Invention City Company Information  

Michael Marks – President
For more than a decade Mike has been active in creating and marketing new products and forming new businesses. As a co-founder of WorkTools, Inc., Endeavor Products Company, Sandjam'R Inc. and Accentra Inc., he has managed the design, manufacturing, marketing, patenting and licensing of products such as the Gator-Grip® Universal Socket  the Black & Decker PowerShot® staple gun, the Staples One Touch stapler. Over the past seven years products developed by WorkTools have generated over $300 million in retail sales and over $6 million in royalties.  Mike has negotiated a wide range of contracts, established manufacturing operations in Taiwan and China, managed national and international sales, run public relations/advertising campaigns and written and produced television commercials and video news releases. Prior to founding WorkTools in 1986, Mike worked as a commercial photographer and photojournalist in New York for clients such as American Express, Nikon and Newsweek Magazine. Mike graduated Cum Laude from UCLA in 1978, Economics.

Derrell Lipman – Chief Technology Officer
Derrell has fifteen years of software architecture and development experience. His areas of technical expertise include computer networking protocols and fast, efficient coding methods. For the past ten years he has also been active as a project manager, coordinating marketers, developers, technical writers and production personnel. Together with Mike, Derrell is a co-founder of Invention City, Inc. He is an active advisor to the Computer Science Department at the University of the Pacific. A volunteer member of Civil Air Patrol for the last decade, Derrell currently commands a squadron in Massachusetts. Derrell attended University of the Pacific, attaining a BS degree with honors in Computer Science in 1983.

Joel Marks – Senior Inventor
Since the time he could walk, Joel has been inquiring into how things work and how they could be made to work better and more intuitively. As co-founder and chief product designer of WorkTools, Inc., he has conceived, engineered and designed several award-winning products. In 1999 he was honored with a Gold Design of the Decade Award from IDSA/Business Week for his work on the Black & Decker PowerShot® staple gun (an award shared by the Apple iMac and VW Beetle). His latest success is the PaperPro desktop stapler that is taking the office products world by storm - it sold over 1,000,000 units in it's first year of production!  Joel has had over 100 patents issued in his name. A 1982 Engineering graduate of UCLA, Joel was formerly employed by TRW in its Spacecraft Engineering Division, where his primary responsibilities were precision fabrication and assembly of spacecraft hardware and the design and management of product tests.

Brad Golstein - Vice President Legal and Business Affairs
Brad graduated Phi Beta Kappa from UC Berkeley with a degree in History in 1980 and then received both a JD and MBA from UCLA in 1984. He practiced law for several years representing clients such as Weyerhauser, JVC Entertainment, The SoftwareToolworks and others. Brad joined Mike and Joel to found WorkTools in 1986 with responsibility for financial and legal affairs. He has managed WorkTools' intellectual property including negotiating licensing and distribution agreements and overseeing the defense of WorkTools' patents internationally. He is also a co-founder of Endeavor Tool Company and has overseen much of that company’s business and legal affairs.  Brad has the rare combination of a good legal mind seasoned by real business experience.

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