Our Experts

Lesley Czuma Executive Vice President, Marketing and Communications

Lesley Czuma, Executive Vice President, Marketing and Communications
Lesley is the Executive Vice President of Transform Group’s Global Marketing and Communications. She has held leading positions in MarCom for 20 years, focussing on DeFi and enterprise blockchain since the advent of DLT and global digitization.
Her experience includes both startups and blockchain ecosystems including a range of use cases, from applications to optimize industry processes in energy and supply chain, to fintech, crypto, NFTs, and P2E. She has served clients including representatives of the Big Four, the largest manufacturing corporation in Europe, and one of the world’s largest power companies. Lesley developed the branding and marketing of several pioneering stand alone blockchain technologies, and one of the leading projects in the Polkadot DeFi ecosystem – a first-mover in cross-chain enablement for mass adoption. Her specialties include PR and media relations, branding, and international conferences and events. She has placed stories in major industry media worldwide.
Before she became engaged in blockchain, Lesley held leading roles in marketing and sales at a publicly listed global retailer and founded her own company offering events to the diplomatic community and cross-border business. She holds a PhD in Political Science from the Free University of Berlin and has completed graduate coursework at Georgetown’s Walsh School of Foreign Service and in Marketing at the Université de Fribourg. Lesley has lived and worked in seven countries. Besides her native English, she is fluent in German, Russian, Polish, and French.

 

Michael Terpin Founder, CEO
Michael Terpin has more than 25 years of PR agency management. He has directly supervised many renowned PR campaigns of the digital media era, including early-stage PR for America Online, Earthlink, Jupiter, Motley Fool, Match.com, and Shapeways, as well as full-service campaigns with established brands, including Alpine, AT&T, Diamond Multimedia, Fujitsu, JBL, Konami, Marriott, Memorex, Philips, Rackspace, Red Herring, and TEAC.

In the blockchain sector, Terpin has led the PR efforts for more than 100 blockchain companies and foundations, including some of the leading token crowdsales. Client successes include the launches of Augur, Counterparty, Dash, Ethereum, Factom, Golem Network, Lisk, MaidSafe, Tether, as well as ongoing campaigns for Bittrex and Shapeshift.

Terpin co-founded BitAngels, the world’s first angel network for digital currency startups, which now has more than 500 members globally.

Richard D. Titus Senior Advisor, Transform Group

Richard Titus joined Transform Group following a two-year stint as the founder and CEO of Ark Advisors, a leading blockchain advisory firm.  Founded in 2017, ARK consulted with and invested in blockchain and DLT technology-based businesses, supporting 20+ blockchain projects in 2017-2018. Titus also led ARK’s investment efforts (arkfund.io) sourcing & deploying ~$6 million in capital into 5+ successful ventures. 

With a passion for innovation, Titus serves as a board member, advisor, and coach to a portfolio of companies in high-growth tech sectors, including AI, blockchain, cleantech, media and information security. For three and a half years he’s served as a mentor/fellow at the Rotman School of Management’s Creative Destruction Lab, a world-leading program across eight cities globally and includes 375 companies for 2019 alone in AI, space, blockchain, life sciences, smart cities and the world’s first quantum computing accelerator.  He is involved in CDL’s ongoing role as a founding member of the LIBRA Association.

A serial entrepreneur, CEO, startup advisor, coach, and investor, Titus has founded or co-founded more than seventeen firms, including Razorfish (Los Angeles – via acquisition of his company, Tag Media), Schematic (now rebranded Possible, post WPP acquisition), Ark, Videoplaza, and Prompt.ly, his fifth exit in a row. 

In addition to his entrepreneurship, Titus has held senior leadership roles at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), creating and launching both the iPlayer and the BBC mobile service. Later, as CEO of Associated Northcliffe Digital, the digital holding company of DMGT (Daily Mail) he led the turn-around of a legacy media and digital classified giant. He also led product development and customer product experience for Samsung Electronics, working out of Seoul, Korea, from 2015-17. Earlier in his life, Titus produced TV shows and feature films, winning multiple awards, including two Emmy nominations and Sundance selections “Online” & “Who Killed the Electric Car?” Titus is based in California with his lover and three daughters.

Xenia von Wedel President, Transform Group

Xenia joined Terpin Communications in February 2000. She specializes in traditional media and high-profile editorial blogs. Her high-profile placements include major national feature stories in AP, BBC and Reuters, plus full-length feature stories in USA Today, Wall Street Journal, the San Francisco Chronicle and San Jose Mercury News.Internationally, she has placed substantial feature stories in the Economist, Financial Times, International Herald Tribune, South China Morning Post and others.

She is fluent in German and French, and conversational in Spanish.

Lynessa Martin
Lynessa Martin Vice-President, Transform Group

Lynessa is a Vice President at Transform PR where she is responsible for media outreach, strategy development and overall campaign management. Trained in social media marketing and public relations, Lynessa employs a comprehensive, 360 approach to positioning clients in the most engaging and relevant spaces. She has been instrumental in the success of many of the agency’s blockchain, adtech and gaming clients including Atari Token, GameCredits, IMVU, Playkey, Upland, WAX, and more. Prior to joining the agency, Lynessa studied social media and assisted in teaching public relations at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications, where she earned her master’s degree in media studies.