BACKGROUND- Rich Peluso, RP Business Development

RP Business Development

Owner, 2006 - Present

Utilizing nearly 20 years of experience marketing and selling, Rich Peluso is dedicated to helping creators and entrepreneurs bring their dreams to life and to market. RP Business Development LLC is dedicated being a fully engaged resource that helps its clients think, plan and do. We are a partner to our clients- someone they can trust and confide in, dream with, and count on for passionate and focused achievement of objectives.

The Safe Side Company 

President 2005 - 2007 

Rich was hired by Julie Clark (founder of The Baby Einstein Company) and John Walsh (host of America's Most Wanted) to help launch The Safe Side, their new start-up communications company. The mission was to secure distribution, test distribution channels and models, develop licensing deals, promotions and strategic partnerships, and Rich was responsible for marketing, sales, licensing, strategic planning and P&L. He secured several major agreements for The Safe Side including a worldwide distribution agreement with SonyBMG, multi-million dollar direct response television advertising campaign with Castalian/TV Atlas, licensing agreement with 360 Entertainment Properties, and a North American marketing and promotional agreement with Applebees 1800 restaurants. Additionally Rich helped develop interactive marketing relationships, a network of website affiliate partners and a grassroots marketing team of moms. He also directed interactive consumer marketing for the brand, generating over over 500 million consumer impressions within the brands first year, developed a 300k+ opt-in consumer e-mail list, and used the company's customer list to mobilize a letter writing campaign urging the US Senate to pass legislation to better protect children.

EMI Christian Music Group/EMI Music North America 

President, EMI CMG Distribution 1990 - 2005 

EMI CMG is the market leader in the field of faith-based recorded music, video, distribution, and music publishing, and is a division of EMI Music North America. Rich was hired as a sales representative covering the Northeast US in 1990, and by 1995 was leading EMI CMG's world-class distribution company. Rich managed a team that doubled sales between 1996 and 2000, and increased market-share from 35% in 1996, to nearly 50% by 2002. He focused a staff of over 100 on excellence in marketing, sales and promotions, and was the general manager over all key areas of the business including sales, marketing, budget/forecast, international marketing, digital channels, special markets, web development and direct-to-consumer sales. As the music business began evolving from the traditional physical formats to digital distribution, Rich led a cross-divisional team to develop EMI's digital media initiatives. Additionally, Rich negotiated and executed more than 30 distribution agreements worth over $100M in sales, including deals with Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, and The Walt Disney Company among many others. 

CableTelevision Montgomery/Comcast 

Business Development 1988 - 1990 

Still reading this far down? Amazing. This is the first job Rich had out of college. The position focused on developing new sales channels and was part of a wave in the cable industry to generate new subscriptions with commercial accounts including bars, restaurants and other businesses. It required giving feedback to other cable operators and programmers/content providers to ensure the entertainment and content selections available would generate the most new subscribers and revenue for both the cable operator and per-sub content providers.

AWARDS & HONORS 

Billboard Magazine Music/Video Distributor of the Year 1994 - 2005 

Christian Marketplace/CBA Supplier of the Year 1998, 1999, 2002 

Christian Marketplace /CBA Sales & Marketing Supplier of the Year 1998 - 2002 

Gospel Music Association Impact Award 2002

ImpactX2 Industry Development Award 1998 & 1999