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Published in U.S. 1 Newspaper on February 23, 2000. All rights
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JustBalls: New CEO
In a move calculated to grow his company quickly —
and probably prepare it to go public — Justballs! founder Jim
Medalia has stepped aside as CEO and named as his replacement a high
profile marketer from Hollywood, Jim Klein. David S. Wetherell, a
major investor known for his hot Web picks — he helped launch
Lycos and GeoCities — has stepped in as board chairman. In two
and a half years the firm has grown from 5 to 17 employees. “I was
chairman, CEO, president, and founder, and I am a lot
lighter
today,” says Medalia, who retains his president title. “We
engaged Spencer Stuart, one of the top three executive search firms,
and we were very fortunate to get two senior partners on the account.
The minute we told them what we were looking for, they said they had
a guy who would be incredible.”
JustBalls! has grown from offering 800 items last year to 1,800
products
this year. It even has the cachet of being involved in a lawsuit with
a major national chain store, Sports Authority. In an attempt to
defend
the Sports Authority’s “Authority Marks” the chain filed suit
in Michigan Court on December 9 to protest the use of the words
“The
Ball Authority” on justballs.com and the company’s registration
of the domain name ballauthority.com, ballauthority.net, and
ballauthority.org.
“We have a very steep growth curve to be able to execute our
business
plan, and it will add more value to the company if we work with
somebody
who has done that before,” says Medalia. “Jim Klein is a
proven
builder of brands and of top line revenue.”
A graduate of Rutgers, Klein was president of Universal Studios
Consumer
Products Group, where he grew the consumer products division from
15 people to over 125 people and an excess of $1.5 billion in retail
sales. “He orchestrated one of the top three entertainment
licensing
programs of all time for Universal — the `Lost World’ movie,”
says Medalia. Klein is also credited with being the driving force
behind major brand names like Avon and Swatch and revitalizing
Applause
Inc. into a leading toy and gift companies.
Privately held, JustBalls.com is the first retailer to specialize
in the sales of balls of every type. In addition to Wetherell the
investors include Lycos CEO Bob Davis, Blue Rock Capital, Jafco
America,
and Bantry Bay Ventures.
Medalia quotes Klein as saying JustBalls! had a real business model
— strip away the hype and at the end of the day there is a real
business. “I’m looking forward to helping this company achieve
entirely new levels of performance,” says Klein.
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Justballs!, 4478 Route 27, Suite 102, Kingston08528. Jim Klein, CEO. 609-497-2400; fax, 609-497-0113. Home page:https://www.justballs.com.Top Of PageExpansionsRamco Systems Corp., 3150 Brunswick Pike, Suite100, Lawrenceville 08648. R. Shankar, regional manager. 609-620-4800;fax, 609-620-4860. Home page: https://www.ramco.com.The information technology firm has moved from 5 Independence Wayand has 40 employees at Crossroads Corporate Center. It providesenterpriseplanning and asset management solutions based on the Windows NTplatform.Clients include mid-size process and discrete manufacturing companies,retail firms, and Internet businesses. Together with regional officesin Connecticut, Chicago, Texas, and California, there are 100employeesin North America.”We have recently expanded our liens of business to includeE-commerceand consulting services,” says Kamesh Ramamoorthy, thepresident.More than 1,000 employees operate in North America, Europe, and Asia.Phone and fax are new.Top Of PageMathematica’s Better ViewMoving your office is a powerful incentive to housecleanyour files. That’s what 193 employees at Mathematica found out whenthey moved from Morgan Lane to the new building at 600 Alexander Park.After long days of sorting and tossing, punctuated by pizza and icecream parties to keep the troops happy, they were rewarded by a betterview: Their new quarters overlook the lake in the Hillier-designedcomplex. (That’s president Charles Metcalf, above, in his new office.)Mathematic does public policy research and surveys for federal andstate governments, foundations, and private-sector clients andmaintainsits telephone operations center at 311-H Enterprise Drive, where 27permanent full-timers work. More than 300 part-timers work there atpeak times.600 Alexander Park should not be confused with 600 Alexander Road,the building occupied by Nassau Broadcasting on the west side of Route1.Mathematica Policy Research Inc., 600 AlexanderPark, Princeton 08540. Charles E. Metcalf, president. 609-799-3535;fax, 609-799-0005. Home page: https://www.mathematica-mpr.com.Previous StoryNext StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
