Thunder11 - All Systems Go

Marco Greenberg as the OB/GYN delivering Start-Ups

From humble beginnings as an associate at the public relations juggernaut Burson-Marsteller – where he was assigned to promote anything from SkyTel pagers to McDonnell Douglas C17 aircrafts – Marco worked his way up the ranks and went on to establish his own public relations boutique firm, NYPR, one of the fastest-growing firms nationally during the first Internet boom. In 1998, Marco was a member of the MIT 50K team that spawned Akamai Technologies, which led to a long relationship as the company's agency of record. His reputation for marketing communications in launching and re-positioning start-ups has resulted in frequent assignments for venture capital firms – including Battery Ventures, Jerusalem Venture Partners and etc. – and consulting for portfolio companies such as Ruckus Network, The NewsMarket and numerous others whether listed on NASDAQ, angel backed Web 2.0 start-ups, or entrepreneurs in decidedly 'old line' industries. Over the years, Marco has worked closely with a variety of technology companies with notable exits, including Symbol Technologies (acquired by Motorola); Synchronoss Technologies (SNCR); @stake (acquired by Symantec); and Rainfinity (acquired by EMC) et al. All of the above is even more impressive given that Marco hasn't even figured out how to program his own VCR yet, or the fact that he still owns one. He is a sought-after guest lecturer (Boston College, Columbia University, NYU, Yeshiva University) and an adjunct professor at the Fordham School of Business, where he taught an executive MBA class on entrepreneurship, and most recently was appointed to the School's Entrepreneurship Board.

Liel Leibovitz as the Mad Professor

After barely finishing high school, and receiving his bachelor's degree at Tel Aviv University's film school, where little save for a birth certificate and good will is required upon registration, Liel delighted his Jewish mother and got accepted into Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. After receiving a master's degree from what he ardently defends as the world's finest journalism school, Liel turned down a few tempting job offers and remained in academia, enrolling in Columbia's cutting-edge doctoral program in communications. In his five years at Columbia, he has been awarded masters' degrees in both arts and philosophy, before graduating in May of 2007 with a Ph.D. in communications. He's a doctor of video games, but more on that later. While completing his dissertation, Liel was appointed adjunct professor at several institutions, including Marymount Manhattan College, and in 2007 was appointed Associate Professor at Barnard College, where he taught a class pertaining to mass media and American politics. He has presented papers in several prestigious academic conferences, and is currently at work on numerous pending academic publications.

Marco Greenberg as the Web Video Innovator

In 2003, Marco founded Reel Biography, an innovator in high-end web video for corporate and professional clients. Among other achievements, he pioneered the use of upscale video resumes for executives (as featured in both The New York Times and CBS' Early Show); developed a cutting-edge video podcast series for Cornell Medical College; initiated the first-ever national video blog (for Israel's Foreign Ministry); and introduced professional, documentary-style web video to some of the most prestigious organizations in a wide array of fields, including The New York Times, Washington Mutual, NYU, Mount Sinai Medical Center and top international law firms such as O'Melveny & Myers. He has served as executive producer on many Telly Award winning films, including a video biography of three generations of high-end clothiers, Mitchells/Richards, which was showcased at Harvard Business School. With press coverage ranging from the Wall Street Journal to the much-revered "Best of NY" in New York Magazine – honoring their documentary work on family histories – Reel Biography productions have featured such notable personalities as former secretary of state Warren Christopher, actor James Earl Jones; sports celebrities Jim Nantz and Ahmad Rashad; Donald Trump; and the late playwright Wendy Wasserstein. Marco continues to consult organizations on effective use of web video, true to Reel Biography's tagline: Tell Your Story Better™. www.reelbiography.com

Liel Leibovitz as the Author

Liel's first book, Aliya: Three Generations of American-Jewish Immigration to Israel, was published by St. Martin's Press in 2006, and was released in paperback by St. Martin's Griffin in 2007. It has received much critical acclaim from publications ranging from Publishers Weekly to the Jerusalem Post. His second book, Lili Marlene: A Song of Love and Longing in WWII, will be published by W.W. Norton in 2008. Liel is also a contributor to various publications, including Columbia Journalism Review, The Atlantic Monthly Online, the Forward, Moment and others. He has also served as the culture editor for the Jewish Week, the nation's largest Jewish weekly publication, where he initiated a popular cooking column. Currently taking a break from serious non-fiction to work on a cookbook, Liel is a sought-after figure in the world of Jewish food, which makes him happy and his waistline less so.

Marco Greenberg as Global Public Citizen

Marco's commitment to public service began when he was an undergraduate at UCLA majoring in political science and history and working as a staffer for a U.S. Congressman and former member of the House Foreign Affairs committee. After receiving his MA from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, he accepted an appointment as a 24-year-old director of development at a leading international nonprofit, The World Jewish Congress. Since that time, Marco has been retained by the alef-bet soup of Jewish organizations. Over the years, Marco has also advised a range of Israeli government ministers and ministries, including the Israeli Foreign Ministry, beginning as a press officer at the Israeli Mission to the United Nations during the first Gulf War. While at Burson-Marsteller, he led their account with the Government of Israel's Economic Mission and developed the well-received "Invest in Israeli Ingenuity" campaign. Marco's work in the public affairs arena extends into many additional areas, including having consulted other foreign governments, from Egypt's Minister of Tourism to The Russian Mission to the UN. During his career he has worked with multinationals as varied as BP Solar, Clorox, Hydro Quebec and L'Oreal all managing public issues with different audiences. His philanthropic and pro-bono experience ranges from marketing and new media work for Cornell Medical College's Department of Psychiatry, helping to develop a USC sponsored architectural competition in rural China, to most recently assisting MIT professor Alan Lightman's Harpswell Foundation, a nonprofit organization providing educational opportunities for students in Cambodia.

Liel Leibovitz as the Video Game Swami

Ever since he was seven, Liel wanted just one thing: to play video games without any adults telling him to go do his homework. And so, upon growing up and finding himself in an Ivy League university, he did the only sensible thing: he made video games his homework. His doctoral dissertation from Columbia University, titled "Thinking Inside the Box: Towards an Ontology of Video Games," focuses on the burgeoning medium, examining the reasons that compel people to play and the social interactions that occur when they do. The dissertation is currently being reworked into a mass-market book, which Liel hopes to publish in the coming year. He is currently continuing his research into video games, collaborating with a small group of likeminded experts around the world and speaking at key academic conferences. Liel is very proud to be in the vanguard of academics researching this burgeoning medium.

Marco Greenberg as Communications Coach

Marco brings a unique approach to communications training (and no, we're not talking about his storied past as a former personal trainer in the late 80's at the once legendary Vertical Club in NYC). His focus is very much on connecting his own practical experiences in the trenches as a spokesperson, and keen understanding of public affairs, to his belief that effective communications technique must be taught in concert with a critical review of substantive content i.e. positioning. Soon after joining, then the world's largest public relations firm, Burson-Marsteller, he was tapped to conduct communications training for a variety of clients, including – over the course of a decade and in tandem with the co-founder of Burson, Buck Buchwald, – designing and teaching an annual communications training seminar regularly attended by Israeli government spokespeople. Marco has integrated his coaching experience into his subsequent strategic communications work on major accounts, including BP, National City Bank, Telefonica Espana and TRW. While at BBDO's Israel office, Marco counseled well known Israeli companies, as well as American corporations entering the local market, from GM to BellSouth. He is frequently called on to provide communications training to executives from Fortune 500 companies and start-ups, as well as to foreign diplomats, ministers, and executive directors of global nonprofits.

Liel Leibovitz as the Veteran PR Warrior

Liel learned PR 101 in no better place than the Israel Defense Forces, where he served for three years in the army's spokesperson's unit. In between brief stints of combat and getting shot in a very sensitive place, he mastered the tools of the trade, eventually helping to spearhead the army's media strategy and research department. While there, he designed a groundbreaking program for monitoring and measuring media coverage, later adopted and implemented by the army at large. He was also a leading military liaison to the vast international media corps stationed in Israel. During his service, Liel had the pleasure of meeting Marco Greenberg, then a newly arrived immigrant grabbed by the IDF spokesperson's unit for a high-level restructuring and strategy project. The two became fast friends, repeatedly seeking the right opportunity to work together. Upon his discharge, he accepted the position of senior press officer at the Israeli Consulate in New York, heading the mission's speakers' bureau and participating in designing and implementing its media and communications strategy. He was the consulate's chief media liaison during the weeks following the attacks of September 11, 2001, and spent his diplomatic stint lecturing to scores of organizations, corporations and communities about Israel's diplomacy and media relations. After completing his Ph.D. and publishing his first book, he again turned to the world of marketing, public relations and strategic communication, partnering with Marco to found Thunder11.

Other Members of the Cooperative

David Jacobson as the Central Brain

The first guru to join Thunder11, David Jacobson focuses on providing razor-sharp corporate intelligence for our clients. He comes to us with a rare combination of media savvy, the business analytics of an MBA holder, close familiarity with the venture capital financing process, and a (frequently) exquisite sense of timing. A journalist by trade though not (formal) training, David turned down an admissions offer from the Columbia School of Journalism to accept his first job as reporter for the Associated Press' Tokyo Bureau. Fluent in Japanese and holder of a BA in East Asian Studies from Yale, he launched a career as a writer specializing in Japanese business for the AP, and later, Japan's public broadcaster NHK. With uncanny timing, he left post-bubble Tokyo in 1992 to return to his native New York just in time for the start of America's Internet Boom. In the mid- to late 90's, at the height of the dot-com craze, he helped write and produce CNN Financial Network's "Digital Jam", the first daily business program covering the technology market. In 2000, just months before the U.S. financial markets turned sour, David left New York to join the Houston, Texas-based venture capital firm Sternhill Partners (after narrowly avoiding an opportunity to join Enron's ill-fated broadband unit just before its implosion). Armed with a newly-awarded MBA from NYU's Stern School of Business, which he had acquired at night while working at CNN during the day, he analyzed technology and market trends, and conducted due diligence on potential investment candidates. Since 2004, David has pursued a variety of freelance writing and market research projects. Among them, he has covered Japanese media and technology trends as blog correspondent for the USC Annenberg School for Communications' "Japan Media Review," and conducted market research for a Seattle-based digital media and advertising consultancy.

Heather Manning as the Charge D'Affaires

Heather Manning brings her passion for communications and caffeine addiction to Thunder11 from the MIT News Office, earning her PR stripes by promoting some of the world's most cutting edge technologies, scholars and events. She holds a B.A. in mass communication from Fairfield University, and is currently working on her master's degree in Health Communication in a joint program between Emerson College and Tufts University School of Medicine.