Hell yeah, dude!! Gerry David and Kevin Harrington
Post# of 75010
"In order to compete financially with the revenues generated by commercials aired on other home shopping networks, HSN initiated a division to produce infomercials and distribute them globally in July 1994. HSN Direct, located at the HSN headquarters in St. Petersburg, Florida, aired its infomercials on cable networks and through broadcast services--excluding HSN's home shopping vehicles, which were not formatted for long commercials. HSN embarked upon a joint venture to produce the infomercials. Headed by Kevin Harrington, a past vice-president at National Media and co-owner of the venture, HSN Direct positioned Home Shopping Network to sell to a European audience. Harrington was responsible for developing the infomercial in Europe through Quantum International, a company he formed in 1988. He expected HSN to create infomercials for housewares, exercise equipment, and other products--especially merchandise produced by manufacturers unaware of the infomercial potential of their goods or for products with a history of success on HSN.
Gerry David was most recently the CEO of Celsius Holdings, Inc. He is a seasoned executive with 40 years’ experience in business with a focus on startup, turnaround and fast growth. Mr. David’s first 20 years in business was in the high-tech industry with companies such as IBM, Honeywell, Datapoint and GTE. Mr. David started his first company, a systems integration firm, when he was 26 years old and grew to offices in six states. The past 20 years, Mr. David focused on the consumer-product space, holding several senior management positions with companies such as HSN Direct, Vitarich Labs, Cyberwize, Oragenics and Life Science Technologies. Mr. David led the startup or turnaround of seven companies during his career.