Management
David Lord
President and CEO of Knowledge Adventure
David Lord is president and CEO of Knowledge Adventure, the leader in adventure-based 3D virtual worlds for 3-to-10 year olds. As head of the company, Lord’s extensive background and 10+ years in the toy industry makes him uniquely qualified to lead Knowledge Adventure in solidifying its position as a multi-faceted kid’s entertainment company with both retail and online virtual world components. The company’s long, rich history in creating fun learning products is sustained by Lord’s expertise in producing quality educational toys for all ages, along with his talent for building a multi-faceted growth strategy for online businesses and brand development.
A recognized and respected leader of the industry, Lord was awarded the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2006 Award in the Emerging Growth category in the Greater Los Angeles area.
Prior to his role at Knowledge Adventure, Lord served for four years as president and CEO of RazorGator Interactive Group (RIG), a leading full-service event experience company for premiere sports and entertainment events worldwide, which he grew over 100% per year to well over $100 million dollars in revenue. While at RazorGator Lord spearheaded the growth of the RazorGator brand and raised Series A and B financing. Prior to RazorGator, Lord served as chief executive officer and chairman of the board for Toysmart.com, a venture-backed catalog company for educational, ecommerce, and retail products. During his time there, Lord established the company as the #1 brand in “Good Toys”, building brand awareness from zero to 45% in less than four months while increasing revenue over 500% each year.
David was raised in Boston, Massachusetts and holds a BSA in Accounting from Northeastern University.
Thomas Swalla
President Online
As President of Online, Swalla will lead all online initiatives for Knowledge Adventure including the company’s website properties as well as the JumpStart online experience. Swalla brings online expertise to Knowledge Adventure from his successful tenure at RazorGator Interactive Group (RIG), a leading full-service event experience company for premiere sports and entertainment events worldwide. While at RazorGator, Swalla served as vice president of business development and strategy, managing strategic partnerships with several content and distribution partners including Yahoo, MSN and FoxSports. Swalla also led and managed the company’s corporate development efforts.
Prior to his work at RazorGator, Swalla held product management roles at Authentify, an enterprise authentication services company, and CompleWare Corp, a provider of software services to the pharmaceutical industry. He received his BBA in Management Information Systems and Finance from the University of Iowa.
Sudhir Krishnaswamy
VP Engineering
Krishnaswamy’s previous experience includes tenure as CTO at RazorGator Inc., CTO and VP of Engineering at Paciolan, Inc – the premier provider of back-office software and services to sports and entertainment venues. Krishhnaswamy has over 20 years experience building large scale, consumer facing applications that delivers quality user engagement. He received his BS in Mechanical Engineering from Bangalore University, India.
Jim Czulewicz
Vice-President Business Planning and Analysis/Retail Sales
Mr. Czulewicz brings to KA over 10 years of merchandising, sales and financial planning/analysis experience from the Toy and Software industry. Czulewicz' prior history includes notable tenure within the Software and Toy industries including VP FP&A with Riverdeep and The Learning Company. Czulewicz also held senior sales and management positions within Mattel, Broderbund and Mindscape.
Bill Kennedy
Vice-President Finance and Administration
With over 25 years of experience in financial planning, analysis, reporting and accounting, Bill Kennedy joined Knowledge Adventure in 2005 as Corporate Controller and is currently its Vice-President of Finance and Administration.
Immediately prior to joining Knowledge Adventure, Kennedy was an independent business and financial consultant for a family office (securities, real estate and wholesale distribution), Corporate Controller at Digital Media Campus (an internet incubator, where he assisted in a complete financial and business restructuring), and Vice-President of Finance and Administration at Dunk.net (an internet start-up focused on a new propriety brand of athletic shoes and apparel). He was also previously Corporate Controller at Applause, Inc. (toy and gift industry) after having spent 10 years at Mattel, Inc. in various senior financial positions, including Director of Corporate Financial Planning and Director of Finance for its Mattel USA, Mattel Interactive and Mattel International sales and marketing divisions. At Mattel, Kennedy was also heavily involved with new business start-ups, direct marketing initiatives, systems development, and mergers/acquisitions/divestitures.
Kennedy began his career at Arthur Andersen & Co., moving on to serve Applied Magnetics Corporation as Manager of Corporate Financial Reporting and Taxes and later as Controller of its Composite Disk Heads division, a multinational engineering and manufacturing unit.
Kennedy received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Claremont McKenna College. He is a Certified Public Accountant (active status) and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the California Society of Certified Public Accountants.
Lori Berget
Executive Producer
Lori Berget is Executive Producer for Knowledge Adventure with over 14 years of experience designing and developing award-winning educational software and adventure-based 3D virtual worlds for 3-to-10 year olds. Berget guides project development from concept to release by evaluating market opportunities, accessing customer trends and prioritizing key opportunities to drive the JumpStart brand. Berget also has an extensive background in creating educational curriculum for 3-10 year olds.
Berget graduated Cum Laude with a BA from California State University, Long Beach
Teresa Tersol-Wiseman
General Counsel
Teresa Tersol-Wiseman is General Counsel of Knowledge Adventure, the company leading the way with www.jumpstart.com – an incredible online 3D virtual world for children. Tersol-Wiseman’s background in the software industry including an emphasis on quality, customer service, contract management and operations brings a different perspective to her role as General Counsel.
Prior to her role at Knowledge Adventure, Tersol-Wiseman was a consultant to multi-national companies assisting them in establishing world-wide business processes and key customer metrics. Prior to consulting Tersol-Wiseman was General Manager and Vice President of Softbank Services, Inc. and was responsible for opening and running the first international customer service center and fulfillment facility in Dublin, Ireland. During her tenure in Ireland she grew the company from 5 initial employees to more than 200, handling inbound customer service calls for twenty high tech companies in seven languages, supporting currencies and calls from twenty-two countries. Prior to that she was World-Wide Vice President of UCA&L.
Teresa was raised in Carmel, California and holds a BA from the University of California, Santa Cruz and a JD from the University of California, Davis.