Columnist and regular contributor covering e-commerce and wine.

"VC Watch" Columnist and regular contributor covering early stage Internet companies.

IdeaWorx is a Web content, development and consulting firm. It has developed and owns Wine Investment News, an online by-subscription, premium content investment site (http://www.wineinvestmentnews.com); The Herring Inspector (co-founded with Bill Kendrick), a premium investment service allowing immediate, online comparisons of SEC filings with their amendments (http://www.herringinspector.com), ThrillerBooks.Com (under development - http://www.thrillerbooks.com), and SelfHealthy.Com (under development - http://www.selfhealthy.com). IdeaWorx clients include Allerderm Laboratories, Consolidated Capital of North America, Mills Valuation and Travel West Coast.

Author of 18 published books, five non-fiction (including two on technology) and 11 novels. Novel number 12 is slated for January 2000 hard-cover publication by St. Martin's Press. Latest non-fiction book, The Wrath of Grapes, (Avon) went on sale last month.

SmartWired is an integrated print and Web information company serving wine consumers and the wine trade.

The company’s principal Web site (http://smartwine.com) was bootstrapped from existing print operations and became the world’s most frequently visited online wine site within six months. In addition, within a year the company became the second-largest wine information company in the world despite raising less than one-third of needed capital. Company consistently achieved projected income goals while incurring substantially lower-than-projected expenses.

This 28-person, $2 million company achieved its quick success through energetic management of expenses, tight coupling between print and Web operations, the creation of an extensive network of support Web domains and a user-centered Web strategy that places convenience and ease of use over plug-ins and other technological flash.

The company was sold to New World Wine Company (OTCBB: CORK). Since then many of Perdue's business models for the Web – viewed skeptically in the early days -- have been proven successful and are now widely used by many of the top online companies. Some of these include: multiple interlocking domains, a personalization technology superior to collaborative filtering called knowledge-based preference selection, integration of new and traditional media to enhance the growth of both, multiple server load sharing and others.

Wine Business Publications was incorporated into SmartWired in February, 1996. Launched two publications (Wine Business Insider, 1991; Wine Business Monthly, 1994) brought each to profitability and market dominance within 14 months with less investment than projected.

Renaissance was a marketing and communications consulting firm specializing in telecommunications technology companies ranging from NEC to start-up and early stage companies such as Kalpana (now part of Cisco) and Lynx Real-Time Systems. Company sold in 1990. As a consultant, I helped launch Kalpana and Lynx, serving as their head of marketing from launch until after their first round of funding. Other clients included Dencom Systems, Strategic Mapping, Inc., Racore, Kaiser Investors, Univation.

Managed the Silicon Valley, Northern California and Pacific Northwest region for this large multinational communications consulting firm. Clients included mostly technology clients such as voice messaging company Genesis, 3M storage media division, Fujitsu, Telebit. Other clients included GE Credit, Upjohn Pharmacueticals, Proctor & Gamble.

Served as IT manager, in-house systems integrator and Account Supervisor for this technology marketing company. Among other technology clients, I developed and executed marketing and product introduction plans for eight divisions of Hewlett-Packard (including work stations, plotters, and instrumentation).

Later managed the Silicon Valley, Northern California office. Other clients included Vitesse Semiconductors, Zilog, Softsel, AST.

Founder, CEO and Chairman, of this Los Angeles wine importer and distributor.

Wrote six books, one non-fiction on technology and five novels. Two novels became bestsellers (The Delphi Betrayal, Queensgate Reckoning) and one (.357 Vigilante) was optioned by New World Pictures which contracted with me and a screenwriting partner to produce the screenplay.

Taught journalism on regular faculty and served as advisor to UCLA Daily Bruin.

Founder of the Washington D.C. office of a chain of daily newspapers, the Ottaway Newspapers, owned by Dow Jones. Covered the White House, Capitol Hill, Supreme Court.

News Secretary. First two books published, one novel, one non-fiction.

Director of the state department of Travel & Tourism, speechwriter and general political tool for state's first non-racist governor.

While a student at Cornell, I was also a full-time reporter, Ithaca (N.Y.) Journal, a Gannett Newspaper.