Mark Goldston has served as a member of our Board of Directors since June 2023. Mr. Goldston has served as the Founder, Chairman and CEO of The Goldston Group, a strategic advisory and venture capital firm, since November 2013. Mr. Goldston also serves as the Co-Founder and General Partner of Athletic Propulsion Labs, LLC (“APL”), the luxury performance athletic footwear company, since March 2009. He is the Co-Founder and General Partner of Javergo Partners, a strategic advisory firm since March 2020 and has been an investor and Board member of TuneGo, Inc since 2015.
From 1985-2013, Mark Goldston was a highly accomplished Chairman, CEO or President of major corporations and startup companies. He took two different companies public (IPO) as CEO and ran 4 different public companies. One of the longest tenured Internet CEOs as the original Chairman and CEO of both United Online (NetZero, Juno, FTD Flowers, Interflora, Classmates, MyPoints, Stayfriends, etc) and its predecessor company, NetZero from 1999-2013. He presided over a 450-fold increase in revenue, acquired 13 companies for a combined $1.1 billion, raised over $1 billion in debt, $200+ million in common equity, $144 million in strategic equity (PIPE), and returned $368 million in cash dividends to shareholders. Held Chairman, CEO, President or top marketing executive role at Revlon, Faberge/Elizabeth Arden, Reebok, LA Gear, Einstein Noah Bagel Corp., NetZero and United Online and was a former Principal at Odyssey Partners, a major private equity firm where he was on the Odyssey Partners turnaround team, one of the first of its kind in the private equity industry, overseeing the turnaround of 6 separate LBOs from 1989-1991.
Mark is one of the world’s most accomplished inventors with 112 U.S and Foreign patents issued featuring thousands of inventive claims. Mark Goldston’s patented inventions include revolutionary products in athletic footwear, algorithmic internet search, internet targeted advertising and connectivity, mobile media platforms, video caller ID, cloud-based digital media storage, file sharing and protection, metadata processes and NFT token management.
Mark Goldston has specialized in corporate turnarounds throughout his career and is the author of a highly acclaimed business book entitled “The Turnaround Prescription-Repositioning Troubled Companies”.
Mr. Goldston received his Master of Management (MBA) from the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management and his undergraduate Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA) from The Ohio State University.
He has been a Life Member of the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management Global Advisory Board since 1987 and a member of The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business Dean’s Advisory Council since 1992.
He was The Ohio State University General Commencement Speaker in 1994, the Commencement Speaker at The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business MBA program in 2015 and was the Commencement Speaker at the University of Southern California (USC) Marshall School of Business in 2009. He is a fitness fanatic who trains two hours everyday year-round.