Leadership Team

Elie Seidman -- Co-Founder and CEO

Elie is the CEO of Oyster Hotel Reviews and one of its co-founders.

Elie has been an entrepreneur nearly since graduating from college in 1997. After spending a year working for Trilogy in Austin, Texas (where he and Ajay Agarwal of Bain Capital Ventures first met), Elie moved back to the East Coast and was involved in the founding of his first company, Wired Business, a telecom services company funded by Norwest Venture Partners. In the fall of 2000, Elie founded Epana and, as its president and CEO, grew the company to more than 400 employees between 2002 and the end of 2005. Elie departed Epana in the spring of 2006 and spent a year as a venture partner at Lime Rock Partners, a private equity fund based in Westport, Conn.

Elie resides in New York. He received his B.S.E. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Ariel Charytan -- Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer

As Chief Creative Officer at Oyster Hotel Reviews, Ariel conceives feature ideas and strategy for the company.

Ariel has been an entrepreneur nearly since graduating from college. Prior to co-founding Oyster Hotel Reviews, Ariel was COO and co-founder of Epana, a company he built with Elie Seidman to more than 400 employees between 2000 until his departure in 2008.

Ariel lives in New York with his wife and daughter. He received his bachelor's degree, summa cum laude, in psychology.

Eytan Seidman -- Co-Founder and Vice President of Product

As vice president of product at Oyster Hotel Reviews, Eytan leads product management, planning, design, and usability of the Oyster.com site.

Prior to Oyster Hotel Reviews, Eytan was a principal program manager lead on Microsoft's Live Search team (now Bing.com), a position he held for four and a half years. This team was responsible for the vision, planning, and specifications that power the web search software for Live Search. This includes all aspects of Live's core ranking and relevance measurement. Earlier in his career at Microsoft, Eytan worked as a program manager on the Microsoft CRM team, driving the program management of functionality related to the core user experience and integration with back-office applications.

Eytan received degrees in computer science and history from the University of Pennsylvania.

Scott Medintz -- Executive Editor

Scott has been a working journalist for more than 15 years. His writing has appeared in the New York Observer, the New York Sun, the New York Times, NextBook, and the Forward. He spent eight years at Money magazine, six as a senior editor, where (among other roles) he oversaw the magazine's consumer-service travel coverage. More recently, he spent two years working for Mansueto Ventures, the publisher of Inc. and Fast Company magazines.

Scott lives in Brooklyn with his wife and three children. He received a B.A. in English literature from the University of Michigan and an M.A. in English and American Literature from New York University.

Ellen Stark -- Managing Editor

Ellen spent 18 years at Time Inc.’s Money magazine, most recently as executive editor. At Money, she produced dozens of cover stories and special reports, including two National Magazine Award finalists for personal service, and helped guide the magazine’s travel and spending coverage. She has been a frequent guest on television news programs, including the Today Show, Good Morning America, CNN, and MSNBC. Her early journalism experience includes stints at Psychology Today and The Washington Monthly.

Ellen received a B.A. in American History from Brown University and an M.S. in Journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. An amateur singer, she has been a member of the New Amsterdam Singers since 1990. She lives in New York City.

Will Begeny -- Senior Editor

Will is both an editor and reporter for Oyster Hotel Reviews. A journalism outsider with investigative training alongside the NYPD, he has worked to develop our unique, covert reviewing process. He's a veteran traveler with passport stamps from Serbia to Laos to Guatemala. He enjoys creative writing, home carpentry, experimental artwork, and exotic cuisine (having sampled more than a reasonable number of delectable insects over the years).

Will graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.A. in English literature.

Adrian Leben -- VP of Strategic Partnerships

Adrian Leben is Oyster’s VP of Strategic Partnerships at Oyster.

A marketing and sales professional, Adrian has a wealth of experience in the travel industry and has previously worked extensively in Europe, Asia and Australia.

Adrian spent eight years working for British Airways in a variety of roles in marketing management, sales and business development. He subsequently joined Galileo, the world’s leading airline-reservation-systems company and helped develop their European businesses. At Nyman and Schultz (now American Express) in Sweden, Adrian developed their hotel booking programs before moving to Australia to join Traveland, a leading Australian travel agency, where he served as Commercial Director. Prior to coming onboard at Oyster, Adrian was the Partnership Director for Fastcheck, a Swedish online Travel publisher that publishes over 400 travel guides in 27 languages for over 120 travel suppliers around the world.

Adrian holds a bachelor's honors degree in law and in his spare time enjoys flying light aircraft, photography and tennis.

Karen Vander -- Vice President of Operations

As vice president of operations at Oyster Hotel Reviews, Karen manages all logistics, operations and data research.

Karen has worked with Elie and Ariel since the fall of 2003. She was most recently the vice president of operations at Epana, where she was responsible for running operations. Prior to that, Karen was the vice president of operations at Zim Shipping and Med Shipping, managing worldwide container logistics and intermodal transportation.

Karen is married with two kids and lives in New Jersey. She received a B.S.E. in industrial engineering from the Israel Institute of Technology (the Technion).

Rob Paladino -- Executive Vice President and Chief Traveler

As chief traveler and executive vice president of Oyster Hotel Reviews, Rob leads our business development and marketing efforts. He has flown more than 5 million lifetime miles and stayed in more hotels than he can remember. He's also our principal customer advocate.

From 2005 to 2008, Rob worked with Elie, Ariel and Karen as executive vice president at Epana and leader of Epana's Kare Distribution division, a direct-to-retail distributor and marketer of consumer goods. He was formerly the CEO of InZone Brands, makers of a popular children's beverage, and the president, CEO, and founder of Distribution Partners Limited, a Southeastern U.S. construction supply business. As a 15-year corporate executive, Rob worked with General Foods and then PepsiCo in various sales, marketing, and general management capacities. Most notably he was a vice president at Pepsi, leading Pepsi's Southern California business unit, before he was recruited to Coors Brewing Company as vice president of retail trade sales in Golden, Colo.

Rob holds a degree in business administration from West Virginia University and studied in the executive development program at Columbia University. He is a multiengine, instrument-rated private pilot and often flies his Twin Cessna to remote Caribbean islands and U.S. destinations.