Founding Partners:

The partners in SPG bring years of experience to focus on the task of solving problems and improving results for clients.  Application of experience, ‘experience applied,’ accelerates the process of experiential learning regarding the foundation principles of effective business management, even in rapidly changing market conditions.  SPG has both experience and specialized tools to help accelerate the process of improved business performance.

Randy M. Favero, partner

A seasoned executive with senior management expertise in large, evolving/high growth, and start-up companies, with specific expertise in sales, services and operations, having managed in established environments and having built organizations from scratch.  P&L responsibility during strong and weak economies has proven the experience to lead effectively in both environments and honed the unique ability to align financial and operational activities with strategic business objectives, execute long-term business plans and tactical course corrections.

With a strong foundation and track record of success in the IBM management system and having held executive positions in both sales and services on both coasts, Favero understands process driven environments and the value of the brand.  As an assistant to IBM’s Chairman, he gained deep insight into the complexities of big business.  At the Chairman’s request, Mr. Favero joined IBM’s Integrated Systems Solutions Corporation (ISSC), which later became IBM Global Services, where as an ISSC director he started and ran ISSC’s Media and Entertainment Industry division as its General Manager.  That services experience opened the door for Favero to join Netscape Communications where as Vice President of Professional Services he started the worldwide Professional Services business and later also assumed responsibility for Netscape Learning.  At the acquisition of Netscape by AOL, he was selected to lead worldwide operations for Professional Services and Training for iPlanet, a strategic alliance between Netscape and Sun Microsystems.  Mr. Favero joined several other former Netscape employees at Context Media, a start-up software company focusing on dynamic generation of content, its management and distribution, as Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.  Post 9/11, Mr. Favero and his family left the east coast to live full-time at their home in Utah.  Throughout that year he was a strategic advisor for companies such as Hewlett Packard, Avaltus and The Game of Work, and was the acting Chief Operating Officer of Utah-based start-up, Infopia.  He accepted a position with Novell Inc. as Vice President and Area General Manager, responsible for sales of Novell software and services in the Western half of the United States.  Mr. Favero spent 2008 as the Executive Vice President of National TeleConsultants streamlining processes and developing alternative market strategies.   Since then he has been a partner in several start-up ventures including Chief Executive Officer of Satellite Broadband Holdings, Inc., Partner in the Silver Park Group consulting firm, and co-founder of The Institute for Intrapreneurship.

Mr. Favero has been on the advisory boards of Context Media, Spy-Ops, InnoVentures Capital Partners, the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah and the Information and Communication Department of the LDS Church. He served as a board member of Child Find of America, the Board of Adjustments for Summit County, Utah, and Satellite Broadband Holdings.  He holds both a BA and an MBA from the University of Utah.   Randy and his wife, Gayla, have four children and nine grandchildren and reside in Park City, Utah.

Robert B. Smith, partner

Born with the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship in his blood, Bob has successfully built businesses and launched new products  in a variety of industries, including retail, wholesale electronics, financial services, software, and publishing.  He has launched start-ups and has developed and commercialized new innovative products.  He has turned around failing operations and companies to the benefit of shareholders.  Among his accomplishments include taking a number of start up innovative technology companies to the next level.  He has personally assisted in the development of innovative products in the business and educational markets and led successful product launches.   He is well qualified in his role as founding principal at Silver Park Group.

His business development career began in retail electronics and home furnishings then moved on to technology-based industries, where he held positions of increasing responsibility in district, regional and national sales management. He is expert at developing strategic business relationships, having forged partnerships with such firms as CitiGroup, Bank of America, State Street Bank, PNC Bank, Rent-A-Center, National Education Association, and others.  Prior to starting SPG he has held a number of executive level positions including: Vice President of Business Development, General Operations Manager and Chief Operating Officer.

Peter D. Ickes, partner

Mr. Ickes is an experienced business developer and growth strategist.  He focuses on the ways and means of successfully provisioning multi-stakeholder collaborative based disruptive innovation.  As such he is engaged in the development of SPG’s overall business, including the establishment of collaborative partnerships, organizational development and investment activities, as well as the firm’s strategic thinking.

Mr. Ickes is a thought leader and specialist on forming new businesses through accelerated application of innovative, breakthrough empowering strategies and technologies. He has a track record of driving new revenue growth and forging strategic moves into adjacent markets while identifying, releasing and redeploying working capital found ‘frozen’ within current processes.

He is recognized for his insights into the future of the global media business, especially the crucial role content plays in mediating relationships between brands and their customers. His broad range of experience in global electronics, communications, information technology, publishing, private equity, financial services and insurance, manufacturing and healthcare industries informs his thinking about media and entertainment.

He helped develop ISSC’s (now IBM Global Services) media industry strategy and led multiple engagements focused on the opportunities and implications of content creation, distribution and electronic commerce over the Internet for organizations including the New York Times Company, Dow Jones & Company, Inc., Disney/ABC Inc., Times Mirror Co., CBS, Ameritech, Washington Post Company, The Boston Globe, Viacom, DreamWorks SKG.

Mr. Ickes has been responsible for developing the strategy, funding, organization formation, and execution plan for a Standards Setting Organization (SSO) and reference technical architecture for the worldwide media and entertainment industry.

Following his tenure at IBM and ISSC Mr. Ickes became Chief Architect and CIO at Cowles Media in Minneapolis.  He then joined Braxton Associates, the strategy practice of Deloitte Consulting Group as a Senior Manager.  He later joined Treacy & Company, a leading Boston based strategy and business development practice as a Partner.  Thereafter he was a founder of Gen3 Partners, a pioneering collaborative business development ‘foundry’, where he helped lead its funding, launch and rapid growth.  During that time he led, and assumed CEO level positions in multiple start-ups.

Leaving Gen3 Partners Mr. Ickes formed The Belmont Group, a strategy and business development firm helping to turn around existing companies, and identifying strategic moves into new adjacent markets.  Mr. Ickes assumed intermediate and long term senior management responsibilities, principally at the Senior Vice President, COO and CEO levels. He was most recently Senior Vice President for Business Strategy at National TeleConsultants. He is also the founder of Telic Global Media, LLC; a specialized advisor to media companies worldwide.

Mr. Ickes holds an AB from Dartmouth College, an MFA from Temple University and an MBA from the University of Massachusetts, with an emphasis on strategic planning.