Brand Informatics

Scott Magids

Scott is an experienced early-stage company operator and angel investor. Prior to co-founding Brand Informatics, Scott was the Director of MTECH Ventures, the venture creation unit of the University of Maryland, from 2002-2007. At MTECH Ventures, Scott led the formation, business planning, team building and financing of multiple successful early-stage companies. He managed the University’s technology entrepreneurship education and incubation programs and played an active role in the University’s R&D seed capital program. He also started the University’s first program designed to “spin out” new companies based on faculty and student innovations, and he oversaw the formation of the University’s first program dedicated to fostering technical entrepreneurship in underprivileged areas. Between 2003-2007, he taught undergraduate and graduate entrepreneurship courses. He has given numerous speeches and interviews regarding the University’s venture programs, and he testified about the importance of University-based entrepreneurship before the US Senate in 2006.

Prior to joining MTECH Ventures, Scott was President of Robert Charles Group (RCG), a private investment and consulting firm. Scott was also co-founder and Vice Chairman of Aspirient LLC, a brand and research consultancy. Earlier in his career, Scott founded, led and exited an IT consulting firm.

Scott is a member of Young Presidents Organization. Scott holds a B.S. in Finance from the University of Maryland.

Alan Zorfas

Alan is an experienced marketing services professional and an expert in brand and Emotional Connection strategy and research. Prior to co-founding Brand Informatics, Alan spent 25 years in a variety of senior positions inside several of the largest and most well respected marketing agencies in the world, including DDB, Mullen Advertising and Earle Palmer Brown. He has also co-founded and run two firms: Doyle Advertising and Design, sold to a unit of the Omnicom Group, and Aspirient LLC, a brand and research consultancy.

Alan has conducted over 100 quantitative and qualitative research studies into brand and the Emotional Connection between companies and their customers, and he has advised the Boards of Directors, CEOs and CMOs of dozens of Fortune 1000 firms, in every major industry, with respect to brand strategy and Emotional Connection with customers. Through his experiences with diverse companies, Alan identified the need for improved Emotional Connection intelligence, now the business of Brand Informatics.

Alan holds a B.S. in Marketing from Boston University.

Patrick Gross

Pat is Chairman of The Lovell Group, a business and technology advisory and investment firm. Through The Lovell Group, he is advising half a dozen private technology and internet commerce firms.

Previously, he spent three decades with American Management Systems, Inc. He founded AMS in 1970 with four colleagues from the Office of the Secretary of Defense and built it to a $ 1 billion company with 7,000 professionals throughout North America and Europe.

He is currently a director of four public companies: Capital One Financial Corporation, Career Education Corporation, Liquidity Services, Inc., and Mobius Management Systems, Inc. He is also a director of several private companies including Sarnoff Corporation and Development Alternatives, Inc.

His other leadership positions include Trustee and Chairman of the Research and Policy Committee of the Committee for Economic Development, Vice Chairman of the Council for Excellence in Government, Chairman of the Intergovernmental Technology Leadership Consortium, and cofounder and past chairman of the World Affairs Council of Washington, D.C.

He is and has been a director/trustee/board officer of several educational institutions, hospitals/health care organizations, and economics and public policy organizations. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and the Economic Club of Washington, DC.

Pat holds an M.B.A. from Stanford University.