Laurel Touby, Founder, CEO, & Cyberhostess
laurelT AT mediabistro.com

The original idea for mediabistro.com was cooked up in 1993, when Laurel—then a freelance business writer and Glamour magazine contributor—and a friend decided to host a mixer for media people. About 20 editors, writers, and other content creators came to that original cocktail party at Jules Bistro in the East Village. Attendees bought their own drinks and enjoyed casual after-work bonding in the company of like-minded people. The parties quickly grew, and soon Laurel had 4,000 of New York's top media talent on her email list. After creating a website in 1997 and adding features such as job listings, bulletin boards, classes, e-classes, media and a freelance marketplace, Touby's business began to take off. Today, the site also includes news, events and "learn" emails, as well as media industry blogs. More than 600,000 media professionals have registered for various mediabistro.com services around the world.

Laurel started her career at Working Woman, moved on to Business Week as a staff editor, and in 1993 began editing and writing a column on workplace issues for Glamour. She has covered everything from travel to business to breast cancer for a variety of publications, including New York, Travel + Leisure, Self, Redbook, McCall's, Family Circle, Good Housekeeping, Working Mother, and the New York Daily News. Born in Oahu, Hawaii, Laurel grew up in Miami (before South Beach existed) and graduated from Smith College with a degree in economics. (Photo credit: Gary He)

Shao Chen, Development Manager
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Shao Chen hails from Brooklyn and likes to find new restaurants and places to eat at. She has eaten at almost all the restaurants in Chinatown and can tell you where to get the best soup dumplings or ice cream - two of her favorite foods. Shao also knows several languages, such as Chinese, English, PHP, Java, VBscript, and Javascript. Shao graduated from New York University with a degree in Computer Science and Economics.

Kirsten Cluthe, Producer Conferences and Special Events
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Kirsten joined mediabistro.com after a brief stint in Beijing working on the Olympics and a longer tenure at GE, where she was charged with creating events that inspired innovation and cultural change at one of the world's largest companies. Madly at work on mediabistro.com's first conference, she is on an impassioned quest for the coolest ideas, speakers and innovators in media and technology. When she's not in New York at work or at play, she freelances as a travel writer and can be found in a window seat indulging in her iPod playlists.

Seamus Condron, Community Manager
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Seamus is a writer and amateur humorist who is noted for accomplishing the least of anyone on Earth with his given talents. After an unsuccessful stint doing impersonations in front of disinterested family members from age 5-10, Seamus had equally ugly results as a stand-up comic. When not blogging or being the office's comic foil, he strategizes (meaning reads lots of blogs) online community and social media, and helps manage medibistro.com's subscription products. Seamus is an über tech geek, and uses that talent not to score chicks as one would assume, but to freelance for CNET Networks as an online course instructor. Seamus' favorite things include the Red Sox and injecting lines from Airplane into conversations whenever possible. He has no girlfriend or pets.

Bill Conneely, Director of Business Development and Strategy
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Bill started his career in media 30 years ago when he and his brothers monopolized their neighborhood paper routes. He has been strategizing ever since. His experience includes 10 years in strategic planning, consumer marketing and business development at The New York Times. Prior to working at The Times, Bill spent four years developing and implementing alternative dispute resolution services as director of community mediation programs for the Peninsula Conflict Resolution Center in San Mateo, CA. Bill is a graduate of Grinnell College, a Coro Fellow in Public Affairs, and earned an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Katherine Dagenhart, Education Assistant
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Katherine Dagenhart joined mediabistro.com as an education assistant in December 2007, happily retiring from her longtime position as Professional Intern, which included stints at a radio station, indie record label, modern art museum, and two magazines. She is representing the First State here in NYC as both a Delaware native and 2006 graduate from the University of Delaware. Katherine is a huge music fan, loves going to shows, and would love to add some more band interviews to her portfolio. When not mediabistro-ing, she enjoys lounging, dancing, cooking, dreaming of Argentina, and exploring this crazy city.

Noah Davis, Associate Editor/Commissioner, mediabistro.com Basketball League
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Noah Davis is mediabistro.com's associate editor. After an occasionally successful stint as a freelancer that saw him publish features in Penthouse, The Onion, Co-Ed, and Diverse among others, he opted for regular hours, a steady paycheck, and paid vacations. When he's not chasing down How To Pitch updates, writing for FishbowlNY, or searching for the next great media story, he spends his time playing basketball, wandering around Brooklyn, and dogging his roommates in FIFA '07.

Megan Diamondstein, Events Coordinator
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Megan Diamondstein comes to mediabistro.com, having worn the hats of actor, music journalist, and editorial assistant since graduating from Wesleyan University in 2006. During a lengthy stint as "Learntern" in the Education department, Megan discovered her inner Host. Putting her inner culture vulture to good use, Megan eagerly joins the Events team. In her spare time, Megan enjoys rowdy new-wave dance parties, traveling, and judging others based on what they listen to.

Courtney Ellert, Junior Designer
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Courtney is a recent graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a degree in Electronic Media Arts and Communication. She is a huge fan of clean design with lots of color. When not working or designing, Courtney loves cooking, reading gossip blogs (especially jezebel.com), upholstering furniture, and going to trivia nights. Courtney is an avid Lost watcher.

Jessica Eule, Associate Director, Educational Development & Operations/Princess of Learn
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Jessica comes to mediabistro.com from the advertising and business departments of Gourmet. She graduated from the University of Delaware in 2002 with a communications degree and interned at CBS News, Zagat Survey, and Working Mother. When she's not busy planning classes, Jessica can be found scoping out the latest restaurant, catching up on her DVR collection of reality television, and buying many more shoes than she needs.

Jonathan Federico, Education Assistant
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A native of Boston Ma, Jonathan came to New York City after graduating from Boston University with a degree in Film and Television. With a professional background that includes public television, politics and publishing, Jonathan comes to mediabistro.com with a sincere interest in all aspects of media, but a passion for film and TV. When not working at mediabistro.com you can find Jonathan exercising, rocking out, cooking, watching movies, listening to music, sleeping, chillin' in Brooklyn, or you may not find him at all because he's traveling.

Stefanie Flaxman, Office Administrator, West Coast
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Among a city filled with "transplants," Stefanie is a Los Angeles native. She joined mediabistro.com after working as an editor in PR Newswire's Los Angeles bureau. Though she was the editor-in-chief of her high school yearbook, she took a break from journalism while attending Occidental College to focus on her passion at the time, philosophy. Outside of managing the day-to-day activities of mb on the West Coast, Stefanie enjoys spending time with her friends and family, knitting, and writing for her advice column, www.FlaxRx.com.

Rebecca Fox, Managing Editor, Features
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After kicking off her journalism career penning hard-hitting editorials for her junior high newspaper, Rebecca went on to work at national newspapers, magazines, book publishers, and Web sites in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York. She ceded completely to her media fixation while earning her M.A. from NYU Journalism's Portfolio Program, covering the business behind magazines. Previously an editor at a trade journal, Rebecca now ensures all mediabistro.com's features trains run on time, and is known for holding a not-so-secret torch for the West Coast.

Pip Gengenbach, Membership Coordinator
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Pip comes to mediabistro.com with a background in non-profit education. After four years helping Minneapolis high school kids make their dreams come true, he moved to New York following dreams of his own. When he’s not Web production assistant-ing, Pip writes, seeks out brilliant theater and watches way too many movies. Shout-outs in Pip’s bio can be purchased for one (1) quality imported beer.

Shauna Maher, Online Education Coordinator
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Shauna became an education assistant at mediabistro.com after spending several months as a night assistant, helping the New York courses and seminars run smoothly. Now, she works with the Learn team on West Coast courses and eClasses. She studied Comparative Literature, French, and Italian at Georgetown University and interned with Esquire, Harper's Bazaar, and washingtonpost.com. An aspiring expat, she misses the days she could call Paris and Florence home, but is happily exploring the neighborhoods and nuances of New York.

Jude O’Connor, Sales Manager, Job Board
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Jude O'Connor joined mediabistro.com in late 2007 bringing with him online recruitment media and advertising sales experience from Yahoo! Hotjobs. He knows the industry and wants to see your jobs advertised with us. Born and raised in New Jersey, please go easy on him as Jude is a New York Jets, New York Mets, and New York Knicks fan. If nothing else you know he is resilient.

Kenny Rufino, Communications Director
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At first glance, it may appear that Kenny is just sitting at his desk quietly, but he's actually using his powerful brainwaves to communicate his will across the universe. Aside from the world-domination-thing, Kenny loves most things Apple, his 'hood, and NY1 (In The Papers FTW!). When he's not playing video games (or reading video game magazines), he uses his spare time trying to understand concepts that he would have known by now if his parents let him go to art school in the first place.

Carmen Scheidel, Director, Education, Events, and Multimedia Content
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Carmen oversees mediabistro's educational offerings and video on demand content -- all in the name of helping media people learn new tricks. She began her career as an editor at a monthly arts and culture magazine, and spent seven years freelancing as an editor and writer. She has written about books and music for Time Out New York; food, health, and the restaurant industry for Restaurant Business magazine; literary fiction for Publisher's Weekly; and music for Acoustic Guitar. She has edited for CNN/Money.com; UBS AG; and Pearson educational publishers. Her fiction has been included alongside the works of James Baldwin, Zora Neale Hurston, and Langston Hughes in the anthology "Beloved Harlem: A Literary Tribute to Black America's Most Famous Neighborhood, From the Classics to The Contemporary." As an instructor, she has taught Essay Writing and The Mechanics of Writing at the New School, and has been a guest lecturer at Rutgers University.