TEAM
James K. Devericks
Founder/Chairman
Through the strategic partnerships that he has developed throughout the years, in both the music/entertainment and technology industries, Mr. Devericks has since 2002 to work at the forefront of the mobile revolution through the founding of M3X Media, Inc. As the Founder/Chairman of M3X Media, Inc., Mr. Devericks oversees the various divisions of the company to ensure that the elements are fully integrated and operate complementary to each other. Mr. Devericks has continuously positioned himself within the progressive digital media delivery business with an emphasis on multimedia ingestion and content distribution innovation. Jim Devericks was the architect and mastermind behind the M3X technologies that allow for the M3X multi-platform content distribution system. Jim Devericks has demonstrated the ability to be on both the forefront of digital media progression and also has the ability to successfully gather a series of state of the art compression and ingestion technologies and solutions which is the catalyst for the next level of platform agnostic delivery of media throughout various hardware platforms and hand held devices. Mr. Devericks has enjoyed the success and credit for architecting one of the first digital record labels that was comprised of industry veterans and top tier development contributors earlier in his career.
Jim Devericks has always been involved in the entertainment industry. In the mid ‘80s to early ‘90s, Jim established and simultaneously owned and operated two successful limousine companies that catered to the music & movie industry: Royal Coach Limousine (Cleveland, OH) and Executive and Celebrity Services (Washington DC Metroplex). It was during the years of operating the limousine companies that he became acquainted with many people from the music and entertainment world.
In the process of managing several South Florida music artists through his privately owned artist management company and record label earlier in his career, Jim solidified the association of industry veterans such as veteran Julian Shapiro (Sr. VP Sales & Mktg. SONY), Jeff Shane (VP Capitol Records) and Nick Maria (VP Sales & Mktg. Atlantic) among numerous others. Jim’s avid interest in the Internet, coupled with his various music and entertainment industry associations, gave him the vision in 2002 of integrating the various revenue streams existing in the music industry, but heretofore isolated from one another.
Jim acquired a technical staff with whom he developed the first bi-directional web portal technologies for the music & entertainment industry. In 2003, Jim had mapped out the strategy and began to enlist the strategic partners to build this incredible infrastructure. In early 2004, Mr. Devericks made the acquaintance of renowned former Motorola engineer, Robert K. Lockhart, whose addition to the strategic partners gave Devericks the final piece to make his vision a reality. Mr. Devericks applies a proven approach to his senior management as many of the senior management staff come from their own start-ups and successful ventures in both entertainment and Technology endeavors. Mr. Devericks reputation and integrity has allowed a strong board of advisors and top shelf industry consultation from the industry’s best. Under Mr. Deverick’s direction, M3X has been able to implement and go to market with several strategic acquisitions/mergers and progressive release schedules allowing for product placement within all major carriers and icon companies such as Verizon/Apple/T-Mobile.
Jim Hughes
Interim CEO / Sr. Technology Consultant
Combining a strong technology base with extensive global executive experience for corporate and entrepreneurial ventures.
For well over 20 years, Mr. Hughes has combined a technology background with strong engineering leadership, finance, business development and overall global business expertise in corporate and entrepreneurial environments. As a key technology professional, he proudly designed and managed product lines generating over 5 billion dollars of revenue. James has an extensive background in hardware and software for wireless devices and integrated circuits. James was successful in implementing new architectures and then monetizing them in new functional business lines.
Mr. Hughes joined Freescale, a leader in semi conductor products, as a company principal. He was an active participant in the successful breakout IPO from Motorola. As a company principal, his finance and international business expertise as well as his technical experience was invaluable throughout the IPO process. Following the IPO, Mr. Hughes worked closely with the engineering teams to drive the implementation of products and programs leading to positive cash flow.
Representing Motorola for over 12 years, Mr. Hughes has held numerous senior management positions and led global technology teams ensuring successful project completion. He had management responsibilities: profits and loss, capital budgeting, scheduling, negotiation, integrated hardware and software teams, improved employee motivation, represented company to customers. Prior to Motorola, Mr. Hughes was a key participant in numerous technology-based entrepreneurial ventures. Reporting directly to the CEO, Mr. Hughes combined his technology background with his business development and marketing skills to work with selected global customers.
Mr. Hughes holds a B.S. in electrical engineering from Pennsylvania State University. He received an MBA in both finance and international business from University of Miami, graduating with honors.
Julian Shapiro
President / COO
Mr. Shapiro has assumed his current position with M3X Media, Inc. after serving as Head of Marketing and Sales for the Company since its inception. As President/COO, he continues to execute these earlier responsibilities while working to build out the Company’s infrastructure and manage that infrastructure as it grows and develops. In addition, he oversees the acquisition of entertainment properties and their integration into the mobile technology platforms of M3X. And, he works closely with the technology Divisions to develop and integrate content offerings as part of the GrüvMe web portal developed by the Company.
Mr. Shapiro has been involved in the entertainment industries for most of his professional life, principally in various management capacities. For more than a decade prior to his association with Jim Devericks, he was the managing co-owner of an artist management/media/consulting firm with day-to-day responsibilities for career development of individual music artists. In addition, he served as an advisor for several media companies. From 1979-1992, Mr. Shapiro was employed by SONY Music, ultimately serving as Vice President, Marketing, SONY Music International. In that capacity, he was responsible for the international marketing and career development of all artists signed to the Columbia, Epic, and Associated labels.
Before that, Mr. Shapiro served in a number of capacities of increasing responsibility. As Director of Press and Public Relations and then Director of Media Relations, he consolidated the media and media related activities of SONY Music International, and established a unified department at the Company’s worldwide headquarters. In these positions, he also served as chief speech writer for the president of SONY Music International. Then, as Director of Marketing for the Columbia label of SONY Music International, Mr. Shapiro worked directly with some of the biggest stars in contemporary music, including Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Willie Nelson, Earth Wind & Fire, and Julio Iglesias, guiding the international development of their music careers.
From 1977-1979, Mr. Shapiro served as a reporter and then as East Coast Editor for Cash Box Magazine, a leading weekly trade magazine serving the music industry. Julian Shapiro holds a B.A. in Political Science from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He received an MBA in Marketing from Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey.
Marc L. Levinson, CPA, MBA, RIA
Interim CFO
Most recently, Mr. Levinson has been providing CFO and controllership consulting services for various retail, healthcare, entrepreneurial offshore and domestic internet development stage enterprises and subsequent IPO registration. In addition to financial, federal and state tax compliance and reporting, this has included the preparation of cash flow projections, sensitivity analysis and annual budgeting. He was responsible for treasury and risk management operations maximizing returns on invested capital and minimizing costs on insurance coverage; payroll and personnel together with employee benefits including health insurance and 40k plan administration, DOL compliance and reporting. Other employee benefit plans he was responsible for included non-qualified and incentive stock option plans.
As Director of Finance at Lexicon Corporation, a NASDAQ listed high-tech company with subsidiaries in defense electronics systems, manufacturing, software acquisition and development, sales and licensing, he was responsible for all financial reporting, accounting, budgeting, capital budgeting, cash management, employee benefit programs, risk management and 10-Q and 10-K SEC reporting. As Inspection of Elections for the annual shareholder meetings, he prepared the annual proxy statements and reported on the election results. Here he was a key participant in capital raises including public unit offerings consisting of convertible preferred shares, common shares and detachable warrants, and private research and development limited partnerships.
He joined The Pillsbury Company, a Fortune 100 pubic company, after gaining his public accounting experience with Deloitte & Touche. Here he travelled nationally and performed financial and operational audits emphasizing additions to and improvements in internal accounting controls and efficiencies for optimization of operational controls. He next joined DWG Corporation, a publicly held industrial conglomerate with operations in natural resources, steel, manufacturing and distribution, travelling up to 50%. He worked with field and headquarters personnel and was responsible for budgeting, financial operations, consolidation accounting, internal controls, and 10-K and 10-Q SEC reporting. His liaisons with external auditors helped minimize their annual audit and tax fees. He monitored and reported on investments held by seven public companies whose aggregate cost exceeded $500 million and assured compliance with the Investment Company Act of 1940.
Mr. Levinson was awarded B.S. degrees in finance and accounting from Drexel University. He earned his MBA in finance from the University of Miami. He is licensed in the state of Florida as a Certified Public Accountant and Registered Investment Advisor
Robert K. (Rob) Lockhart
Chief Technology Officer
Moorestown, NJ, born and raised, Rob Lockhart’s musical background started in grade school bands playing brass and watching American Bandstand and progressed through the times of Elvis, Maynard, Beatles, Who, and Stones on shows like Ed Sullivan which moved Rob from the brasses (e.g., cornet, flugelhorn, valve trumbone) to a garage band fledgling bass player. He spent more time with building his amps than he did concentrating on his bass licks. So off to Purdue Rob went to study engineering and, of course, play in the Purdue band … a gig that took him to the Rose Bowl, Radio City, the Big House, the Horseshoe, and a host of other venues including the Indy 500. After graduating from Purdue with a BSEE, Rob went to work in the Chicagoland area for Andrew Corp, then moved to Motorola in South Florida working his way up from an engineer to a director, all the while keeping his Systek Labs consulting business up and running so he could continue to play with music, electronics, and biofeedback whilst slowly working into the internet at a time when it wasn’t much more than DARPANet.
Rob has over 20 years’ of experience in the wireless data telecommunications industry with Motorola, in both product design, development, and management in one- and two-way paging systems and global standards development in such diverse arenas as Infrared, third generation mobile phone, WAP, Bluetooth, and CALEA (now Homeland Security) communications.
Rob began his career as an analog and digital design and development engineer and worked up through managing engineering efforts with P/L control for global paging systems activities. The products ranged from stand-alone automatic messaging software, through 100 pager manual encoders, up to million-plus subscriber national and two-way messaging systems.
An internationally recognized expert in telecommunications spectrum usage and planning, and in wireless standards and protocols, Rob is one of the foremost authorities in his field. Well respected and sought after, Rob’s knowledge includes information on Spectrum, Regulatory, and Standards work with respect to WWAN, WLAN/PAN, 3GPP, WAP (now OMA), IrDA, Federated Identity, and Homeland Security technologies and currently holds the chair position of the IrDA’s Archtecture Council
Rob chaired the Bluetooth regulatory working group, linked to the World Customs Organization and many national regulatory agencies. This group’s ongoing charter is to homologate the 2.4 GHz regulatory environment with respect to spectrum, type acceptance/approval, mutual recognition, customs and tariffs, and the like.
A well respected scientist, Rob is a multiple patent holder of technologies starting with the first wireless data system patent up through Function Coding via Digital Addresses in a Two-Way System, Paging Message Encryption, Data Handler for Handling Data Having Multiple Data Formats, Method and Apparatus for Efficient Roaming Among Communication System.
Ainsworth J. Spence Jr.
Vice President
Mr. Spence has served as the Project Manager and Lead Designer for the past 6 years overseeing design, marketing, promotion, delivery and quality of programs, products and services. Mr. Spence enjoys leading team members on various web & product design projects. He develops and maintains activities for M3X Media’s corporate identity and internet advertising presence. Mr. Spence develops programs, products and services to ensure consistent branding and a strong marketing presence.
A co-inventor and graphics design specialist of M3X Media, with his technical knowledge and expertise and strong conceptual skills allow him to give shape to abstract concepts. Bridging the gap between development and corporate goals, he works directly with both marketing and sales departments to produce branding and language for reproduction in print and electronic distribution. Ainsworth works directly in the production of technology products and preparation of corporate documents.
A founding member the Omicron Gamma Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. and actively involved in all aspects of Florida Atlantic University student government, he severed numerous roles from cabinet assistant all the way up to the President of SGA. Receiving the Honor of Best SGA in 1999 from Florida Leaders Magazine, he played instrumental role in reforming both the schools news paper, radio station (WOWL). Always an advocate for free speech and open communication, he championed the growth of the FAU TV Station for students on and off campus and help to pass the legislation that created the entity. Mr. Spence began a technical consulting career 6 years prior to joining M3X Media. His areas of design expertise include CSS, PHP, HTML, JavaScript, Quark XPress, In Design, 6.0, Adobe PhotoShop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Acrobat, Dreamweaver and Flash.
Jay F. Salts III.
Senior Project Manager
Since Mr. Salts joined M3X Media, Inc. he has been responsible for the programming responsibilities, development and daily maintenance of the M3X content distribution platform for streaming “LIVE” Television content to multiple devices and carriers. He is also responsible for the company’s mobile content and cable television operations. Mr. Salts has been a Beta Tester and programmer for Apple for over the last 10 years and his programming expertise in the following areas makes him a highly sought after programmer and software developer; PHP, ASP, Flash, Java, MySql, C++, Objective C, Cocoa, Dot.Net Framework. Mr. Salts has also developed/beta tested, certain key audio application enhancements/plugins for Digidesign, Motu, Apple’s Logic Studio (EQ spectral analyst, Audio Compression/Expansion Algorithms, Convolution Reverb Room analytics.
It was through Mr. Salt’s previous company which he owned and operated “Mirror Image Entertainment” that he had direct daily responsibilities for video production, produced edited music videos, infomercials, documentaries and Commercials. He has extensive software knowledge in Final Cut, Avid, Motion, 3d Studio Max, Cinema 4D. Mr. Salts Produced Jessica Simpson’s SpeedFit Workout Video, and additional work with Usher, also produced What’s New Today for TLC, Travel Channel and Discovery Channel.
Working with many companies and artists such as Disney, General Motors, BMW, Kenworth, Yamaha, Nile Rodgers and De La Soul have been beneficial to both Mr. Salts and the Companies alike. Mr. Salts has created and produced several commercial training videos for Kenworth Trucking Company over the past 10 years.
Producing music for over 15 years, he has made a positive impact on the dance scene, receiving favorable magazine reviews in Billboard, URB, Keyboard, Mixer, BPM, and D’VOX. His music can be heard on dance floors around the world and is regularly featured on Video Games such as PlayStation 2, Xbox and Nintendo. Mr. Salts has enjoyed working with companies like VisioSonic, Rock Star Games and Activision. His work has been seen on MTV’s Real World and has been featured in many dance music compilations with some of the hottest producers and Platinum recording artists Nile Rodgers, Jim Jonsin, Christopher Lawrence, D.J. Icee, Keoki and Baby Ann to mention a few.
Edu: Grad Belmont College 1991
Masters Audio Engineering / Audio Electronics
New Music Addition: New album released October 31, 2009 out now on iTunes and Rhapsody. PRIZM Morphine Project. Recently Headlined Moonfest in West Palm Beach over 250,000 attended.
Chey Barnes
Communications Director
Chey Barnes serves as Communications Director; she comes to the company with years of experience in the Telecom Industry. She served as Chief Operations Officer of a South Florida facilities based Competitive Local Exchange Carrier and Long Distance Provider; where she oversaw operational support systems i.e.; billing, order management, provisioning and customer service. There she supervised the activities and efforts of 19 employees and over 200 agent’s worldwide and built voice routes linking six different Latin American Countries to carry wholesale and retail traffic for U.S. Carriers. She has managed direct telephone sales forces to the small business market and has worked as a business development marketing consultant to Bellsouth. In 1995 Ms. Barnes founded and served as CEO of a large wholesale Internet Service Provider GoCom. Ms. Barnes has obtained extensive training and knowledge in the area of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). In 2002 she founded NowTel VoIP, a Voice over IP Communications Company providing residential phone service to the South Florida high rise condominium market and wholesale routes to Central and South America. Her extensive experience in Internet connectivity and the Telecommunications industry provides depth to the company that will allow M3X Media to grow very rapidly.
Steve Chien
Technology Consultant
Advisor to Management Team
Steve Chien is the executive-level consultant of M3X Media. Steve brings over 15 years of experience in the software industry to identify innovative technologies to support the research and development and to guide the development life-cycle methodologies.
Steve was previously the Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Engineering and Service Operation at Moka LLC, a technology company which developed SMS realtime translation solutions in both US and China. Steve traveled busily between US and China and managed the application and system development, QA, and service operations across the continents. Prior to joining Moka LLC, Steve served as the Chief Architect of WisageTech, an innovative technology company which developed enterprise-level project and portfolio management applications for companies around the world such as Lockheed Martin, China Mobile, Bank of Montreal, and Amway. Steve led the research and development team and focused on designing and developing the distributed application architecture, single sign-on security, performance optimization, and cross database solutions. Steve was the Senior Development Manager in Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the second biggest securities and futures exchange in Asia, before joining WisageTech. Steve took the leading role of directing the technologies and managed the development process of the middleware division of the Clearing unit. Prior to Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Steve was the Director of Platform Technology of InterWorld Corp., a leading eCommerce platform company which provided solutions to enterprises such as Disney, Marks & Spencer, American Eagle, Ann Taylor, Brooks Brother, OKI Data, IKON Office Solutions, and Global Sources. Steve was leading the platform team on architecting and developing highly-parellel application server, load balancer, security, and messaging framework across different operating system and database platforms.
Steve held the Computer Science master degree in New York University and Power Mechanical Engineering bachelor degree in Tsinghua University in Taiwan.
Nick Maria
National Sales Director
Nick built a progressive career path with the top record labels (United Artists’ Liberty Records, WEA Distribution and Atlantic Records), advancing to senior executive positions involving complete oversight of sales and marketing activities. He was instrumental in generating $3 billion+ in gross sales over the span of 19 years.
A successful marketing and sales executive with a proven history of accomplishment in the recorded music industry, Mr. Maria is adapt in applying clear communication, leadership and organizational skills in a corporate management system. He planned and launched campaigns targeted at national retail chains and major distributors. Conceived and implemented a broad spectrum of contests, in-store events and relationships with senior executives of leading record retailers. Conducted extensive market research and promotional campaigns, including radio, TV and print advertising. Nick developed long-term and loyal analysis, and developed pricing strategies. He worked in conjunction with radio stations to produce publicity programs.
Mr. Maria’s professional experience is progressive and as diversified as strategic planning, marketing, administration, training and supervision, with full P&L responsibility. He directed project teams and internal staffs, marshaling manpower and financial resources. Instructed staff members on effective methods of servicing commercial clients and retail consumers. He led all aspects of day-to-day operations, including purchasing, inventory, vendor negotiations, financial controls, and creation of policies and procedures.
Working with such artists as Frank Sinatra, The Doors, Judy Collins, Jethro Tull, Fleetwood Mac, Aretha Franklin, Cream, and the Bee Gees. Mr. Maria established a reputation as a pointman for the marketing and launch of such artists as Yes, Genesis, Led Zepplin, The Rolling Stones, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Roberta Flack, Crosby Stills and Nash, Bette Midler, Tori Amos, Tracy Lawrence and The Three Tenors. Additionally he spearheaded marketing and sales efforts for a variety of new acts, including Hootie & The Blowfish, Stone Temple Pilots, The Three Tenors, Inner Circle and Confederate Railroad.
Mr. Maria holds a B.S. Degree in the Industrial Arts Program in Newark State College Union, NJ.
Eric Boyd
Executive Vice-President/President Destroy Entertainment
Eric Boyd is a visionary in branding and business development with a successful background in sales and marketing. Known for his ability to encompass youth-driven lifestyle via a successful history in brand management. Excellent at establishing strategic partnerships while implementing progressive global distribution models. Extensive experience in entrepreneurial start-ups and operational development, merging small business with corporate culture. Consistent achievement of objectives when launching innovative brands associated with media, apparel, producers or personalities.
Career Highlights:
- Structured a multi-year marketing and distribution joint venture with Warner Music Group (WMG).
- Established international joint ventures encompassing physical and new media business models with premier Cellular, DVD, broadcast companies Orange T-Mobile, Voda Phone and in the Asia Pacific and Europe.
- Created and packaged Dead Car Walking, a TV show sold to MTV2.
- Represented by RLR Associates for literary development of “Cash from Chaos”, a book to be released in 20O9, published by Authors for Wharton School of Business (FTP Press).
- Successfully launched flagship digital content initiatives with industry leaders Sprint, Helio, Verizon, Jamster, MTV and Go TV.
- Managed the distribution of physical and digital media to mainstream and mass retailers Wal-Mart, Transworld, Best Buy and Amazon.com.
- Spent 6 years at the worlds biggest action sports studio VAS Entertainment as head of International Sales and Business Development.
- Created and established a wholly-owned subsidiary media label that achieved top Billboard chart success for signed producers achieving several million in additional sales and profit — Rise Above Entertainment, a youth entertainment label with exposure to leading consumer and industry media such as Spike TV, MTV2, The New York Times, Maxim, Stuff, ABC and Transwold Skateboarding.
- Managed several hundred producer and content supplier relationships while achieving phenomenal growth in managed areas. Signed and launched prominent youth icons and top-tier action sports companies to media deals for mainstream distribution (i.e. Bam Margera, North Face, Quiksilver, Globe, Warren Miller, Gotcha, Studio 411 and Transworld Publishing)
- Orchestrated profitable ancillary business models that included VOD and stock footage sales to companies like In Demand, Starz, Dish Network and Fox.
- Devised strategic distribution plans with international distribution partners resulting in extensive growth, Implemented sub-licensing deals for producers resulting in expanded merchandising endeavors for Puma, Activision and Zenetti Motor Sports.


