Symmpl

Anson Sims is a co-founder of Symmpl and the former principal of A. Sims Associates, a consultancy responsible for the invention, development and licenses of dozens of international consumer products including Fish Eyes, Betty Spaghetty, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Military Bubble Bomber, Nickelodeon-Flash Screen, Radical Flying Discs and others. He consulted on projects for Next-Sport, Mattel Toys, Hasbro Toys, Playmates Toys, Inc., Ohio Art and others and holds 24 patents. Past positions include VP of R&D at Playmates Toys where he had direct responsibility for the entire R&D function including new product development, budget forecasting, inventor relations, and licensing negotiations. Under his leadership Playmates introduced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Cricket and sales rose from $0 to over $200 million in 3 years. He also held the position of General Manager at Smith Engineering Toy Division, Partner at the California R&D Center, Project Manager/Senior Industrial Designer at Revell, and Project manager/Senior Industrial Designer at Mattel Toymakers. He is a U.S. Marine and holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Industrial Design from the University of Illinois.

Jay Smith is co-founder of Symmpl and CEO for the last 3 years. He is an accomplished executive and inventor and principal of Smith Engineering, a Los Angeles-based product development and licensing firm that has created hundreds of consumer products, toys and video games over a 35-year history. He holds over 40 patents and generated over $500 million in product revenues while leading Smith Engineering. During his tenure at Smith, he served as the co-founder of Play-It-Now, Inc., a Los Angeles based media company that licensed a cash awards management system for online electronic games powered by the proprietary FairScore Ranking technology. He was also the CEO of Adrenalin Interactive Inc. (NASDAQ: ADRN), a publicly traded entertainment software company that developed top selling consumer products for video, hardware and software firms. Notable video game properties include Tiger Woods Golf, Spiderman, X-Men, and Trivial Pursuit. The company was sold in 2000 in a substantial M&A transaction. Previously, he held the post of CEO at Western Technologies, a successful developer of entertainment software and technology products, that became Adrenalin Interactive after a merger. Previously Smith was a product development engineer working on Hot Wheels, Talking Dolls, and many other products at Mattel following several years at TRW, where he worked on launch sites for the Titan Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, vibration analysis for the LEM descent engine for moon landings and trajectory analysis for the Minuteman Ballistic Missile. He holds an M.S. from the California Institute of Technology and a B.S. from Virginia Tech (where he is on the Advisory Board to the College of Engineering and is one of 50 Distinguished Engineering Alumni). Smith is a member of the Interactive Digital Software Assn; the Board of Advisors for UCLA Medical Center; a Director of the Santa Monica Rotary Club; and recently President of a Southern California Ski club.

John Keating joined Symmpl in 2014 and was responsible for the design and development of the company's Objective C/JS iPad solution, built using native and web technologies. He formerly held the post of Software Development Manager and General Manager at Viggle/Loyalize (Santa Monica) where he oversaw the development of front-end for the FANGO app for iOS, Android & browser and led a development team of five on multiple real-time mass-audience engagement projects. Keating was instrumental in FANGO's acquisition by Yahoo! and served as the sole liaison for all technical aspects of the transfer and integration. Keating has extensive experience recruiting and managing engineering and QA staff, production teams, external dev teams, schedules, strategic milestones and expansion agendas on mobile and other platforms through past engagement as the Engineering Lead at Activision/Seven Studios (Los Angeles) where he oversaw numerous games on multiple console platforms. At Save.com (LA) he was a senior software engineer and architect responsible for a popular commercial multi-threaded client-side application for downloading, displaying, and printing redeemable coupons. Past roles at Gigawatt Studios and Planet Software (where he was a founder and technical director) have provided extensive insight into multi-platform game engines and other consumer-facing technologies. Keating holds a B.S. in Computer and Information Sciences from Trinity College and attended programs at University of Texas at San Antonio and Harvard University.

Richard J. Diephuis serves as a senior technology adviser to Symmpl in addition to serving as a consultant to Ocular Data Systems (Pasadena). He has held the title of VP Engineering at Alelo (LA) leading a software development team creating language and culture training products for mobile applications. At Loyalize/ Viggle (San Francisco) he was Vice President of Engineering overseeing 10 developers in two locations building a social TV product for iPhone, iPad, and Android. Diephuis also served as VP of Engineering at Big Stage Entertainment where he led the development of the Big Stage Avatar Platform into video games, virtual worlds, web sites and mobile apps. At IdeaLab (Pasadena) he was a founder, President, and VP Engineering for Desktop Factory that developed a low cost 3D printer for small business, education, and hobbyists. Past technology leadership positions at Evolution Robotics, Paracel and Lotus Development Corporation contribute to a long history of engineering excellence. He holds a PHD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science as well as MS and BS in Electrical Engineering from MIT.