About STACK Media

STACK Media is the nation’s leading producer and distributor of sports performance, training and lifestyle content for high school athletes and high school sports community. Founded by Nick Palazzo and Chad Zimmerman, two former collegiate football athletes, STACK has the singular goal of improving the lives of athletes by providing safe and effective advice on how to properly boost performance without the use of steroids or other illegal performance enhancing drugs.

The name STACK stands for the complete “stack” of information an athlete needs to be more successful in all aspects of life. Key components are STACK’s information, instruction and advice on training and nutrition, which help athletes improve their physical being and performance. But STACK also addresses important life skills and teaches lessons in areas such as team building, goal setting, mental preparation and overcoming adversity. Finally, a very important part of STACK’s content mix is material related to college selection and the recruiting process, including tips and advice on character building, presenting oneself properly to coaches and focusing on strong academics.

STACK’s content does not come from individuals who claim to be “experts” simply because they’ve authored books or presented at seminars. On the contrary, the information and advice provided by STACK comes directly from today’s best athletes and the experts who work with them on a regular basis. Athletes such as Peyton Manning, LeBron James, Johan Santana, LaDainian Tomlinson, Allen Iverson and Tim Duncan have willingly made their training, nutrition or personal experiences available to STACK’s audience. Why? Because they want to support STACK’s mission of helping athletes safely improve their performance. By using star professional athletes as role models, STACK produces content that’s real, raw and authentic and makes a powerful and lasting impression on its readers and viewers.

STACK Media Platforms

Originally founded as a magazine, STACK Media has developed into a fully-diversified multimedia firm with five major brand platforms – STACK.com, STACK TV, STACK Magazine, MySTACK and STACK Events.

STACK.com is the digital home for all STACK content and web-based tools and is one of the Internet’s fastest growing sites providing content exclusively for the high school sports community.

STACK TV is a video platform with eight channels of unique, originally-produced videos—one of the largest libraries of sports performance video content on the web.

STACK Magazine, requested by over 7,200 high school athletic directors, has a circulation of 700,000 and a readership of more than 3.5 million high school athletes.

MySTACK is a social network and recruiting site that allows athletes to create profiles with their stats and numbers, upload highlight films and photos and then send their profiles to college coaches to take control of the recruiting process.

STACK Events, including the 10-city Elite Tour sponsored by Reebok, provide hands-on advice and instruction for sports skill development.

STACK Media was launched in February 2005. In three years, the company has:

• Established a trusted and reliable consumer brand

• Attracted a loyal, responsive and appreciative audience among high school athletes, coaches and parents

• Created a Professional Network of 350 service content experts, including the four best sports performance trainers in the U.S.—Tim Grover, Mark Verstegen, Chip Smith, and Tom Shaw

• Forged strong relationships with over 50 blue chip brand marketers, including Nike, Reebok, U.S. Army, U.S. Marines, Gatorade, Under Armour, New Balance, Sony Playstation and Old Spice

STACK's Editorial Advisors

Tim Grover
Michael Jordan and 7% of the current NBA

Known as the "trainer to the pros" and as one of the top trainers in the world, Tim Grover has spoken to audiences around the globe. Grover also has been recognized as one of the leading sports enhancement specialists since 1989, with his selection as the exclusive trainer to Michael Jordan. Grover's clients include Dwyane Wade, Ben Gordon, Elton Brand, Antoine Walker, Alex Rodriguez, Simeon Rice and many other sports stars.

Mark Verstegen
Olympic Teams and MLB Stars

One of the world's elite performance enhancement specialists, Mark Verstegen, founder of Athletes' Performance in Tempe, Ariz., has trained numerous first-round NFL draft picks, WTA Grand Slam champions, top PGA/LPGA players, AL and NL Major League Baseball rookies of the year, MLB batting champions, NBA all stars and world-class athletes from many other venues. Verstegen authored the acclaimed training book Core Performance: The Revolutionary Workout Program to Transform Your Body and Your Life. Athletes' Performance clients include Nomar Garciaparra, Curt Schilling, Carl Crawford, Brett Favre and Mia Hamm.

Chip Smith
200 NFL Players

Recognized as one of the foremost speed and strength experts in the United States, Chip Smith has trained more than 200 current NFL players and offers one of the best Combine preparation programs in the nation for scores of players selected each year in the NFL Draft. Smith did post-graduate work in speed and strength studies at the world-renowned Soviet Sports Institute. He is trainer to many NFL, NBA and MLB stars, including Brian Urlacher, Champ Bailey, Antwaan Randle El, Mike Williams, Kendrell Bell and Ashley Lelie.

Tom Shaw
70 First-Round NFL Draft Picks

Tom Shaw is one of the nation's leading authorities on flexibility and strength conditioning programs for football, track and baseball. Since 2001, Shaw has been the assistant strength and conditioning coach for the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots. Before working with the Patriots, he served in the same position for the New Orleans Saints. Shaw offers one of the premier NFL Draft Combine preparation programs, having worked with 70 first-round draft picks in the past eight years. Shaw's clients include Deion Sanders, Michael Vick, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Laveranues Coles, Jevon Kearse and many other top NFL stars.

Founders

STACK Media was created by Nick Palazzo and Chad Zimmerman in 2000, while they were both still college football players, at Harvard and Carnegie Mellon, respectively. As serious athletes, the two men were continually frustrated by the lack of credible sports performance and training information. They wrote an award-winning business plan to create an athletic empire, whose sole mission is to help athletes improve their performance. The business plan included strategies to launch online, publishing, event and consumer product businesses.

Nick Palazzo (Co-Founder, Co-CEO)

A 2003 cum laude graduate of Harvard College, Nick compiled a distinguished athletic and academic record. As a running back, he finished among Harvard’s all-time leading rushers and scorers, earning the Vic Gatto, Buzz Crain and Henry Lamar Awards during his career. Academically, Nick was honored as a Harvard Scholar, Holland Scholar, Harvard’s nominee to the National Scholar-Athlete Hall of Fame and Academic All-Ivy League.

Since his graduation, Nick has served as STACK’s Co-CEO, overseeing the buildout of STACK’s sales, marketing and business development operations. Nick has also been intimately involved in establishing and maintaining relationships with more than 50 blue chip marketers and several strategic partners. With his unique insights into the mindset of the high performing and highly motivated athlete, Nick provides feedback and perspective to marketers, creating relationships that go beyond advertising and sponsorship.

Chad Zimmerman (Co-Founder, Co-CEO)

In 2004, Chad earned a degree in Chemical Engineering from the prestigious Carnegie Institute of Technology and ranked among the top student-athletes at Carnegie Mellon University. An All-America and All-Region honoree in his senior year, Chad was a team captain, four-year starter at offensive guard and three-time First Team All-Conference selection. Academically, Chad won the Enterprise Award with Special Distinction from The Donald H. Jones Center for Entrepreneurship and the Senior Leader Award from the Carnegie Mellon University Faculty.

Upon his graduation, Chad became STACK’s Co-CEO and Editor in Chief. Since 2005, he has built STACK’s editorial team, which powers all of its content properties. Leveraging his knowledge of sports performance and the mentality and attitude of athletes, Chad ensures that STACK’s content is authoritative, that it accurately conveys the message of its expert contributors, and that it speaks authentically to the athletes who trust and rely on it. STACK’s sports performance content is enthusiastically embraced by its consumers, by the 350 professional experts who contribute, and by its advertisers and marketing partners.

Board of Managers
 

Name	Position	Affiliation/Past Experience
Nick Palazzo	Co-Founder and Co-CEO	Current: STACK, LLC
Chad Zimmerman	Co-Founder and Co-CEO	Current: STACK, LLC
Jeff Lucier	Chairman, Senior Editor	Former: Chairman/CEO, All-Stater Publishing and Banks-Baldwin Law Publishing
Robert McCreary	Director	Current: Chairman, CapitalWorks, LLC
Mark Morris	Director	Former: Chairman, Ted Bates Agency
Peter Johnson	Director	Former: CEO, International Management Group (IMG)
Thomas Vardell	Director	Current: Managing Director, Northgate Capital

 
Press Contact

Melody Serafino, The Rosen Group
(212) 255-8455
melody@rosengrouppr.com