The elements™ corporate team comes directly from some of the top names in fitness and retail, including Nike, World Gym, Crunch, Warner Brothers and Clinique. Our years of expertise in branding, development, and store operations fields help to create a powerful and profitable business model.

Our team is divided into 2 focus areas:
Lifestyle and Operations.

Our Operations Team forms the backbone of the corporate structure and is responsible for engineering and enhancing the store model, from construction to layout to back office operations. Our team is frequently featured in newspapers and prominent magazines as industry experts, and is singularly focused on the success of each elements™ franchise, club, member and shareholder. Our brand has significantly increased and created value for shareholders since our launch four years ago and we are now positioned for a growth explosion. We are constantly enhancing our systems to ensure we offer the most successful business models for our owners. The collective experience set of the management team brings a unique wealth of knowledge and strategic experience to the company.

Our Lifestyle Team (The elements™ All-Star Fitness Advisory Board) is a well rounded group of experts working directly in the consumer fields of diet, fitness and lifestyle. This group includes acclaimed fitness instructors and published authors. Our consumer group helps to direct the programming, class style and activities within the clubs.

Christopher Palumbo, Founder and Brand Director

Regarded internationally as an expert in brand strategy, Christopher Palumbo is responsible for the inception and vision behind the elements™ fitness and living brand. With years of industry and media experience, he is able to hand pick the "best of the best" team from the fitness and retail industries, including the acclaimed elements™ All-Star Fitness Advisory Board. The elements™ brand was conceived in a Madison Avenue boardroom by a team of industry analysts after a careful study of brand and industry trends. The brand was developed to adapt to nearly every major world market, with a common voice for "balanced living". elements™ represents a tremendous opportunity, being the first premium fitness and lifestyle brand for women.

Palumbo holds degrees in Industrial Design, Economics, as well as an MBA in Industrial Administration from Carnegie Mellon University. Following business school, Mr. Palumbo began his career as a partner in a real estate development company, where he developed branding concepts for resort and golf course communities in South Florida and the Carolina's. From there his business accomplishments grew as he orchestrated the complete turnaround of a failing national real estate developer. Soon after, Mr. Palumbo changed gears and used his talents to create an award-winning World Gym™ concept store, which now serves as the working model for the company's retail-based fitness centers worldwide. He owned and operated several successful World Gym™ health clubs, which were purchased by Gold's Gym in 2003. Chris utilized his position within the organization to orchestrate a turnaround and capitalization plan for the World GymTM brand.

To date, he has worked with many of the largest and most reputable companies in the fitness and leisure industries, and is frequently sought after for educational and speaking engagements. No stranger to the media, Mr. Palumbo, as well as elements™, is frequently featured in national business and industry publications.

Bruce Fabel, Chief Executive Officer

Bruce Fabel joins elements™ after acting as Vice President of Nike Global Retail, where he led a comprehensive global expansion of Nike's retail market share through the opening of 150 Niketown and Nike Outlet stores worldwide. Recruited from Nike by Calvin Klein Inc., he became executive Vice President of Global Retail and managed the expansion of the multibillion dollar Calvin Klein brand into European, Asian and American markets by successfully completing 66 licensed stores.

Mr. Fabel was also integral in the creation and design of Warner Bros. Studio Stores throughout the U.S. and Europe as Vice President of Retail Development. This included the real estate construction rollout of 156 stores over a period of five years, as well as the 40,000-square foot flagship locations in New York City and London.

In addition to his strong management background, creativity and proven track record of creating and implementing successful marketing and growth strategies, Mr. Fabel also brings an outstanding record of successful and profitable business expansions and global brand development. Under Mr. Fabel's leadership, elements™ plans to increase industry market dominance and generate significant shareholder value.

Courtney Minor, Business Development Director

Ms. Minor previously acted as Director of Franchise Development at Gold's Gym International where she was responsible for recruiting franchisees, managing franchise and area development agreements, and monitoring the franchisee throughout the entire duration of the agreement for both domestic and international franchising.

She was responsible for the sale of 98 Gold's Gym franchises in 2006, which required a minimum investment of $2M. At the time of her departure from the company, Gold's Gym was ranked #63 in Entrepreneur Magazine's Top 500 Franchises, up from #238 when she joined the company in 2002. 

Ms. Minor also acted as Franchise Consultant for clients such as Les Mills International, Nu Image Med Spas, and Abundant Health in New York City, where she provided franchisors with business planning, finance options and business development support for their businesses in the wellness industry, and developed initial and on-going marketing and recruitment campaigns. Her impressive work history also includes positions held at The Rose Group Public Relations in Los Angeles, New York Life Insurance and America Online.

Ms. Minor holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Southern California, one of the top-ranked entrepreneur programs in the country. She is active in the Cedar Sinai Center for Diabetes, Special Olympics, H.E.L.P. Group and American Diabetes Association.

Christine Morgenstern, Director of Club Development

Christine Morgenstern brings more than 15 years of experience to the health and fitness industry. After receiving a B.S. degree in Exercise Science from the University of Connecticut, Ms. Morgenstern began her career in the industry at CSX in Jacksonville, Florida at their corporate fitness facility. She then broadened her experience by moving into the commercial fitness sector.

Since this move, Ms. Morgenstern has operated, supervised and overseen multiple club operations nationally. Her responsibilities included club management, recruiting and sales training of employees. She established and operated a marketing department, developed corporate fitness benefit programs, and created a licensing division of health clubs nationwide.

Prior to her involvement with elementsTM diet and fitness, she was the Director of Licensing for Cory Everson International, where she was responsible for all aspects of the club rollout program and successfully implemented national growth, from San Luis Obispo, CA to Wilmington, NC.

Jovan LaGrange, Brand Operations Manager

Jovan LaGrange comes directly to elementsTM from Bliss®, the international Spa brand where he served as Director for both their Chicago and Los Angeles flagship locations. His duties included organizing and streamlining store (unit) openings, recruiting and staffing for a wide range of management positions, development and organization of corporate marketing and outreach events, as well as catering to celebrity clientele including Reese Witherspoon, Stacey London, Kate Hudson, Sally Fields, and more.

Mr. LaGrange previously worked in Operations Management for Crunch™ Fitness in both New York and Chicago. While with Crunch™, he was responsible for hiring and managing sales, personal training and operations staff, managing established budgets and translating brand knowledge and representation to manage the acquisition of seven multi-million dollar urban fitness clubs.

Mr. LaGrange has additional background in the fashion and beauty industries where he worked in visual design, development and merchandising for Hard Candy Cosmetics, and product development for both MAC and Aveda. In addition, Mr. LaGrange has worked with prominent fashion and fragrance brands such as Ralph Lauren and Thierry Mugler.

At elements™, Mr. LaGrange is responsible for ongoing Brand Operations, including continual website enhancements and development, licensee relations, communications, creative project design and production, and vendor management for retail and nutrition lines.

Vanessa Severiano, Brand Standards & Operations Manager

Vanessa Severiano joined elements™ from the Crunch™ Fitness NYC corporate office, where she served as Corporate Operations Project Manager. Her duties included managing requests for capital improvements, developing and nurturing complex business partnerships, creating budgets for and supervising club renovations, expansions and openings.

Mrs. Severiano further increased her industry experience by joining New York City-based Equinox Fitness Clubs, opening their first two Florida locations in Miami. While with Equinox, Mrs. Severiano was responsible for hiring and managing sales staff, meeting and exceeding both pre-sale and open club sales goals and establishing a reputation of excellence for a brand that was new to the area.

As elements™' Brand Standards & Operations Manager, Mrs. Severiano coordinates ongoing and specialty project development, such as the owners' intranet and education platforms, club-side operations and standards, and researches new products and revenue modules.

Jewel Chang, Club-side Operations Manager

Jewel Chang brings with her a wealth of retail and fitness experience. She started her retail career with Guess?® Jeans in Toronto, where she was quickly promoted to store, then regional manager.

After relocating to Miami, FL with the company, she became responsible for development and implementation of the Guess?® brand in South Florida, which included a total of 12 stores. Her highly-organized and detail-oriented personality has made her very sought-after, and she has done operations consulting for retailers such as Urban Outfitters, Inc. Combining her love for retail with a passion for fitness, Ms. Chang became a consultant for Gold's Gym, Inc. and once again found herself in Miami. She was asked to become the general manager of Gold's Gym™ on South Beach, and while there, implemented many important operational changes to make the club a tremendous success.

Keith Trawick, IT Director

elements™ places a strong importance on new advances in fitness technology. From our Smart CardTM workout machines that easily record a member's progress and vital stats, to our online booking for classes and lifestyle coaching sessions, we are a company that remains at the forefront of cutting-edge technology to allow our owners to conduct their business with ease.

R. Keith Trawick, is the IT Director at elementsTM. He has a lifetime of experience in understanding the complex needs of member-centric organizations and has owned his own health clubs and software development company.

Mr. Trawick served as the CIO of American Club Systems where he was given the charter to develop a membership management system that could accommodate 120+ health clubs over a two year period. He has also served as the CIO of Crunch™ Fitness International. These experiences culminated in the creation of Intrannuity in 2000 and he has successfully guided the company to this day. Mr. Trawick holds a B.A. degree in Economics from the University of Alabama.

Irmghard D'Alessandro, Brand Creative Coordinator

With a strong passion for great design, functionality and effectiveness, Irmghard D'Alessandro holds over 10 years of experience in the interactive communications industry. Mrs. D'Alessandro acted as Creative Director for Media 8, directing projects for Unilever consumer brands for US Hispanics and Latin America, as well as top worldwide brands bridging language and multi-cultural ties. 

She has designed innovative, highly-creative branding, marketing, and and websites for such big-name clients as Mexicana Airlines, Bellsouth, U.S. ARMY, AOL, Suzuki, Honda, Ford, Unilever, MTV, Sony Pictures Television International, among many others. She has developed stylish marketing, branding and concept strategies for all forms of interactive media, ranging from large-portal websites and PDAs to film reels and video production.

Ms. D'Alessandro's most recent venture with the company has been conceptualizing and overseeing design of the multi-million dollar diet web portal BalanceDTM for elementsTM for womenTM as well as the new branding guidelines for elements for women.

Judy Penny, Creative Director

Judy Penny is an award-winning Creative Director with over 15 years of experience developing print and broadcast campaigns for national beauty and lifestyle brands. She has been instrumental in developing the branding program for elementsTM with a compelling and fresh approach to the unique niche elementsTM fills for today's successful and demanding woman.

A former marathoner, she brings a wealth of practical and creative expertise to the brand and has developed campaigns for Puma, eDiets, Rockport, Spalding Sports, Carnival Cruise Lines, and Ocean Spray. Ms. Penny also developed the branding campaign for the first online weight loss destination for women called Nutrio.com. Her print and broadcast work has been recognized in virtually every major award competition, including The One Show, the Clios, NY Andy's, New York Art Directors Club, D&AD, International Festivals of NY and Communication Arts. Her work has been featured in Adweek, Creativity and Print magazines. She teaches Typography and Art Direction at Miami Ad School.

She has held VP positions at Hill Holliday and Mullen in Boston and is currently President and Creative Director of ThinkPenny.com, a branding and design consultancy in Miami's Design District.

Kitzie Perez, Club Architecture & Design

Acclaimed interior specialist Kitzie Perez joins the elementsTM office in South Beach to deliver her unique and award-winning style to the design of elementsTM clubs across the country and around the world. Ms. Perez received an Associate's Degree in Visual Display and Exhibition from the elite Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, and later received a Bachelors of Fine Art in Interior Design at Miami International University of Art and Design. She has worked with a variety of talented designers, including Beatriz Pila of B. Pila Design and Architecture, Tessi Garcia of Tessi Garcia Interior Design, Sylvan Garrett, and Exhibium/API+. She has also worked on a variety of personal projects, ranging from professional audio recording studios and residential projects to retail stores and spas.

Through her experience with art and design, Ms. Perez honed her ability to complement each individual client's ideas and concepts with her own unique vision. She currently leads her own company, KP Designs, and does extensive freelancing within the field.

Lewis Morton, Finance

Billy Bolin, Finance

Jay Emanual, Accounting

Steven Kozlowski, Legal (Corporate)

Michael Noll, Architect & Branding Specialist

Also visit the All-Star Fitness Advisory Board page to learn more about the experts and personalities behind our fitness, lifestyle and consumer programs.