Coolibar's Board of Directors
Here are brief biographical sketches for the Board of Directors of Coolibar, a leader in sun protection in America.
Donna Avery is a catalog retailing luminary. She was the founder and CEO of Rivertown Trading Company, a catalog retailer with a portfolio of titles including Wireless and Signals. Over a 15 year period, Ms. Avery grew Rivertown from startup to became the country’s 50th largest catalog company with revenues of approximately $200 million. Rivertown was purchased by Dayton Hudson Corporation in 1998 and became Target Direct.
John Barrow is Chairman of Coolibar's Board of Directors and is currently the Company's President. Prior to Coolibar, Mr. Barrow was the Vice President of Marketing for techies.com, a web based recruiting service that grew from $1 to $40 million over 4 years. Previously, he was the co-founder of an IT education company, J3 Learning Corporation, that was acquired in 1996 by GartnerGroup, Inc., a NYSE public company. Earlier, Mr. Barrow worked for McKinsey & Co., Inc. on consulting assignments for multinational consumer products companies. Mr. Barrow, who was born in Australia, holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of New South Wales and an MBA degree from Harvard Business School.
Thies Kolln is an Associate Partner at AAVIN Venture Capital. Previously, Mr. Kolln was a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group in Chicago, Illinois, working on business strategy projects for clients in the consumer goods, retail, and technology industries. From 1996 through 1999, Mr. Kolln practiced corporate law at Kirkland & Ellis in Chicago, Illinois, representing venture capital and private equity funds. Mr. Kolln received a Juris Doctorate with honors from the University of Chicago in 1995 and a bachelor's degree summa cum laude from Dartmouth College in 1992.
Ron Leaf is Chief Investment Officer and a principal of LFE Capital, a venture fund focused on enterprises serving female consumers, particularly in the consumer products and health sectors. Prior to LFE, Mr. Leaf spent 11 years as the founder and manager of Wells Fargo Mezzanine Capital and four years in corporate development at Liberty Enterprises, a former Wells Fargo portfolio company. Mr. Leaf has a B.S. summa cum laude in economics from the University of Minnesota and an M.B.A. with distinction in finance and accounting from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
