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Mr. Tessler brings over 25 years of experience as a turnaround executive who creatively understands businesses' unique quality for success, with the ability to motivate people in stressful situations. Mr. Tessler has extensive experience in the educational products, consumer service, and retail sectors. Most recently, he served as the COO of Liberty Travel, the largest leisure travel agency in the country. During his tenure at Liberty, Mr. Tessler was instrumental in developing Liberty's eCommerce strategy and operations in response to competitive pressures from Travelocity, Priceline, and Preview Travel. More importantly, Mr. Tessler was able to double profitability and achieve double-digit sales growth during his tenure. Prior to Liberty Travel, Mr. Tessler served in a variety of senior positions including CEO, COO, and head of marketing with several private and publicly held organizations in the retail and education sectors with annual sales over $1 billion dollars. Mr. Tessler successfully started two educational companies and took them public, raising over $40mm in public equity and over $100mm in the debt capital markets. Mr. Tessler also completed a leveraged buyout of a $150mm children's apparel division of Woolworth. During 1991-93, Mr. Tessler was a key player (strategic planning, head of operations, and merchandising) in the successful turnaround of Ames Department Store. Between 1997-98, Mr. Tessler completed an assignment on behalf of DLJ Ventures in its attempt to reorganize Party Holding, Inc. Between 1998-99, Mr. Tessler partnered with Barrington Capital to reorganize Zona, an international furniture chain. Mr. Tessler is currently the Chairman of Helma Institute and also serves as the President and Chief Operating Officer of Oasis Children Services. He is also a former director of Sint Eustatius School of Medicine. Mr. Tessler holds a B.S. in Education and M.S. in Psychology from Long Island University. | 