Fitness & Active Brands Summit

Julia Sutton

Julia Sutton currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for exhale enterprises, Inc, a leading lifestyle brand in the spa and wellbeing industry that operates 20 properties in 10 markets. As a member of the founding team, Ms. Sutton developed and scaled the Company's operating infrastructure that today successfully delivers dozens of award-winning wellbeing, spa, and retail programs and supports an employee base of 2000.  Ms Sutton is a recognized spa industry leader with a successful track record for developing and launching spa, fitness and retail in a number of different markets. Prior to joining the exhale team, she served as National Spa Operations Director for Wellbridge, where she directed ten spas across the country from Honolulu to New York. Ms. Sutton has a bachelor’s degree in Marketing and International Business from Manhattan College. She also completed the OPM program at Harvard Business School.   Julia belongs to several groups (COO network, American College of Sports Medicine, HBSCNY) and enjoys coaching basketball, playing tennis, hiking and surfing.

Bruce Smith

Bruce Smith is the CEO & Founder of Hydrow, the leading at-home connected rower that brings the on-water experience of rowing straight to your home. A lifelong entrepreneur, rower and coach, Bruce has dedicated his career to helping others experience the power of the sport at all levels. As a US National Team coach, he led the Lightweight Eight to a Bronze medal at the 2015 World Championships, and worked to create widespread access to rowing as the former Executive Director of Community Rowing, Inc. (CRI), Boston’s first public rowing club. Since its inception, CRI has provided education and training for more than 30,000 people, ranging from Olympians and Paralympians to novice and youth programs, and has become one of the world’s largest public boathouses and a model for similar programs nationally.

Bruce founded Hydrow to capture the unique experience of on-water rowing and make it universally accessible, helping people everywhere feel more connected to one another and live healthier lives on a daily basis. Hailing from Canada, Bruce makes his home in Cambridge, MA just blocks away from the Charles River.

Adam and Ryan Goldston

Athletic Propulsion Labs was founded in March 2009, by then 23 year-old identical twins Adam and Ryan Goldston. As former two sport collegiate athletes, playing both basketball and football at the University of Southern California, Adam and Ryan envisioned creating a company providing revolutionary products symbolizing the ultimate intersection of design and performance.

 Today, Adam and Ryan Goldston are recognized as accomplished inventors with numerous U.S. and foreign patents including U.S. utility patents 8,112,905, 8,347,526, 8,495,825, 8,621,766 and 8,732,983 where they are named inventors for the company’s revolutionary Load ‘N Launch® Technology. With the launch of their inaugural shoe in June 2010, the Concept 1 basketball shoe, they became the creators of the first shoe proven to instantly make you jump higher due to APL’s revolutionary 8-spring Load ‘N Launch Technology in the forefoot. As a result, the Concept 1 became the first shoe banned in the NBA’s 64-year history for performance reasons for “providing an undue competitive advantage.”

Following the success and media attention generated by the APL Concept 1 basketball shoe, the company quickly adopted the “Banned by the NBA” tagline to augment its original “Stop Dreaming. Jump Higher.” A new 6-spring running version of the patented Load ‘N Launch Technology designed to instantly provide a heightened level of running performance with less effort, was launched in June of 2014 along with the company’s new Propelium midsole technology for running. More recently APL successfully entered the active wear market with a variety of highly touted products that seamlessly mix technology and style.

Co-Founders Adam and Ryan have been honored at the White House as part of the Empact 100 which recognizes the Top 100 Entrepreneurs age 35 and under in the U.S. Athletic Propulsion Labs was also recently named as “One of the Five Best New Sportswear Brands in the World” by ISPO, the international sporting goods organization in addition to being named to the 2015 Game Changers List by Men’s Fitness. Most recently, Adam and Ryan were selected to the Forbes 30 Under 30 class of 2016 in the Retail & Ecommerce category. This list recognizes America’s top young entrepreneurs and game changers representing the countries future and present leaders.

John Burns

Jon Canarick

Jon Canarick is a Managing Director with 18 years of consumer private equity investment experience. Since joining North Castle in 2001, Jon has actively managed North Castle’s investments across a variety of Healthy, Active, and Sustainable Living sectors and across all job functions at North Castle. Having started his career at NCP as an Associate out of investment banking, Jon has played a crucial role in the development of North Castle and many of its portfolio companies. Jon currently sits on the Board of Directors of Echelon Fit, CR Fitness, Encore Vet Group, Kettlebell Kitchen, The Escape Game, Barry’s Bootcamp, Brooklyn Boulders, Curves, Jenny Craig, Palladio, and SLT. Previously, Jon served on the Board of Directors of Mineral Fusion, gloProfessional, Flatout, International Fitness, Enzymatic Therapy, Performance Bicycle, Avalon and DDF and was actively involved in the Firm’s investment in Grand Expeditions. Prior to joining North Castle, Jon worked in the Financial Sponsors Coverage and Leveraged Finance groups of Bear, Stearns & Co., where he executed leveraged buyout transactions and provided advisory services for financial sponsors. Jon earned a B.B.A. from the University of Michigan and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School.

Terry White

Terry is the Founder and CEO of the performance apparel brand Way of Life Athletic Company, known as WOLACO. The Harvard graduate moved to New York City after graduation and found himself restless by the sedentary and hierarchical lifestyle of the corporate world. As a lifelong athlete and former Division I lacrosse player, Terry was determined to build a brand that represented a healthier way of life.

Through this, WOLACO's signature style, the North Moore, was born. The original 9” compression short featured first-of-its-kind sweat-proof compressive pockets designed for storing a phone and valuables during exercise. The product launched in 2014 with a Kickstarter campaign that exceeded its funding goal by 400%. Since then, WOLACO has developed their collection to a full offering of men’s and women's performance apparel and capitalized on their loyal base of evangelical customers. The business has continued to grow impressively behind a strategy that is centered around building community organically and scaling their relationship with a highly engaged customer base.

Chris Patton

Chris Patton oversees the growth strategy, partnerships, and operations of the Peerfit Wellness Network. With more than 10 years of experience in the health & wellness industry he is continually focused on improving the strength and quality of the Peerfit network to ensure our users  have a place to engage with fitness no matter their location. Chris is a graduate of Florida Atlantic University's Executive MBA program in 2016.

Chris Picardo

Jeremy Newns

Jeremy Newns is the Director of R&D for KT Tape and simply put, Jeremy’s role is to make ideas happen. This involves championing ideas into the pipeline, developing and capturing business opportunities, aligning them with design-driven solutions, navigating those solutions through development & innovation to a successful launch. 

Jeremy is a Los Angeles native who has always been discovery-driven, creative, mechanically minded, and fascinated by how things work. Jeremy views himself as a divergent thinker who has never been very respectful of the status quo, caution or tradition. Jeremy is a learner, a visual thinker, problem solver and constantly studying what makes products work, how they are made, their materials, how components are designed and come together.

In addition to his experience at KT Tape, Jeremy has 20+ years of experience that spans multiple areas of involvement as a creator including print production, graphic design, production design, product design & development, manufacturing, packaging, merchandising, and teaching.

Jeremy has a degree in graphic design and has taught in the Art & Visual Communications programs of both Provo College and Utah Valley University and he recently received his B.S. in Business & Marketing Management. Jeremy enjoys photography (@avacadokid), cooking, being outdoors, and advising product startups.

KT Tape info:

Based in American Fork, Utah and founded in 2008, KT Tape has revolutionized the sports medicine industry with the introduction of the most advanced and recognized kinesiology tape and recovery products. KT Tape develops breakthrough solutions that enable athletes to painlessly perform at their best. The Company currently designs, develops, and distributes a variety of kinesiology tape lines, including KT Tape (cotton) and KT Tape Pro (synthetic), engineered for targeted pain relief and enhanced functionality, as well as a lines of performance and recovery products. KT Tape is the largest kinesiology tape manufacturer in the consumer-facing channels, available in 42,000+ domestic retail locations and 40 countries. All Channels Domestic Share exceeds 90%.

Jonathan J. Gantt

Shari Castelli

Shari Castelli has a deep understanding of the fitness market, having spent the past five years supporting boutique studios and gyms as the Director of National Accounts at ClassPass. In this role, Shari consulted with studios of all sizes to implement yield management systems that optimize revenue, and drive more business to each studio. Due to the massive impact Shari made on studios, she was promoted to Director of Partner Expansion, where she has spearheaded the ClassPass Empowerment Program. This initiative offers in depth regional analysis and expansion plan support for eligible studios. The program has already helped 35 fitness partners to develop launch and expansion plans throughout the US and UK. Shari also has firsthand studio experience from her time as a boutique fitness instructor, where she taught at As One Fitness in New York City and earned her Precision Nutrition Level 1 Certification. Shari holds a B.A. from New York University and currently resides in Orange County, California.

Massi Sardi

Massimiliano Sardi, Head of US Partnerships of Gympass, is responsible for the company's network of fitness Partners across the United States and its related strategy. Prior to this role, Massi led the corporate client expansion in the US Northeast region. In addition to his experience at Gympass, Massi has 10+ years of experience working for companies such as Bain&Company and Google Inc., across multiple countries. Massi’s experience spans across multiple industries including technology, finance, and fitness. He has a degree in Economics from Universita’ di Bologna and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School in NYC.

Rick Stollmeyer

Martin Tobias