Collectors' Quest is a digital media brand for the passionate collectors' community. Collectors' Quest combines a mix of high-quality broadband video, social networking and ecommerce. Collectors' Quest gets deep in the trenches to focus on entertaining, informing and harnessing the passion of collectors.
Collectors' Quest allows collectors to meet others who share their interests, organize and catalog their collections, as well as buy, sell or trade with others. Collectors can also watch collecting related videos and read about the latest and greatest trends in the collecting arena.
What do you collect? Whatever it is, you'll find it on Collectors' Quest
Here are the people that make Collectors’ Quest a reality:
Elizabeth Kressel, Founder and CEO , has 15 years experience in the media/entertainment space formulating and leading strategic initiatives for both global and domestic operations. Elizabeth has spent time in industry and consulting, identifying new business opportunities, conducting customer segmentation as well as developing strategic partnerships. Most recently she worked at MTV Networks and for Bravo licensing and syndicating rights for all programming and intellectual property, including television, film, magazines, books, photos and music. Before that, at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Elizabeth worked specifically on developing potential strategies for ad sponsorships and cross promotional revenue opportunities for Viacom, Sony and Time Warner. While there she realized $300M in savings and spurred $200M in investment for her clients.
However, Elizabeth’s first exposure to collectibles was at Time Warner through working on continuity clubs which focused on the Americana and Folk Art segments. This was where Elizabeth got to see the passionate collector base firsthand. There she lead strategic analysis for a $4B division in annual sales where she tested P&L viability for new product rollouts, conducted segmentation, customer relationship and brand building derived from consumer purchasing patterns. Elizabeth is an active participant in the television industry and serves on the Board of Directors for Women in Cable and Telecommunications in NY. Elizabeth holds an MBA in Finance/International Business from New York University. Elizabeth’s own personal collections include: Depression Era furniture, slide puzzles and stone eggs.
Doug Kneeland , Chief Commerce Officer, brings a lifetime of collectibles industry knowledge and professional expertise to the Collectors’ Quest team. Doug has most recently worked on developing a technology-driven direct marketing strategy for CheckerBee Publishing, a leading publisher of guide books on popular collectibles. Under Doug’s visionary leadership the company saw an increase of 700% in one year in its direct-to-consumer sales strategy. Doug was also instrumental in pursuing licensing arrangements, developing new products, and creating an electronic fulfillment model that enabled the company increase direct-to-consumer sales while decreasing the in-house fulfillment staff by half.
Doug is also an expert on the Internet Auction space having helped launch one of Ebay’s earliest competitors, Auctions.com. Noted for their inventive use of special event auctions with the NFL, NHL, Chicago Tribune, and numerous rock entertainers such as Jewel and Elton John, Auctions.com propelled itself to prominence in the late 1990s. Doug also spent the early part of his career as one of the top American stringed instrument experts as both a restorer and retailer of these elite collectibles.
Elena SanGabino, VP Content & Acquisitions combines a wealth of programming knowledge and expertise, with a personal passion for collecting, in her role as VP of Programming & Acquisitions for Collectors’ Quest. Her wide ranging experience at key entertainment channels, such as HBO, Bravo and USA Network, have produced an executive skilled in all aspects of programming operations — from channel launches and live events to the commissioning of innovative original programming.
In her most recent position as Director Program Planning, Scheduling and Continuity at Bravo, Elena oversaw the successful launch of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy which more than doubled channel ratings. Keen on all aspects of pop culture, Elena also possesses a thorough knowledge of international television programming. Prior to Bravo, as Director of Programming and Acquisitions for BBC America, Elena was integral to the launch of BBC’s first American channel, and was responsible for the acquisition and co.productions of many of its most critically acclaimed shows.
Elena began her career in live event production and programming for USA Network. She moved to HBO’s renowned programming and operations division in the mid ’90s, a truly key time in that channel’s programming history, before taking on premiere opportunities to launch the programming, scheduling and acquisitions departments for both WE: Women’s Entertainment and BBC America. Elena’s personal collections include jadeite, ironstone and 19th century furniture.
Carmela Autuoro, VP of Procurement, has 15 years in the procurement space and over 10 years within the collectible arena for retail, online and direct response television. As a merchandising and inventory professional, she has managed all types of product fulfillment across various formats including Continuities, Annuals, Book Clubs and One Shots. Most recently at ClientLogic, Carmela helped lead the new client implementation and conversion team. She coordinated the efforts of the entire corporate enterprise, resulting in an on time successful implementation. Carmela also has in depth knowledge of Call Center Operations, managing the coordination between the order management systems team, the customer response management team and the database teams to work as one enterprise.
Carmela was also instrumental in spearheading the growth of the merchandise division for Time Warner resulting in a 400% increase in management of product volume. Always an innovator, she introduced the E-check solution as another method of payment for her clients. In her limited spare time, she is a soccer mom. Carmela’s collections include Beanie Babies and Valliancourt porcelain sculptures, and she would like to one day collect snow globes from around the world.
Juliet Nuss, VP
of Database Management, has over ten years experience in database
marketing specializing in modeling, customer segmentation and analysis.
She began her career at BMG Direct, a company whose name is synonymous
with continuity clubs causing millions of Americans to grow their
music collections via their direct response tape and cd models. It
was here Juliet focused on acquisition, retention and lifetime value
of customers. The subject matter also allowed her to amass large amounts
of CD’s.
Most recently Juliet worked at Bookspan (formally Book of the Month Club), where she built regression models on purchase behavior patterns and customer affinities as well as testing pricing and packaging options. While there, she also had the opportunity to add to her collection of books, especially decorating and crafting books. She received her Bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and her Master’s Degree from Penn State. Her children are already beginning their own collections starting with rocks, sticks, crowns and action figures.
Martin Mateev, Chief Technology Officer,
combines passion for technology and
research with 10 years of Open-Source experience, focusing on a wide range of topics such
as video publishing, web environments, scalable architectures and platforms as well as
cutting edge technologies.
His wide experience and technical background have helped many media and tech companies in
utilizing new and emerging technologies in their business model. As a consultant he has
directed and implemented online video technologies and Voice-over-IP implementations. In
addition, he has advised clients on security and intrusion detection-systems. Most
recently, he has been focusing on content monetization strategies and ad sales
technologies. Martin is also passionate about music and photography and keeps a
frightening collection of records ranging from Detroit techno and electronica to trip
hop, acid funk, jazz and world music.
