About Us
ZisBoomBah is an exciting new company dedicated to empowering families with just the right online tools to manage their lives. How do we define just the right tool? Our team takes a unique approach to solving age-old problems, flipping them around to formulate new solutions. Then we present and talk with parents, children and experts to find just the right “Oh yeah! Why didn’t I think of that!” concept. This, is the foundation for all our tools.
ZisBoomBah.com created PickChow!, our first online tool solving the dreaded question “What’s for dinner?” Our team created a system that gets kids excited about figuring out what’s for dinner! Once the dinner is created, the kids can save and share it through email with their parents. Kids can print the menu, create the table setting, and if parents allow, kids can participate in making the meal! Parents will receive an email letting them know that their child planned dinner – parents can approve or save for later and send supportive notes back to their child expressing their excitement about a healthy meal.
ZisBoomBah was founded in the fall of 2008 by an entrepreneurial group of professionals focused on leveraging online technology to create a better future for families. Our team has been very carefully chosen to support the ZisBoomBah vision and our key objective of children first. Our extensive expertise resides in one or more of the following areas: high-tech start-ups, nutrition, restaurants, exercise physiology, psychology, TV production, publishing, technology and business.
Team
Karen Laszlo, Management
Karen Laszlo, founder of ZisBoomBah, has over 23 years experience in
finance, strategic planning, and marketing within Fortune 500,
mid-sized companies and Internet start-up ventures. Prior to
ZisBoomBah, Karen was VP Corporate Development at Collect America where
she designed and launched their first online payment engine and
designed a consumer website concept for debt-distressed individuals.
Karen was VP Business Development at PlanSoft (currently known as
Starcite) responsible for all strategic partnerships, private labels
and distribution partners within the hospitality industry. Karen also
worked in an executive capacity for RedTie Media (Digital Media),
BeDynamic (destination content), Yozons (digital signatures), and
ShowExperience(virtual tradeshows). Prior to Internet start-ups, Karen
was part of a turnaround team at Advanstar Communications, where she
worked in financial / acquisitions /and restructuring for over 100 B2B
publications and tradeshows. Karen started her career as an underwriter
and financial analyst at Progressive Insurance.
Karen holds an MBA in Marketing and Entrepreneurship from Case Western
Reserve.
Mike Carcaise, Management
Mike Carcaise is an innovative, roll up your sleeves and get things
done entrepreneur with a flair for knowing just the right words to keep
his team and his customers happy. Mike launched Grille 121 Restaurant
in St Petersburg’s Fla. Previously, Mike spent the past 17 years as VP
of Operations for LTP Management, a South Florida restaurant management
company that develops, owns and manages 8 successful restaurant
concepts, including Hooters and Dan Marino’s. Mike also sent 5 years
with Famous Restaurants as regional manager for four successful Mexican
restaurants and 5 years at Ponderosa Systems as General Manager for
Casa Lupita and Ponderosa Steakhouse.
Mike holds Bachelor of Science in Hotel Restaurant Management from Penn
State University. Mike continues being active in Penn State Alumni
Club, Miami Dolphin Charity Fund, Dan Marino Foundation, and Ten Little
Angels.
Andy Ruggles, Writer and
Producer
Andy
is a writer/producer with over seven years experience in broadcast
television, film and web video production. A lifelong passion for
telling stories and creating compelling characters lead Andy from
Cleveland, Ohio to the University of North Carolina School of the Arts,
where he received a BFA in Filmmaking. Currently based in the San
Francisco Bay area, Andy has worked in locales around the world
creating content for networks such as Travel Channel, Discovery and
PBS.
Lisa High Lanzano, MS RD
Lisa High
Lanzano is a Register Dietician and Clinical Nutritionist. She has 12
years’ experience in the field of nutrition, focusing on disease
prevention and weight management. Lisa spent six years at the
world-renown Canyon Ranch Health Resort in Tucson, Arizona, before
moving to Colorado in 2003. Lisa is the Director of Nutrition for the Shape
Your Life Program, as seen in Shape magazine. She co-authored
Better Breast Health for Life!
and wrote “Skeletal System and Joint Health,” a chapter in the
textbook, Integrating Therapeutic and Complementary Nutrition (CRC
Press, 2006).
Currently, Lisa is the owner of Essential Nutrition Inc., located in
Boulder, where she offers one-on-one nutrition consultations, group
workshops, and supermarket shopping tours for weight management, food
allergies, celiac disease, heart health, healthy pregnancy, eating
disorders, family nutritional counseling and blood sugar management.
Lisa is a firm believer in the healing powers of food and good
nutrition, and she studies the principles of Functional Medicine.
Lisa received BS from Oregon State and a MS from University of Arizona.
Jen Lesea-Ames, MS, CSCS
Jen has over 15 years of experience in the fitness industry, working as
a full time certified personal fitness trainer, fitness entrepreneur,
and running/triathlon coach in the nation’s fittest city: Boulder,
Colorado. Currently, Jen is the CEO and Founder of Fitwise Training,
Inc., a part-time personal trainer and triathlon coach, and the
National Personal Training Examiner for Examiner.com. She has appeared
in numerous local and national media. Jen has a M.S. in Kinesiology
from C.U. Boulder, a B.S. in Exercise Science from U.C. Davis, and is
certified through the National Strength and Conditioning Association
(NSCA-CSCS) and USA Triathlon.
Brent Dilworth, Artist
Brent is an illustrator living with his wife and daughter in Denver,
Colorado. Brent’s specialty is figurative art as well as character
design for children’s books and websites. Brent's many interests in
painting, woodworking, cycling and martial arts keep him busy, along
with his 3-year-old daughter who constantly provides inspiration and
daughter.
Brent graduated from the Kansas City Art Institute with a Bachelor of
Arts in Illustration. Since then he has focused on his own art and
writing.
Advisors
James Hill, PhD, Childhood
Nutrition Expert
James
O. Hill, Ph.D. is Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine at the
University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center in Denver,
Colorado. Dr. Hill also serves as the Director of the Center for Human
Nutrition, a nutrition center funded by the National Institutes of
Health. He holds a B.S. degree from the University of Tennessee and
M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of New Hampshire in
Physiological Psychology. Dr. Hill is a leader in addressing the global
epidemic of obesity. He served as Chair of the first World Health
Organization Consultation on Obesity in 1997. He is vice president of
the American Society of Nutrition. He is a Past President of the North
American Association for the Study of Obesity (NASSO). He was also a
member of the Expert Panel on Obesity of the National Institutes of
Health that developed first U.S guidelines for the treatment and
prevention of obesity. He serves as an advisor to many U.S. Government
agencies and to Government agencies in many other countries.
Dr. Hill has published more than 350 scientific articles and book
chapters in the area of obesity. Dr. Hill is a cofounder of the
National Weight Control Registry, a registry of individuals who have
been successful in maintenance of a reduced body weight. Dr. Hill has
spent the past few years translating science into programs to reduce
obesity. He is co-founder of America on the Move, a national weight
gain prevention initiative that aims to inspire Americans to make small
changes in how much they eat and how much they move to prevent weight
gain. He is the author of the Step Diet Book, published in June 2004.
He is leading an effort in Denver, Colorado to make that community the
healthiest in the U.S. Dr. Hill lives in Denver and enjoys being
physically active in the Rocky Mountains during all seasons of the
year.
David Shaw
David Shaw is the
President and Managing Partner of GRID Media, a firm that manages media
businesses in the publishing, online, events/conference and newspaper
industries. GRID Media serves clients including Hanley Wood, Advance
Newspapers, Reed Exhibitions-Americas, MLR Holdings, Family Business
Publishing Co. and Philadelphia City Paper. He also operates a
well-regarded b2b media blog, and is a regular speaker at media
industry events. His areas of expertise include business-to-business
media in all forms, effective online media business models, and media
valuations and acquisitions. Shaw has been an executive in the
business-to-business media industry for 30 years, most recently as
Senior Vice President of Phillips Business Information, where he
oversaw a $50 million portfolio of magazines, trade shows, newsletters,
websites and conferences. Prior to that, he was a group vice president
for Advanstar Communications. He and his family reside in Potomac,
Maryland. His two children (12 and 14) are committed athletes and
adventurous, healthy eaters.
Contributors
David Bauer, Technology
David Bauer has over 20 years in engineering and technology management
and development. David is currently researching renewable energy. David
was CTO of Collect America where he lead the efforts of developing
operational and IT infrastructure and technology necessary to support a
national account management application. David led the development of a
unique account management system and co-led Collect America’s first
online payment engine. Previously, David worked at Martin Marietta
pursuing a career as a rocket scientist. Several years into playing
with launch vehicle activities (Space Shuttle performance assessment;
International Space Station flight manifesting; Launch vehicle fleet
design management), he migrated into developing the corporate
engineering and administrative electronic information system using
early versions of GUI interface toolsets together with established RDMS
platforms.
David earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautics and
Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Together
with wife, 6 children, 2 parakeets, 12 chickens, dog and cat, lives
comfortably in Bailey, CO in 834 ft2 of self-built log/cordwood/rammed
earth cabin, off-grid with both solar electric and wind generator
installed, and serviced by a nice broadband access to the Internet.
Hyla Feder, Marketer
Hyla Feder, has 12 years of software and Internet experience in
consumer facing applications. Her industry experience ranges from
start-up ventures (Tandem, Cybercash, Zip2, BuilderSourcing) to large
corporations (Wells Fargo, Collect America) in the financial industry,
Internet security, home building to name a few. She has a wide array of
experience including; marketing, user experience, web design, product
and project management. Hyla was product manager of the first online
banking website for Wells Fargo in 1994.
Hyla holds a BS from the University of Arizona.
Keith Roberts, Graphic
Designer
Keith Roberts founded Zenman Productions in 1998 as a collaboration of
an exceptional artist, designer and developer. He is a graduate of
Brooks Institute of Photography. He has been working as a designer for
12 years and as a photographer for more than sixteen. His inventive
concepts unfailingly result in visually pleasing, informative and
provoking connections that penetrate to the target audience, ultimately
resulting in sales. Keith’s passion for the arts and community is
obvious through his commitment to local non-profits. Keith has served
on the Board of Directors for both The Other Side Arts and The Dragon
Boat Festival.
Keith has run with the bulls, not just once, but twice at San Fermin in
Pamplona, Spain.