Message #24 From:
Stock News Bot Date: December 18, 2006 04:00:00 AM
PAYD News Paid Inc. Names Keith Garde President of Paid Celebrity Services
WORCESTER, Mass. & BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Paid, Inc. (OTCBB:PAYD) today announced that Keith Garde has been
appointed President of Paid celebrity services. This appointment further
solidifies Paid’s relationship with Mr.
Garde, who has been a consultant to the company for the past two years.
In his new role with Paid, Mr. Garde will oversee business strategy and
new business development for Paid celebrity services, including branding
Paid’s products and services, unifying its
various businesses under one umbrella and improving the bottom line.
“Keith’s
experience in the entertainment industry at all levels will benefit our
entire organization,” said Greg Rotman, Paid,
Inc. CEO. “His insight in business strategy
and branding has been extremely valuable and we will continue to
leverage his rich industry knowledge to differentiate Paid in the
marketplace and facilitate our continued growth. His track record as a
successful and well-respected manager in the extremely competitive
entertainment industry is testament to his business acumen, creativity
and charisma. We’ve seen his expertise at
work firsthand over the past two years and we’re
excited to have him on board.”
“I’m looking
forward to taking a larger role in advancing Paid to the next level,”
Mr. Garde said. “Paid initially impressed me
with its stellar customer service in the incredibly demanding
collectibles industry and I believed it could be applied to the
entertainment industry. It’s been very
exciting to see Paid celebrity services’
growth from that initial concept two years ago to a multi-million dollar
business that has raised the bar for the entire industry. There is
tremendous potential for Paid because they are committed to maintaining
the highest standards for their customers. Paid has only touched the tip
of the iceberg.”
Mr. Garde has more than 25 years of management and production experience
in the entertainment industry working with artists, CEOs, management
companies, record labels, promoters, entertainment media and affiliated
entities in promoting artists and solving problems facing their
organizations. A serial entrepreneur with extensive expertise in
branding, strategic alliances and management, he has formed a number of
innovative and successful businesses with the vision that “the
arts should support the arts.”
In 1995, Mr. Garde founded and continues as president of PKA Management,
a Boston-based firm that manages national talent, manages video
production and provides consulting services. The firm specializes in
corporate project and alliance management, business development,
branding, strategic planning and entertainment e-business. Mr. Garde was
one of the early pioneers in leveraging the Internet for entertainment
entities, utilizing it for the digital distribution of artists’
content and intellectual property. In the early ‘90s,
he engineered one of the entertainment industry’s
first cyberspace tours for Aerosmith. At PKA, he has continued pushing
the digital “envelope”
by exploring new ways to market and brand artists on the Web.
Mr. Garde has collaborated on special projects for MTV, VH1, A&E, ESPN,
NFL, Disney, Paramount Pictures, Daimler-Chrysler, multiple record
labels and many other major corporations and artists. The projects
resulting from these collaborations have garnered for Aerosmith the
highest level of industry awards, including Grammys, American Music
Awards, People’s Choice Awards and a series
of Billboard awards. He has held key positions on numerous high profile
projects, including:
Aerosmith’s “The
Making of ‘Pump,’”
a seminal rock documentary of Aerosmith’s
multi-Platinum “Pump”
album -- Creative Director and Producer
DMC’s “Checks,
Thugs & Rock ‘n’
Roll” video documentary -- DVD Executive
Producer & Creative Director
VH1’s “Behind
the Music: Aerosmith” -- Executive in
Charge of Production for Aerosmith
Aerosmith’s “Eat
the Rich” music video for MTV -- Co
director and Producer
A&E’s Aerosmith “U
Gotta Move” show and DVD -- Executive
Senior Producer
Aerosmith’s “Baby
Please Don’t Go”
video -- Producer
Aerosmith “What It Takes”
music video -- Director and Producer, studio version
VH1’s “DMC: My
Adoption Journey” -- Executive Producer
Aerosmith/NFL promotional video “Back In
the Saddle” and “Dream
On” music videos for ESPN/NFL -- Creative
Director
In 1987, Mr. Garde began as marketing director for Collins Management,
Inc., transitioning to vice president and co-manager of Aerosmith, a
role he held until 1995. He was one of the principal architects and
drivers of Aerosmith’s resurgence beginning
in the late ‘80s that helped turn them into
one of the world’s most successful rock &
roll bands. Today he continues to consult for Aerosmith as special
projects manager.
Early in his career, Mr. Garde became heavily involved in the video and
technology arena. An early adopter of the fledgling music video medium,
in 1979 he co-founded Scotland Video, which made international news with
a video presentation to President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Premier Yuri
Andropov. Following that venture, he spent several years as an
independent producer of music videos for the recording industry and
commercial productions for major brands such as M&Ms and Colgate. He
also was an executive with a start-up laser disc development company
that evolved into the publicly traded College Television Network that
MTV acquired in 2002.
Mr. Garde holds a B.A. degree from Cornell University’s
College of Arts & Sciences.
About Paid, Inc.:
Paid, Inc.’s celebrity services provides
celebrities and organizations with official Web sites and fan club
services that include e-commerce storefronts, ticketing and fan
experience packages, and Web site content, such as news, polls, message
boards, contests, biographies and custom features to attract tens of
thousands of visitors daily, as detailed on its Web site, www.paidcelebrity.com.
The Company also sponsors autograph signing events and other sports
marketing services for sports clientele. Using proprietary
patent-pending technology, Paid's innovative AuctionInc brand shipping
calculation and auction management software and services are utilized to
streamline online auctions, ecommerce and web site development and
hosting. The Company's stock trades on the Nasdaq OTC Bulletin Board
under the symbol PAYD. For further information, visit www.paid.com.
Forward Looking Statements:
This Press Release contains forward-looking statements within the
meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of
the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that are based upon current
expectations or beliefs, as well as a number of assumptions about future
events, including matters related to the Company's operations and
expectations about celebrity programs and fan club activities. Although
the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the
forward-looking statements and the assumptions upon which they are based
are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations and
assumptions will prove to have been correct. The reader is cautioned not
to put undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, as these
statements are subject to numerous factors and uncertainties. In
addition, other factors that could cause actual results to differ
materially are discussed in the Company's most recent filings, including
Form 10-QSB with the SEC.
EDITORS NOTE: A photo of Mr. Garde is available. Please contact Julie
Shepherd of Accentuate PR, 815-479-1833, Julie@accentuatepr.com
