The global licensing community is powered by an incredible group of professionals whose diverse backgrounds and creative energy drive innovation and excellence. Each week we’ll be profiling one of these professionals in this ongoing series developed in partnership with MyMediaBox.

How did you get into licensing (or how did licensing find YOU)?
Licensing found Alternatives when we were in a small office in a building full of start-ups and a man walked in the door asking if we could make a presentation so he could hopefully get a license for Rainbow Brite. Everyone in the office made fun of me for accepting the project. But, he got the program and we started getting more industry people asking for presentations, branding and style guides. Thankfully for other great licensing agencies and brands that our employees were more excited about!

What’s your biggest personal and professional accomplishment?
My biggest personal accomplishment might be surviving/thriving an extremely remote, off the grid 2 week rubber rafting trip with my wife and 6 others through ANWAR and the Arctic Circle in Alaska. Professional might be surviving/thriving a business with amazing clients and projects for this long in NYC and ending up owning our office building – which is so helpful right now during Covid!

What are the most significant trends or changes that you’ve seen in the business in recent years?
I’m encouraged by the trend to openness and collaboration between competitive brands – and even agencies such as ours. I think that ‘coopetition’ and sharing of information and ideas is really pushing innovation forward and creating new opportunities for everyone.

What keeps you up at night? What’s your biggest challenge these days?
The ‘short term thinking’ nature of our business environment – and political environment – keeps me up at night. It has created an instability and insecurity which causes productivity, quality, even satisfaction and happiness to suffer. Business leaders are challenged with not just doing the work they were trained for, but also creating a strategy for business and employee ’emotional’ well-being as an integral part of their culture. We have to love our work and love our people, but people always come first.

What is the best piece of advice you ever received? OR What is your favorite quote?
I think that something my wife and business partner Julie Koch-Beinke and I wrote when we were just starting out has been the best guidance for our business – “If you can do it, do it. If you can’t, don’t.” It sounds so simplistic, but you can apply it to anything you want to do. It helps you decide what to focus on, or not waste time on.

What is your favorite licensing deal of all time? (doesn’t have to be one that was signed by you)
My favorite licensing deal of all time was when Joester Loria signed Jeep. Joester Loria invited us, a small company, to compete against Jeep’s giant U.S. ad agency to develop their first branding system for licensed products. We were selected because of our authentic outdoor experience. The client from Jeep said “you guys get it.” The Branding that we developed over a multi-year period upped our strategic capabilities and made us a much more capable agency with a true focus on brand development.

The last licensed product I bought was…
A SpongeBob toy because I’m honored to be spongeworthy as a handler of the SpongeBob balloon in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade 2020 – and hopefully helped to bring some joy and normalcy to families all over during this crazy year!

THE 2021 PEOPLE PROFILE SERIES IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY MYMEDIABOX
MyMediaBox is the leader in providing online solutions that streamline every stage in the brand licensing lifecycle, from contract management and rights tracking, through style guide delivery, product approvals, security tag management and royalty reporting. With over 54,000 global professionals logging in from 125+ countries, Mediabox is by far the world’s most thoroughly tested and widely trusted licensing software.