Jason Prescott
Chairman of the Board
As CEO of JP Communications Inc. (JPC INC), Jason A. Prescott heads a B2B global trade network of wholesale vertical search engines, advertising platforms, and product sourcing directories serving wholesalers, manufacturers, importers, discounters, auctioneers, dropshippers and retail buyers.
JPC INC’s flagship site TopTenWholesale.com heads the global trade network, which includes Manufacturer.com, WholesaleU.com, OffPriceNetwork.com and Wholezilla.com. TopTenWholesale is a wholesale product search engine serving suppliers of clothing apparel, fashion accessories, footwear, jewelry and general merchandise. Its publication, Top Ten Wholesale Trends, provides users with an industry-expert filtered and refined matching system where buyers, sellers and advertisers can search keyword popularity by date. When TopTenWholesale merged with Manufacturer.com in 2009, the company acquired offices in Hangzhou, China under a new subsidiary, Flat World Media LTD.
Jason is well-known in the wholesale search marketing industry and has expert knowledge in search models and technology. He authored search marketing courses for the Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization and served on SEMPO’s Education Committee. Jason has been a speaker at many search conferences and trade meetings including: Search Engine Strategies, SIPPA, SANDIOS, ASD Trade Show and San Diego Software Council. He is a member of the San Diego Venture Capital Group and the High Tech Marketing Association. Jason writes expert articles on B2B marketing and vertical search engines which have been published in B2B Online, OMMA, IMediaConnection, CEO Magazine and Entrepreneur Online. Jason has been cited in Forbes Online, Business Week and Inc Magazine.
Jason and TopTenWholesale have received many awards. TopTenWholesale was named #1 in Fast Growth Awards in 2008 by bizSanDiego. TopTenWholesale ranked in the Top 20 for Technology Awards sponsored by the San Diego Business Journal in 2008. Jason was named in the Top 40 Entrepreneurs Under 40 roster in 2007 by San Diego’s Metropolitan Magazine. He was also recognized for Outstanding Emerging Business of the Year by the San Diego Chamber of Commerce, and was recognized as People To Watch in CA by the San Diego Union-Tribune. JPC INC sponsored fundraising and made technology donations to the San Elijo School in California. Jason is a graduate of Western Connecticut State University where he majored in Law Administration and Marketing.
Brian Crook
Executive Board Director
As founder and president of Cerebra, Brian Cook heads a company offering products that power mobile merchandising and recommendation tools for media publishers and ecommerce sites. Cerebra provides intelligent content and merchandising solutions that enable next-generation content delivery, advertising and ecommerce optimization.
Brian has a broad range of entrepreneurial experience in consumer and enterprise technology companies that range from online advertising and publishing to enterprise software.
Having co-founded a number of successful companies, Brian has raised seed-capital, scaled organizations, and has worked on both sides of merger and acquisition transactions.
Early on, Brian was an online advertising industry pioneer creating highly scalable ad-serving, data processing and analytic architecture for aQuantive, which is now owned by Microsoft Advertising. Brian also was responsible for the technology behind the Starwave advertising network. Starwave was acquired by Disney Interactive Media Group and handled high-profile, award-winning web properties such as ESPN.com, ABCNews.com, Infoseek and Disney Online, which were managed by Disney Online.
Brian has 20+ years experience in diverse leadership roles that gave him a unique blend of technology expertise, insightful strategic vision, pragmatic business acumen and proven organizational skills. In the past, he served as VP Product Development for Software AG, the world’s largest independent provider of business infrastructure software. Before Software AG, Brian was VP Product Development for webMethods, where he led product strategy and development for the Business Process Metadata Library. His position at webMethods came through the acquisition of Network Inference/Cerebra where he was VP Engineering. Prior to Cerebra, Brian was a technology lead at Vulcan Inc., Paul Allen’s private asset management company. At Vulcan, Brian was a key contributor to a number of programs in support of the portfolio.
Brian is an active contributor to the Semantic Web Technology and Web 3.0 community as a frequent speaker and educator.
Stephen M. Perl
Executive Board Director
Stephen M. Perl is CEO of 1st PMF Bancorp (PMF), a privately held U.S. commercial bank lender. He is also CEO of China Mart™ Los Angeles (CMLA), a platform that helps Chinese companies invest and establish operational facilities in the U.S. Market.
Stephen strategically increased 1st PMF Bancorp’s lending portfolio, making it one of the largest private business lenders in the U.S. As founder of CMLA, Stephen offered the first non-government platform dedicated to increasing Chinese and U.S. trade. CMLA’s customized business services provide Chinese companies with business/branch/division setup, which includes professional marketing services to help sell directly to large U.S. retailers, financing resources, immigration assistance and a number of other support services. Stephen created PMF for the purpose of providing global financing and credit services for Chinese and U.S. clients using its global platform. As the first private U.S. lender in China, Stephen established PMF’s presence there in 2004. Since then, he has successfully established PMF and CMLA branch offices throughout China, with the newest office opening in Shenzhen in 2010.
After having solidified many valuable government and commercial ties in China and the U.S. over the years, Stephen founded the first operational CMLA in the U.S. in 2007, located at Los Angeles International Airport. Stephen opened CMLA’s flagship office in partnership with the World Trade Center of Los Angeles to attract and support Chinese investment for Los Angeles via the YiWu Mart in Shenzhen in 2010. CMLA is a unique commercial- and government-supported business platform facilitating the entrance of Chinese companies into the U.S. to form partnerships in the U.S. market while investing in the U.S. to create new business opportunities.
Stephen actively serves on the board on the County of Los Angeles Board of Governors and the City of Los Angeles Economic Advisory Board. He is a Director on the Board of the Commercial Finance Association in the United States and a former Board Member of the International Factoring Association. Stephen was awarded the Honorary title of Professor of Finance from the GuangDong Financial University in Guangzhou, China. He earned a Master of Business in Finance and Marketing from Case Western Reserve University, Weatherhead School of Management, Cleveland, Ohio. Stephen also holds a Bachelor and Master’s Degree in Biochemistry with a Minor in Art History from the University of California.
