy Award winner and 10-time Emmy nominee, Sharkey was formerly the president of Al Roker Entertainment, one of New York City's highest profile television production companies. Prior to that she served as senior producer for ABC's "Good Morning America" and "Inside Edition." Sharkey was honored with a Peabody Award and a DuPont Award for her work at ABC covering the September 11th terror attacks.

Alan Siegel
Founder, Chairman and CEO, Seigel & Gale
Over the past three decades, Alan Siegel has become one of the best-known figures in the branding business. Siegel & Gale is devoted to positioning global companies for competitive success. As consultant, author and commentator, his influence extends to advising such organizations as Xerox, American Express, the National Basketball Association, Caterpillar, The Girl Scouts of America and Carnegie Mellon University and serving on the boards of numerous business and cultural organizations. Seigel is the author of an extensive series of personal guides for The Wall Street Journal, including the best seller, The Wall Street Journal Guide to Money and Markets; and Writing Contracts in Plain English and Simplified Consumer Credit Forms. He is also the author of One Man's Eye: Photographs from the Alan Siegel Collection and Step Right This Way: The Photographs of Edward J. Kelty.

Simon Sinek
Founder, SinekPartners
Simon Sinek is the founder of SinekPartners, a company on a mission to inspire people to do what inspires them—so that they can accomplish greatness. With a knack for simplifying complex ideas, he is best known for developing The Golden Circle, a model based on the biology of human decision-making. Sinek’s unconventional and innovative views on business and leadership have attracted international attention, accumulated invitations to meet with leaders and organizations and granted him the honor of presenting his philosophy to the Ambassadors of Bahrain and Iraq and at the Pentagon to General Moseley and Secretary Wynn, the highest level leaders of the US Air Force. He also writes and comments regularly for local and national press, including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. Sinek teaches graduate level strategic communications at Columbia University.

James Valentino
Life Events Strategist
James Valentino is currently an executive vice president and partner at Baxter and Lewis, an investment banking firm. Previously, he was a senior executive at MetLife, where he developed extensive experience in financial marketing, sales, operations, product development and information technology. As chief marketing officer, Valentino led corporate marketing for all MetLife business lines and the interactive commerce committee responsible for overseeing all e-commerce activities. He launched the MetLife Trust Bank and developed various new products, markets and distribution channels. In addition, Valentino launched Global Longevity Solutions LLC, an international group focused upon the development of new financial solutions for institutions and individuals to reduce the financial risks associated with increasing longevity. Valentino has co-founded numerous other endeavors, including the American Institute of Financial Gerontology, International Insurance Representatives, LLC, and E-Com Forum. In addition, he is a founding investor in Jibjab.com and NABBR.com.