Lisa Ackerman

Editor-in-Chief

Ms. Ackerman is in charge of all content for FitCommerce.com which includes news stories, articles, feature stories and the like.

Ms. Ackerman has spent nearly fourteen years in the industry as a certified group exercise instructor, as well as almost 20 years as a professional copywriter. Over the past several years, she has applied her marketing writing and promotional skills with fitness education companies, major fitness manufacturers and distributors, and international wellness and exercise presenters.

Lisa's initiation into the world of fitness writing came through SCW Fitness Education nearly five years ago, following several years of working as a Technical Writer in the software industry. Lisa welcomed the opportunity to apply her writing skills to the fitness industry - one of much greater personal interest to her - and to take on a new direction with marketing writing. With SCW, she served as a copywriter, marketing assistant, and eventually Group Sales Manager, building and supervising a staff of ten to promote the MANIA fitness conferences.

In 2003 Lisa ventured off on her own in a freelance capacity, focusing her efforts on assisting companies such as Sunshine Fitness Resources, Hydro-Fit, SPRI Products, the Waterworks On Wheels fitness conferences in Arizona, and international fitness presenters Christi Taylor, Skip Jennings, Tim Rochford, and fitness business specialist Tom Perkins.

Lisa earned her BA in Communication from the University of Wisconsin.

Al Valente

CEO, and Co-founder

He co-founded, built, and managed the Shrewsbury Racquet Club in Massachusetts. There, he was a noted pioneer in building one of the first indoor tennis facilities in the Northeast, and then again in being one of the first to introduce racquetball to the region.

For 15 years, he has worked in the Massachusetts Rt. 128 high-tech industry, at both start-up companies and major corporations alike. As a sales and marketing leader, Mr. Valente has materially contributed to two technical start-up companies and their acquisition by major public corporations. As a business consultant, he was able to advise major corporations on technical and web deployments.

Mr. Valente comes to FitCommerce.com from Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), where he served as a Practice Director within the e-Business group, and helped establish the company’s nascent web marketing and e-commerce service offering.

Prior to working at CSC, Mr. Valente served as Vice President of Sales for Onward Technologies, a noted pioneer in the development of commercial web sites and e-commerce applications. Mr. Valente helped develop and manage its sales and marketing department, which culminated in the successful acquisition of Onward Technologies by CSC in 1998.

Mr. Valente also served as a Practice Director at SyBASE Professional Services, where he focused on sales and delivery of SyBASE data warehouse technology.

Previously he was Northeast Director of Sales and Marketing for SHL Systemhouse, a worldwide IT consulting firm.

He earned his BA in Economics from the University of Massachusetts and his MBA from Clark University, and is an adjunct professor at Connecticut State University.

Vlad Kroutik Chairman and Co-founder

Mr. Kroutik is the author of the underlying software that powers Fitcommerce.com, called Blueprint Solution. He has been a visionary in the Internet arena for 10 years.

He has over 10 years business experience assisting companies in creating a competitive edge with the use of information technology and innovative business practices. He worked first at Sapient and later at Cambridge Technology Partners.

While at Cambridge Technology Partners, Vlad created and headed the SolutionsLab Group, which provides technology leadership and technology-related services to multiple clients and projects. This experience offered Mr. Kroutik a unique opportunity to gain intimate knowledge of a wide variety of technologies and industry sectors. International Data Corporation named SolutionsLab one of the most innovative trends in the Systems Integration industry (1998 System Integration Markets and Trends by Susan Siew-Joo Tan, May 1998 IDC#15821).

At Sapient, Vlad played an important role in the company’s growth, where the number of employees grew from 80 to 800 during his term of employment. Vlad was employed as one of Sapient's chief technologists and was responsible for the development of Internet-related architecture and frameworks for over 20 clients in six different industries, all utilizing distributed and Internet technologies.

Vlad Kroutik was born and raised in Kiev, Ukraine. He holds degrees in Electronic Engineering, Computer Science, and Business Administration. After completing school, Mr. Kroutik was employed by the leading state technical university in Moscow, writing software for Soviet space research and information programs. From age 14 to 20, Mr. Kroutik also played professional water polo and was elected captain.

Mr. Kroutik emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1991, just before the breakdown of the USSR. To advance his career in the United States, he enrolled in Gordon College, earning degrees in Business Adminstration and Computer Science in just two years. While attending school, Vlad was employed as a software engineer at Timeslips Corporation.