Kevin Howat

Senior Vice President, Wisebear.com, Inc., New York, New York

BIO:
Kevin Howat was recently named Senior Vice President for Business Development at WiseBear.com, a New York-based e-commerce start-up serving the health and wellness market, where he is part of the founding executive team. At WiseBear, his responsibilities include management of industry relations, formation of strategic business partnerships, and participation in setting the overall business strategy for the company. Prior to joining WiseBear, Mr. Howat was Vice President of Business Development and Brand Management for Time Inc. New Media, where he was a member of the senior executive team. While there, Mr. Howat's responsibilities included oversight of the company's business strategy and overall P&L for Time Inc.'s online businesses associated with world-class brands such as Time, Fortune, People, Entertainment Weekly, and others, while also heading up the business development function for the company. Mr. Howat was also instrumental in developing the business strategy for Entertaindom, Time Warner's Entertainment Hub, and other strategic partnerships as a strategist in Time Warner Digital Media's corporate-wide new media initiatives. Prior to joining Time Inc. New Media, Mr. Howat was an executive in the Simon & Schuster Publishing Unit of Viacom, Inc., where he served as Vice President with a number of new media startup businesses, including the Learning Products Group and Macmillan Digital USA. While at Simon & Schuster, Mr. Howat was responsible for the development of www.redrocket.com, an early e-commerce site for children's learning products and oversaw the publication of more than a dozen award-winning consumer reference titles. Before his tenure at Viacom, Mr. Howat was Director of Strategic Marketing and Business Development for Macromedia, where he was responsible for building industry relations and strategic marketing programs. At Macromedia, Mr. Howat led the company's effort to build markets in publishing and education, spearheading such strategic publishing initiatives as The Macromedia Professional Library with Random House and New Media Magazine, and Authorware Academic and Director Academic with Simon & Schuster's Education Group. He was also a founding member of the New Media Centers Program, a pioneering not-for-profit consortium of technology companies and institutions of higher education created to foster educational uses of new media. Mr. Howat's first foray into technology was as New Products Manager at The Learning Company, where he spearheaded the development of a new line of learning software, most notably, OutNumbered!, the 1990 recipient of Software Publishing Association's "Best Education Product" Award. Mr. Howat spent fourteen years in marketing and editorial management with book publishers Thomson and Addison-Wesley before his involvement in new media. He has a Bachelor's degree in Literature from Franklin & Marshall College and lives in Mt. Kisco, NY with his wife and two daughters.