RED BANK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apps Genius Corp (OTCBB: APGS) (www.appsgenius.com) (“Apps Genius”), a developer and publisher of social games and mobile apps, has established its advisory board and appointed Robert Thorne and Sergey Knazev as advisors. In this role, Mr. Thorne and Mr. Knazev will render advice on issues discussed at Company meetings. In addition, they will consult on general Company strategy, new business development, and potential acquisitions, and advise Apps Genius CEO Adam Kotkin and the Company’s Board of Directors on a variety of matters including those related to the Company’s Entertainment Division. Both Mr. Thorne and Mr. Knazev have extensive experience in the entertainment industry and will help advise the Company on future possible celebrity partners on whose behalf it will design and market apps and games.
Mr. Thorne, age 57, is a native of Los Angeles. After graduating from the University of California at Berkeley, Phi Beta Kappa, with highest honors and distinction, he attended the University of California, Hastings College of the Law and was awarded his J.D. degree. He developed a specialty in music law and joined Loeb & Loeb’s entertainment department where he rose to become a partner. He is widely published in entertainment and business law and taught the subjects for years at UCLA. He served as president of the Century City Bar Association. He left Loeb & Loeb in 1996 to form a boutique entertainment law firm, Thorne and Company, servicing a variety of clients, including Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen and forming and building their Dualstar Entertainment Group, the company Thorne co-founded with Mary-Kate and Ashley. In 2000, he left his legal practice to become Dualstar Entertainment Group’s CEO, where he built the company into $1.1 billion annual retail sales. Since then, he formed The Robert Thorne Company in entertainment and brand management, strategic planning and production, distribution and marketing of new media platforms for various clients and partners including Quincy Jones, Larry McMurtry (Brokeback Mountain, Lonesome Dove and Terms of Endearment), Hilary Duff, The Vatican, reality stars including Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi, Taylor Armstrong and others.
Mr. Knazev, age 37, is a native of Latvia. After graduating from Riga Aviation University and defending his Ph.D. in Computer Sciences he attended New York University Stern School of Business and received his MBA in Finance. He launched and sold a number of major projects including Internet based telecom company Concent Telecom (www.concent.net) an e-commerce, Internet marketing and business services company. After that, Mr. Knazev co-founded and held positions in private equity investment companies Ocean Properties and Longwood Investment Partners. His recent projects are focused in the areas of Internet, social media, celebrity marketing and licensing including high-value content production and syndication. Mr. Knazev currently holds the position of founding partner of Starz Management & PR (www.starzmanagement.com) and Starz life Media (www.starzlife.com).
Adam Kotkin, CEO of Apps Genius, said, “Robert and Sergey bring a tremendous amount of experience and innate ability to Apps Genius, and we are very lucky to have them serve on our Advisory Board. Their knowledge of the entertainment industry is extraordinary, and we expect to rely on their professional acumen and experience as we work to accelerate our growth in building social games and mobile apps for celebrities.”
About Apps Genius Corp
Apps Genius Corp (www.appsgenius.com) develops, markets, publishes and distributes social games and software applications that consumers can use on a variety of platforms. The platforms include social networks, wireless devices such as cellular phones and smartphones including the Apple iPhone™ and standalone websites. The Company’s Celebrity Entertainment Division focuses on leveraging the fan base of noted celebrities to build apps and games around their personas. The first title in this division, ‘Snookify Me!’, was created for Nicole ‘Snooki’ Polizzi of the reality TV show Jersey Shore. Additionally, the Company has released several applications including ‘Bed Bug Alert,’ an informational tool for the Apple iPhone™, ‘My Mad Millions,’ a game application for Facebook™, ‘Slap a Friend,’ a game application for the Apple iPhone™, ‘Bruisers,’ a game application for Facebook™, and ‘Crazy Dream’ Application for Facebook™. Apps Genius Corp’s goal is to develop and publish new titles on a recurring basis that are based on the same property and gaming platform. Examples of this franchise approach are ‘My Mad Millions’ and ‘Rock The House,’ currently under development, which both utilize the same underlying platform. A core focus of the Company’s Social Gaming and Mobile Application development is to allow users and players to reach across different networks into a virtual application or gaming environment such as Facebook, MySpace, iPhone and Android and be able to play games and use applications from all users no matter what environment they are using the application in.
Forward-Looking Statements
Statements about the future expectations of Apps Genius Corp, and all other statements in this press release other than historical facts, are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Apps Genius Corp intends that such forward-looking statements shall be subject to the safe harbors created thereby. Since these statements involve certain risks and uncertainties and are subject to change at any time, Apps Genius Corp's actual results could differ materially from expected results.