We are honored to have these accomplished individuals on our advisory board.

Gary Slaight

Born in Edmonton, Alberta on February 15th 1951, Gary Slaight earned a B.A. in English at the University of Western Ontario, and his volunteer work there at campus radio station Radio Western gave early signs that he was likely to follow in the footsteps of his already high-profile radio executive father Allan.

In 1973 Gary joined McLaren Advertising's media department, before moving into the music business doing promotion work for Quality Records and WEA Records.  In 1977 he joined Toronto radio station CILQ, better known as Q107, where Allan was President and CEO.   But it was on merit that Gary moved through several positions in the company, including Account Executive and Program Director, before becoming Vice President and General Manager in 1982.

In 1985, Allan acquired Standard Broadcasting Inc., and in 1987 he brought Gary over to become President and CEO of Standard Radio Inc.  In 2000, Gary replaced Allan as President and CEO of Standard Broadcasting Corporation Ltd., while continuing to head Standard Radio.

Within a year of assuming his new responsibilities, Gary had made his mark by negotiating Standard's acquisition from Telemedia of a major group of English radio stations.  This was the pivotal move in a series of station acquisitions, sales and exchanges, which thereby established Standard as second only to Corus Entertainment in radio station ownerships. Gary continues to be an aggressive leader in the broadcasting business, in his determination to keep Standard in its pre-eminent position in the radio broadcasting field.

Gary has always been well known as an active supporter of Canadian talent; he created the National Songwriting Contest, and the Canadian Radio Music Awards, as well as the Homegrown Contest, which is carried by stations across Canada. His peers have frequently recognized Gary's accomplishments; he was named Broadcast Executive of the Year at the Annual Music Industry Awards by Canadian Music Week in 1992, 1993, 1996 and 1998, and in 2004, he was named the recipient of the Award for Outstanding Community Service by an Individual Broadcaster, by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters. He was inducted into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame in March 2005.

Gary's community service has included board membership of the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children Foundation (for whom he created the "Have a Heart for Sick Kids" radiothon, which has raised millions of dollars), The Toronto Walk of Fame, the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Gilda's Club and the Canadian Music Council. He also serves on the United Way Leadership Giving Committee.  He is also on the boards of music companies Moontaxi and Maplemusic.

Gary Slaight sold his radio station group to Astral Media in late 2007 for over $1 Billion Dollars US. HITVIEWS was one of his first investments. He has supported HITVIEWS through every financing and is an important strategic partner. According to HITVIEWS CEO Walter Sabo, “It would be impossible to express my gratitude to Gary personally and professionally for his belief in HITVIEWS. Not only is he the primary source of financing but he has given us access to dozens of top media executives who make our company grow.”

Andrew Gaspar

Andy is a Partner and Co-Founder of SV Investment Partners where he serves on the Management Committee, the Investment Committee, and the Portfolio Review Committee of this private equity firm – formerly known as Schroder Ventures US. Andy co-founded and managed two Lauder Gaspar private equity funds from 1991 to 1998, which were financed by members of the Estee Lauder family. From 1981 to 1991 he was a Partner of Warburg, Pincus & Co, where he specialized in investments in communications, media and technology companies. Andy has been a private equity investor since 1981, preceded by 11 years of operating management and engineering experience in electronics, computers, and communications with RCA Corporation and with Raytheon.

Andy received a BS degree in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University, an MS degree in Computer Science from Northeastern University and an MBA degree from Harvard Business School.

Greg Stuart, Informal Advisor

Greg Stuart is the CEO of project RIALTO, a spin out from Alcatel Lucent (ALU) to facilitate carriers aggressively acquiring advertising revenues across multiple media types. He is also the former CEO & President of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), the trade association for the interactive advertising & marketing industry. He led the bureau during the industry's growth from $6 billion to $17 billion annually and grew the IAB itself +500% in four years. The IAB serves Internet Media giants such as AOL, CNET, Google, MSN, NBC, Disney, and Yahoo!, among others. Greg is the author of "What Sticks: Why Most Advertising Fails and How to Guarantee Yours Succeeds."

Del Wilber

Mr. Wilber currently serves as CEO of the Celeritas Management Fund, a fund specializing in Hispanic owned businesses. Previously he was head of  MVPGROUP, a marketing company in which he is partnered with The Martin Agency/The Interpublic Group of Companies. A former Big Ten Quarterback, he signed with the Philadelphia Phillies in the very first Major League Baseball Free Agent Draft. Mr. Wilber also served as Vice President - Worldwide Tennis for Spalding, where he worked for Palladium operating executive Sandy Grieve. His expertise is building highly popular brands such as the Ice Capades and Spaulding Tennis balls to breakout products throughout the country.

Ed Hersh

Ed Hersh is the chief creative officer of StoryCentric, a multifaceted consultancy that provides the media industry with both strategic and tactical insights on content creation and production. He founded the firm after seven years at Court TV, most recently as Executive Vice-President, Current Programming and Specials during a period of unprecedented ratings growth. Prior to Court TV, Ed served as Vice President, Documentary Programming for A&E Network. Prior to A&E, Ed spent 16 years at ABC News in various senior production capacities including Senior Producer, Program Development.

Mr. Hersh is a two-time winner of the Columbia-duPont Award. He also received an Emmy for the ABC News special, Peter Jennings Reporting: Who Is Ross Perot?

Ed is a graduate of Syracuse University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Ed continues to serve as a member of the adjunct faculty at Columbia.

Fred Silverman

Fred Silverman is the only person to have been in charge of programming of all three original television networks.  As an independent, he produced more hours of prime time programming than anyone except Aaron Spelling.

Mr. Silverman assumed responsibility for daytime programming at CBS, where he later took charge of all of CBS Entertainment programming where he remade the ratings - from third to first. He also helped devise the programming strategy that brought All in the Family, The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Waltons to CBS. From 1975 to 1978, as head of ABC Entertainment, Fred took ABC from ratings parity with the other networks to ratings dominance over them. Among the shows and mini-series he was responsible for programming were Rich Man, Poor Man, Roots, Charlie's Angels and Starsky and Hutch. Mr. Silverman made the "third" network a ratings power.

In 1977, a Time magazine cover story referred to Mr. Silverman as the "man with the golden gut," ostensibly referring to his unfailing programming instincts.  At the height of his power at ABC, Mr. Silverman left to take on the presidency of NBC.

Mr. Silverman received a Master's degree from Ohio State University.