Page 55 - AVN August 2013

Conde Aumann
Account Executive, Screaming O
When The Screaming O needed a new employee to help the small company
grow, one thing was apparent to the powers that be: Conde Aumann was
the perfect fit.
“We liked her right away,” President Justin Ross said. “She had
owned her own company so she had that entrepreneurial spirit that
we had here. She is also a competitive person, which helps in this
business. And she is very passionate about this business.”
Aumann, who had owned her own party company, said she knew
she wanted to stay in the pleasure product industry when it was time
to end that phase of her life.
“The Screaming O was hiring at that time, and I had always loved their
products, so I was like, ‘Ooh! Ooh! Me, me, me, me!’” she said with a laugh.
Now, almost five years later, Aumann said she knows the company is the perfect fit
for her.
“On my business card, it says my title is ‘account executive,’” she said. “But we don’t
really follow titles around here. And I think that’s one of my favorite parts of this job. I
get to be a part of almost everything: from product development, to product naming,
to helping decide what gets to go on the packaging to sales, which is my primary posi-
tion.
“It
’s fun to get to jump around like that,” she said.
Domenick Bongiorno
Director of Production, Zero Tolerance/Third Degree/Black Ice
Native New Yorker Domenick Bongiorno began his career in the adult
entertainment business in 1999 for Mallcom, a Glen Cove, N.Y.-
based white label retail and VOD store. He jokes that his title at
the company was “slave,” but humor aside, Bongiorno played a
vital role for the company: buyer. With a 30,000-square-foot
warehouse to fill with DVDs, toys and novelties, Bongiorno had
his work cut out for him. He also contributed to the company’s
affiliate side, signing up and managing some of its biggest
accounts.
Since moving to California and starting a new job at Zero
Tolerance, he’s done a little bit of everything from editing to marketing
to sales. Recently Bongiorno’s role shifted to the content production side; he’s cur-
rently the head of the production department for Zero Tolerance, Third Degree
and Black Ice, where he describes his biggest challenge is “being creative in produc-
ing new ideas for movies and finding ways to keep making great movies in a time
where everything is free. Oh, and coming up with cleaver titles, too!”
had always loved their products, so I was like,
”The Scr eaming O was hiring at that time, and I
‘Ooh! Ooh! Me, me, me, me!
—Conde Aumann, The Screaming O
Belle Casten
VP of Global Sales, New Sensations/Digital Sin
A superstar saleswoman for New Sensations, Belle Casten
has been with the company for nearly a decade. She holds
the title of vice president of global sales for New Sensations
and Digital Sin, and also serves as a sales executive for the
company’s toy division, NS Novelties. A Northern California
native and self-professed comic book and videogame nerd,
Casten handles all the companies’ sales accounts: distribu-
tors, websites, store chains and catalogs.
Casten describes her role as maintaining
the best customer service possible while
educating each client on how each of the
companies’ products fits the retailers’
stores and how it could ultimately ben-
efit their bottom line. It’s definitely a
credit to Casten’s sales efforts on how
readily distributors and retailers alike
embraced the companies’ newer offerings
such as the Romance Series, Sappho series
and all those instant classic parodies, which
helped usher in the adult video industry’s parody trend.
4. Shylar Cobi
Jack of All Trades
Everybody knows Shylar. And there
’
s very good reason for
that. As he says, “I have done every porn job there is besides
fucking.”
He got his start in the industry working for one
of its seminal talent agencies, Reb Sawitz’s Pretty
Girl International. Through the connections
he made there, he began picking up odd PA
jobs, until he met Paul “P.T.” Thomas on his
1995 Vivid production Borderline.
“I played a one-legged Mexican beggar,”
Cobi recollects. “We clicked.”
From that point on, he worked exclusively
for Vivid, primarily in a producing capacity
though in a handful of cases as a director, until
2011. Since then, he has produced for studios including Axel
Braun Productions, Digital Playground, Kink.com, Adam &
Eve Pictures, Elegant Angel Productions, Evil Angel, New
Sensations and Marc Dorcel, while continuing to oversee occa-
sional projects for Vivid.
Cobi attributes his longevity to always maintaining the most
serious of work ethics. “This industry, like any industry, can
destroy the weak,” he says. “Those with the intelligence to
treat porn as any form of work and put integrity and profes-
sionalism into their craft succeed. I am one of those people.”
>>
8.13 | AVN.com | 55