Sparq is tomorrow’s version of a game publisher, leveraging an ultra-aggressive approach towards dozens of artificial intelligence outputs to leverage the IP of key sports-related entities, including the NCAA college sports IP which it currently holds. Sparq is one of only two game companies - the other being EA - having rights to the NCAA sports properties. Sparq holds exclusive rights in a key gaming genre TBA in 2024. Sparq enables high growth, while de-risking the game creation process by wringing out inexpensive, efficient mobile game builds – five to ten games over five years – in order to be the first game publisher in the country to heavily leverage an established relationship with the primary NCAA licensor, Collegiate Licensing Company. Sparq intends to take the NCAA sports IP into non-simulation game settings, making the NCAA sports IP more accessible to the most engaged fanbase in the world. In the end, Sparq is 100% AI-Centric. Sparq is currently evaluating and/or using every potential AI-related approach, application, opportunity, resource, and individual expert in order to become the most efficient and optimized game publisher in the world. Sparq uses a myriad of proprietary and purchased data sets related to the sports and gaming industry in order to enable the use of AI in a variety of ways.

Red Surfboard assists stage two companies in order to maintain or create high growth outcomes. With a focus on the Sports Tech, Energy Tech, Ag Tech and CPG sectors, Red Surfboard applies intense competitive and positioning analysis to identify prioritized market segments for brands, while also identifying structural company issues which might need realignment in order to do so. Red Surfboard has a long list of resources it brings to the table, including temporary sales acquisition and marketing solutions and proprietary digital marketing tools which enable high speed growth.

Jan has served on the Board of Directors for this NASDAQ energy company since 2015. This $4 billion market cap company represents one of the cleanest, best-managed and most innovative utility companies in the country and serves South Dakota, Nebraska, and all of Montana - as well as Yellow Stone National Park and Big Sky. NorthWestern's utility operations consist of regulated electric and natural gas distribution, transmission and energy supply. In addition, they own and operate electric transmission and generation assets in a variety of emerging energy areas. As part of Jan's BOD responsibilities, his focus is formally on the (a) Audit and (b) Safety, Environmental, Technology & Operations (SETO) committees, with a specialization in technology and strategy - including a strong focus on cyber security. Jan completed his RMM-Cert in cyber security during 2018 at Carnegie Mellon University. He also is doing very concentrated research work relative to emerging energy sources (solar, wind, electric) and energy-based emerging tech (energy storage, electronic vehicles, self-driving vehicles, energy-based Internet of Things [IOT] and sustainability). Jan is both NACD and SEC-certified in concert with his activities at Northwestern. He is purposefully and presently looking for an additional board opportunity with a NASDAQ or NYSE company.

VoterVac takes a consumer-packaged goods (CPG), direct-response approach to politics and that translates into fact-based wins for the candidate or cause because we focus strictly on only one result: voter turnout. And in the last three election cycles, the political campaigns that have used VoterVac's game-changing tech tools have won over 84% of their races. They've changed how candidates and political organizations win elections by providing the most highly-developed, multi-patented, one-to-one voter contact platform anywhere, anyplace: fraud-free online ad targeting which leverages physical voter lists and then pounds heavy ad frequency into the voter target’s home on their own devices. It adds up to 2X to 8X clickthrough (CTR) rates versus the industry average and major lift on any traditional direct marketing work.

Maxletics helped Olympians fund their sports careers. Over 500 Olympians used their influence - tracked by Maxletics - to help brands.

Universal was a private-equity environmental energy company - a roll up of five companies - supported by Pegasus Capital and Ares Capital out of NYC and consisting of 400+ employees and 10,000 commercial customers. While at Universal, Jan led the senior team in rebuilding the company in preparation for a sale. Universal quadrupled EBITDA during his tenure via strong revenue growth, providing the company with the success necessary to put the company into play. Jan rebuilt the team within the company, while inspiring his charges to think anew relative to the industry. Universal was successfully sold to PetroChoice, a sale which included 44 facilities in 24 states. The company is now called Universal Lubricants, A PetroChoice Co.

Startup Colorado is a regional initiative to increase the breadth and depth of the entrepreneurial ecosystem across Colorado’s Front Range. From Fort Collins to Boulder, from Denver to Colorado Springs, our mission is to multiply connections among entrepreneurs and mentors, improve access to entrepreneurial education, and build a more vibrant entrepreneurial community. Startup Colorado’s various programs will deepen the communal backdrop out of which new companies emerge. Vibrant new company creation, by extension, improves the broader economic base of Colorado.

Jan was brought in by Bob Davis, primary VC investor and former colleague (CEO at Lycos, Inc.), to assist in the reformation and sale of this connected, online game company. We succeeded by selling Turbine to Warner Bros. in April 2010 for $160 million of consideration. Essentially Jan joined with two other key executives to assist in reformatting the company's strategy and execution road map in order to create an exit opportunity for Turbine. They objectively succeeded in this regard, and Turbine is currently considered one of the 'crown jewels' within Warner Bros.' game division. Turbine, Inc. is a premier creator and operator of massive, persistent online worlds (MMORPGs) that foster powerful social gaming communities. They're really two things in one: (1) a developer of superior consumer online games; (2) a games-as-a-service provider. They have built amazing player experiences, while creating the business infrastructure necessary to service the interactive platform including billing, community, customer service, digital marketing, etc. A team of entrepreneurs formed Turbine over a decade ago with the vision of becoming the leading provider of online entertainment. Since then, the Company has grown to over 500 employees and has become the crown gem of the Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (WBIE) game studio portfolio due its online connectivity and community-building strengths. Turbine has created some of the most popular and exciting game worlds on the Internet, like the award-winning Asheron's Call®, Dungeons & Dragons Online™, and The Lord of the Rings Online™. Today, Turbine is recognized globally for its industry-leading technology platform, groundbreaking graphics and its unique ability to create and operate massive and persistent online worlds that power thousands of concurrent interactive social gaming experiences.

Founded in late 2004, Gelazzi, Inc. was an investor-backed restaurant experience aiming to upgrade the national retail ice-cream industry. Gelazzi was sold to Big Freeze, LLC in March of 2013.

In 2001, Jan started White Summit Strategies, Inc., an investment firm that focused on emerging technology growth segments. Investments were as varied as those in the VoIP (80211b) industry and those in the Wireless and WiFi segments. The firm also invested in several consumer brands as part of this activity.

Jan helped found this Blackstone-backed broadband VoIP experimental telco that earned more than 5.5 million users within a year of inception. GVS utilized a $52 million private raise, lead by eVentures and Blackstone. GVS was one of the very first existing VoIP companies and is credited with dissecting the new industry business models leading the initial charge that opened up the telco industry both politically and technically to the opportunity surrounding VoIP. Sending calls over the internet cloud instead of through the old, expensive circuit-switched networks created the inflective havoc that turned the telco industry upside down in a span of less than three years. Jan was consistently quoted as an ‘anti-telco’ advocate and debated the fallacies of the old telco infrastructure in toe-to-toe debates with the likes of CEOs Michael Armstrong of AT&T and William Esrey of Sprint. As predicted in the earliest stages of development, today VoIP has virtually replaced the collective legacy telco networks.

After leading significant interactive television and Web-based experiments at The Valvoline Company, Jan left to join Bob Davis (Wang), Ted Philip (Disney) and Sangam Pant (AT&T) to fuel the astronomical growth of Lycos, Inc. Lycos debuted publicly with the fastest IPO in the history of NASDAQ from inception to offering and went on to increase in value 3,000% (not a typo) during its run. Over the course of the late nineties Lycos went on to become one of the largest and most profitable internet companies with a consumer base of over 40 million monthly visitors. In his senior management role as the VP of Marketing for Lycos, Jan introduced the world to Lycos the Dog, the speedy retriever that symbolized the speed and ease-of-use that Lycos represented. Lycos was sold in 1999 to the Spanish communications company, Terra Networks, S.A. for $5.4 billion.

Jan held a variety of sales, sports marketing and brand management positions, culminating with role as VP of Consumer Brand Strategy in which he was responsible for a $130 million annual marketing spend. Published insights spanned the following topics:• Retail Category Management • Hispanic Marketing • The Role of Private Label Products• Integrated Sports Marketing Approaches• Web-Based Marketing• Trade Marketing• Regional Marketing• National Advertising Buys• Direct Marketing & Databases• Warehouse Club Positioning & DynamicsOpinions were published in:• Wall Street Journal• USA Today• Ad Age• Ad Week• Business Week• Hispanic Business• The NY Times• The Washington Post• The LA TimesHis belief in a fully integrated marketing support system lead to widespread organizational and strategic changes at Valvoline, which climbed from the #5 motor oil share position to the #2 position during his tenure at the consumer marketing helm.