LEADERSHIP
Comprised of seasoned leadership from Deloitte, Discovery, Disney, PBS, and XPRIZE, our passionate and creative team has developed critically acclaimed youth programs for Fortune 500 companies, trade organizations, school districts, charter schools, universities, private academies, and youth associations.
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Tracey Beeker, Program Director
Tracey worked in children's media, entertainment and education for more than 25 years, and is an accomplished brand marketer, communications strategist, content collaborator and and child advocate. For the last 10 years, she has devoted her work experience to helping nonprofit organizations engage audiences, generate revenue, build coalitions, and foster community impact, one child and one community at a time.
Justin Bookey, VP of Content
Justin specializes in telling untold stories that move minds. He has honed his skills leading content strategy with premier digital agencies Sapient, Razorfish, Team One, and others over the past 20 years. An Emmy-nominated director, he has developed high-conversion campaigns for Fortune 500 tech, entertainment, auto, and pharma clients. He is a STEM enthusiast, and serves as a mentor in the fields of robotics and nanotechnology.
Rico Neumann, Partnerships Manager
Rico is an accomplished leader with 12+ years of experience across multiple facets of the video game and esports industries. He excels at fostering strong relationships with partners, leading cross-functional team meetings, and providing empathetic, solution-oriented service to clients. His expertise extends to troubleshooting both hardware and software issues, managing events, and collaborating directly with vendors to drive impactful results.
Chip Purrington, Innovation Director
Chip has a passion for experimentation and technology. He delivers unconventional solutions to challenging problems. He is a strategist at heart, but also likes to get his hands dirty, build things, and gain new insight from being in the trenches. His innovation initiatives and programs have spanned dozens of industries from healthcare to retail, consumer products, cloud, business services, and fintech. Chip started his career in management consulting and brand management where he utilized innovation to grow and nurture some of the world’s most iconic brands.
Yaniv Snir, Strategy Advisory
Yaniv is a business development specialist with 15 years of experience in strategic business and operations development in the U.S. and globally. Yaniv has worked for some of the leading innovation engines including Deloitte, XPRIZE and HeroX. He is an expert at designing challenges that inspire kids to use their STEAM skills to solve real-world problems, while picking up the soft skills required for success. His unique experience in identifying Grand Challenges by conceptualizing and designing incentivized competitions position him at the nexus of development and innovation.
Marta Voda, Culture Director
Marta has spent 20 years building high-performing and diverse workforces that attract, engage, and retain talent, along with creating collaborative and equitable employee experiences. She has done this with a focus on culture, belonging, diversity, and learning. Marta has specialized in creating HR, Recruiting, and Diversity strategies and processes from the ground up. Marta is also a contributing writer for Forbes HR Council and advisor to high growth startups.
Alan Zack, President
Alan thrives on sparking imagination and unlocking potential within young innovators to change the world and is recognized as one of the Top 100 Visionaries in Education. Through his dynamic background in storytelling, brand development, innovation strategy, design thinking, and community engagement, Alan has built a career igniting bold thinking and delivering impact. He is driven by purpose with a passion for making the impossible possible, fostering strong teams, and developing meaningful partnerships with a major focus on surpassing client and organizational goals. Prior to Lollipop Labs, Alan developed critically acclaimed initiatives through leading youth engagement and foundation marketing at XPRIZE, the global leader in crowdsourcing innovation through incentivized competitions. He started his career in various management roles creating effective programs within some of the world’s most iconic and well-respected entertainment brands including The Walt Disney Company, Mattel, and Activision/Blizzard.
David Zweig, Creative Director
David is a designer and content developer with more than 15 years of experience in brand development, creative direction and multidisciplinary design. David has served as Creative Director, Director of Broadcast Design, Supervising Animation Director and Character Design Supervisor in numerous fields, developing everything from singular brands, stories and characters to virtual worlds, museums and themed entertainment venues.