Christopher Celeste
Founder & President
christopher.celeste@findawayworld.com

Christopher Celeste has spent more than fifteen years in various marketing, business development, and strategic leadership roles. Prior to launching Findaway, Christopher was a partner at various regional and national marketing firms, including serving as President of Resource Marketing, a national technology marketing firm, where he managed a team of over 140 professionals in offices in Columbus, Ohio and San Francisco, California. He has worked with clients such as Victoria's Secret, Merrill Lynch, CondeNet's Style.com and Epicurious.com, Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Ford, Sony, Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and Limited Brands. Christopher graduated, with honors, from Stanford University.

Mitch Kroll
Founder & Chief Operating Officer
mitch.kroll@findawayworld.com

Mitch Kroll has spent twenty years in various leadership roles focused on Operations Management in diverse entrepreneurial organizations. Prior to his role in the creation of both Findaway Ventures and Findaway World, Mitch was the Director of Operations at Matrix Essentials, a market leader in the worldwide consumer products salon industry. During his 10 years at Matrix, he was responsible for all Operations including a team of over 1,000 employees engaged in the manufacturing, warehousing, and logistics support of Matrix products within their various manufacturing plants. Mitch's early career included a position in the Fortune 50 firm, Raytheon Company, as a member of their nationally acclaimed Procurement Management Development Program. Mitch graduated Magna Cum Laude from Bowling Green State University and received his MBA, with distinction, from Babson College

Blake Squires
Founder & Chief Development Officer
blake.squires@findawayworld.com

Blake Squires has spent more than a decade involved in media and entertainment management, marketing and technology. Prior to the creation of Findaway, Blake was a founder and Chief Operating Officer of Everstream, a system development company focused on streaming media and emerging digital cable technologies. Earlier in his career, Blake worked in various leadership roles within Belkin Productions, now a division of Clear Channel Entertainment; he founded SPI Management, a management firm in Los Angeles; and he was Vice President of Promo West, a company that manages venues and produces over 200 concerts and events per year. Blake earned a B.A. in Advertising with a concentration on Telecommunications from the School of Journalism at The Ohio State University

Lauren Spilman & Steve Spilman
Founding Partners

Lauren Spilman and Steve Spilman are both Founding Partners in Findaway and along with Mitch Kroll are Founding Members of Findaway Ventures. Findaway Ventures was formed on January 1, 2004 to leverage the combined experiences of the three principals from their ten years together at Matrix Essentials. While at Matrix they managed various elements of the company's unprecedented growth as members of the company's founding family. Both Lauren and Steve provide insights into entrepreneurial growth strategies taken from their significant day-to-day activities in Matrix's numerous business interests prior to the company's sale to Bristol Myers-Squibb in 1994.