Unlocking the Power of America’s Youth

1. Unlocking the Power of America’s Youth

2. Our Mission • Our focus is to understand and interpret the ever-changing relationship between the wants and needs of youth and the influences which guide their attitudes, usage and purchase behavior. • Our commitment is to help companies develop and grow their business through a more responsible relationship with America’s youth by providing fact-based strategiesdrawn from our proprietary studies of kids across a broad spectrum of businesses and brands. • Our organization is committed to assembling an experienced team of researchers, child development specialists and business experts who will work to provide member companies with direction which will help them unlock the power of America’s youth.

3. Business Rationale • We understand that it is challenging to keep abreast of the ever-changing youth market. Until now, there has been no affordable way to access information on a periodic basis which helps to define the choices kids make and the degree to which these are influenced by parents, teachers and peers. • We appreciate that too often we define our competitive set by the brands with which we directly compete rather than the world as it is defined by the way kids live. We also recognize that “success” is very often achieved by applying the lessons learned from another category. • The Youth Trust responds to these issues with three business units …..

4. Business Structure Youth Consult Provides results driven solutions to clients in the areas of Strategy Facilitation, Business Development, Marketing Planning, Licensing and Creativity Coaching. Youth Vest Applies know-how to start-up companies in the youth market which involves securing financing, building the commercialization strategy and/or acting as line management with focus on sales and marketin

5. Founding Partners Mr. Llewellyn P. Smithhas more than two decades of sales, marketing, entrepreneurial and general management experience. He began his career in sales and marketing positions with Playtex, Oscar Mayer and Keebler rising to the position of Director of Sales and Marketing. He moved into the service sector upon joining the Promotional Consulting Division of Marketing Corporation of America (MCA ) where he achieved the position of Managing Director. He left MCA in 1986 to form Connecticut Marketing Associates consulting for American Airlines, Lotus 1-2-3 and Ocean Spray. In 1990 established Solutions Marketing, a direct marketing, promotion and branding consultancy which was acquired by Grey Advertising in 1994. He continued to serve as President of Solutions Marketing as a division of Grey Advertising adding expertise in youth publishing and co-marketing for Vlassic, Best Foods and Tropicana. In 2001 he re-established an independent Solutions Marketing and worked with Thompson Murray to help Coke and BIC improve their Wal-Mart business and relationship. Mr. Smith is a board advisor to Viro-Free and Ursinus College and board President of STAR, Inc., Lighting the Way. He graduated from Ursinus College and received his Masters in consumer behavior from Wheaton College. Mr. Smith is married to Christy and lives in Darien, Connecticut with their three children

6. Founding Partners Mr. J. Baxter Uristhas a diverse background of building brands & businesses globally through strategic partnerships for both nonprofit and for profit organizations with a special emphasis on kids. Most recently Baxter helped The Smile Train, a foundation founded to help cure the problem of cleft lip and palate for over 17,000 children. For ten years Baxter was Group President of International Television and Global Product Licensing at Children’s Television Workshop. Under Baxter’s leadership the number of viewers who watched Sesame Street doubled globally by expanding into Russia, Poland, Egypt, China, South Africa, and even an Israeli-Palestinian version.Also under Baxter’s leadership licensing mushroomed at CTW with the #1 selling toys globally two years running, Tickle Me Elmo and Sing-and-Snore-Ernie.   Before joining CTW Mr. Urist was Vice President of Marketing at Emery Worldwide where he managed the global marketing of business-to-business overnight delivery. Baxter started his career at Richardson Vicks in marketing helping to grow such famous brands as NyQuil, Vicks Formula 44 and Oil of Olay.   Originally form California, Mr. Urist received his BA in Cultural Anthropology and Business from the University of the Pacific where he earned the Outstanding Humanitarian Award in 2001. He has a Masters in International Management from Thunderbird International School of Management in Arizona. He and his wife Sandra live in Westport, Connecticut with their four children.

7. Founding Partners Mr. Dennis W. Perry has more than twenty-five years of global marketing and general management experience. His early career was in sales and product management with Oral-B, Richardson-Vicks and Chesebrough Ponds. Subsequently, he was a partner with the Consulting Group of Marketing Corporation of America ( MCA ). In 1987, he became President of the New York based Connor Toy Corporation and in 1990 became COO and later CEO of the Hong Kong based HCL Group which markets and distributes over 125 brands in fifteen countries throughout the Asia Pacific region. During Mr. Perry’s tenure with the HCL Group, he increased profitability five-fold and successfully completed the sale of HCL to the Dutch group, Hagemeyer, N.V.. Upon his return to the United States, Mr. Perry worked for United Distillers and Vintners and was later Group CEO for Vtech Electronics, the learning products division of the Hong Kong based Vtech holdings with headquarters in New York. Mr. Perry has been a member of the Board of the Toy Industry Association and former Chairman of the Watchdog Early Learning and Development Center in Hong Kong which serves Cantonese and English speaking children with developmental delays. He is currently on the Board of Advisors for the Nantucket Cottage Hospital and a trustee of St. Luke’s School in New Canaan, Connecticut. Mr. Perry is a graduate of Boston University and has an MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University. He and his wife Martha live in New Canaan, Connecticut with their three children.