Management
Brian Sugar — Founder & CEO
As CEO, Brian Sugar sets the overall direction for Sugar Inc. Prior to founding Sugar Inc., Brian served as Vice President & General Manager of 2Wire, Inc.'s media business unit. Before joining 2Wire, Brian was founder and CEO of Sugar Media, a digital media software company, which was acquired by 2Wire in October 2003. Brian was Chief Web Officer at Kmart's BlueLight.com, Vice President of eCommerce at J.Crew, and a founder of Neptune Interactive, a Washington DC-based ISP. Brian started Sugar Inc. to keep a close eye on his wife, Lisa, and her obsession with Matt Damon. Follow @briansugar.
Lisa’s insatiable appetite for celebrities and the world of entertainment led her to create PopSugar as a hobby in 2005. After explosive growth, Lisa and her husband, Brian, created Sugar Inc. and began expanding PopSugar’s unique, friendly tone to sites focused on fashion, shopping, technology, baby, home, etc. The wife and mother of two now spends her days overseeing a staff of 60 editors who write for the 18 lifestyle and entertainment sites that make up PopSugar Network. As Editor-in-Chief, Lisa continues to define the overall voice and brand of the Sugar properties. Prior to starting PopSugar, Lisa was a Media Planner at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners and Young & Rubicam, and also worked at Showtime Networks and FOX.
Sean Macnew — CFO
As Chief Financial Officer, Sean is responsible for financial strategy and direction for Sugar Inc. Prior to joining Sugar as CFO, Sean spent five years at Symantec and VERITAS Software in M&A, business development, finance, and operating roles. He was most recently Senior Director and General Manager of the NetBackup Realtime product group. Sean was also an early employee of Epinions, Inc., a consumer-review-powered shopping website acquired by eBay, and worked as an investment banker for Goldman Sachs and Alex. Brown & Sons. He received a BA in Computer Science from Dartmouth College and an MBA from Stanford Business School, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar.
Andy Moss — Vice President, Product & Founder & GM, ShopStyle
ShopStyle’s Great and Powerful Oz, Moss takes style cues from his wife, his trendy 7-year-old son, and George Clooney. The site’s instigator and ringleader, Andy’s specialty is turning cool new ideas into companies; this lover of Bluefly and Calvin Klein is doing just that with ShopStyle, which he founded in February 2007. He was previously Senior Vice President of Operations at DemandTec, and founder and CEO of Cairo.com, a local shopping website. Prior to that, Andy was Vice President of Global Alliances at Ariba.
As Managing Editor, Krista works closely with Lisa to implement the vision and voice of Sugar Inc. across its properties. She oversees a staff of 60 editors who write for the 18 lifestyle and entertainment sites that make up PopSugar Network. Krista brings to this role over seven years of finance expertise as an investment banker and finance manager. Prior to joining Sugar, Krista served at San Francisco investment bank Savvian Advisors, where she advised both public and private companies in M&A transactions and private equity financings. Prior to Savvian, Krista served as Finance Director at Sugar Media, a digital media software company, acquired by 2Wire in October 2003. Krista is happy to finally be able to claim that obsessively checking PopSugar is part of her job.
Garrick Toubassi — Vice President, Engineering
As Vice President of Engineering, Garrick proudly coordinates the efforts of what he describes as “pound-for-pound the best engineering team serving the female demographic.” Garrick joins Sugar via ShopStyle, which he co-founded in 2006 in an effort to create the ultimate shopping experience for his wife. While recent credit card statements have made him second-guess the move, he perseveres in his efforts to build the most compelling editorial, social networking, and shopping platform in the industry. Previously, Toubassi helped shape the downloadable music industry, bringing personalization to the iTunes Music Store. He also held various individual contributor and management roles at Ariba, Netmosphere, and NeXT.
David Grant — President, PopSugar Studios
David leads PopSugar Studios (and Sugar-acquired Shopflick), the LA-based unit of Sugar Inc. that develops, produces, and distributes Sugar-branded digital video content, television, and film. David has a long history of content excellence and innovation. He was the founder and President of Fox TV Studios, a major Hollywood producer of thousands of hours of scripted, reality, and documentary television in over 25 countries. During Grant's tenure, the studio produced shows as diverse as drama "The Shield," sitcom "Malcolm in the Middle" (winner of multiple Emmy and Peabody Awards), reality series "Temptation Island"(produced in over 25 countries), and nonfiction series "Biography" (multiple Emmy winner for Best Non-Fiction Series). Previously, David was an Executive VP of the FOX Network, where he oversaw the network's acquisition of programming and played a key role in the start-up of Fox Sports, the NFL on FOX, the FX Network, BSkyB in the UK, and STAR TV in Asia.
Kristine Shine — Vice President, PopSugar Media
Kristine Shine is the Vice President of PopSugar Media, the online leader in original content and social media for Y Women. In this role, Shine has been responsible for creating solutions for brands to engage and interact with this indefinable generation of women. Through her work, Shine has discovered what resonates most with this generation and how brands can get these influential women to become their evangelists. She blogs about her thoughts on this important demographic on Why Y Women: Marketing and Millenials and contributes to MediaPost's Engage:GenY blog. Prior to joining Sugar, Shine was at Spotrunner, Microsoft, and Business Week.
