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Chief Executive Officer
David Liu co-founded The Knot, the leading wedding website and gift registry,
in September 1996 with seed financing from AOL's Greenhouse. Less than one year
after launching The Knot on America Online (keyword: knot), Liu and his team
successfully launched www.theknot.com on the Web in
July 1997.
During three short years, Liu was responsible for securing three rounds of
funding with the likes of AOL, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, and QVC, Inc.,
totaling more than $20 million. Liu has helped The Knot grow from six employees
to more than 275 today. In early December 1999, The Knot completed its initial
public offering.
Prior to founding The Knot, Liu built a nine-year career in digital production
and management. In 1993, he founded RunTime Inc., a CD-ROM development firm
that produced award-winning titles for clients including the Smithsonian
Institute, Intel, and AT&T.
Before founding RunTime, Liu was the director of production at VideOvation, a
subsidiary of Reader's Digest.
Liu received his B.F.A. in film and television from New York University.
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Sandra Stiles is the
Chief Operating Officer of The Knot Inc., overseeing its sales and gift
registry operations. She has served as a member of the Board of Directors of
The Knot since May 1998. Stiles has been responsible for the development and
expansion of The Knot Registry and for the integration of The Knot partnerships
and acquisitions. In addition, she is responsible for ensuring that The Knot
partnerships and acquisitions are integrated seamlessly into the company.
Stiles began her long and varied career in business and finance at the
international auditing and consulting firm of Arthur Andersen & Co. From there,
she went on to become the vice president, comptroller, and treasurer of the
U.S. branch of Bertelsmann Inc., one of the world's largest media companies. At
Bertelsmann, Stiles was instrumental in the acquisition of RCA Entertainment
and Doubleday Books, and then served as the president of OmniCorp Holdings,
Inc., the American arm of a private European investment company.
After her work at OmniCorp, she spent eight years at Random House, Inc., first
as a vice president and corporate comptroller, then as senior vice president
and director of operations for the Children's Book and Value Publishing
divisions.
Stiles has served on the boards of Living Books, a division of Random House,
Knowledge Adventure and Humongous Entertainment, and holds a B.S. in Accounting
from New York University.
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Richard Szefc is Chief
Financial Officer of The Knot and a member of the Board of Directors. Having
joined the company in June 1999, Szefc is responsible for all financial aspects
of The Knot. He has had a long and distinctive business career, which started
at the international auditing and consulting firm of Arthur Andersen & Co.,
where he eventually served as a partner in the audit practice division. While
there, he developed a long-range strategic plan for the worldwide Accounting
and Audit Practice.
Szefc then spent eight years at Random House, the world's largest
English-language general trade book publisher, as executive vice president and
chief financial officer. While at Random House, he was responsible for managing
a staff of more than 200 across several departments, including accounting,
finance, budgeting and planning, and legal, and oversaw a budget of more than
$20 million.
Szefc graduated from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of
Business.
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Carley Roney is
Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Knot and author of The Knot Complete
Guide to Weddings in the Real World (Broadway Books, 1999) and The Knot
Ultimate Wedding Planner(Broadway Books, 2000). Since 1996, Roney has
successfully established The Knot as a new brand of weddings, both on- and
offline. As an expert on real-world weddings, Roney has spoken at many bridal
and online industry events and is a frequent guest on both television and
radio, offering the latest tips on everything from wedding fashions to dealing
with in-laws.
Before co-founding The Knot, Roney was president of RunTime Inc., a CD-ROM
development firm producing award-winning titles for clients including the
Smithsonian Institution, Sotheby's, and Intel. Prior to that, she spent six
years as creative director and editor for clients such as the National Museum
of American History, The McGraw Hill Companies, Simon and Schuster, Prentice
Hall and Worth Publishing.
Roney has been profiled as one of the top 34 women executives to watch in "The
Women of Silicon Alley" by Alley Cat News Magazine and has been featured in
publications such as Business Week, Time Out New York, Vogue, Cosmopolitan,
and Entrepreneur. She has also appeared on ABC-TV's The View, E!
Entertainment Television, CBS Evening News, Fox News Channel, and The Newshour
with Jim Lehrer. Most recently, Roney offered her modern-day wedding planning
expertise to thousands of TODAY show viewers on a 12-week wedding planning
series called "TODAY Ties the Knot."
Roney has an M.A. in Cultural Studies from New York University and a B.F.A from
New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Institute of Film and
Television.
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Joseph Brehob (34) has
served as one of The Knot's directors since April 2002. Mr. Brehob has been the
Vice President of Internet Marketing of The May Department Stores Company since
January 2001. From November 1997 until January 2001, Mr. Brehob served as a
Divisional Vice President of The May Merchandising Division. Prior to November
1997, he held various management and other positions with May. He has been
employed by May since 1991. Mr. Brehob received a B.S. in Business from the
Indiana University.
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Randy Ronning has served
as one of the directors of The Knot since June 2001.
Since January 2001, Ronning has been the Executive Vice President of Affiliate
Relations, iQVC, and New Business Development at QVC. Ronning is responsible
for overseeing QVC's New Business Development department and subsidiaries that
include
iQVC, Q Direct, QVC Publishing, and Affiliate Sales & Marketing.
Prior to joining QVC, Ronning spent 30 years at JCPenney where he
was most recently president of the Catalog and Internet divisions.
Ronning was responsible for launching the company's successful e-commerce
initiative, JCPenney.com. Ronning has held several positions with business
and professional organizations, including being a board member of both the
Fashion Institute of Technology and the Direct Marketing Association.
He also served as the president of the Mail Order Association of America
and was a Mailers' Council Trustee. Ronning received a
B.A in journalism from the University of Oregon.
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Ann Winblad is the
co-founding Partner of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners. Hummer Winblad Venture
Partners (www.humwin.com) is a
venture capital firm focused on software investing and manages over $1 billion
in capital. Hummer Winblad Venture Partners has launched over 80 new software
companies.
Ann has over 25 years of experience in the software industry as a successful
software entrepreneur, strategy advisor, author and venture capitalist. Her
background and experience have been chronicled in many national business and
trade publications. She began her career as a systems programmer at the Federal
Reserve Bank. In 1976 Ann co-founded Open Systems, Inc., a top selling
accounting software company, with a $500 investment. She operated Open Systems
profitably for six years and then sold it for over $15 million.
Prior to co-founding Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Ann served as a strategy
consultant for prestigious clients such as IBM, Microsoft, Price Waterhouse,
and numerous start-ups. In addition, Ann has co-authored the book Object-Oriented
Software and has written articles for numerous publications.
Ann received a BA in Mathematics and in Business Administration, as well as an
MA in Education and International Economics from the University of St. Thomas,
St. Paul, Minnesota.
Ann has served as a Director of start-up and public companies and currently
serves as a director of Dean & Deluca, DevX, Identicrypt, Intacct, Internet
Wire, Net Perceptions and The Knot. She is also a member of the Board of
Trustees of the University of St. Thomas and is an advisor to numerous
entrepreneur groups.
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| THE KNOT AT A GLANCE |
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#1 wedding website with 2.1 million unique visitors a
month
3,600+ new members join TheKnot.com each day
Exclusive
wedding content provider to MSN, CompuServe, and Netscape
The only
wedding brand found on the Internet's top three portals: MSN and Yahoo!
Brand extensions in all media: Internet, magazines, books, and television
Largest publisher of regional wedding magazines with 1.2 million circulation in
18 U.S. cities
Leading retailer of wedding favors and supplies on the
Internet
Our five books have combined sales of over 100,000 copies
Named "Best Wedding Hub" four years in a row by Yahoo! Internet Life
Key
investors include QVC, The May Company, and Hummer Winblad Venture Partners
Voted "Forbes Favorite" Online Gift Registry |
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