Lois C. Greisman heads the Division of Marketing Practices in the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. Under Ms. Greisman’s management, Marketing Practices leads the FTC’s law enforcement initiatives tackling telemarketing fraud (including Do Not Call/Robocall enforcement), fraudulent business and investment opportunity schemes (including multilevel marketing), mail fraud (including sweepstakes and lotteries), illegal spam, and Internet frauds (including technical support scams).Ms. Greisman also directs the FTC’s work to curb fraud in connection with different payment systems.
Before joining Marketing Practices in January 2006, Ms. Greisman headed the Division of Planning and Information, where she managed the FTC’s Identity Theft Program, the Consumer Response Center, and also supervised implementation of the National Do Not Call Registry. Previously, Ms. Greisman served as Chief of Staff to FTC Chairman Timothy J. Muris. She also served as Attorney Advisor to Chairman Robert Pitofsky and Chairman Janet D. Steiger from 1995 – 2001. Ms. Greisman received her bachelor’s degree magna cum laude from Brown University, and her law degree from George Washington University, where she was a member of the Order of the Coif and Law Review.
Tom has over 40 years of experience in various aspects of logistics. His experience includes operational and executive management through solutions design and business development, touching various modes of transportation, warehousing, fulfillment, and e commerce. Tom has been working with DSA member companies since 1997 and has a strong understanding of Health Canada regulations and the Canadian logistics landscape.
Joan Hartel’s story begins in 1987 on a trip to Hawaii where she first saw Oysters containing colorful Pearls being opened before her eyes. She brought the business idea back to Massachusetts and opened a small seaside store on the island of Martha’s Vineyard. Looking for the flexibility to raise a family while running a business, Joan started Vantel Pearls Parties. Their success is a dream come true.
Tim Hays has been with Scentsy since 2012. As a Scentsy Marketing Strategist, he currently oversees seasonal product collections, limited-time promotions and a handful of other marketing programs. Working cross-functionality with product development, supply chain, and creative teams, Tim ensures new products and programs going to market are ideally suited to help Consultants succeed in their businesses.
After graduating from the University of Oregon Lundquist College of Business in 2012, Tim started in the PR department at Scentsy. The past 6 ½ years have allowed him to gain experience in a variety of roles- ranging from PR and digital content strategy to integrated marketing. Outside of work, Tim has an affinity for running, mountain biking, skiing, traveling – and hummus.
Gordon Hester is an entrepreneur and business strategist. For 25 years, Gordon was the CEO for Roberti Enterprises. Although Roberti Enterprises was a conglomerate of various companies, it was best known for building one of the largest global distributorships in the history of the Direct Selling Industry with sales in excess of $8 billion and a sales organization exceeding 100,000 distributors in over 25 countries. During this period, he coached and trained thousands of entrepreneurs in North America, 15 European Member countries, Israel and Australia. Today, Gordon does consulting for various direct selling companies although his primary focus is the Juice Plus Company. He is also a member of the DSA Research Committee and speaks for the DSEF.
After retiring in April 2016, Gordon started his own global business consulting practice. The focus of his consulting practice was B2B, primarily with startups and mid-sized global companies. The scope of his consulting is very broad but always focused on problem solving, both in operations and sales. In addition, Gordon works with young entrepreneurs in all areas of their business from ideation, through customer discovery and validation to building scalable businesses. Much of that work is on business strategies and the development of systems and process necessary to advance momentum in their businesses.
In 2018, Gordon launched a global technology business called Shapetech Solutions, LLC. Shapetech Solutions is a boutique tech design and full-stack development firm with offices in both Sarasota, Florida and Nis, Serbia. Shapetech has an international team of business consultants, developers, and designers who are able to use both the global nature of the business and the wide range of experience and backgrounds to create affordable solutions for all clients. Shapetech is in the business of providing transformative solutions, and view technology as a tool that is used to shape the future of any company. The Shapetech Team has over 40+ years of business experience and over 100+ years of tech experience.
For the last four years, Gordon has been on the Advisory Council for the Entrepreneur Program at Wake Forest University. He works closely with the director of this program, Dan Cohen. Dan joined Wake Forest in 2015 after he founded and directed eLab–Cornell’s entrepreneurship accelerator program, which is hailed by Forbes Magazine as a major driver of Cornell’s ascent to a #4 national ranking in entrepreneurship. Gordon works as a mentor for young entrepreneurs in this program. In addition, he recently took a role to help expand the mentorship in this program.
Gordon lives in Sarasota, Florida with his wife Jackie. Their son Connor is a senior at Wake Forest University where he is studying Business Enterprise Management. Their daughter Callie is a sophomore at Florida Southern and pursing a degree in Elementary Education.
Patrick Hollrah is general counsel to the Coalition to Promote Independent Entrepreneurs, which educates the public and elected representatives about the importance of preserving independent-contractor status through scholarship and advocacy efforts. He is also an attorney with the law firm Hollrah LLC, which devotes its practice almost exclusively to advising and representing companies that do business with independent contractors and other contingent workers.
Mr. Hollrah received a J.D. from the University of Maryland School of Law, Cum Laude, where he was the Editor-In-Chief of the Journal of Business & Technology Law and a B.S. in accounting from the University of Maryland, Magna Cum Laude.
Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Hollrah was a fellow at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Before law school he worked in the tax department at Ernst & Young and in the Inspector General’s Office for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Asma Ishaq has united experience and vision to establish innovative concepts in health and beauty throughout her impressive career.
She founded an award-winning company with an award-winning product line based on her multi-patented LiquidBioCell® nutraceutical ingredient that has pioneered the collagen and hyaluronic acid dietary supplement and skincare markets. Her company both maintained high standards in business ethics across distribution channels and industries while championing new product technology.
Asma serves the direct-selling channel on the DSA Board of Directors. She earned her B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley and as a Ben F. Love scholar, received a dual M.B.A. in finance and marketing from Rice University.
Lori joined New Avon LLC in October 2017 as Director and Senior Counsel, Employment. In this capacity she provides legal advice regarding day-to-day employee relations matters and expertise in employment discrimination and wage and hour litigation. Lori also provides legal support in the area of welfare and benefits plans and manages the Company’s Internal Investigations Process. Prior to joining New Avon, Lori worked at Jackson Lewis as an Associate where she developed a strong background in Federal and State employment laws as well as class action litigation, with a proven ability to offer creative business solutions to her clients. Lori was admitted to practice in New Jersey and New York and graduated from Rutgers University School of Law. She lives in New York City and recently got married.
Sandy Jap is the author of Partnering with the Frenemy, a book on the dark side of business relationships and A Field Guide to Channel Strategy, a how-to book on going to market strategy. She is the Sarah Beth Brown endowed Professor of Marketing at the Goizueta Business School at Emory University and has published widely across the top academic journals in marketing and management science. In 2010 she co-launched the Marketing Analytics Center, and is a former faculty member at the MIT Sloan School of Management and the Wharton School. She is an expert on business-to-business management, channels of distribution, and go-to-market strategies. She is currently a co-editor at Marketing Letters. In 2016, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Marketing Association (AMA) Interorganizational Special Interest Group (IOSIG) for her long-term contributions and service to the academy and profession as well as her sustained record of research excellence and was named a fellow at the Institute for the Study of Business Markets (ISBM) at the Pennsylvania State University and the Direct Selling Education Foundation (DSEF).
Darren Jensen is a senior executive with more than 20 years of experience in the direct selling industry pioneering new business strategies, leading global marketing initiatives and maximizing revenue through product and geographic expansion. He is an expert at driving global profitability by setting high standards of excellence, managing brand identity and creating customer-centric products.
