Page 85 - AVN January 2016

productions. And if his many porn parodies were not enough to lift the spirits of
fellow industry members, David and producing partner Ryder also have had a hand
in throwing many landmark industry parties, including the annual Heaven & Hell
Halloween bash in Hollywood. David is on to a new project this year, but he won’t
be sharing details until later in January.
Eric Gutterman
Born in New York, Eric Gutterman moved to Porn Valley with his family at
the tender age of 6, but it wasn’t until 1982 that he entered the adult industry,
running a one-stop called California Video Distributors for Caballero owner Noel
Bloom. He went on to work for VCA Pictures in 1985 and shifted to Leisure Time
in 1987, where he stayed for two decades, serving as VP of sales and marketing.
In 2008, the sales vet signed on as operations manager for Devil’s Film. In 2013,
when Giant Media Group took over Devil’s, new owner Nick Orlandino promoted
Gutterman to vice president of operations.
Steve Volponi
Steve Volponi has spent the past decade in the sales trenches at Devil’s Film,
where he was promoted to vice president of sales and production after the
company was purchased by Giant Media in 2013. But Devil’s is far from the only
place he’s made his mark in the adult industry. Before coming there, Volponi
worked at Wildlife Productions, where he headed the sales force and also was
president of his own production company, Reel Interactive. A Philadelphia native,
the charismatic sales dynamo got his start in the industry at Excitement Video and
then Whippet Video. In 1996 he joined Legend Video, where he spent seven years
before jumping to Kick Ass Pictures.
Nelson X
Nelson X has held various positions in the adult film industry, from publicist to
creator to reviewer. He first delved into adult with Legend Video in the company’s
public relations department. After seven years with Legend, he left and started
his own company, Chatsworth Pictures (formally SkinTight Pictures), under the
name Grip Johnson. Nelson, who jointly owned the company with Cram Johnson,
directed and produced more than 100 titles during the 2000s. He and his partner
produced dozens of cuckold and MILF-themed videos, including five installments
of Cuckold MILFs, seven editions of MILF Meat and 10 volumes of MILF Money.
Among his creations for Chatsworth Pictures was Donkey Punch, which helped
to usher in rougher sex scenes in the industry and was called “one of the most
morally repugnant pornographic movies” by comedy site SomethingAwful.com.
Since then, Nelson has primarily focused on writing, first as an editor for AVN and
most recently for the public relations department of New Sensations, Digital Sin
and NS Novelties.
PLEASURE PRODUCTS BRANCH
Ralph Caplan
Ralph Caplan, founder of Nalpac Distribution in Ferndale, Mich., created the
company almost 45 years ago. The company originally distributed paraphernalia,
including pipes, papers, clips and more. In 1979, however, the federal government
stepped in, charging Caplan with selling illegal items. “Try explaining to someone
who robbed 80 banks that you’re in for selling a bong,” he said. As part of an
agreement, Caplan agreed to stop selling paraphernalia and instead started
carrying adult novelties and pleasure products. Nalpac—which is Caplan’s name
backwards—has since become one of the largest and most trusted names in adult
distribution. “I’ve been very lucky my whole life,” he said. “I’ve been lucky to be
in such a good business with such good people. The best part of this industry is
the people. I’ve made a lot of good friends through the years.”
Rina Valan
Rina Valan, who refers to herself as a “Romance Specialist and Sex Topologist,”
is the founder and president of Fantasia Home Parties. Frustrated by the limits
placed on women in the business world, Valan created Fantasia Home Parties in
the early 1980s with a $10,000 loan from her mother and all the cash she could
advance from her credit cards. More than 30 years later, Fantasia Home Parties is
considered a pioneer and leader in romance home parties. “What a great validation
this is for me!” Valan told AVN. “It’s been a quite a journey since I started back in
1981, and it’s good to see much progress was made in the industry for women and
our partners.”
Steve Shubin
In the late 1900s, when Steve Shubin’s wife was expecting twins, her doctor
recommended the couple abstain from intercourse until after the delivery. Rather
than rely on old-fashioned methods of self-satisfaction, Shubin took matters into
his own hands, so to speak, and created the Fleshlight, which has become one of
the world’s best-selling male sex toys. The key to the Fleshlight’s appeal is the
feel: The combination of Fleshlight’s proprietary life-like Real Feel Super Skin
material formed into different textures provides the stimulation. Fleshlight’s
product offering has expended through the years, and more than 4 million units
have been sold to date. It has been reviewed, written about and mentioned in
countless mainstream media, including popular movies and TV shows.
INTERNET FOUNDERS BRANCH
Charles Berrebbi and John Albright
Charles Berrebbi and John Albright own Too Much Media, the New Jersey-based
digital media company that is best known for creating the software package known
as NATS in 2003. An acronym for Next-generation Administration & Tracking
System, the innovative software is now used by thousands of website owners to
power the back-end tasks of affiliate programs. The pair developed the system
while they were trying to ramp up a paysite and affiliate program but weren’t
satisfied with the technology available at the time. As NATS continued gaining
traction Berrebbi and Albright moved into the software business full time and now
their program is used by thousands of clients who’ve come to rely upon the stable,
progressive platform that tracks sales, paysites, media buys and more.
Ilan Bunimovitz
The founder of Gamelink.com, Ilan Bunimovitz was there at the very beginning
of the e-commerce revolution when in 1993 he started one of the earliest online
stores. In its current incarnation managed by Bunimovitz’s development company,
eLine.com, Gamelink.com offers a huge adult content catalog, available in multiple
media formats, including video on demand, pay-per-minute, mobile platforms,
download, adult DVDs, Blu-ray, sex toys and apparel. In 2009, Bunimovitz merged
with Private and served as the European porn giant’s CEO for a time, but in 2012
he and his partners separated from Private Media Group. In 2014 they started a
new page with content production under the name of Lion Reach and launched
a state of the art membership platform to manage top industry brands, such as
AdamAndEveTV.com and TitanMen.com. Today, Bunimovitz continues to make an
impact as an investment banker and through eLine’s operations of top networks.
Joel Hall
In November 2016, payment processor Epoch will arrive at a real milestone:
its 20th anniversary. Born in 1996, the company is the oldest high-risk internet
payment service provider serving the adult industry—which makes Epoch founder
Joel Hall an ideal candidate for the AVN Hall of Fame. Epoch grew out of Paycom,
started in 1996 as a paysite business. But Hall saw the need to “build a better
billing engine,” and from that decision Epoch was born. Launched in the adult
space, Epoch has always been fully committed to supporting the industry. By
concentrating on services specifically created for adult, Epoch gives webmasters
the ability to concentrate on creating content rather than billing and back-end
headaches. Among those customers it helped develop into giants in their own
spheres were Kink.com, TrafficCashGold and SilverCash.
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