Spiral Toys Strengthens Senior Management Team With Video Game Veteran, Sal DiVita, and Product Operations Expert, David Poulin
Marketwired
LOS ANGELES, CA--(Marketwired - Dec 7, 2015) - Spiral Toys (OTCQB: STOY), a leading provider of mobile-connected, wireless entertainment technology, has appointed two senior executives to its management team, marking the latest in a series of new talent additions.
Sal DiVita has been appointed head of creative and David Poulin has been named head of product operations, both new positions.
DiVita brings more than 20 years of video game industry experience, dating from the introduction of original arcade games to today's game console platforms. He has developed content for top-selling games, including NBA Jam, NFL Blitz, MLB Slugfest and WWE All Stars, as well as the Mortal Kombat franchise.
As Spiral's new head of creative, DiVita will be responsible for the overall design and user experience of Spiral's mobile apps. DiVita will work closely with Spiral's recently appointed head of software, Mark Mizuguchi, and its new head of visuals, Mark Stefanowicz. Igor Barash, who recently joined the company as head of development, will continue to oversee all product development and report directly to CEO Mark Meyers.
"Given Sal's success in building creative content for wildly popular video games, we are confident he will significantly enhance the overall user experience of Spiral mobile apps," said Spiral Toys CEO Mark Meyers. "His talent and experience creating fun entertaining gameplay that has been very popular with kids makes Sal the ideal candidate to take our mobile apps to the next level of fun and engagement."
As the company's new head of product operations, Poulin will lead the effort to bring new Spiral products to market. Poulin is a highly accomplished Direct Response Television (DRTV) industry veteran. In his previous positon of DRTV and media manager at Hampton Direct, Poulin was responsible for the advertising media strategies of 17 DRTV brands which ultimately became major retail successes, including My Spy Birdhouse™, My Fun Fish™, Lumi Dough™, Chillow, and Pajama Jeans®.
Poulin will work closely with Joana Ubach, head of marketing and PR, to build out a world class team that will execute innovative approaches to launching Spiral products into the market.
"David's proven track record also made him ideally suited to lead our efforts to bring to market the multiple Spiral Toy products we are planning to release next year," continued Meyers. "As our toy lineup continues to expand, David will help us take a measured, systematic approach to bringing our products to market in most effective manner and with the greatest return.
"The addition of David and Sal round out our operational team, and sets the stage for strong growth and market expansion in 2016."
Team Bios Sal DiVita was co-creator to the Midway Sports franchise titles, including original arcade game creation, design and development to NBA Jam, NFL Blitz and other popular titles. DiVita was a member of Midway Games for 17 years, where he was a team leader and developer of top tier games which represented over $1 billion dollars in retail revenue. DiVita holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art & Design from the American Academy of Art in Chicago.
David Poulin was with Hampton Direct for the past five years where he was the DRTV and Media Manager. Prior to Hampton Direct, he was an accountant with Aon Insurance and Zodiac Amfuel. Poulin graduated Cum Laude from Southern Arkansas University where he earned his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a double major in accounting and finance.
Igor Barash has more than 15 years of experience in operations, software development and direct response marketing. He is the co-founder of and former chief operating officer at CyberDefender Corporation, where he provided technical support and Internet security solutions, and prior to that, he was a director at Micron Technology.
Joana Ubach, who originally joined Spiral as the head of graphic design, brings more than eight years of experience in graphic design and marketing to the team. She has managed several fine art galleries in San Francisco and holds a Master's of Fine Arts and Graphic Design from the San Francisco Academy of Art.
Mark Stefanowicz is an award-winning art director with over 22 year of experience. He was previously a studio art director at Disney, where he was instrumental in the creation of Disney Epic Mickey and Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two. Earlier, he was an artist and art director at various companies, including Bvlgari, Chanel, Marvel, Rosetta Stone, Electronic Arts, and Disney.
Mark Mizuguchi brings 16 years of experience in software engineering and technical leadership to Spiral. He was previously a software development manager at Amazon, and earlier a technical director at Disney Interactive and a software engineer at Electronic Arts.
About Spiral Toys Spiral Toys (OTCQB: STOY) is a California-based company with a business, founded by a former senior executive of Disney and Sony, focused on developing and marketing products and mobile applications in the mobile-connected space. Spiral's mobile-connected entertainment platform connects physical items to today's top mobile devices through wireless technologies, creating a new kind of interactive user experience.
Spiral sells its products worldwide, and is developing additional applications based on its platform technology for several different verticals within the entertainment industry. Spiral collects revenue on both the physical purchase of goods and the sale of digital content through Apple's App Store and the Google Marketplace. The company also acts as co-developer with major entertainment studios. For more information, visit www.spiraltoys.com.
Trademarks mentioned in this press release are the properties of their respective owners.
Forward-Looking Statements All statements in this press release that are not based on historical fact are "forward-looking statements." The terms "expects", "would", "will", "believes", and similar terms are intended to identify these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on estimates and assumptions made by Spiral Toys in light of its experience and its perception of current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors that Spiral Toys believes are appropriate in the circumstances. Many factors could cause Spiral Toys' actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These risk factors and others relating to Spiral Toys that may cause actual results to differ are set forth in Spiral Toys' periodic filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (copies of which filings may be obtained at www.sec.gov). These factors should be considered carefully, and readers should not place undue reliance on Spiral Toys' forward-looking statements. Spiral Toys has no intention and undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.
