The Next For Me Team
Next For Me was founded by Jeff Tidwell as a catalyst for change. We celebrate potential through new work, a new purpose, or a new social contribution.
Jeff began his career with alternative newspapers and then moved online where he has worked in Silicon Valley and New York overseeing online communities and user experience for E*TRADE, WebMD, Oncology.com, MarketTools, Chirp Interactive and many startups. Today, he’s the CEO and Co-Founder of Next For Me.
He has been a featured speaker at TechInclusion, and is a regular contributor to Forbes “Chronicles of a 50+ Entrepreneur” and is a regular guest on podcasts and ‘longevity economy’ conferences and events. He is the author of “Next For Me: A Guide to Startups for Dreamers“.
Carole McManus, Co-founder and Editor in Chief is a marketing and social media strategist with a history of building some of the most successful online communities on the Web, including Yahoo! and BabyCenter. Her former clients include Frito-Lay, Del Monte, Johnson & Johnson, E*TRADE, HBO.com, Edmunds.com, and Oncology.com. She’s currently Director of Digital Marketing for CatCon and on the Board of Directors of the WELL, which Wired magazine called “the world’s most influential online community”. Carole and Jeff have worked together nearly 20 years.
Drew Domkus, Co-founder and Media Director is a recognized pioneer in the birth of podcasting in 2004. Along with his wife, their continuous broadcasts of “The Dawn and Drew Show” continues today with over 1,000 shows in the can. Drew is an expert in WordPress implementations and as a media producer of audio and video. Drew also owns “Old Dude Skate Co.” with a line of skateboards and branded gear and an accompanying podcast “Skatosis”. Drew has worked with Jeff for over 13 years.
Advisors
Michela O’Connor Abrams: Michela was the CEO of DWELL for 15 years, building the brand from the year after startup – creating and launching nine platforms and growing the community from 50,000 to 3.2 million. Prior she served in senior roles in tech publishing. Today she is CEO of MOCA+ which offers an innovative approach to design thinking and leadership for companies who want to make good design the foundation of their strategy.
Roy Burstin: You could say Roy is Next For Me’s business coach. He guides us on strategy and reality. Roy is an Entrepreneur in Residence at Upfront Ventures. He was the co-founder and CEO of Mitú, the mainstream producer of latin entertainment across multiple distribution channels including Snapchat, Facebook, YouTube, and various OTT platforms. Prior he was an executive with cable sports broadcasting in Colombia.
Firas Bushnaq: Firas is a partner and co-founder of Boxador, a Venice, CA based incubator. As a serial entrepreneur, Firas has founded many companies in the Cloud Infrastructure, Internet Software as a Service (SaaS) and Network Security space. He served as founder, Chief Architect & Chief Executive Officer @ Orbitera (acquired by Google 2016), eEye Digital Security and other cloud based services.
Chip Conley: Chip is the author of Wisdom@Work: The Making of a Modern Elder. He was CEO of Joie de Vivre Hospitality for 24 years. In 2013 he accepted an invitation from the founders of Airbnb to help transform the start-up into the world’s largest hospitality brand as Head of Global Hospitality & Strategy, he transitioned to a part-time role as Strategic Advisor for Hospitality & Leadership in January 2017. Chip is a highly sought after speaker and author of numerous business books. He serves on the boards for The Burning Man Project and The Esalen Institute.
Pam Kramer: Pam is the CMO for Cadence 13, the leading creator of premium, on-demand audio entertainment. She was the CMO for E*TRADE and VP, Consumer Marketing at Twitter. She has held executive marketing roles at MarketTools, Lending Club, GreenRoad and was President at Lightt. She is an advisor to Mitú, EVEN, Motif Investing.
Clare Martorana: Clare works from the White House for the United States Digital Service as the Team Lead for Vets.gov. She has served as President at Everyday Health, Senior Vice President of Partnerships and Editor-At-Large for WebMD.
Alex Mostoufi: Alex is the CTO for Mitú Networks. He was the Founder and CTO for me.com (acquired by Apple), Lightt (acquired by Mitú), Snapp Networks, Unicorn Labs and has held positions at airbnb, and as an Advisor to Brainstorm Ventures.
Karen Wickre: Karen is a communication strategist at KVOX Media. Karen was the Editorial Director at Twitter and the Senior Media Liaison at Google. She is the work-life columnist for Wired Magazine’s Backchannel. She is on the boards of The International Center for Journalists, The News Literacy Project and The Yerba Buena Center for The Arts and is an active member in the TED community. Karen is the author of “Taking the work out of Networking: An Introvert’s Guide to Making Connections That Count”.
