Gary Vaynerchuk has captured attention with his pioneering, multi-faceted approach to personal branding and business. After primarily utilizing traditional advertising techniques to build his family's local retail wine business into a national industry leader, Gary rapidly leveraged social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook to promote Wine Library TV, his video blog about wine.
Gary's success has led to a 7-figure book deal, several national TV appearances, and a flurry of speaking engagements around the world. Gary's dual identity as both business guru and wine guy has made him the "Social Media Sommelier."
AJ Vaynerchuk holds a bachelor's degree from Boston University in Advertising with a concentration in Computer Science. He has worked with his brother Gary in social media for the last 5 years. At VaynerMedia AJ is responsible for running day-to-day operations. He enjoys spending time with his family, reading on his Kindle, and following the New York Jets.
After earning a Master's in Psychology, Matt Sitomer grew weary of the laboratory and abandoned his academic path. He began working with Gary Vaynerchuk in 2006 and boosted his wine knowledge, but also rapidly absorbed Gary's approach to marketing and the social web. Matt loves jazz, independent rock, good wine, great beer, and baseball. Although he ran track in college, he is gradually coming to grips with the fact that he is no longer a Division I athlete.
Born in China and raised in the Far East (New Jersey), David Zhang had always dreamed of living in New York. In 2009, with his knack for perfect timing, Dave graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in finance just as every investment bank in the world went bankrupt. He happily joined VaynerMedia during the company's inception in May of 2009, and took on the position of Controller. His hobbies include both watching and playing sports, music, cheesy wordplays, and having others cook for him. He often receives compliments on how soft his hands are, even though his handshakes are actually quite firm.
Marcus has come a long way since creating professional wrestling role playing web sites when he was in middle school. Despite studying economics at the University of Richmond, he knew he didn't want to pursue the traditional finance career path (a decision which the economy conveniently supported). Marcus' passion for relationships and critical business analysis made becoming a project manager with Vaynermedia a logical next step.
Sam may be a graduate of the University of Southern California in sunny LA, but he is a native Philadelphian. At the age of five, Sam witnessed Joe Carter hit a three-run walk-off home run against closer Mitch Williams, propelling the Toronto Blue Jays into a World Series victory over his hometown Phillies. It was from that awful and agonizing moment forward, that sports took over little Sam's life. Now, as a project manager at VaynerMedia, he is thrilled to be able to combine his passions for sports and social media on a daily basis, and he will never, ever forgive Joe Carter.
Stephanie is the resident sports media chick at Vaynermedia, working with the NHL to explore ways the league can use social media to engage fans and grow excitement around the game. She also hits the sports circuit as a freelance reporter for ESPN the Magazine, where she has been lucky enough to write since 2007. She also likes to talk...a lot...whether it is on a social media panel, the occasional guest spot on a hockey radio show, or on her pink BlackBerry. When not on Twitter and/or otherwise socially engaging, Stephanie enjoys snowboarding, cooking Italian food, the sport of hockey and taking years off her life watching her favorite teams, which include, but are not limited to, the New York Jets and the New York Mets
Mike Boyd has a degree in Finance, but uses the marketing skills he gained from working with companies such as Microsoft, Warner Music Group, and AmazonMP3.com to promote quality hip hop as editor in chief of HipHopAtLunch.com. Saint Louis is his home, but Boston and New York City are close substitutes.
Born in New York, John grew up with a passion for business, basketball, and stereotypical interests pertaining to residents of the state (the Yankees, occasional bouts of road rage, so on and so forth). After graduating from Boston College with a degree in English, John played professional basketball for one year before making the expected and very obvious transition to VaynerMedia where he currently holds the title of Project Manager. John is a huge fan of people, learning, talking, celebrating (deservedly or otherwise) or any combination there-in.
Before working as the tallest Graphic/Web Designer at VaynerMedia, Adam graduated Boston University with a degree in Art Direction and Psychology. A native New Jersian (exit 135), Adam spent most of youth playing music in crappy metal bands before he realized being a rockstar wasn't his calling. When he's not making internet things, Adam likes to spend his time wooing the ladies with his guitar and snowboarding out west.
With a background in print design from his time spent at UNC creating glossy promotional flyers for the events he promoted, Sameer has successfully transitioned his skills to the realm of web design without sacrificing an ounce of shine. Sameer has cobbled together an impressive design resume, from single-handedly outbidding four major ad agencies with a mockup for a Chevrolet project at his last job to designing and executing the majority of Kerry Rhodes' website and our personal Hip Hop at Lunch. He makes a mean homemade lassi, and on a Saturday night in New York City he's on more guest lists than Tom is on myspace profiles.
Neil loves people and freedom and hates hyperbole more than anything else in the world. Before arriving at VaynerMedia, he worried that the contradictory nature of his technical abilities (coding, math, explaining how microwaves work) and his humanistic passions (philosophy, business, stand-up comedy) would limit his ability to achieve in either one. However, working with the rest of the team quickly taught him the inherent value and massive potential of bridging robots (code) and humans (business)
Caleb holds a bachelor's degree in Computer Information Systems. During his senior year of college his web app was featured on a popular tech blog. Because of this, he and Gary Vaynerchuk struck up a relationship which culminated in Caleb moving from rural Pennsylvania to work for Vaynermedia in NYC. Caleb enjoys web development, tv teen dramas, and craft beer. He also really really likes tea.
Keith bought 81,000 copies of Gary's book, Crush It!, in order to blackmail him into granting some scheduled time together. When Keith flew in for the meeting he presented Gary with a redesign of the VaynerMedia website and talked about his enthusiasm for wanting to work there. Keith emerged from the meeting with a web designer position at VaynerMedia. He has a love for the video games, 2001: A Space Odyssey, wearing the same five shirts, and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. His passion and curiosity for design ranges from everyday objects to 'nerdy' tech gadgets.
Keith not only loves generating and exploring ideas, but putting them into action.
The VaynerMedia collective - an amalgamation of ideas, thoughts and opinions that make us who we are. For those unfamiliar with VaynerMedia, we are a brand consulting agency, specializing in the social media and digital space. Founded by AJ and Gary Vaynerchuk, we have worked with clients in a variety of fields and of varying sizes. For more information on us, you can check out our story here.
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We're currently accepting new clients starting April '09.
