Who we are.

Savvy Penny.
team.
board of advisors.

About Savvy Penny.

Savvy Penny is a unique, patented coupon and advertisement system designed for retailers to deliver in-store promotions to their customers at the moment of product selection.

New customers can register for free at the kiosk located at the stores' entrance by introducing their mobile phone number. While all phones need to be Bluetooth capable, customers will not receive text messages nor calls; the mobile phone number simply acts to identify the shopper.

Once registered, customers can visit the screens located in each aisle to browse and select the coupons that interest them. These coupons will be located in the aisle where the products are sold.

Shoppers identify themselves by entering the last 4 digits of their mobile phone, select the coupons they would like to use and they will be automatically added to their account and ready to be redeemed at the cash register. Savings will be reflected on the purchase receipt, just like paper coupons, but without the hassle of sorting and clipping at home or forgetting to bring the coupons to the store.

For retailers, Savvy Penny can strengthen customer loyalty, tap new revenue streams, improve inventory turnover, increase impulse purchases, provide useful insight and consumer spending habits about the customers, and on the other hand, providing them with rewards and savings by using the retailer's suppliers' budget. The interactive ads on Savvy Penny also act as a flexible in-store media channel with prime time, rotations, and takeovers.

With Savvy Penny, manufacturers, who do not have any coupon set up fees, can pinpoint price elasticity to set optimal promotional discounts, control promotional budget, eliminate coupon fraud, and receive a flexible marketing tool with measurable results and real-time reporting.

The Savvy Penny system features centralization and control over all activities involving coupon advertising, a decrease in time and cost of coupon production, distribution, and processing, no printing or mailing costs as well as no wait times nor waste, minimization of fraud, improper redemptions, deductions, and adjustments, validation of every coupon prior to its redemption, incremental in-Store consumption, redemption, and usage, and detailed "proof of purchase" reports with transaction dates and time.

Savvy Penny Team.

Biff Nugent - CEO

Mr. Nugent is chairman and CEO of Savvy Penny, responsible for leading the development and execution of the Company’s long-term strategy with a view to creating shareholder value.

For over 13 years, Nugent has successfully conducted his own management and research consulting business serving companies like PepsiCo, and others. Nugent has embraced the challenge of positioning Savvy Penny as the first digital coupon system in the industry with the unique capability of fulfilling the entire cycle of registry, selection, redemption, data and advertising.

Biff has provided quality audits of research suppliers, and market sizing and forecasting to the Latin American Food and Beverage Divisions of PepsiCo International. Projects included the production of the Latin American regional consolidation of Liquid Refreshment Beverage country databases for PepsiCo Beverages and the Latin American regional consolidation of Macro Snack country databases for PepsiCo Foods.

He founded, ran and developed the operational processes of Market Trends, Inc. a Puerto Rico Store Audit & Marketing Research firm that was acquired by Chicago based firm, Information Resources, Inc. (IRI), in 1993. Over the next three years, Biff was an IRI corporate Vice President who was a key interface with IRI’s Latin American acquisitions, re-engineered it’s U.S. Convenience Store Service, among other projects.

Raul Salazar, Ph.D. - Principal

Dr. Salazar is responsible for the ground-up architecture, design, system architecture and technology strategy. He is also one of the creators of the patented coupon system.

He is also the President and CTO of JHL Technologies, a company that he founded 17 years ago and provides technical training, e-commerce and multimedia development with clients such as NASA, Motorola.

Dr. Salazar has a Ph.D. in Computer Technology in Education and over 26 years in technical training and development experience to Fortune 500 companies.

During his career he has developed products that include: VoIP billing system and Soft Switch for IPSS and 70" multimedia display for Motorola. Dr. Salazar is proficient on multiple Operating Systems / Platforms, including: OSX, Windows, UNIX, Linux, DOS, Solaris, AIX, Java, Linux & Android.

Jesus Carvallo – Principal

Mr. Carvallo is one of the creators of the patented coupon system. Being an entrepreneur, and creative thinker, he is responsible for the development of the idea and the integration of Bluetooth™ technology for the in-store selection and redemption of digital coupons. He is responsible for overseeing all day-to-day operations and focused on continued product development and innovation.

He is also the founder and former President of Microliviano International. His activities included strategic planning, economic feasibility study and supervision of construction development projects. Including more than 10 buildings and residential and commercial real estate developments of over 250 units both in USA and Venezuela.

Gonzalo Marquez – CFO

Gonzalo leads strategic corporate development and financial management for Savvy Penny. Gonzalo has 18 years of experience in private equity, investment banking and entrepreneurial management. He has served as an investor, board member, or senior manager of companies in the security, healthcare, food, IT, retail and entertainment industries.

Gonzalo currently is also Managing Partner for Falcon Opportunity Partners, a private equity and strategic advisory firm focused on emerging growth companies primarily in Florida. Prior to joining Falcon, Gonzalo was the Chief Financial Officer for Mobius Security Group, a transportation security firm. Over a six year period, Gonzalo raised private capital for Mobius, developed the company's business plan and managed its growth from an early stage venture to a profitable company. Gonzalo successfully led and completed the sale of Mobius to a premier transportation architecture and engineering firm. Gonzalo was previously a Principal with Bank of America Equity Partners - Latin America, a $250 million private equity fund. Over a seven year period, Gonzalo participated in the acquisition and sale of companies in the IT, telecom, entertainment, retail and food sectors. He led due diligence activities, structured transactions, and participated as a board member to portfolio companies.

Mariana Quintana - Marketing & Business Development

Mariana Quintana oversees all marketing & business development initiatives for Savvy Penny. Quintana's responsibilities include product design, brand development and US launch of Savvy Penny through Marketing Communications, in-store promotion implementation, digital marketing, social media and PR activities to support the successful implementation.

Quintana possesses over ten years of international experience managing strategic growth and product visibility for leading Latin American divisions of telecommunications and high-tech multinationals where she has developed successful retail and digital marketing strategies, managed public relations and advertising agencies, and implemented global initiatives.

Before assuming her current role, Quintana spent the previous six years at Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications. Based in Miami, FL, most recently she acted as Director of Marketing Activation and Director of Retail Marketing for Latin America where she was responsible for activation of marketing initiatives throughout Latin America including marketing communications, public relations, trade/channel marketing, digital marketing, events, and training.

Mike Cacicio

Currently an Advisory Board Member at Savvy Penny, Mike Cacicio is the founder and President of Make It Happen Now, a company that helps organizations develop and execute profitable strategies and tactics by providing professional services that extend from working on board room issues to assisting Executive Teams and individual managers in defining goals and their achievement.

Prior to founding and leading Make It Happen Now, Mike was a Partner at Slack and Company, a Chicago-based business considered among the largest pure-play B2B agencies in the US. His experience at Slack and Company was preceded by an equally successful trajectory as President and COO of USA Chicago, another leading B2B, marketing and communications firm specializing in the industries of packaging, technology, publishing and food ingredients.

In addition, Mike held senior managerial and executive positions in the areas of operations, client services and new business development for 17 years at the Chicago based research firm, Information Resources, Inc. (IRI).

John Johnson

Currently an Advisory Board Member at Savvy Penny, John Johnson is a versatile and professional General Manager with vast experience in several relevant areas of business; such as Corporate Operations, Project Management, HR and Business Development. His skills include designing and building efficient organizations and developing creative business solutions to reduce cost and improve quality.

John played a key role in the growth of Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) as its Executive Vice President of Operations, John directed four company departments with an annual budget of $60 million, managed 100 nationwide offices, lead a team of 8 project managers and 3000 full and part time employees. John’s operational efforts supported the growth of this business from a start-up to becoming the largest provider of data tracking in the US with global revenues of 550 million dollars. In this role he implemented nationwide market research projects for Proctor & Gamble, Pepsi Cola, Frito Lay, Kraft, Microsoft, and over a hundred major nationally branded companies.

As a consultant, John was entrusted with the research and development of new syndicated restaurant, food and alcohol tracking businesses for NPD, the largest privately owned market research company in the USA; he also spearheaded the Business Development department of Tap.tv. An in house TV network company that allowed commercial venues to run custom advertising on their own TVs. John works in partnership with Make It Happen Now as COO.

Celeste De Armas

Celeste De Armas is a senior executive with experience in large, multinational firms and new ventures. Ms. De Armas spent 17 years in marketing and executive management with Nestlé USA, General Mills and the Carnation Company. In March of 2005 Ms. De Armas' launched the Nueva Cocina Foods product line into the South Florida market - her third entrepreneurial venture.

Nueva Cocina is the first line of upscale, all-natural, Latin Food products. The Nueva Cocina product line is sold in major supermarket chains in the Southeast (Publix, Food Lion, Harris Teeter, Whole Foods, etc.) and is being rolled-out on a phased basis to the remaining markets in the U.S. Prior to Nueva Cocina Ms. De Armas was Chief Operating Officer of FBF Inc., a Miami based chilled foods company. During her 12 month tenure, the company’s revenue grew from under $1 Million to over $9 Million.

In her last large company role Ms. De Armas was Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Refrigerated Foods Division of Nestlé USA, an operation with sales of $150 Million, 3 factories, and over 500 employees.

Prior to her appointment as General Manager she was Vice President of Corporate Strategy and New Business Development for Nestlé USA. She was tapped to establish the corporate strategy group reporting to the CFO and the CEO.

Bob Kutnick

Bob Kutnick has over 25 years of business development experience in senior management positions in both public and private companies as well as several successful start-up companies. Throughout his career Mr. Kutnick has been responsible for building the vision and strategy for several successful multi-billion companies, and has served on the Board of several public companies.

Mr. Kutnick was a Senior VP of Strategic Business Development of Citrix Systems (Nasdaq:CTXS) where he was part of the senior management team responsible for mergers and acquisitions.

Before Citrix, Mr. Kutnick was Chief Technology Officer and Senior VP, Strategic Business Development for Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products and Quarterdeck Corp. where he was responsible for growing them from single product to multi-product companies through acquisition as well as organic growth. He was responsible for signing the very first Internet browser contract before there was any public awareness of the World Wide Web as well as co-inventor of several patents for a new design concept in personal computers.

Juan Carlos Maldonado

Mr. Juan Carlos Maldonado is a seasoned corporate executive and a highly successful entrepreneur.

As an economist from Wofford College, South Carolina, who mastered in business administration at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Mr. Maldonado started his successful career in 1987, at the Treasury at Citibank, N.A. in Venezuela. Soon afterwards, he became Portfolio Manager of Citibank Investments.

In 1990 he was named Vice-president of Citibank-Citicorp in New York. Four years later he became CFO at C.N.A. de Seguros La Previsora, one of the leading and most prestigious insurance companies in Venezuela, established in 1914. After five successful years in this charge, he became CEO, and soon afterwards, its Executive President from 2005 to 2009.

In 2005 he was also named Chairman of the Board of Directors and President of Banco Confederado in Venezuela, a national financial institution. Since 2007, Juan Carlos Maldonado is also Managing Director at the Republic International Bank, N.V. (www.ribnv.com)

Freddy Boulton

Mr. Boulton started his career as a consultant for Andersen Consulting where he developed his expertise in Process and Operations Management. In 1997, he obtained an MBA at Cambridge Business School to later head different ventures in Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. His expertise has centered around Operations Management and Sales & Marketing.

Since his involvement in Florida Real Estate in 2003, he has been responsible for the development and implementation of marketing strategies to generate sales of more than $30 million dollars. He is a member of the prestigious Chairman's Club in Re/Max.

Marcos F. Maldonado

Marcos F. Maldonado was born in Caracas, Venezuela. He graduated in Economics at the University of Oklahoma, and obtained a degree in Industrial Management at Carnegie Mellon Institute. Mr. Maldonado is a very well rounded executive with over 40 years of experience. He is the President of INLACA Corp, which is a strategic partnership between DPA (Nestlé & Fonterra) and Inlaca. Mr. Maldonado has been in Inlaca since 1985 acting as Director and as a General Manager; and is also Chairman of ECOLAT in Uruguay.

Mr. Maldonado is a founding member of the Venezuelan Chamber of Pasteurized Products (CAVEPAS) and its first President. He has been actively involved in the Board of Directors of the following companies: General Electric (Venezuela), Madosa, AGA (Venezuela) and Seguros La Previsora.

Jorge L. Mancin

Mr. Mancin has more than 20 years of experience in the international automotive industry. He owns and operates AIS in Toluca Mexico, a company that manufactures vehicle parts distributed around the world for the OEM market.

He is also on the board of directors of Industrias FAACA, a company with more than 50 years of experience in the automotive parts industry that has performed successfully for companies such as Toyota, Ford, Chrysler, GM and Renault.

His knowledge of the international markets and his business experience with world renowned brands and companies make him an invaluable asset in terms of business development and public relations.