Technology >> CEO Interviews >> July 21, 2003
DAVID R. HUMBLE is Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of
eDiets.com, Inc., the leading online destination for diet-related
programs, information and resources. Mr. Humble founded eDiets in 1996
and has led the company to become the third most trafficked general
health site on the Internet according to Jupiter Media Metrix. Mr.
Humble has a long, successful business history in founding companies and
taking them to profitability ' and going public. In 1987 he founded
Advanced Promotion Technologies, Inc., a marketer of interactive point
of sale supermarket marketing systems. As Chief Executive Officer and
Chairman of the Board of Advanced Promotion Technologies, he completed
development of a satellite-based marketing system for retail stores and
helped facilitate the company's successful IPO and NASDAQ listing. Prior
to Advanced Promotion Technologies, Mr. Humble founded and served as
Chief Executive Officer, President and Director of CheckRobot, Inc.,
from 1985 to 1987. CheckRobot created the first self-checkout system for
supermarkets and completed a successful IPO in 1986 under his direction.
In another successful business venture, Mr. Humble was part of the
original management team of Sensormatic Electronics, a company that
develops and markets electronic security and surveillance products,
which was sold to Tyco International for $2.3 billion. From 1968 to
1985, Mr. Humble served Sensormatic in a number of marketing and
operations capacities, including Vice President/Manufacturing and Vice
President/Future Products and was on its Board of Directors. In 2002
Humble was awarded his 17th US patent, which covers the means of using
the Internet to provide an interactive link in a store for the purpose
of providing retailers and manufacturers with information to measure the
response of the consumers to sales and marketing information. He also
holds a patent for the original anti-shoplifting security tag found in
virtually every large retail store worldwide. Profile
ALISON C. TANNER is Chief Strategist and Director of Investor Relations,
at eDiets.com, Inc. Ms. Tanner's key responsibilities for eDiets include
the company's strategic planning and managing its relationship with the
investment community. She also plays a key role in the company's
mergers, acquisitions and strategic alliances. Ms. Tanner, a Chartered
Financial Analyst and a specialist in technology investments, has
managed portfolios of publicly traded and privately held equity
securities since the mid-1980s. She was the Founder and President of
Investorese, Incorporated, an investor relations firm that serves public
and private companies with technology-based products and services. Prior
to founding Investorese, Ms. Tanner was Director of Investor Relations
and Financial Media Relations at Sensormatic Electronics Corporation, a
global supplier of electronic security and surveillance products from
1996 to 2000. Before her work at Sensormatic, she also held portfolio
management and other investment-related positions at Granite Capital,
Fred Alger Management, Incorporated, Salomon Brothers, Incorporated, and
Dean Witter Reynolds, Incorporated. Ms. Tanner received her BA in
English from the University of Rochester's College of Arts, Sciences and
Engineering and a BM in Applied Music from the University of Rochester's
Eastman School of Music. She serves on the Executive Council of the
South Florida Chapter of the American Electronics Association. Profile
TWST: Would you begin with an overview and history of eDiets.com?Mr. Humble: We started the company in late 1996. We were one of the
first online subscription models. We sell custom diet and