Carlyle Group

Rob's career has focused on building brands and consumer experiences across consumer products, software and services. In his last role before joining Wetpaint, Rob served as vice president, Global Beverage for Starbucks Coffee Company, where he was responsible for product innovation and product marketing of all hot and cold hand-crafted beverages served in Starbucks stores around the world, all of which comprised more than half of Starbucks global revenue. Prior to that, Rob served in roles vice president - Beverage, director - Espresso and director New Ventures for Starbucks' US business. Prior to Starbucks, Rob spent 5 years in marketing at RealNetworks, the pioneer in Internet audio and video, leading a variety of consumer software launches under the RealPlayer and RealJukebox names. Rob began his career at Procter & Gamble, where he spent 5 years delivering innovation in the health care and paper products categories. Rob holds an undergraduate degree in Economics from Harvard College and an MBA from Stanford University.

Ryan M. Schwarz is a Managing Director with the Carlyle Group, and is focused on U.S. venture and growth capital opportunities in the healthcare sector. Mr. Schwarz leads the healthcare investing practice in the U.S. Venture & Growth Capital Group with a particular focus on medical devices, medical technology and healthcare information technology. He is based in Washington, DC. Mr. Schwarz previously served as a Vice President in the healthcare group at Robertson Stephens & Co. and as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley & Co. Inc. Mr. Schwarz is on the Board of Directors of AcuFocus, Inc., Endius, Inc., Fairchild Imaging, Inc., Liposonix, Inc., NeoVista, Inc., Primary Health, Inc., Proteus Biomedical, Inc. and Transport Pharmaceuticals, Inc. He was formerly a Director of ConnectiCare Holdings, Inc. (sold to Health Insurance Plan of Greater New York), and Heritage Health Systems, Inc. (sold to Universal American Financial Corp.).