Team

Founders

David Kaiser is the co-founder, chief executive officer, and chairman of the board of Coincident TV (CTV). Kaiser oversees the implementation of the company’s strategic goals and objectives. Kaiser is a serial entrepreneur and founder of seven startup companies. In 1998 Kaiser established RespondTV, an earlier pioneer in the interactive TV space. Previously, he was the co-founder and vice president of engineering at Navisoft, which was acquired by AOL in 1994. The Navisoft technology became the foundation for AOLPress and AOLServer products, which enabled the creation of Web content in WYSIWYG tools. David was also the first vice president of engineering at Macromedia, the American graphics and Web development software house that was acquired by Adobe Systems in 2005. In this post, Kaiser led the development for Director, a product that revolutionized digital animation. Kaiser started his career and worked for thirteen years at NASA Ames Research Center doing early work in computer graphics, virtual environments and super computing. Kaiser holds a Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Bruce Schwartz is the co-founder and chief technology officer at Coincident TV (CTV). Schwartz oversees all aspects of technology development and implementation within the organization. Prior to establishing CTV, Schwartz co-founded and led the device engineering team at Phone.com (later known as Openwave), where he developed the world's first mobile phone browser. Over his more than 20 year career, Schwartz has been a key member of several other notable, innovative startups including GO Corporation, Orion Multisystems and SUN Microsystems. Schwartz holds a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Brown University.

Board of Directors

David Kaiser (Chairman of the Board)

Craig Forman joins the Coincident TV board of directors with a background in media, internet, telecom and technology. He and his family are returning to San Francisco after nearly four years on the East Coast, where Craig was EVP and president of the consumer business at EarthLink, the ISP. Craig joined EarthLink from Yahoo Inc., where he was head of Media and Information, the group that includes Yahoo’s leading engagement properties including Y! Finance, News, Weather, Health, Sports, Education and Astrology. Before that, he had been a senior executive at TIME, CNN and also was CEO and cofounder of Success Television and MyPrimeTime Inc., a television production and internet company backed by some of the same investors as CTV. Forman is non-executive chairman of Success Television, and is also on the board of WHERE Inc., a leading mobile location-based applications company. One fact you may not know about Craig is that he once went bobsledding with Prince Albert of Monaco. He survived, and wrote a Page One story about it for The Wall Street Journal, where he spent the first decade of his career as a foreign correspondent and Tokyo Bureau Chief. He has not been bobsledding since.

Marnin Kligfeld brings his knowledge and expertise to Coincident TV after a long history of investing in technology companies since the 1980s. Early investments included Bridge Communications (Nasdaq and merger with 3Com), Network Computing Devices (Nasdaq), Precept Software (acquired by Cisco), Nuvomedia (acquired by Gemstar), RuleSpace (acquired by MSFT), Fogdog (acquired by GSI Commerce), eHelp (acquired by Macromedia), ACTA (acquired by Business Objects), and Prosight (acquired by Primavera and then Oracle). Today he is invested in a focused group of companies which are each impacting their chosen markets. These include cPacket Networks, Athoc and Coincident.tv. Dr. Kligfeld holds a Ph.D. and a masters degree from the University of Southern California and a bachelor’s degree from Temple University.

Chuck Parrish, co-founder and former executive vice president of Phone.com (now Openwave Systems, Inc.) in Redwood City, California, is now a private investor and advisor to several technology companies (including Akonni Biosystems and Prosetta). Before co-founding Openwave, Mr. Parrish was vice president of marketing and general manager of Mobile Data for GTE Mobile Communications (now Verizon). Prior to that, he was senior vice president of operations at Contel Cellular, Inc. and co-founder and CEO of AmeriCom Corporation in Atlanta.

Marketing and Business Development Team

Matt Apfel is the vice president of content, East Coast for Coincident TV (CTV). Apfel forges strategic and creative partnerships with television networks, content portals, production companies, brands, and other media entities. He manages and drives creative development to help Coincident partners identify programs and projects that best utilize the CTV platform. Prior to joining CTV, Apfel co-founded the user-generated songwriting community WeMix.com with Chris “Ludacris” Bridges. From 2005 to 2007, he served as vice president at True Entertainment, where he created and supervised reality and alternative content for networks including MTV, Discovery, and E! Entertainment. As an independent showrunner and producer, Apfel’s credits include ABC’s “Who Wants to be a Millionaire,” and programs for ESPN, USA Network and VH1. Apfel began his television career at Court TV, where he produced the OJ Simpson trial and developed an award-winning unscripted program for a younger audience. His expertise in pop culture led to the development of the top-selling board game Pop Smarts. Apfel is an honors graduate of Tufts University and the University of Pennsylvania School of Law.

Barbara Barza is the vice president of marketing at Coincident TV (CTV). Barbara's focus throughout her career has been on leading marketing teams that launch new technology "firsts", most notably the Apple Macintosh. Barbara was VP Marketing at UGOBE Life Forms (first companion robot) and provided marketing consulting services to many technology clients including Cheskin Added Value (strategic marketing and research), Glam Media (fashion blog aggregator), and Astro Gaming (gaming accessories). Prior to that Barbara was VP Marketing at Digital F/X (digital video post production software), Director, Marketing at PIXAR after the spin-off from Lucasfilm, and managed the Product Marketing team at Apple that launched the first Macintosh to the worldwide market . Barbara received her Masters in Computer Engineering from Stanford University producing her research thesis at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC).

Engineering Team

Luis Alberto Reyes is the senior software engineer at Coincident TV (CTV), where he is part of the development team focusing primarily on the player and its different flavors (desktop, Web, new platforms) and Web-related development efforts. Prior to joining CTV, Reyes worked at Hewlett-Packard for nearly six years as an application support specialist for different mission critical applications. At HP, Reyes acted as application specialist and liaison between global support and development teams. Since 2000, he has developed client-server applications for companies including Hershey de Mexico and AMDA Jalisco. From 2004 to 2007, he was the technical lead and lead developer of Haus Habitat, a pioneer in online real estate advertisement in Mexico. Reyes holds a Bachelor of Science in computer science from La Salle University of Guadalajara.

Carl Rosenberg is leading the development of the Coincident TV (CTV) dynamic tools that support the creation of CTV content, essential to the future of the video experience. The API allows websites to quickly bring hypervideo content online, while transparently supporting both HTML5 and Adobe web clients. Prior to CTV, Rosenberg co-founded Green Hills Software in 1982, helping to take a total capital investment of $50k to the world's leading compiler company, where it remains today. After leaving Green Hills, he served on the MIT Genome team where he assisted in the creation of the first human and mouse genome maps. There he also co-authored a series of papers on the origins of DNA structures as evidenced by current DNA sequences with Nobel Laureate Walter Gilbert and University of Chicago Professor Manyuan Long. When not working at CTV, he would prefer to be flying somewhere or photographing something.

Rich Descombaz is the senior software engineer of the Coincident TV desktop editor team, where he is responsible for authoring the CTV Editor user interface. Descombaz has 10 years of experience in software development at both large and small organizations. Prior to joining CTV, Descombaz developed an online audio/video-driven tutorial system designed both for general use and corporate employee development. Descombaz has also served as a contractor for USPS on the core team of its largest internal Web application which processed a $100 million of daily business mail transactions, a software engineer for AT&T developing billing system auditing software and a Web application developer at a human resources tools start-up.

Video Production Team

Alex Beckman, vice president of video production at Coincident TV (CTV), is a video artist with a passion for innovation and technology. Armed with a Bachelor of Arts in film studies from the University of California, Berkeley and a Master of Fine Arts in media arts from California College of Arts in Crafts, Beckman started his career in commercial television production during an era of dynamic change. As digital workflows became the norm, Beckman received hands-on access to emerging technologies that have created a revolution in the world of broadcast television. Having specialized in digital workflow management and consulting for companies worldwide, Beckman now is shaping how CTV will interact with real world video personnel.

Stuart Sharpe is creative director, involved in the look and feel of the Coincident.tv user experience. He has served as a designer and artist, producing illustrations, photographic images, videos, motion graphics, animations, user interfaces, and interactive projects for a wide range of clients, from large corporations down to that little voice in his head.

Mark Schwartz is the senior interactive video designer in charge of qualifying and producing Coincident TV (CTV) media programs. With eight years of experience as a professional video editor, Schwartz has worked on productions such as the WB’s “Gamer Nation,” National Lampoon network’s “Reality Crawl” and Discovery’s “Building the Perfect Bridge.” He was a quality assurance analyst at Sony for the launch of the PS3 and worked on such titles as “Resistance: Fall of Man,” “Lemmings” and “Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters.” Schwartz was hired by CTV by winning the first CTV interactive video contest. Schwartz graduated from the University of Arizona majoring in directing with a minor in English literature.

Casey Koon is the resident hipster and interactive video engineer and designer at Coincident TV (CTV), where he helps design and build CTV’s interactive videos. A native Los Angeleno, Koon has a long history in broadcasting media, having worked on a number of Hollywood productions, including the People’s Choice Awards, “Trauma” and various MTV features. Additionally, he has produced his own documentaries that have been screened at the Pacific Film Archive and served as music director for KALX in Berkeley, Calif. (90.7 FM) where he was a DJ and wrote reviews and articles for a variety of music publications. Koon graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a dual Bachelor of Arts in molecular and cellular biology and anthropology with a minor in English.

Charles Cho is an interactive video engineer for Coincident TV (CTV), where he develops graphic assets for video productions. Cho has more than six years of video editing and graphic design experience and holds a Bachelor of Arts in sociology from the University of California, Los Angeles.