Ami Arad, Founder & Modern Gentleman

Renaissance man; raconteur; male chauvinist pig. These are just some of the words people have used to describe On The Fly's founder, Ami Arad. On any given weekend he may be playing soccer or cheating at golf, tailgating at a Cal football game, reading the lastest business best-seller, shopping for a loyal customer, or even officiating a friend's wedding (he has done six).

Grinding his teeth in the gritty underworld that was Berkeley's premier men's store -- George J. Good -- instilled certain qualities in Ami as a young man: expensive tastes (especially as they pertained to tailored clothing), a nostalgia for the men's haberdashery, and a desire to exceed customers' expectations. The grasshopper learned quickly, evidenced by twice being named a regional finalist in Esquire's "Best Dressed Real Man in America" competition.

The "cigar boom" of the mid-1990's drew Ami to what Forbes magazine would rate "one of the Top 10 tobacconists in the world" -- Sherlock's Haven in downtown San Francisco. More bad habits were nurtured at the cigar shop, including a penchant for super-premium cigars, small batch bourbons, and a medium rare Poterhouse (sometimes all in the same evening).

Prior to starting On The Fly, Ami was a top sales engineer at several high-flying software companies during the Internet boom that marked the late 90's and early 00's.

Ami attended the University of California, Berkeley (ranked #9 and #12 in pre-season college football polls) where he studied Political Science which is why you will always find a fresh-pressed copy of the New York Times and a flat-panel TV tuned to CNN at On The Fly's warehouse & showroom.

Sam Neth, Co-Founder & Technology Architect

Sam has been building enterprise software and web commerce applications for the internet since before most people heard of the World Wide Web, first at Accenture (fka Andersen Consulting), later at Netscape and Actra Business Systems, and then at Blue Martini Software, where he was one of the founding members of the engineering team and served as Principal Engineer for Commerce Applications. He has since done stints writing AI for poker software, and building an online trading community for virtual currencies, prior to making On The Fly his day job for a while in 2007. 

By the end of the 2008 holiday season, Sam was ready to rejoin the software-industrial complex, starting full time at Mark Logic in March of 2009.  In his occasional spare moments, Sam still turns the crank for On The Fly.

Jesse Potterveld, Director of Operations

Jesse is an artist and entrepreneur focused on pushing the limits of popular culture and rethinking its place in our everyday lifestyles. After several years of touring the country in successful bands and moonlighting in the culture industry (galleries, museums, bars and coffee shops), Jesse co-founded Entry Label, LLC, an independent record label and book publisher. Through his involvement in media, retail and the arts Jesse has cultivated working relationships with forward thinking businesses and creative communities worldwide. From his time spent working at Sherlock's Haven (Forbes Magazine: Top Ten Tobacconists in the World) as the 90's cigar craze was catching fire, to his successful genre bending collaborations and hybrid projects, Jesse proves to have a knack for creating success today in tomorrow's ideas.

An avid writer, reader and performer, Jesse is also a member of the neo-punk band GDT. He studied Art History and Sociology at New College, the Honors College of Florida.

John Lee, Part-Time, In-House, Kick-Ass Photographer

John Lee has better things to do than to shoot golf shirts and pocket squares. His experience includes a nine-year stint as a staff photographer for the Chicago Tribune. he traveled extensively for the Tribune, covering stories in Pakistan, Indonesia, China, Korea, Japan, and the Middle East. Lee reported from the front lines during the beginning of the recent war in Iraq and documented the Presidential coup in Haiti. Within the United States, he has worked on countless feature, portraiture, documentary, personality profiles and sporting assigments.

John Lee has received many awards and recognitions over the years, including twice winning the Photographer of the Year award from the Illinois Press Photographers Association and numerous other accolades from the Photographer of the Year International Awards. He has served as a faculty member for the prestigious University of Missouri Photojournalism Workshop and has recently taught photojournalism at San Francisco State University. Lee was also on the team that won a group Pulitzer Prize in 2001 for the Tribune's coverage of the air traffic system.

But when he gets tired of all that, he spends some time in our warehouse making cufflinks and cashmere socks look better than ever. You can see a collection of John's photography for On The Fly here.

Jay Jackson, Golf Pro

Jay is responsible for all golf merchandise, content, and events organized by On The Fly. For the past ten years, Jay served as the PGA Director of Golf for the Silver Creek Valley Country Club in San Jose. Prior to SVCC, Jay was a First Assistant Golf Pro at The Olympic Club in San Francisco. He has over 15 years of experience in golf merchandising, club and course administration, special events coordination, and golf instruction.

Jay is a Class "A" Member of the Professional Golfer's Association (PGA), was elected to the Board of Directors of the Northern California PGA in 2001, and graduated from the PGA's Business School II program in the top 1% of his class.