Founded in 1977 and based in Newport, RI. J/Boats has become the leading high performance sailboat marketing/building operation in America and Europe, with strong brand name recognition in the sailboat industry worldwide. The company designs, builds and markets a line of racing, cruising and one-design sailboats from 22 to 65 feet, including the world-renowned International J/22, International J/24, J/80 and J/105. Today, over 13,000 boats have been built sailing in over 50 countries worldwide.Since 1977, responsibilities have included managing various facets of the business, including marketing, business development, dealers, distributors, builders network and finance. Today, as a consultant to the business, focused on business development through e-marketing, social media, publishing and innovative Internet marketing/ promotional strategies.

Layline Capital is a management consulting company that also provides seed capital as a venture investor in diverse markets and industries; such as the Internet, marine, boating, social media, high technology.

As founder, President/ CEO, created a unique new face make and face/ neck gaiter design using a combination of Microban antiviral and antibcacterial treatment and a 5,000 stich per inch jersey knit fabric. The breakthrough for users was the material and the Microban killed all bacteria and viruses on your skin, a true dermatological breakthrough. The products helped eliminate skin rashes, bad acne... a true "zit killer". We sell online and direct to companies that wish to equip their employees with the worlds best face masks and face/neck gaiters. Highlights of our clients included Facebook HQ and Facebook's thirteen (13) data centers around the world (ranging in size from 1.0 to 3.0 million square feet).

Ultimate Sailing/ Windward Productions- business consultant- Stuart provided business consulting services to Sharon Green/ Windward Productions (purveyor of the renowned "Ultimate Sailing Calendar") to turn-around the business, grow sales of the "Ultimate Sailing Calendar" and provide Internet optimization strategies for Sharon's web/e-commerce business activities and email marketing. Stuart also created a new sales team strategy, a combination of new "virtual sales" personnel (solicited from Craig's List.com) and a modified sales commission/ volume discount structures helped grow sales dramatically for the business (private-labeled Ultimate Sailing Calendars) in a down economy (2009 to current). Stuart streamlined the databases for optimized email marketing programs. And, Stuart transformed the website design for optimized search engine optimization, moving the website "Ultimate Sailing.com" from "nowhere" on Google Search to #1 in the "sailing calendar"/ "sailboat calendar" search categories. Finally, Stuart's advice to change strategy and focus primarily on "brand publishing" and not "photography", meant Sharon could further streamline her business, reduce costs of production and improve bottom-line net profits.

Clearpoint Weather Services/ Weather Decision Technologies Inc- Chief of Business Development/ Consumer Services- Stuart was hired as a consultant to turn-around a commercial weather services product. Stuart managed development of a new consumer and commercial graphical user interface- a completely redesign and re-specification. Additionally, Stuart helped re-design of the weather computer systems that provided weather modeling for marine industry service- the process reduced compute times to less than one hour for 500 nm wide, 1 km grids- considered technologically impossible by competitors. As a result, the WDT/Clearpoint solution could update certain 2007 America's Cup 33 teams (and the AC33 Race Management Team) with hourly wind predictions that were 97%++ accurate, an enormous advantage for its users. Furthermore, with improved speed and user interfaces, WDT/Clearpoint secured significant contracts with major worldwide commercial shipping and container lines using the accurate, high-definition weather prediction capabilities.Responsibilities also included consulting for investors Syncomm Ventures merge/ acquire Clearpoint Weather Serivces for WDT Inc. This process included the re-design of tactics/ strategies for "go to marketi" products, re-design of business models and process models, and strategic business development with new partners.

Company’s primary business was healthcare information services and technologies for hospitals, clinics and physician practices. The company sold the MedTrak system- a fully integrated medical management information solution. The MedTrak solution was the first known fully-integrated front-office (EMR/EHR) and back-office (PMS- practice management system) offered to the healthcare industry in 2001 as a "SAAS" web-services, cloud-based solution (in partnership with IBM). Powered by the first rules-based, business process management system for healthcare, it revolutionized any medical practice (sole practicioner, clinics, hospitals)-- often leading to 25-35% reduction in operating costs, 25-40% increase in top-line revenue and accounts receivables reduced from 60-120 days to "pay at checkout" less than 7 days from all major insurance carriers. In short, it revolutionized healthcare business practices-- stream-lining not only the financial process (check-in, verification of coverages, billing and receivables), but most importantly, fully documented the entire medical process for the patient/ doctor- dramatically improving patient outcomes and satisfaction. The goal was to create the healthcare version of Walmart's integrated information technology solutions-- e.g. so that a patient could walk in the front door, be processed by the providers (nurse, docs, techs- each representing a different "aisle" and "shelves of products/ services") and walk out the door with prescription in hand and treatment path to be a healthier person-- all documented, billed/ invoiced and paid for before the patient left the building. Read more about MedTrak's latest developments here:http://www.medtraksystems.comResponsibilities included overall strategy, management, finance, technology, marketing, promotion, business development and sales.

Co-founded business with Harvard MBA partner, Peter Van Alstine. Company’s primary business was an e-commerce marketplace and portal for marine industry. Company offered a mixture of services including subscription-based boat listings, advertising, boat loans and boat insurance. Focused on the development of key strategic partners to become #1 marine portal on the Internet; such partners included eBAY, AOL, ACE Insurance, KEYBANK/ KeyCorp. Responsibilities included overall strategy, management, technology, marketing, promotion, sales for the #1 eCommerce site in the $12 billion marine/boating industry. Developed and managed with the marketing/ communications team the "go-to-market" strategies, brand, marketing and PR programs. Developed acquisition and growth strategy to buy yachtworld.com (founded by Jessica Muffet- a former J/Boat dealer in Seattle). Developed and managed with the technology team the strategy and implementation for website and database development and U.I. experience for all services on boats.com. boats.com and yachtworld.com are now the #1 marine e-commerce marketplaces on the Internet worldwide- with 1.2+ million visitors per month.

Scuttlebutt Newsletter- Stuart published the first email newsletter for sailing worldwide- "Scuttlebutt"- the Editor/ Founder was Tom Leweck from Los Angeles, CA. As publisher, Stuart grew circulation from 350 subscribers to 24,000 and increased advertising revenue 500%. Tom Leweck is now retired since 2002 and son Craig Leweck is now the Editor/ Publisher. After sale of boats.com/ yachtworld.com to Trader Publications in Norfolk, VA, Scuttlebutt was split in two, with the addition of a European-focused publication- Scuttlebutt Europe- edited/ published by David McCreary- circulation now about 18,500. The creation of these sailing newsletters have profoundly impacted the sailing publishing business today and are routinely read and quoted by all major sailing media and sailing organizations (yacht clubs, NGO's, etc) worldwide.

Co-founded business with University of Illinois (Champaign-Urbana) and the co-inventors of the Mosaic browser and Apache Web Server. Vosaic's primary business was the development and marketing of leading Internet-based multimedia telecommunications solutions. Focused on the development of streaming media (audio and video) technologies; communications systems (Java-based whiteboarding and Powerpoint presentations like WebEx today); and consumer user experience (e.g. TV and Movies over the Internet).As pioneers of multimedia over the Internet, significant "first highlights" include the following:- Memorial Day, 1997- Indianapolis 500 Race- co-broadcast with ABC-TV over the Internet.- July 4th, 1997- NASA Mars Pathfinder Mission- with NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab- first ever Internet broadcast on a global basis using a multimedia distribution system (real-time point-to-point/ multicast) to over 100 countries (including Russia, China). World's largest Internet broadcast- 4.6 MILLION served.- September 23, 1997- ROLLING STONES- Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts, Keith Richards and crew- met with Vosaic team in Ritz-Carlton, Chicago, IL- Keith wanted to be first major rock & roll band to broadcast on the Internet worldwide. Vosaic broadcast worldwide tour intro of Rolling Stones "Bridges to Babylon tour". Smashing Pumpkins were the "warm-up" band, partnered with Vosaic for broadcasting local gigs. For example, see YouTube video- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RND_EPrYrds- October 1997- first live broadcast of Dallas Cowboys & Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders over the Internet.- October 1997- first live "interactive" broadcast of Corporate MBA Course- Univ. Illinois/ Motorola UniversityResponsibilities included overall management, finance, strategy, marketing, promotion and business development/ sales.Sold the business to VTEL/ Forgent in fall of 1998.

J/DNA (dba Ridge Communications LLC) provides information technology and consulting services to small and medium size companies; with a primary focus on business process re-engineering and business process optimization across multiple specialties (manufacturing, marketing, sales, finance, enterprise resource planning, e.g. from MRP to ERP and front office to back office).

Eidos is a games technology and publishing company generating $200m+ revenue and is renowned for the "Tomb Raider" (Lara Croft/ Angelina Jolie) games series that launched on SONY Playstation. I led the turn-around investment team for EIDOS INTERACTIVE Plc, based in London, England. Coordinated hiring of Managing Director, then expanded the business in 1994 based on a "roll-up" strategy; acquired three leading UK games developers (DoMark, Simis, Big Red) and many other since. Today, Eidos is part of SCi Entertainment Group Plc (SEG), one of the world’s leading developers of entertainment software. Eidos consists of publishing operations across Europe and the US and several development studios including Crystal Dynamics, IO Interactive and Pivotal Games.Responsibilities included general strategy and business development forging key strategic relationships with market leading games and technology companies. Key technology/ platform milestones included:1. in our London officees, worked with SONY UK design/ enginnering team to create tech specifications for first SONY Playstation gaming platform. Design input included Eidos Board Member Roger (now- Sophie) Wilson, founder of ARM Computing (now world's largest RISC chip licensee).2. worked with nVIDIA graphics chip co-founders- met at 1996 Comdex/ Networld Interop in Las Vegas, NV). Convinced them to use the ARM RISC chip as the "core" to control their now famous GPU's (graphical processing unit) at the heart of most games machines, mobile phones, and world's fastest super-computers.3. collaborated with British Telecom Labs- pioneering first audio/video streaming at 160 x 80 15 fps B&W image- 9.6 kbps modem- land link AND satellite link in 1995. We used the ACORN Computers based on the ARM RISC CPU and a Unix GUI interface. Won a 10,000 GBP "bet" with BT Labs....we got paid on Christmas Day!

The Company was based in London, England. J/Boats Europe was a marketing/ sales/ distribution organization founded to promote the sales of J/Boats' line of high performance cruising and racing yachts (22 to 45 feet) in the European and Asian marketplaces. Ultimately, created J/Europe in Les Sables de'Olonne, France with French partners, a design/ manufacturing/ marketing operation near La Rochelle, France. Today, J/Europe is now the largest market for J/Boats' line of high performance racing/ cruising sailboats business worldwide.Responsibilities included managing and developing all aspects of the business from initial business plan to marketing, sales, manufacturing, distribution and promotion activities.

Co-founded and managed the award-winning J/World Sailing School with brother Drake and cousins Jeff and Phil Johnstone in 1981. J/World started with six J/24s in Newport, RI using the original J-Class "RANGER" shed as its office/ class-room at the end of Newport Offshore's northern dock (same shed used by the America's Cup winning AUSTRALIA II in 1982-1983). Business expanded to Key West, FL for winter 1981-82, then San Francisco, Annapolis and San Diego. Celebrating it's 30th anniversary in 2011, J/World continues its award-winning adult learn-to-sail program; including classes for cruising, racing, day-sailing- 34,000 students to date now LOVE sailing!

In coordination with Lt Hugh McGraw and Lt John Brooks, managed the entire USCGA Waterfront facility for the Intercollegiate Sailing and Offshore programs (Commander Maka led the Academy and Capt White was Chief USCGC EAGLE at the time). Coached the USCGA Sailing Team Fall and Spring in Flying Junior, Laser, Shields and J/24 class sailboats. In the summers, partook in the Offshore Racing programs in New England. Introduced use of the Avon 17 ft Searider RIBs (the J/World coach boat) to the US Coast Guard from 1982-84 as a suitable sailing coach boat and SAR boat for the large USCG cutters.