Who We Are

He is a passionate serial entrepreneur whose dedication to the hospitality industry stems from a love of diverse people, music, art, food and life experiences. He is a designer who problem solves and simplifies to solve communication and operational problems. Mahdad gets out of bed every morning with an excitement to create and build long-lasting brands in the hospitality industry and beyond. He is a collector of Coca Cola cans from around the world, which since the age of 13, has lead him to develop a deep understanding of how brands connect with people through design and psychology. His favorite brands are Virgin and Apple, and the entrepreneurs who inspire him, are their founders.

Mahdad has lived in four countries and speaks English, Spanish, French and Farsi fluently. He has been an investment banker at JP Morgan in New York and London and left behind a career in finance to become a bartender before switching careers to design. He holds a degree from Montreal's McGill University in Information Systems Design and Finance.

Peter's continuous source of motivation is figuring out how to make something different and unique - something that hasn't been seen or done before, and that will inspire. His biggest critic, like most artists, is himself. His favorite website is The Oatmeal because it shows how one person, with a great idea, can make an impact through illustration. His favorite artists are H.R. Giger, Rembrandt, and Alex Pardee, whose works include The Book of Numbers and Bunnywith.

Peter's personal art has been displayed all over the world from Japan to California. He is a graduate of The School of Visual Arts in New York with a bachelor's degree in illustration and has been working with digital technology for the past 12 years. He has lived in New York and New Jersey where he worked on Illustrated Books including Garfield, Arthur and Small Heroes.

Jennifer has been interested in animation for as long as she can remember. While other people think it's insane to work on something for days just to get a few seconds of animation done, she begs to differ. She loves bringing things to life, making people laugh, and watching people's reactions when the work's all done. Her favorite animator is Chuck Jones and she can recite pretty much any Looney Tunes short.

Since graduating from the Art Institute of Philadelphia in 2003 Jennifer has worked steadily in New York as both a freelancer and fulltime. Her wide range of work includes video editing, motion graphics and the occasional music video. She has been featured on funnyordie.com and her work can also be seen in the award winning independent documentary 'My name is Alan and I paint pictures.'

An avid rock/jazz pianist and singer, Mike is passionate about writing songs and playing old standards. He loves to surf and travel, especially together, and always has a hankering for the Great American Road Trip. If he's not partaking in these hobbies, he's likely disappeared on a Ruby and Javascript bender.

Mike has been developing web applications since '97, and has been working with the Ruby on Rails framework since 2006. He's built an encrypted document dissemination platform for an equities research company, a number of Content Management solutions, and multiple social networking sites for clients. He holds a Bachelor's of Science degree from Stanford University.

Jordana also works for Metro News Canada as a copy editor and freelance reporter. In addition to her work at Metro, she writes for the Canadian Jewish News, Friday Night magazine, contributes to high-traffic website MySecretBoston.com, produces video blogs for non-profit organizations, and has taught multimedia at Ryerson's Verse City.

She holds two Master's degrees in English and Broadcast Journalism.