Corporate
Mark Jeffrey
CEO / CoFounder, ThisWeekIn
Mark Jeffrey is a serial Internet entrepreneur, podcast pioneer and author. He co-hosts This Week in Cloud Computing and This Week In Android, and hosts This Week In Books (formerly Bibliotech).
Previously, Mark was CTO of Mahalo.com, Inc., a human-powered search engine focused on the top English-language search terms, including verticals such as travel, products, news, entertainment, sports, food, and health.
Prior to that, Mark co-founded business social networking company ZeroDegrees, Inc. and sold it to IAC/InteractiveCorp in 2004. He also was CEO and co-founder of SuperSig, Inc., an html email company.
His first company, The Palace, Inc., backed by Time Warner, Intel and Softbank, was a wildly popular virtual world that grew to 10 million users at its peak. It was was selected ‘The Best of 1996′ by Entertainment Weekly received numerous awards and coverage including a Webby Award nomination. Mark sold the company to Communities.com in 1998.
Mark has been named on of ‘50 to Watch’ by Variety Magazine presented as a featured speaker at the very first Harvard University Conference on the Internet and Society in 1996. Mark holds a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of New Hampshire.
His podcast novel “Max Quick 1: The Pocket and the Pendant” was released in 2005 and has received over 2.4 million downloads to date. Harper Collins bought the book in 2009 and will publish it in hardcover in 2011.
Jason CalacanisCoFounder, ThisWeekIn
Jason McCabe Calacanis hosts ‘This Week In Startups’ on the ThisWeekIn network and is the founder and CEO of Mahalo.com, a human-powered search engine focused on the top English-language search terms, including verticals such as travel, products, news, entertainment, sports, food, and health.
Prior to Mahalo.com’s launch in alpha in May, 2007, he was an “Entrepreneur in Action” at Sequoia Capital, Silicon Valley’s leading venture capital firm, a position he held since December 2006.
Calacanis co-founded and was the CEO of Weblogs, Inc., a network of popular weblogs that was sold to AOL in November 2005. Upon joining AOL, he was appointed senior vice president. In addition, he was named general manager of AOL’s Netscape and was responsible for the July 2006 relaunch of the iconic browser as a social bookmarking news site.
Prior to forming Weblogs Inc., Calacanis was the founder of Rising Tide Studios, a media company that published the magazines Silicon Alley Reporter and Digital Coast Reporter. The flagship publication later became Venture Reporter, a venture capital database, and was sold to Dow Jones.
Calacanis is from Brooklyn, NY and currently resides in Los Angeles and New York with his wife and bulldog. He received a B.A. in psychology from Fordham University. Calacanis is known for his transparency and insights into the internet and media industries.
Kevin PollakCoFounder, ThisWeekIn
Kevin Pollak hosts ‘Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show’ on the ThisWeekIn network and has captured the attention of audiences worldwide with his range of both dramatic and comedic roles. Over the past two decades, he has appeared in over fifty films, as well as countless television projects, and has established himself as one of the few stand-up comedians to have a successful dramatic film career. In addition to his acting talents, he has also proven himself as both a writer and producer.
Pollak first started performing stand-up comedy at the age of ten. He became a touring professional stand-up at age twenty and then in 1988 landed a role in George Lucas’ “Willow” , directed by Ron Howard. In 1990, he appeared in Barry Levinson’s “Avalon”, for which he received an overwhelming response from the film community. It was Pollak’s role in the 1992 film “A Few Good Men”, directed by Rob Reiner, starring Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson and Demi Moore, that proved his ability to share the big screen with dramatic heavyweights. He then went on to co-star in the box-office success “Grumpy Old Men” and its’ sequel, “Grumpier Old Men”. In 1994, Kevin was offered a plum role opposite Gabriel Byrne, Kevin Spacy, Bennicio Del Toro, Chaz Palmeteri and Stephen Baldwin in a little indy film called “The Usual Suspects.” Although the director, Bryan Singer, and the writer, Christopher McQuarrie, were complete unknowns at the time, the script was simply the best he had ever read, so he took the leap. The film debuted at the Cannes Film Festival to a frenzied response, and then went on to win two Academy Awards and a special award from The National Board of Review for “Best Ensemble Cast.” The film’s popularity has never diminished thanks to a seemingly never-ending need for its DVD. Later that same year, the call came from Martin Scorsese for Kevin to join Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesce and Sharon Stone in his Vegas epic, “Casino.” It was a dream-like opportunity to work with the master, and the film would also garner several Academy Award nominations, and would soon after become known as one Scorsese’s classics.
In 1999, he appeared opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger and Gabriel Byrne in Universal Picture’s “End of Days”. He followed that with a starring role in Paramount Classics’ political thriller “Deterrence”, written and directed by Rod Lurie, for which Kevin received overwhelming critical praise.
In 2002, he reteamed with Eddie Murphy in “Dr. Doolittle 2″. Also that year, Pollak starred in “Stolen Summer” with Aidan Quinn and Bonnie Hunt, which was written and directed by Pete Jones, the winner of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s first Project Greenlight series for HBO. Finishing up the year, Kevin appeared in “The Santa Clause 2″ with Tim Allen.
In 2003 and 2004, Pollak starred in the indy film “Seven Times Lucky” for writer/director Gary Yates. The film debuted at The Sundance Film Festival and received extraordinary reviews. In 2005 Pollak teamed up with Gary Yates again on the film “Hotel Niagra,” which was released in 2006.
Check Kevin’s Filmography for a complete listing of all his film work.
Pollak has also starred in several television projects including “The Underworld”, a crime telepic for Warner Bros. and NBC, which he co-created and co-executive produced with Chris McQuarrie (Academy Award winning screenwriter of The Usual Suspects) and Lucy Webb. He also starred in the CBS sitcom “Work With Me”, which he co-executive produced. When Tom Hanks called a few years back, Kevin starred in an episode of the multi-award winning series, “From the Earth to the Moon”. Before that, however, there was a call from Drew Carey for Kevin to voice his boss on a pilot for a show to be called, “The Drew Carey Show”. “Mr. Bell’s” often abusive relationship with Drew ran the entire first season. Pollak also hosted the first season of Bravo’s “Celebrity Poker Showdown”. Pollak has also starred in two of his own HBO stand-up comedy specials, the latest being “Kevin Pollak, Stop With The Kicking”, directed by David Steinberg.
Kevin was recently named by Comedy Central as one of the Top 100 Comedians of all Time.
Lon Harris, Creative Director
Lon Harris is an online personality, screenwriter and community manager. He began contributing to the ThisWeekIn network while working as Editorial Director of Mahalo.com. Not that there was a lot of down time. He squeezed it in during off-hours before joining the company full-time as Creative Director in May of 2010. Previously, Lon had contributed to the popular Mahalo Daily podcast series, co-hosting initially alongside Veronica Belmont and later with “Mahalo Vlog Idol” winner Leah D’Emilio. It was during this period he produced and co-created the first “This Week In” series, This Week in YouTube. He’s also a contributor to This Week in Twitter and This Week in Startups.
Prior to working at Mahalo, Lon had worked as a post-production coordinator and a freelance entertainment journalist. He’s been published in the Orange County Register and PREMIERE Magazine, along with numerous film and TV-related blogs and websites. He doesn’t want to sound like a jerk or anything, but he probably knows more about movies than you…just saying…
Lon earned his Bachelor’s Degree in History and English from UCLA and his Master’s in Communication Management from USC, a rare juxtaposition which is only possible because he doesn’t really care about sports in the least. He lives in Los Feliz with his girlfriend and her adopted shelter dog, Mr. Johnson.
