Gabe Hunterton to Join Team as President of Vinco
Lisa King and Rod Vanderbilt Remain on Board of Directors
Brian Hart and Jesse Law Join Board as Independent Directors
ROCHESTER, N.Y., Oct. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Vinco Ventures, Inc. (Nasdaq: BBIG) ("Vinco Ventures," "Vinco," or the "Company"), a digital media and content technologies holding company, today announced that a settlement agreement was reached on September 28, 2022, in the Company's litigation in the State of Nevada. Pursuant to the agreement, Ross Miller is named CEO of Vinco, to run the Company under the oversight of the Board of Directors. Also, the Company has appointed Gabe Hunterton as President of Vinco.
Lisa King and Rod Vanderbilt remain on Board of Directors. They will be joined by two new independent directors, Brian Hart and Jesse Law, filling two of three vacant director seats following the resignations of John Colucci, Michael Distasio, and Elliot Goldstein.
As part of the settlement of the litigation, John Colucci, former Co-CEO and Independent Director, and Philip Jones, former CFO, have resigned from their positions at the Company eliminating all ties with Vinco Ventures, effective immediately.
"With the settlement agreement, and litigation behind us, Vinco's leadership team is aggressively working together towards the completion of our quarterly filings as well as working closely with the Zash and ZVV management teams to work towards completion of the combination of these companies as soon as possible," said Ross Miller, CEO of Vinco. "We are laser-focused on providing transparency and creating value for our shareholders, as well as upcoming business initiatives. We have the platforms, technologies, and human capital in place – now, it is time to execute."
"It is my great pleasure to welcome Ross, Gabe, Jesse and Brian to the Vinco team. Each bring extensive experience and expertise that will aid the Companies execution as well as its growth. The Vinco team and Board are excited to get back to business and look ahead to Vinco's next chapter," added Roderick Vanderbilt, Chairman of the Board.
Ross Miller currently serves as a County Commissioner for Clark County, Nevada District C. Miller previously served as Deputy DA, a criminal prosecutor for Clark County for major criminal offenses. He was elected as the youngest Secretary of State in history for the State of Nevada and served for eight years. He has previously served as CEO and President of BKB Global, a wholly owned combat sports entertainment company of DirecTV, and as SVP and General Counsel of Paragon Gaming, a Nevada corporation focused on managing casino resorts. Paragon Gaming is an internationally recognized developer and operator of world class gaming destinations. His leadership is nationally recognized, as he was named a "Top 10 Rising Political Star" by the Washington Post, was selected as one of "24 Rising Stars in American Governance" by the Aspen Institute and was awarded a Rodel Fellowship in Public Leadership. He obtained his BA from Stanford University and holds dual JD and MBA degrees from Loyola Marymount University.
Gabe Hunterton is an experienced leader with extensive history in multiple spaces including gaming and gaming technology. His most recent position was President of City of Dreams Macau a flagship casino property of Melco Corporation. Hunterton was Deputy Chief Operating Officer of Galaxy Macau one of the largest casinos in the world. He also served as Chief Operations Officer of StarWorld a wholly owned subsidiary of Galaxy Entertainment Group LTD. He was Senior Vice President of Business Development and Senior Vice President of Casino Operations for MGM Macau. At times in his career he had over 10,000 employees reporting to him. His gaming industry experiences ranges from Dealer to Chief Operating Officer having overseen two of the largest and most profitable gaming resorts in the world. He has also consulted with companies on technology integration, license valuation, asset valuation, and RFP development for new gaming resort markets. He has extensive experience in online gaming and technology. Gabe has a BA in Economics from Yale University.
Brian Hart has over 25 years of experience in technology, communications, and policy, and is a founding partner of Hart Communications. He has served as senior staff for a federal agency, three U.S. senators, publicly traded companies, and global consulting firms. He also served on the board of directors of a privately held EMC testing and equipment company in Austin, Texas that is now a part of ESCO Technologies. Hart was a presidential appointee as the director of the Office of Media Relations for the Federal Communications Commission and was communications director for Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri directing all strategic communications and public relations for the senator, the Senate Rules Committee, as well as the presidential swearing in and inaugural address. He reorganized and led the Washington, DC office for H&R Block. While at Ketchum and Hill & Knowlton he consulted for Fortune 100 clients including HP, FedEx, IBM, Enron, and Verizon on public relations, crisis communications, restructuring, and government and public affairs.
Jesse Law is an accomplished senior executive with 17 years of professional experience, including 14 years of experience in banking and finance and 13 years in bipartisan political and public policy operations. During his career, Mr. Law has developed expertise in strategic management, corporate operations, staff development, and high-level stakeholder relations, including working with senior executives of Fortune 100 companies, senior administration officials, members of the United States Congress, and senior foreign diplomats. In addition, Mr. Law is adept at building coalitions of diverse interests and coaching them towards mutually-acceptable solutions in high-stakes domestic and international negotiations that have resulted in achieving exemplary success of key strategic organizational goals.
About Vinco Ventures
Vinco Ventures (Nasdaq: BBIG) is focused on the development of digital media and content technologies. Vinco Ventures' consolidated subsidiary, ZVV Media Partners, LLC, a joint venture of Vinco Ventures and ZASH Global Media and Entertainment Corporation, has an 80% ownership interest in Lomotif Private Limited. Vinco Ventures owns a 100% ownership interest in AdRizer, LLC.
For more information, please visit investors.vincoventures.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Forward-Looking Statements and Disclaimers
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" as defined in the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which are based upon beliefs of, and information currently available to, Vinco Ventures' management as well as estimates and assumptions made by Vinco Ventures' management. These statements can be identified by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historic or current facts. When used in this presentation the words "estimate," "expect," "intend," "believe," "plan," "anticipate," "projected," and other words or the negative of these terms and similar expressions as they relate to the applicable company or its management identify forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the current view of Vinco Ventures with respect to future events and are subject to risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors relating to Vinco Ventures and its subsidiaries and consolidated variable interest entities including Lomotif, their industry, financial condition, operations and results of operations. Such factors include, but are not limited to, the expected benefits from Vinco Ventures' investments in Lomotif and related growth initiatives and strategies such as the blended media, cross-platform distribution strategy, the expected benefits of Lomotif's participation in and sponsorship of live entertainment events, the expected benefits from acquisition of AdRizer and planned integration of the AdRizer technology with Lomotif and Honey Badger and synergies between AdRizer, Lomotif and Honey Badger and such other risks and uncertainties described more fully in documents filed by Vinco Ventures with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the risk factors discussed in Vinco Ventures' Annual Report on Form 10-K for the period ended December 31, 2021 filed on April 15, 2022, which are available at www.sec.gov. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or the underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may differ significantly from those anticipated, believed, estimated, expected, intended, or planned. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, performance, or achievements. Except as required by applicable law, including the securities laws of the United States, we do not intend to update any of the forward-looking statements to conform these statements to actual results.
