Who We Are

Newstex is a truly virtual company. With no physical assets, Newtex colleagues work from their own offices and are located across the United States. From the fast-paced hubs of New York City to the mountains of Seattle and beaches of Florida, the Newstex team connects using the tools of technology and the accessibility of the Internet. The virtual business model translates into lower costs and better pricing for customers.

Meet the Newstex Team

Steve Ellis, CEO

Steve Ellis is a co-founder of Newstex, where he serves as the company’s Chief Executive Officer with responsibilities for finance and business development.

Steve was formerly Chairman and CEO of Comtex News Network, one the original aggregators of real-time news and information, where he successfully restructured their products, management and financial structure.

Previously, Steve was CFO at GFI Group, a leading credit derivatives broker, having launched its largest private equity financing, and a Director and CFO at HotJobs.com, where he managed their successful IPO and M&A activities. He also directed the IPO of Metromedia Fiber Network, a large telecom start-up.

For much of the 90’s, Steve oversaw the rapid financial growth of Data Broadcasting Corporation, a pioneer in the news and real-time market data industry which spawned many of today’s great online products, including MarketWatch (spun out, renamed CBS MarketWatch), Signal (became eSignal, now owned by IDC), Quotrek (early hand-held, wireless quotes and news), and Shark Information System (merged with ADP’s data products group).

Steve graduated from M.I.T. with a BSEE in computer science and a BS in humanities, received his MBA from Stanford Business School, and is a certified public accountant. In his younger and fitter days, Steve pursued Isshynru karate with a vengeance as a third-degree brown belt. These days, he enjoys skiing, SCUBA, backpacking, and traveling with his family.

Larry Schwartz, President

Larry Schwartz is a co-founder of Newstex and President of the company, with responsibility for sales, marketing and product development.

Larry has guided numerous entertainment and new media ventures, from start-up through growth, development and maturity, including Bolenka Games Online (Trivial Pursuit(R) Online), GFI Group (Nasdaq:GFIG – financial), Wizard World (publishing), Patron Technology (technology) and Tickets.com. Most recently Larry was President of Comtex News Network, a real time wholesaler of news to the financial industry.

He was also president and CEO of Auctions.com, which he co-created with the Times Mirror Co. and co-owners Gannett, Knight-Ridder, The New York Times Company, Tribune Company, and The Washington Post Company. Larry was featured in the official history of eBay, “The Perfect Store”, by Adam Cohen, which detailing his exploits of attempting to purchasing eBay for Times Mirror and then competing against eBay on behalf of the newspapers.

Larry attended Bates College and the Yale University Graduate School of Drama. He serves on the Content Board of Directors for the Software Information Industry Association, and is a frequent speaker on content, product development, start-ups and turnarounds. Larry is also Chairman of the SIIA Previews for the third year running.

When he’s not adding value to content, Larry is a show manger for hunter/jumper horse shows, is on the Board of Directors for the Connecticut Horse Show Association and maintains several horse web sites and blogs (www.chsaonline.com, www.shallowbrook.com, www.westbrookhuntclub.com). Larry, a confirmed gadget geek, also spends time on Broadway with his theatrical agent wife and two daughters.

Michael Airhart, Director Publisher Services

Michael Airhart serves as product manager for Newstex with responsibility for newsfeed composition, format, quality, and fulfillment.

Michael served for 12 years at KRT InfoConnect, a news service providing content from more than 230 periodicals. As Senior Editor and Content Coordinator, Michael electronically acquired content from periodicals and developed KRT custom newsfeeds for more than 40 aggregators and online publishers.

All told, Michael has 20 years of experience in journalism, product development, customer fulfillment, legal casework, and office IT for institutions including the Dayton Daily News, Sojourners magazine, the World Bank Group, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, and the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. In 1997, Michael co-founded Men Can Stop Rape, an organization dedicated to stopping violence against women.

In his spare time, Michael and his family enjoy theme parks, blogging, camping, swimming, and reading.

Aura Novembre, Director Publisher Relations

Aura Sujaritchan Novembre manages Publisher Relations for Newstex. Her role includes handling the partnerships from acquisition to technical integration and beyond.

Aura joins the company after working 5 years as a Senior Content Manager with ScreamingMedia, which eventually became Marketwatch Licensing Services.

There she managed the relationships of high-profile content providers such as Associated Press, Reed Business Information and Accuweather while supporting client deals with Sony Pictures Television, Merck and Cox Communications.

After graduating from Smith College, Aura worked in the development offices of producers Scott Rudin, Alan Pakula and Jean Doumanian. She was also the Director of Development for an independent producer, bringing in projects for CBS.

An active board member for the Smith College Club of NY, Aura organizes career-related events for the group throughout the year. In her spare time, she continues to pursue her interest in film, acting recently as an Associate Producer for an independent short.

Marcia Taylor, Director Client Development

Marcia Taylor has responsibility for sales and business development at Newstex, managing relationships with existing and potential Newstex customers at enterprise customers, financial firms, information companies, and data aggregators.

Marcia joined Newstex after a 13 year career at Business Wire, a leading press release distribution newswire service, where she negotiated licensing agreements with a wide range of customers, including Newstex. At Business Wire she managed relationships with local, trade and large online media outlets and portals that included company content in their products and services. Previous experience includes on-air broadcasting, writing for a recording industry publication and record company experience on Nashville’s famed Music Row.

A graduate of Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, Marcia looks forward to relocating to her home state in time for basketball season. In addition to cheering on her favorite team, she enjoys playing tennis and bicycling in her spare time.

Susan Gunelius, Marketing

Susan Gunelius is President and CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a full-service marketing communications provider.  Her business career spans nearly 20 years, and she is a marketing and branding expert having spent over a decade of her career managing and executing marketing programs for some of the largest companies in the world, including divisions of AT&T and HSBC.

Susan is also a published author with four business-related books available through Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and other book sellers with a fifth on the way in 2010.

Her marketing-related articles have appeared in a variety of publications and websites, including Entrepreneur.com, MSNBC.com, FoxBusiness.com, WashingtonPost.com, SmartMoney.com, TheStreet.com, BusinessWeek.com, Yahoo! Small Business, and Yahoo! Finance.

Additionally, Susan is the Guide to Web Logs for About.com (a New York Times Company), and she writes her own blogs at www.WomenOnBusiness.com and www.KeySplashCreativeConversations.com.

You can learn more about Susan, her experience, and her books on her company website at www.KeySplashCreative.com.

On a personal note, Susan, her husband and their triplets moved from New Jersey to Florida in 2005 for better weather.  Today, Susan spends the vast majority of her time trying not to break an ankle by tripping over her triplets’ never-ending supply of toys and wonders when was the last time she saw her floor beneath the toy gauntlet.

David Meerman Scott, Advisor

David Meerman Scott is a marketing strategist, keynote speaker, seminar leader, and the author of the hit new book World Wide Rave. His previous book, The New Rules of Marketing & PR is an award-winning BusinessWeek bestseller and is being published in 24 languages.

He is a recovering VP of marketing for two publicly traded technology companies and was also Asia marketing director for Knight-Ridder, at the time one of the world’s largest newspaper and electronic information companies.

David has lived and worked in New York, Tokyo, Boston, and Hong Kong and has presented at industry conferences and events in over thirty countries on four continents.

Clients include: Cisco, HP, The New York Islanders, NASDAQ Stock Market, the Government of Ontario, McKesson, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Marine Corps, SAP, Google, Digital River, Hill & Knowlton, Hanley Wood, Dow Jones, National Investor Relations Institute, Milken Institute Global Conference, America Credit Union Conference, TS2, Giant Screen Theater Association, Realtors® Conference, and many, many more . . .

David’s hobbies include collecting space artifacts, visit his Apollo Artifacts blog for a glimpse of his collection.

Check out David’s blog Web Ink Now at www.webinknow.com, which is syndicated by Newstex, and folllow David on Twitter @dmscott