...and a huge shout out to the amazing team at Lords & Ladies. We could not have done it without you!
Josh has played multiple roles throughout his career in the Salon industry. But all have been rooted in his one cause – his enjoyment and belief in the incredible people that make it so amazing. Josh’s passion for the Beauty industry is generational. He participated in the growth, success and sale of Raylon Corporation, his family’s 60+ year-old distribution business to SalonCentric in 2016, and subsequently founded and is President of Art of Business.
Josh regularly provides educational outreach to stylists and salon owners to help them achieve greater financial and personal success. He currently sits on the Board of Directors for the Professional Beauty Association as Vice Chairman and is a founder of Tippy.
Michael Caron is a business management veteran with a degree from Notre Dame and an MBA from Ohio State. He got his start in the textile industry, where he held responsibilities in both Marketing and Product Management. He was instrumental in building one of the first Inside Sales teams in the industry.
In 1997, Mike was recruited to an oil and gas corporation where, several years later, he and his partners initiated a successful management buy-out of the company. In the years that followed, Michael held multiple roles and was instrumental in growing sales to over $250 million.
In 2013, Mike and his partners successfully sold the company, and he entered what he lovingly calls his “working retirement.” By offering his capital, expertise and insight to startups, he has helped develop maternity wear, micro medical needles, and many other diverse products.
Mike invested in Tippy after falling in love with the app’s power to help people earn a better living. Because of the broad range of his experiences, Mike has become a valuable partner in supporting Tippy’s rollout and growth. Mike serves on the Board of the South Mountain YMCA, and he and his wife, Dominique plan to use their profits to support organizations that benefit women and girls in Berks County, PA.
The current CEO of Kate Somerville Skincare, Michael Sampson has spent his career leading multinational corporations, startups, and scaling organizations. He has deep roots in the beauty industry and has consistently focused on channel diversification, product development, and consumer engagement.
At Tippy, he brings a global perspective developed through many years with L’Oréal, and a career spent in offices throughout both Europe and the USA. He also brings executive and strategic expertise from his time as the Portfolio President of Hatchbeauty, and his role as a mentor at TrendSeeder Corp., an education ecosystem that fosters fashion, health, and wellness innovators.
Michael’s wide range of experiences and expertise working with the startup ecosystem combined with his endless energy make him the perfect match for Tippy’s Board.
Doug’s diversified experiences makes him a valuable member of our Board as well as our largest investor. His experience includes 30 years working in the beauty industry and 40 years investing in private companies. Doug knows hard work. He was a high school drop-out for two years and worked in a manufacturing plant after graduating.
Over 20 years, Doug successfully built Beauty Alliance, the largest privately-owned professional beauty products distributor in the country, with sales of over $500 million. He subsequently sold the company to L’Oréal, which became the foundation for today’s SalonCentric. Doug was also the primary investor in BehindTheChair.com, which has grown to be the largest community of salon professionals in the world with over 600,000 members.
Doug invested in Tippy because he wants to help the beauty professionals that were so important to his prior successes. He and his wife, Linda, have the same shared values of honesty, openness, and hard work. His “rags to riches” story evokes the American dream and today Linda and Doug give back to the community as large supporters of charities that help disadvantaged children.
With over 35 years of experience in the professional beauty industry, Pat’s successful career was driven by his belief in developing the skills and abilities of salon professionals to help them thrive and prosper both professionally and personally. Pat started his career as a Territory Manager where he had the opportunity to meet thousands of salon professionals and learn the realities of the salon business, including both its unique challenges and fantastic opportunities.
A substantial portion of Pat’s career was spent at L’Oréal, the largest manufacturer in the U.S. market. It was there he drove commercial success. For his final eight years, Pat served as the President of L’Oréal’s Professional Products Division, successfully growing and leading 13 brands. Over the course of his career, Pat developed and implemented business and leadership development programs to enhance the product and service innovations he brought to the market, and to help salon professionals successfully compete in an ever-changing marketplace.
Pat joined Tippy because he believes the company shares his vision for providing products that enable salon professionals to improve performance and compensation, and reach their goals and aspirations, whatever they may be. The great respect held industry-wide for Pat, coupled with his jovial personality, provide tremendous additions to Tippy’s culture and its path to success.
Terry Derr is a highly successful, well-respected and self-taught entrepreneur in the salon industry. He built and owns Lords & Ladies Salons, a chain of 7 salons in Pennsylvania, grossing over $16 million annually and employing over 250 stylists. Terry has opened both educational and medical spa facilities to compliment his salons.
Terry’s success has been rooted in his ability to lead, rather than follow. As a strong differentiator, Terry continually invests in his stylists, building a top tier educational facility and providing payouts and employee benefits outside the norm, all resulting in one of the lower stylist turnover rates in the nation.
Today, Terry’s vision is that Tippy will be the next successful step in benefitting the stylists and salons of the future.
Jeff Rudner brings a wealth of financial expertise to the Tippy team. His mastery of financial services and invaluable insight has been instrumental in shaping Tippy into a holistic financial solution for stylists and industry professionals. Prior to joining Tippy, Jeff worked at Chatham Lodging Trust, a hospitality REIT based in West Palm Beach, Florida where he performed corporate financial analysis as well as underwriting and diligence procedures on closed transactions valued at over $2.4 billion. Jeff began his career at Deloitte working in Audit and Assurance and Financial Advisory Services. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from the University of Florida and a Master of Accounting degree from Florida Atlantic University. He is a licensed Certified Public Accountant in the state of Florida, and provides great financial advice to Tippy.
Graduating in 2005 from Millersville University with a BA in Commercial Arts and Graphic Design, Terry began his career as Director of Sales and Marketing for a regional company, and subsequently served as Business Development Manager for Reese Ad Agency. During that time, he founded and built his first company, Digitizing, a Digital Advertising Company, which he successfully sold in 2011.
Terry was then recruited to Lords & Ladies Salons as Director of Marketing and Communications, where he developed and repositioned their brand. Seeing an underserved market in children’s hair care, Terry teamed up with the owner of Lords & Ladies to found, build and successfully sell his second company, Rock the Locks. RTL is now sold in over 2,200 Walmarts and 2,000 specialty stores across the U.S.
Leveraging on his successes and the backing of Lords & Ladies Salons, Terry decided to tackle salon tipping. Thanks to Terry’s passion for start-ups, his graphic design background, and his impatience (it drives us crazy), Tippy was born!
Terry proudly volunteers as a coach for youth soccer and high school wrestling, recalling his days as a NCAA Division One wrestler.
David Tashjian is a venture capitalist and investor with roots in the University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business, where he graduated with honors. His career began on Wall Street in 1982, building and running high-yield trading businesses at both Salomon Brothers and Wasserstein Perella. In 1992, he was approached by Lazard Frères & Co. to become a General Partner and build a group focused on global investing. In 1999, Mr. Tashjian was promoted to CEO of Lazard Global Capital Markets, and was appointed to the firm’s Executive Committee, The Lazard Asia Board, and various other Global Underwriting and Compliance committees.
In 2007, David retired from Lazard to pursue venture capital opportunities and his passion for building companies. As co-founder and President of Linq3, he steered the company to secure long-term contracts with state lotteries and multinational corporations, eventually acquiring $85 million in funding and leading a team of 70 full-time employees. In 2015, David helped found DirectTips and its flagship app, Tippy, and is excited to bring the same vision and drive he has utilized throughout his career to the beauty industry.
