The Luxury of Wellness
THE LUXURY OF WELLNESS SERIES
Date: Wednesday, July 18th 2007
Time: 6.00 - 8.00 pm
Location: Forty-One Madison, The New York Merchandise Mart(Between 25th and 26th streets), Level A Meeting Room
Please be sure to bring valid photo ID for building security.
In the event that your plans change, we’d be most appreciative of the courtesy of a cancellation.
Generously hosted by Ms. Carole Dixon, Director, The New York Merchandise Mart
With special thanks to Flagship Global Healthcare and Spa Finder, Inc.
Opening Keynote Speaker:
Fred Nazem, Chairman of the Board, CEO and Co-Founder, Flagship Global Healthcare
Panelists:
Michelle Barge, RYT, Yoga Alliance of America; Wellness Marketing Consultant
Susie Ellis, President, Spa Finder, Inc.
Oz Garcia PhD, Internationally Renowned Nutritional Counselor, Life Extension Specialist,
and Best Selling Author
Robert R. Shullman, Senior Vice President, Monroe Mendelsohn Research
The juggernaut of boomers - 76 million individuals - is approaching a very 'non-retiring' retirement. They have achieved and account for a level of affluence without precedent in U.S history.
Each year for the next 18 years 3.8 million boomers will cross the 'age 60 divide.' They are passionately interested in experiencing or owning the very best of the best. Hence, the rise of 'connoisseurship,' the hunger to know what constitutes the 'best of the best', the obsession with VALUE and seeing as important the ability to tell the story of their unique EXPERIENCES.
AND the powerful realization as never before that THE CLOCK IS TICKING.
Living healthy, living well, living intelligently, living longer and enjoying the fruits of their hard-earned labors are top priorities.
The implications for luxury marketers in every segment of the luxury arena are staggering.
Hoteliers are redefining ‘hotel.’ Spas are redefining ‘spa.’ Retailers of every stripe are redefining ‘retail.’ Out-of-the-box collaborations and partnerships between like-minded luxury brands are approaching the most sophisticated consumers with offers, products, services that 'surprise and delight' and go well beyond 'the same old same old.'
Please join us for an exploration - the first of a series - of the impact of this important issue: The Luxury of Wellness.
After "The Luxury of Time" - "The Luxury of Wellness" may be the single most powerful driver in shaping the buying habits of the best, brightest and most affluent boomers and a new platform for luxury marketers to win greater revenues and share of wallet by re-thinking and re-imagineering the more traditional definitions of product, service and building "stickier" relationships with top customers.
ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS
FRED F. NAZEM
Fred Nazem is an entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and philanthropist.
In the late 1970s he founded Nazem and Company, which has managed seven private venture capital funds and a joint venture, the Transatlantic Venture Fund in partnership with Banque National de Paris. Over the past four decades he has started, financed or guided more than three hundred cutting edge enterprises that have defined new fields in high technology and healthcare. Some of these companies have become multi-billion dollar enterprises. The most recent venture Mr. Nazem has founded is Flagship Global Healthcare, where he is Chairman and CEO. Flagship is a membership-based healthcare delivery system that provides its members with priority access to renowned physician specialists globally.
Mr. Nazem is also known for his work as a turnaround specialist. As Chairman of Oxford Health Plans, he led the reorganization and successful turnaround of the company when it experienced operational and financial difficulties in 1997. Oxford was sold to United Health Group in 2004 for $5 billion. Mr. Nazem also led the turnaround of one of ’s most prominent family fortunes, taking it from near bankruptcy to being highly ranked on the Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest people in the world. He has been managing private wealth for three decades and currently is the Managing Partner of Hedgeworth Capital, a private hedge fund he founded in 2003.
Mr. Nazem devotes much of his time and attention to important philanthropic concerns as well. Through the Nazem Family Foundation he has supported many civic, educational and healthcare-related causes. He currently serves on the Science and Technology Advisory Board of Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. He is a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts and the Economic Club of New York. He is a recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, awarded to American citizens of diverse origins for their outstanding contributions to the United States.
Mr. Nazem received a B.S. degree in biochemistry from Ohio State University, an M.S. in physical chemistry from University of Cincinnati and an MBA in finance from Columbia University. He has also done doctoral work in nuclear physics at Washington University. He worked as a chemist at Keebler and Company, and Matheson Coleman and Bell before he headed to Wall Street. Mr. Nazem was a securities analyst and Assistant Vice President at Irving Trust Company (now Bank of New York) for many years before founding his own venture capital firm.
Mr. Nazem lives in New York City with his wife, Susie Gharib, anchor for Nightly Business Report on PBS-TV. His son, Alexi, is a student at Yale University’s School of Medicine, and his daughter, Taraneh, is also a medical student at Mount Sinai Medical School.
MICHELLE BARGE
Michelle has been practicing yoga since 1996 following a life dedicated to classical ballet. She teaches an integrated Vinyasa flow practice focused on building core strength. Her style fuses her training in traditional yoga styles - Hatha, Iyengar and Ashtanga - with a dance and Pilates training combined with a deep knowledge of eastern philosophy and meditation. She has trained in some of the top yoga studios in New York City and continues to train under some of the leaders in the field: Dharma Mittra, Paula Tursi, Schuyler Grant of Kula Yoga Project, and Tao Porchon-Lynch. She is a graduate of Sadie Nardini's Core Strength Vinyasa Flow program and a 200-hour level RYT through the Yoga Alliance of America. Michelle also has a deep knowledge of Ayurvedic holistic health philosophy and incorporates it into her practice. Michelle’s commitment to wellness also extends to her charity work where she is Board President of Concrete Safari - a Harlem-based, non-profit organization dedicated to bringing the joy of fitness and healthy eating habits to the children of the New York Public School System through personal training, nutritional counseling, and outdoor adventures. Michelle also has over 10 years of marketing, branding and public relations experience having worked at some of the top agencies in the city. Michelle has a BA in history and French and a Certification in Fine Arts Appraisal from New York University. Michelle’s goal is to live a mindful life while helping others to achieve the same.
SUSIE ELLIS
As president of Spa Finder, Inc., Susie Ellis leads the world’s most prominent spa marketing, media, and research company – connecting the largest global network of spas to millions of spa consumers worldwide.
Author of the popular "Ask Susie" column in Luxury Spa Finder Magazine, "Susie's Blog" on Spafinder.com, and the Spa Finder Insider industry e-newsletter, Ellis is recognized worldwide as the leading authority on the spa industry, the evolving spa consumer, and spa-related health, wellness, beauty, fitness and lifestyle trends. She also leads the company’s charitable and community-facing ventures, including Spa Finder's initiative to raise awareness of, and help prevent, melanoma skin cancer.
Susie began her career in spa at the Golden Door (California), where she helped build one of the world’s most influential spa programs, and later became the first spa director of the Greenhouse Spa at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida. She has also served on the California Governor's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, chaired by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Susie is a frequent speaker at industry events around the world, and her spa industry insight has been featured in The New York Times, USA Today, Time Magazine, The Daily Telegraph, Newsweek and in other well known media. She holds a MBA from UCLA.
OZ GARCIA
Oz Garcia, Ph.D., a highly regarded nutritional counselor and life extension specialist, is also the best selling author of The Balance and Look and Feel Fabulous Forever (ReganBooks/HarperCollins). Oz was twice voted best nutritionist by New York Magazine and is frequently consulted by some of the most respected names in medicine for his up-to-the-minute views on nutrition and its role on human health.
Dubbed the "Nutritionist to the Stars," Oz has worked with some of the highest-ranking Fortune 500 CEOs and many of film and fashion's elite A-list. Featured in publications like Vogue, Self, Elle, Travel and Leisure, W, Allure, People Magazine, New York Magazine, The New York Times, and Sports Illustrated, he has also made numerous television appearances on 20/20, 48 Hours, The View, and VH1 Rock Bodies, and a variety of news segments on ABC, NBC, CBS, and cable.
Oz is also the head of health and nutritional services for Equinox Fitness Clubs worldwide, consultant to the East Coast Alliance of Trainers (where he has trained and worked with more than 10,000 trainers over the past 10 years), Nutrophy Inc, and the world renowned Life Extension Foundation.
ROBERT R. SHULLMAN
Bob Shullman is a Senior Vice President of Monroe Mendelsohn Research. In this capacity, his duties include leading the firm’s Custom Media Research business, directing PReSS, one of MMR's syndicated research services, as well as directing The Mendelsohn Affluent Omnibus Survey.
Mr. Shullman has more than 35 years of practical business experience in executive management, marketing research, demographics, and planning roles. Prior to joining Mendelsohn, he held senior leadership positions with several leading independent marketing research firms, as well as with the Stanford Research Institute, and at the American Express Company and its affiliates.
He has spoken extensively on marketing and business topics in the and abroad. He holds a BA from Georgetown University in American History and an MBA in marketing from NYU's Stern School of Business.