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Gregory E. Kirkelie, Esq., graduated in 1970 from the University of Southern California School of Law, receiving his Juris Doctor degree with highest honors (Order of the Coif). He was admitted to the State Bar of California in early 1970. He joined Ervin, Cohen & Jessup, the largest and oldest law firm in Beverly Hills, in 1970, and was admitted as a partner in 1974. Mr. Kirkelie practiced principally in the Corporate (business) and Tax Departments, representing numerous publicly-held and private businesses. Mr. Kirkelie was active in the legal education community, being a former Instructor on Corporate Law in the University of Southern California School of Law's Advanced Professional Program, lecturer and author on Tax Law for the University of Southern California School of Law's Tax Institute, and lecturer on Business Law for the California Continuing Education of the Bar program for attorneys. In 1977, he was engaged as General Counsel to what then became one of the world's best known celebrity merchandising companies, responsible for negotiating world-wide licensing rights to the names and likenesses of many prominent celebrities and motion pictures for merchandising purposes, some of which included Elvis Presley, Star Wars, Rocky (Sylvestor Stallone), Flash Gordon, Grease, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band (Bee Gees), Superman (Christopher Reeves), Popeye (Robin Williams), and numerous others. He negotiated numerous contracts with Warner Communications, Columbia Pictures, Universal, MGM, United Artists, 20th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures. Beginning in the late 1970’s and continuing during the 1980’s, Mr. Kirkelie represented Dentsu, Inc. (the world’s largest advertising agency headquartered in Japan and with offices worldwide) as its legal counsel in the United States, negotiating the rights for celebrity endorsements of products manufactured and/or sold by Dentsu's clients (almost 90% of major Japanese companies). He has traveled extensively throughout the world, negotiating celebrity merchandise licensing contracts with major national and international manufacturing and service companies located in the United States and other countries. From 1981 to the present, Mr. Kirkelie has been the Managing General Partner in numerous commercial real estate partnerships, both general and limited, being responsible for the development and management of many industrial, commercial and shopping center projects, both in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Los Angeles, California, USA. Over the past 25 years, Mr. Kirkelie has been involved in numerous other projects of international import. He was one of the founding investors in the U.S. internet company GOTO.COM, later renamed OVERTURE, incubated by entrepreneur Bill Gross’s Idealab and which Yahoo acquired and today uses as their highly successful "pay-for-performance" search engine. He has a close working relationship with Japanese, Chinese and Southeast Asian business associates and contacts through whom he is marketing his company’s services. He has traveled and continues to travel extensively to countries within those regions. | 