Michael Sanchez

Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

Michael co-founded CMI Marketing out of respect and admiration for moms. As CEO, Michael plays a lead role in driving the company's strategy, growth, and overall operations.

Prior to CMI, Michael was the co-founder and President of Do Something from 1993-1999. Do Something is the premier provider of youth-led leadership and citizenship initiatives in schools. Do Something has worked with more than two million students and 15,000 educators to improve young people's leadership skills through meaningful involvement in their communities.

Michael also co-founded and served as the Chief Executive Officer of the profitable, '94 Cup Daily, the nation's only daily newspaper dedicated to the 1994 World Cup Soccer Tournament held in the United States.

Michael played soccer in college for the nation's top ranked University of Virginia team and then professionally in Zimbabwe, where he also taught High School math.

As a child, Michael traveled around the country and the world as a top-ranked junior chess player. He received extensive media coverage as a chess prodigy, conducting dozens of chess exhibitions and earning a draw with the #3 ranked player in the world.

Michael graduated from Columbia Law School in 1993, with honors. He currently resides in New Jersey with his wife and three kids.

Andrew Shue

Co-Founder

Andrew co-founded CMI Marketing in July, 1999 along with his lifelong friend Michael Sanchez. Their vision was to create an organization that would celebrate and reward moms for all that they do each and every day.

As a husband and father of three sons, Andrew's experience has shaped the long-term vision for CMI. He has spearheaded the company's funding and business development since its inception. Under his direction, key strategic partnerships have been formed with venture capitalists Highland Capital Partners and Draper Fisher Jurvetson.

A community leader, Andrew is the chairman and co-founder, along with Michael, of the national non-profit youth leadership organization Do Something, which has inspired and trained millions of young people to take action in their communities.

As an actor, Andrew starred in FOX television's "Melrose Place" for six years and made his feature film debut in "The Rainmaker," directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Andrew has played professional soccer in Zimbabwe, Africa, and Major League Soccer for the Los Angeles Galaxy. While playing soccer in Africa he also taught high school math. He is co-producer of an Imax film about soccer called The World's Game and he served as spokesman for the 1994 World Cup.

Andrew recently joined forces with his brother John, sister Elisabeth Shue (Academy Award Nominee for "Leaving Las Vegas"), and brother-in-law Davis Guggenheim (Academy Award Winner for "An Inconvenient Truth") to create the production company Ursa Major Films. Their first project and Andrew's debut venture this year as producer was "Gracie," a movie inspired by real life events from the Shue family.

Andrew graduated from Dartmouth College in 1989 with a degree in history. In 1995 he received an honorary degree from Drew University and was named one of ten outstanding young Americans by the Junior Chamber of Commerce.

Paul Bannister

SVP, CafeMom

At CafeMom Paul is responsible for product development, community and engineering. He leads the effort to make CafeMom the leading destination on the internet for moms.

He has worked at CafeMom and ClubMom since 1999. He has worked in the internet industry since 1995, when he started Online Gaming Review which was one of the largest video gaming sites. Paul is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.

Laurie Basch

SVP, Legal and Business Affairs

Laurie joined CMI Marketing in 2003. As chief legal counsel for CMI, she handles all legal issues related to the company's businesses, including CafeMom.com and its sister site ClubMom.com.

Prior to joining CMI, Laurie was General Counsel at Colonize.com. Before that, she was a partner at Hall Dickler Kent Goldstein & Wood where she advised clients in the areas of advertising, internet law and intellectual property. She began her career at Weil, Gotshal & Manges where she focused on restructuring and litigation. Laurie is a 1990 graduate of Fordham Law School and served as an Assistant Professor of Legal Writing at the law school for two years. She holds a BA from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. Laurie lives in New York with her husband and two children.

Laura Fortner

SVP, Sales Strategy and Operations

Laura is responsible for developing the company's sales offerings and overseeing and optimizing all advertising operations. In her role, she develops and markets cutting edge programs that integrate brands into the mom to mom conversation and get moms spreading their brand messages. She also manages the teams that implement partner programs, deliver on advertising commitments, and demonstrate program results. Prior to joining CafeMom in 2006, she held executive positions in sales and business development at Time Warner's CNN, CNN.com and CNNmoney.com, and prior to that, at Viacom's Nickelodeon. Laura holds a BA in East Asian Studies from Princeton University, and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and three young sons.

Robert Palma

SVP, Sales

Robert is responsible for growing the company's revenues. In his role, he leads CafeMom's sales efforts, building relationships and working closely with the best brands and agencies in the world. Robert also trains, manages, and supports the rapidly growing sales team. Prior to joining CafeMom in 2008, he was Regional Vice President of Sales of MySpace, and prior to that he was a District Sales Manager at Microsoft's MSN Property. Robert holds a BA in Finance from Iona College. He lives in Long Island with his wife and son.

Tracy Odell

VP, Product Development

Tracy heads up CafeMom's product development efforts where her goal is to make sure CafeMom is an essential part of every mom's life. Prior to CafeMom, Tracy worked for 4 years on ClubMom.com. She's also held positions at iWon.com and Excite.com. Tracy is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University where she majored in Professional Writing with a concentration in Multimedia Production. She's mom to a son who was born in October 2006.

Steven Samuels

VP, Finance

Steven is responsible for all of the CMI Marketing's finance functions, including accounting, planning and investor relations. With over 10 years experience in accounting, finance and management, Steven brings a wealth of knowledge in financial planning. He has worked at CMI Marketing since 2000. Prior to joining CMI Marketing, Steven worked at Deutsch Bank and Polyval Coatings. Steven holds an MBA with an emphasis in Finance and a BSc in Microbiology and Immunology from McGill University in Canada.

Ya-Yung Cheng

Sr. Director, Online Marketing

Ya-Yung heads up CafeMom's marketing efforts where her goals are to grow CafeMom's user base and turn CafeMom into a household name. Prior to joining the company in 2008, Ya-Yung led Product Marketing for Yahoo! Answers where she helped launch and grow the product to become one of the largest social media sites. She began her marketing career in the financial services industry but has been working in the internet industry since 1999. Ya-Yung holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.

Matt Zarzecki

Sr. Director, Design and User Experience

Matt is responsible for developing the overall aesthetic and experience design of CafeMom. His primary focus is making sure that moms can easily use and navigate the site and have some fun while doing it. Matt brings to CafeMom over 10 years experience designing and developing user interfaces. Prior to joining CMI Marketing in 2006, Matt worked at Next Jump, Inc., a leading provider of corporate rewards and loyalty programs. Matt is a graduate of Tufts University.

The CafeMom Community Team

Elizabeth, Chastity, D, Nikki, Mel, Carol, Amber, Anne-Marie, Jenn, Sheri, Katie, Lena, Denise, Angi, Amy, Heather, Jenniferi, Karen

The CafeMom Community team is responsible for helping make every mom's experience on CafeMom a positive one. The team responds to questions and issues via email and on the site. As a result, they know both the moms and the features of CafeMom better than anyone. The team members have many years of experience working on the internet, including contributing to major women's sites, running large blogs, and moderating communities on other sites. And between them, they have enough children to form a CafeMom soccer team.