bob christopher / ceo, board chairman & co-founder

Bob brings 20 years in technology and consumer management experience to UGOBE. He has built world class teams and led companies through multiple stages of growth. Bob is known for transforming visionary opportunities into highly successful business models with significant growth and profitability.

Previous to UGOBE, Bob served as CEO of Nextsport, an action sport scooter company that develops and sells technology enhanced scooter products into big box retailers and specialty sport shops. At Nextsport, Bob aligned the company's vision with overseas manufacturing and retail sales that led to successful product marketing initiatives and significant company growth. Earlier in his career, Bob helped launch the Voice over IP industry through the creation of ISPtel, an international clearinghouse connecting over 35 of the world's largest phone companies. Bob also served as Chief Strategist and VP Worldwide Sales of Nikotel, an SIP based videoconferencing company with 150 employees located in Hamburg, Germany. As Chief Strategist, Bob employed a worldwide execution strategy that leveraged partnerships with Lucent and Global Crossings for the sale and distribution of their videoconferencing technology into carrier and ISP customers.

Bob continues to attract talented management teams, industry alliances, strategic advisors and partnerships needed to execute successful business models. Both an excellent communicator and team builder, Bob is able to lead diverse teams and inspire great performance.


caleb chung / inventor, board member & co-founder

Caleb began his toy invention career with Mattel in 1985, designing toys for its New Business Concepts R&D Division which targeted the Infant & Preschool, Boys Toys, Barbie, Activities and Games markets. Caleb's prolific conceptual and design skills created widely acclaimed toys, eventually landing him a feature appearance on the David Letterman Show.

Caleb's accomplishments and experience span the entertainment, mixed media, and toy industries. He has written, produced, and acted in critically acclaimed stage shows, has designed special effects for film/TV, and invented numerous successful toys.

In 1990 Caleb began to independently consult for Fisher Price, Mattel, Bandai, Hasbro, Disney, Microsoft Corporation and Tiger Electronics. He co-invented the 1998 hot toy of the year, Furby, which sold over 50 million units worldwide, generating over $1.2 billion in sales. As an inventor with over 20 patents, Caleb is regarded as one of the premier product designers in the toy industry.



john sosoka / chief technology officer

John Sosoka brings inspired ideas to life at UGOBE and heads the technological innovation at the company. Recently he co-founded and was CTO at Neurosmith. Under Sosoka's technical leadership, this educational technology toy company grew to $12M in sales and won almost every major toy industry award including the "Most Innovative Toy Of The Year" (TOTY). In 2003, Neurosmith was acquired by Small World Toys. Prior to Neurosmith, Sosoka held senior executive positions at Davidson & Associates, Emerson Technologies and the Technology Application Group.



diana stern / director of strategic operations

Diana brings a diverse background of management experience to UGOBE. With a focus on organizational management and business processes, Diana has a unique ability to lead diverse projects and manage interdisciplinary teams toward successful results. Diana draws on her degree in anthropology to help assimilate challenging problems into manageable tasks and processes. Before joining UGOBE, Diana was the director of operations for Nextsport, a start-up that designs, manufacturers and distributes unique push scooters. Diana was involved in developing and managing all areas of the business, including product development, manufacturing supply chain, marketing, sales, finance and back office operations. An experienced entrepreneur, Diana successfully built and sold her own company, Precision Property Services, in 1988. After Precision Property, she also established and managed her own business at Paramedical Examiner from 1993 to 1996. Diana received a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley.



liz gasper / chief financial officer

Liz has over 18 years experience with public and pre-public companies in a number of diverse industries, including hardware, software and educational toys. She has been involved in a number of successful private equity financings, company mergers, initial public offerings and company privatizations. Her background includes a unique combination of financial, operational and entrepreneurial experience. As Chief Financial Officer of LeapFrog Enterprises, Liz was chartered with transitioning the company's infrastructure and financial management from a pre-public company to that of a well-developed, public company. Liz has held executive and senior management positions at: RightWorks, Red Envelope, Portivity, Scopus Technology, Sybase and Tandem Computers. Liz also served on the advisory board of Big Bang Ideas, the parent company of Big Boing Toys, which was acquired by Cranium. She also co-founded a hi-tech stone fabrication business where she oversaw operations until it was successfully sold.

martin hitch / vice president of sales

Martin Hitch brings 15 years of worldwide sales and marketing experience with leading children’s entertainment companies. Martin is known for his knowledge of the global market and experience in building long term relationships throughout the sales cycle. In his native UK, Martin held senior sales positions at Mattel including leadership of Mattel UK’s direct import program, then the company’s most profitable business unit. After relocating to the USA to join Hasbro’s OddzOn division, Martin developed and executed successful business strategies for the international division. He then managed domestic sales for the company’s Wal-Mart business. At MGA Entertainment, Martin led the international launch and distribution of the BRATZ™ brand achieving up to 30% share in key markets within one year and laying the foundation for one of the industry’s billion dollar brands. Prior to UGOBE, Martin was founder of World in Advance, a software solutions developer for online marketplace management with focus on building applications that integrate with eBay.

(BRATZ is a trademark of MGA Entertainment, Inc.)

steve bannerman / vice president, global marketing

Steve brings over twenty years of experience in technology to UGOBE. Prior to UGOBE, he was responsible for global brand and product strategy at Narus, a leader in the telecom infrastructure software industry. At Tarantella, Inc., Steve served as Chief Marketing Officer and General Manager where he architected a worldwide product and marketing strategy that resulted in an acquisition by Sun Microsystems. Bannerman's previous roles include Founder and CEO of Caststream, Inc. and Director of Marketing for QuickTime TV at Apple. Bannerman holds a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Management from GA Tech.