Albert Pleus, Chairman and Co-Founder
Mr. Pleus has more than 20 years of investment banking, investing, management and business operations experience in the green tech, agricultural bioscience, internet software, telecommunications, digital image distribution, and other industries. He started his career at Morgan Stanley, and during the last 10 years has focused on investment banking as well as principal investment roles. He is President of Whitney Holdings, Inc., which provides financial, strategic consulting, and advisory services to developing businesses, and he holds FINRA Series 62, 63, and 79 securities licenses with Bedminster Financial Group, Ltd. Mr. Pleus earned SB and SM degrees from MIT and an MBA degree from Stanford University.
Chaz Berman, Chief Executive Officer (LinkedIn Profile)
Mr. Berman has conceived and built many successful companies over the past three decades prior to accepting the CEO role at Grower’s Secret, Inc.
He was the Chairman and CEO of United Consumer Benefits Network, Inc. (USBN), a membership and direct response loyalty marketing company. In addition he was the Founder & Chairman of UniPrivacy, Inc., dba DeleteNow, a company founded to help consumers prevent identity theft.
As Chief Operating Officer of MyPoints.com, Inc., he was responsible for the Company's domestic operations and he initiated a major profit-focused restructuring of the Company ahead of its acquisition by United Airlines. Mr. Berman built the Company's sales and client resources operations (comprising 135 professionals), growing annual revenue to $64 million in 2000 from zero two years earlier.
Before joining MyPoints.com, Mr. Berman was President of three high-growth consumer companies: Goodstuffs, Footprint Marketing and WineWrights. Earlier, Mr. Berman was EVP of Sales for Willitts Designs, a merchandising design company, where he profitably grew annual sales to $32 million from $1.5 million and managed more than 200 sales professionals. Willitts Designs was acquired by Hallmark, Inc., in 1990.