Executive Team
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Leon Heller - Chairman and CEO
Leon is a calculated risk taker who loves blazing new trails, especially in providing free services to make education more accessible.
Leon is proud of his role in making FastWeb successful. In 1996, he led a group of investors and purchased a fee-based scholarship search service called Student Services, which at the time also had a free on-line service with less than a 100,000 registered users. Leon renamed the company FastWeb and changed the business model into a free, advertiser-supported model which grew to over 15 million registered users in six years. Under Leon's leadership, FastWeb became the world's largest scholarship search site connecting with thousands of high schools, colleges and scholarship providers offering billions in free financial aid. In 2001, Leon decided to sell the company to Monster.com and entered the real estate business. In 2006 Leon founded Cappex, and, together with the Cappex team, helped launch its merit-based scholarship matching service, MeritAid.com.
Prior to FastWeb, Leon was a member of the Chicago Board Options Exchange for 7 years. Originally from South Africa, Leon came to the US on an AFS Scholarship, has a BSBA from Georgetown University, and is the father of a high school senior and a high school sophomore.
Email Leon at:
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Chris Long - President and Chief Operating Officer
As President and Chief Operating Officer of the Cappex family of web sites, including MeritAid.com, Chris is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of the company including sales, marketing, product development and technology. Chris joined Cappex in June 2007 as vice president of product development where he was responsible for product strategy and feature development for Cappex's students, college admissions professionals, high school counselors and advertisers. Before coming to Cappex, Chris was Vice President, Product Development at Apartments.com, the Internet's leading destination for online rental listings. In this role, he was responsible for managing the strategic direction and execution of Apartments.com's product team, including sister sites MovingCenter.com, RentalHomesPlus.com and ApartmentsPlus.com. Chris also served as Director of Product Development for Cars.com, where he developed industry-leading products for private car sellers and buyers. Chris holds a Bachelor's degree in Journalism and a Master's in Business Administration from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Email Chris at:
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Jace Mouse - Chief Technology Officer
Jace brings ten years of experience building high-performance teams and launching successful online businesses. Prior to joining Cappex, Jace served as Director of Travel Solutions for Orbitz Worldwide. In this role, he was responsible for delivering online technology for the industry's leading airlines including American Airlines (AA.com), Northwest Airlines (NWA.com), and United Airlines (UnitedGoBusiness.com). Jace also served as the Director of Application Development for Cars.com, where he was instrumental in the company's drive to profitability - providing new technology in support of tripling the customer base and quadrupling the number of site visits per month. In 2000, Jace was a Director at iExplore.com, where he was responsible for deploying new technology to provide a viable business model that has allowed the company to remain in operation today. He also has experience from State Farm Insurance, where he held various technical and leadership roles to migrate the company's underwriting and claims operations to a web-based platform. Jace holds Bachelor's degrees in Business Administration and Computer Science from Southwestern Oklahoma State University.
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Dan Stolze - Vice President, Sales
Responsible for leading all sales efforts for the Cappex.com family of web sites, including its newest merit-based scholarship matching service, MeritAid.com, Dan worked with Leon Heller at FastWeb.com where he was hired as Director of Sales, managing and developing relationships with companies in the Student Loan and Financial Services categories. After FastWeb.com was acquired by Monster Worldwide in 2001, Dan transitioned to manage the Financial Services industry and lead generation sales for all Monster properties where he was consistently recognized as the top performer in the consumer sales group. Prior to Monster, Dan held strategic sales and marketing roles at M/A/R/C Research, a national market research services company that is now part of Omnicom Group, Inc, and the Metro Chicago Information Center, a regional market research company. Dan holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and a Masters in Business Administration from Northwestern University.
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Lee Bilow - Director of Marketing
Lee is responsible for making sure people know about Cappex and MeritAid.com. His department works closely with students, high schools, high school counselors, colleges and beyond. He has been working with high schools and high school students for the bulk of his career including five years as an account supervisor for the U.S. Army account at Leo Burnett, one of the world's largest advertising agencies, where he was responsible for significant integrated marketing programs for the highly-regarded "Army of One" campaign. Before joining Leo Burnett, Lee served as an account executive at FCB on the Gatorade account where he ran a recognition program for high school student athletes. Lee holds a Bachelor's degree in Mass Communication from Illinois State University.
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Sharad Goswami - Director of Online Marketing
As Director of Online Marketing for Cappex, Sharad is responsible for leading all online marketing initiatives, including full scope of Search Engine Marketing (SEM & SEO), Affiliate Management, Partner Development, and Organic efforts. Prior to joining Cappex, Sharad served as Director of Search Engine Marketing and Marketing Analytics for Classified Ventures Real Estate. In this role, he was responsible for driving performance-based ROI-focused traffic acquisition and lead generation for top-tier Real Estate websites, including Apartments.com™, Homescape.com®, RentalHomesPlus.com and ApartmentsPlus.com. Sharad holds a Bachelor of Arts in English (Honors) from Sri Venkateswara College - University of Delhi (New Delhi, India) and a Master of Arts in Integrated Marketing Communications from Emerson College (Boston, MA).
When not engrossed in figuring out ways of the online world, Sharad is an avid cook, and is usually found experimenting and learning in the kitchen in his spare time.
