User:Garypick/sandbox

Gary Charles Pick (born 7 October 1973) is an American businessman and actor who founded Connectus, a United States-based (SaaS) software company focused on PR, marketing and media solutions.

Early Life

Pick was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to Jeanne Carol Rock, a nursing student, and Edmund Charles Pick, a Johns Hopkins University educated engineer. He is the youngest of three children.

Pick attended Essex College in Maryland, and later attended University of Maryland.

Career

Pick was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and began his career as a newsy for [|The Baltimore Sun] newspaper at age 14. He briefly took a role as a laboratory technician studying aggregate samples from a quarry, now [|Quarry Lake], and as a computer programmer. He went on to take sales, marketing and management roles at communications companies including AT&T, [|Adelphia] and as a Master Partner of [|Qwest Communications].

He started building software products in 2004 with a focus on advertising and later expanding to include a focus on public relations and media solutions. His first project was called Digital50, a digital information site providing business news and information including public information through a partnership with [|PR Newswire].

Pick is currently leading Connectus, a (SaaS) software-as-a-service company focused on cloud-based PR, marketing and media solutions. He represented Connectus in multiple business incubation programs including University of Maryland’s Tech Venture Accelerator, GovCon Accelerator and [|YCombinator] SUS (formed out of Stanford University).

Pick founded Connectus in 2008 to build other communications products. The company created PRSafe, an innovative online press release service combining three main technologies; contact management, distribution and monitoring; until that time offered by other companies as separate products. The company acquired NewsBox and began working on iterations of the product, and experimenting on other products. He has managed development teams in Switzerland, Ireland, India, Pakistan, Brazil and locations within the United States.

Acting

In 2012, Pick was a featured extra and stand-in for Kevin Kilner in the Netflix production [|House of Cards]. [|House of Cards] was the first large scale production of Netflix after Netflix decided to move into original content production. One notable role was as [|Chris Murphy] in a TV commercial during the Connecticut senate race in 2012. Senator Murphy’s opponent was [|Linda McMahon], wife of [|Vince McMahon], the founder of World Wrestling Entertainment.

Through 2012 and 2017, Pick acted in five TV commercials, including one opposite Haloti Ngata of the Baltimore Ravens, acted as a detective in a [|Discovery Channel] production documentary, Capturing Oswald, about the hunt for Lee Harvey Oswald, and played a role as a father in the Indie film production of All Square.

Personal Life

Pick is a vegetarian, basketball player and family law activist. He is a lifelong resident of Maryland.