Evan Klein - Managing Principal
Evan has 30 years of Investment Banking and private equity experience. Prior to founding Luminary, Evan worked at Berkery Noyes, Allen & Company, Morgan Joseph and Prudential Securities. Evan has led investment banking groups focused on media, entertainment and marketing services. Evan received an MBA degree from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. degree from The State University of New York at Albany, graduating summa cum laude.
Adam Cohen - Advisor
Adam serves as Managing Partner of Spyglass Capital, a private equity firm focused on value-add multi-family investments. Adam previously ran Deutsche Bank’s Securitized Products Group before retiring in 2010. Under his stewardship, the group produced more than $1.0 billion of annual revenue and at one time had 140 members and more than $50 billion of financing commitments to a wide range of customers including Ford, GM, MBNA, Capital One, and Caterpillar.
Edward Huguez - Advisor
Ed is a highly skilled media and technology executive and has been a pioneer in the pay tv (“cable”) industry for more than 25 years. Most recently, Ed served as President, distribution and marketing for Starz Entertainment. Ed came to Starz in 2004 from Midstream Technologies, where he served as President and CEO. Prior to Midstream, ED was COO of Intervu, which was the first and largest dedicated cloud based video and audio content delivery and publishing network.
Pete Tarnapoll - Advisor
Pete has over 30 years of leadership experience in integrated marketing, including promotional, experiential, lifestyle, digital, sports and shopper marketing. Pete was most recently CEO of PromoWorks, a leader in brand promotion and consumer engagement. Pete previously served as Group President of DL Ryan Companies, one of the leading U.S. private marketing services companies. Pete joined Ryan in 1991 and used his expertise to help clients including Chase, Nestlé, Pepsi, Norelco and Taco Bell.
James Johnson - Advisor
Jim co-founded Alloy in 1996 and served as its President and COO through 2013. Alloy is one of the most important millennial-focused media and marketing companies of the past two decades and created the hit TV shows “Gossip Girl”, “The Vampire Diaries”, “Pretty Little Liars” as well as the dELiA*s, CCS and Alloy merchandise brands. Jim continues to serve on the board at Alloy, which is now primarily a shareholder of Defy Media. In addition, Jim serves on the board at OOHA/Wilkins Media and Inspired e-Learning.
Kurt Roeloffs - Advisor
Kurt is the founder of Protean, a venture capital platform focused on transformative technologies across the built environment. Kurt is the former Chief Investment Officer of RREEF Alternative Investments, the investment management division of Deutsche Bank, responsible for $65 Billion of real estate, infrastructure and private equity investments. Prior to joining RREEF, Kurt was a Managing Director in Deutsche Bank’s Real Estate Group where he completed over $10B of equity, debt and advisory assignments in the U.S. and Asia.
Lisa Shamus - Advisor
Lisa, with over 25 years of experience, is a successful and well respected licensing and marketing executive and has expertise in all facets of the business. Currently, Lisa serves as President of Commonwealth Toy, and CEO of Lisa Shamus and Associates, a boutique firm that develops licensing programs. Lisa began her career at The Walt Disney Company, Marvel Comics and Viacom. Lisa rose to the top at all three companies and created corporate and entertainment licensing programs that generated billions of dollars in sales.
Richard Perna - Advisor
Richard co-founded Evergreen Copyrights in 2004 and subsequently received funding in 2005 by Trilantic Capital Partners. During his tenure with Evergreen, Richard served as Co-CEO and focused his energies on copyright management and acquisitions. During its five year existence, Evergreen purchased the rights from 24 pre-existing companies and became one of the top independent music publishing companies in the world. Richard is also trustee and national secretary/ treasurerof NARAS.
Ellie Hirschhorn - Advisor
Ellie served as Simon & Schuster’s EVP and first Chief Digital Officer from 2008-2014, managing engineering, product, digital marketing, business development and content & programming teams. Prior to S&S, Ellie was at CBS College Sports TV, where she was in charge of the company's digital division that included a network of over 200 collegiate digital sports properties. Ellie has served as COO of MediaNet and held various high-level positions at Viacom, MTV Networks and Showtime Networks.
Bruce Stein - Advisor
Bruce has served as COO, Worldwide President and Board member of Mattel, CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment (PlayStation), and President/CEO of Kenner Products, a company acquired by Hasbro.
Bruce was also CEO of Mandalay Media, CEO/Founder of The Hatchery and CEO/ Chairman of Radical Communication.
Bruce has served as a consultant to DreamWorks SKG, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Mandalay Entertainment, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, GTI Investments and Guggenheim Capital.
