
CEO - Co-founder at Agora Media Group
Groningen Area, Netherlands

CEO - Co-founder at Agora Media Group
Groningen Area, Netherlands
7 more...
C-level strategist with several start-ups with strong skills in Social Media and Social TV Architecture and Analysis - Community/SNS building using Open Source technology. New Media publishing and remodeled old school print media using on-demand technologies. Top notch communicator.
Adept team player - a publisher, writer, photographer, marketing director, web developer and graphic designer with more than 20 years experience in the development and operation of newspapers, magazines, web media and marketing of multinational, companies in international settings.
Well travelled yachtsman (24,000 nm offshore - two Transatlantics/one TransPac), outstanding problem solving skills. Published first article to crewing on boats as a lifestyle called 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Sea' in 1991. Lived aboard sailboats in Caribbean for a decade and built €1.200.000 catamaran in Brazil in 2004.
Current
• Chief Strategy Officer - CSO - Worldticketshop - Netherlands
• Chief Executive Officer - CEO - Agora Media Group, London
• Advisory Board Member of Tel Aviv-based Zephyr Financial Technologies.
• Advisory Board Member of Pixengo, UK
• Consultant with Travolon Belgium in building news, opinion and multilingual social media portal for European Travel Industry.
• Built own company in Holland – Expathos – focusing on Social media analysis and strategy, new media publishing, and open source technologies.
Past
• Board member and shareholder of Sparkling Media UK, building Cross Media Social Platform (CMSP) merging telephony 2.0, web, TV, and Virtual environs (3D).
• Managed the marketing departments of two Caribbean-based multinational marine companies.
• Editor and publisher of several Caribbean publications.
• Extensive media history with various publications - Native Press in the Canadian Arctic, freelanced for a number of magazines in boating and travel.
• Skippering sailboats offshore over 15 years as professional skipper.
* C-level strategist, Social Media, Social TV and Converging Media analyst and consultant, Creativity and Innovation.
Open Source Evangelist.
(Privately Held; Online Media industry)
September 2009 — Present (3 months)
We are still building the site so please bear in mind if you find some irrelevant pages.
Small is better. That's how we feel. Rather than farm out, hire extensively, and dilute our own brand, Agora Media Group is a tight, highly experienced group of well seasoned Internet gurus holding a diverse range of skill sets which, when fused, creates a team that can handle almost any project internally... from Social TV to Augmented Reality to 3D, Social Media to Print Media, Search Engine Strategy to building highly effective Applications.
We dream in digital. The small, highly professional team at Agora are passionate about the technologies that now define our world and the way they're moulding our future. We are first and foremost great communicators. We are creatives who truly understand how the Web connects us all, and we all want to shape the conversation. We are restless innovators who are not just waiting for the next big idea to come along, we're part of making it happen. The team at Agora are unique talents, visionaries, experimenters, and live and play on the cutting edge of technology. Agora helps build great brands by creating engaging, experiential environments in the digital world. With our feet planted in the early Internet, our seasoned, multi talented team has done hundreds of cutting edge, innovative projects for a wide array of Fortune 500 clients, startups, and a variety of others across the globe. Created in London, Agora Media Group's roots are in The Netherlands and Japan and the team itself has Canadian, Australian, Italian and Dutch partners.
(Privately Held; Events Services industry)
November 2008 — Present (1 year 1 month)
Recently promoted to Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) responsible for assisting the CEO with creating, communicating, executing, and sustaining strategic initiatives within the company. Also speaking for company at World Ticket Summit 2009 in Vegas and working on M&A strategy.
(Media Production industry)
October 2008 — Present (1 year 2 months)
Advisory board member for angel round startup Pixengo.com
(Privately Held; Financial Services industry)
June 2008 — Present (1 year 6 months)
Advisory Board Member of Zephyr Financial Intelligence in Tel Aviv. Director of Community and Publishing business strategy.
(Partnership; Media Production industry)
June 2005 — Present (4 years 6 months)
Expathos is a professional web development and design network based in the Netherlands run by Social Media Strategist and Architect Richard Kastelein. He began developing online communities (forums at first) in 1998... and he has also sailed, on small sailing vessels, over 25,000 miles offshore (2x Atlantic, Pacific, Indian Ocean and Red Sea), and lived aboard various boats in the Caribbean for over a decade.
He is currently the MD of Expathos, but his roots and education lie in the media and he has held positions as a reporter, investigative journalist, editor, photographer, designer, and publisher of numerous print publications ranging from the Canadian Arctic to the Caribbean and Europe. He has done work for the CBC, the BBC, Pacific Yachting, Yachting Monthly, TNT Travel, and various other international magazines. He is the publisher and founder of the Free Press Group - a leading progressive political online Media Group with over 300 academics, journalists, and writers.
Social TV, Media Convergence, Sensible political discourse, sailing offshore, open source software, travel literature, innovative cuisine.
Amnesty International, Caribbean Cruising Association, International Boatbuilders Association (IBBA)
Most Published Articles by student - WAP - 1992-93
Two Project Censored Awards - 2007/8 - as publisher of Atlantic Free Press