Press Materials

Lisa Sharples
President, Allrecipes
Serving as president of Allrecipes.com since 2007, Lisa Sharples brings a wealth of marketing experience to her position. She has evolved the company to be a dynamic women’s social networking site, instigating the development of many new site features to enhance the user experience for food enthusiasts. Under her leadership, the company has averaged a 40 percent year-over-year growth rate in user traffic and a 50 percent rise in membership.

Prior to joining Allrecipes, Lisa held the position of senior vice president of marketing at Classmates.com, a division of United Online, where she led a sizeable team and the company’s strategy for all product development, marketing, creative design, customer retention, and customer service. Prior to Classmates.com, Lisa co-founded Garden.com in 1995, where she served as Chief Marketing & Merchandising Officer and a member of the Board of Directors for 6 years. Her other business experience includes overseeing ArtCarved, the flagship retail jewelry brand at American Achievement Corporation, from 2003 to 2005, and marketing positions with Silicon Graphics, Sun Microsystems, and Standish Mellon Asset Management.

Lisa holds a B.A. from Bowdoin College in biochemistry and photography, and received her MBA from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. When not in the office, she enjoys photography, gardening, and spending time with her family. Discover Lisa’s family cooking traditions here: http://allrecipes.com/Cook/10352989/Profile.aspx.

Amber Dunn
Vice President, Digital FEAST @ RDA
Amber heads the centralized digital ad sales team created in February 2009 for the Food & Entertaining affinity, called Digital FEAST (Food and Entertaining Advertising Sales Team) @ RDA. The team is responsible for digital ad sales, ad opportunities and account management for the entire Food & Entertaining affinity including Allrecipes.com, TasteofHome.com, and RachaelRaymag.com.

Amber is also creative force behind the recent major site innovations and upgrades at Allrecipes, a reflection of her extensive skill set in product management, creative design, competitive analysis, acquisition, retention, and early-stage strategic development earned as a veteran with more than a dozen years of experience in the Internet arena. Her proven track record in the social networking and subscription space has enhanced Allrecipes stature as a social networking site and served to further develop the to further its Web strategy with ad-based and subscription-based business models.

Prior to joining Allrecipes, Amber was senior director of marketing with Kinetix Living, an early-stage Internet startup, and WildTangent Inc., a casual, online games company, managing consumer marketing programs. Her earlier positions include serving as senior director of product management at Classmates Online, and senior product manager at Reunion.com. She also founded her own business, Onethird, a Web-based consultancy. Way back in the hey-day of Web 1.0, Amber was a founding member and vice president of Production/Marketing for CheckOut.com, a premiere content and e-commerce company launched by ex-Disney Online employees, where she managed all day-to-day site production, along with marketing and advertising strategies, new business development, and product development. She was also creative director for the Buena Vista Internet Group, a division of the Walt Disney Company. Amber began her career in New York as a pharmaceutical sales representative with Johnson and Johnson.

Amber holds a B.S. in marketing from Syracuse University. When not in the office, she happily spends time with her young family and loves baking monkey bread for her husband on Sunday mornings. You can discover more about Amber’s cooking interests here: http://allrecipes.com/Cook/10399640/Profile.aspx.

Esmée Williams
Vice President, Brand Marketing
Esmée is the corporate voice of Allrecipes home cooks, championing features that make everyday meal planning easier and more rewarding. Esmée brings more than a decade of experience in both brand strategy and new product development to her role at Allrecipes.

In addition to being tasked with helping to create Allrecipes cookbooks, Esmée works with partners and affiliated companies to develop customized marketing and promotional programs for the company. Prior to joining Allrecipes in 1999 Esmée led product development and marketing efforts for multiple brands of home productivity software at Sierra Online. Esmée also spent time at McCann-Erickson managing the communication strategies for the Washington State Lottery, earning both gold and silver EFFIE awards in 1996 for her work on the Lotto and Scratch product lines.

Esmée is an outdoor fanatic and can often be found running, hiking, playing softball or doing anything to take advantage of the partially sunny Seattle weather. She considers herself an average Allrecipes user—a busy working mom, primarily tasked with making the majority of the meals and looking for new, convenient meal options she can trust. Read Esmee’s blog about her cooking adventures as a busy mom: http://allrecipes.com/Cook/esmee/Profile.aspx.

Barbara Antonio
Vice President, Development
Barb has more than a decade of experience in the software and website development industry, much of which has been spent as a developer at Allrecipes. She currently heads the company’s sizeable Development Team, keeping an eye on data integrity and monitoring website performance, while managing the software engineers, QA engineers and HTML experts who help make the Allrecipes site look its best and “do its thing.” Barb honed her craft at Wrightway Computer Solutions, Gannett Media Technologies Int'l, and Rocky Mountain Internet before joining Allrecipes.

Before beginning her career in software development, Barb spent time in the fields of retail books and rock-and-roll cello, having earned a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Cincinnati. At Allrecipes, she’s continued to blend multiple interests, combining musical and literary pursuits with her interest in technology and a passion for cooking (and eating!). When not managing various Allrecipes tech projects, Barb can be found playing cello in the local community orchestra, working in her garden and cooking up a storm in her kitchen. Discover Barb’s latest cooking triumph by clicking here: http://allrecipes.com/Cook/1842436/Profile.aspx.

Rita Spangler
Vice President, Retention Marketing
Rita Spangler is a seasoned marketing executive in charge of the Allrecipes’ retention marketing program. In this role she is responsible for strategic direction and leadership of the retention team, including all email and newsletter programs, customer service, consumer market research, promotions, and member marketing programs. Rita spearheads customer segmentation for the Allrecipes’ user base and leads implementation of segment strategy across the company.

Before joining Allrecipes, Rita served as vice president of consumer marketing at Classmates.com where she managed all online and offline marketing and retention activities, including email marketing, onsite promotions, customer service, and market research. As senior director of marketing at Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro Toys & Games, she led the advertising, creative, public relations, market research, event marketing and customer service departments. She also directed marketing activities for key brands Magic TCG, Pokemon, Star Wars and MLB. At Paragon Trade Brands, a private label manufacturer of personal care products, Spangler managed relationships with suppliers and served as director of market research. Prior to that, she was senior marketing research manager for Weyerhauser personal care products division, as well as marketing manager for the company’s diversified businesses.

A Washington native, Rita holds a B.A. in business from Pacific Lutheran University. Her Scandinavian background makes cooking fish and scrumptious desserts her forte, but she recently expanded her repertoire to Mediterranean and Thai dishes--the spicier the better. When not cooking for her family, she loves spending time in her garden or on the beach. To find out Rita’s favorite ethnic dishes, click here: http://allrecipes.com/Cook/ritamargarita/Profile.aspx.

Scott Scazafavo
Vice President, Product Management
Scott is a seasoned product development and product management professional with more than 10 years of experience leveraging current and emerging web technologies to develop enterprise business solutions and compelling consumer-based web products. He has had proven success in leading teams focused on web product development, design, editorial and content management to deliver award-winning new media consumer and business solutions.

An advocate for the end-user, Scott delivers market leading social media solutions balancing fun and utility while providing a compelling platform for advertising partners to reach their audience in new ways. Scott and his team develop creative product solutions such as the Allrecipes Dinner Spinner, the successful iPhone app launched in December 2008, to fulfill evolving business needs and audience demand. Prior to joining Allrecipes, Scott was director of product management at Classmates Online Inc.

Besides being an avid home chef, Scott spends his free time anywhere from the garden to at the racetrack and is an electronic gadget fanatic. Visit him on the site at http://allrecipes.com/Cook/Scazafavo/Profile.aspx.

Bob O’Keefe
Vice President, Content
Bob currently heads up the design, editorial and site operations teams at Allrecipes.com. He has previously led creative teams at Classmates.com and Nordstrom.com, and before that spent 15 years in the fashion retail industry working for brands such as Nordstrom, Ann Taylor and The Limited.

When not pushing pixels around the screen, Bob is an avid barbecue fan, fulfilling the stereotype that men only like to cook when there’s danger involved. You can see his profile at http://allrecipes.com/Cook/10461319/Profile.aspx.