Alan Lobock, the co-founder of Skymall and recognized by the Wall Street Journal as a start up guru and business advisor, has joined the Encore Incentives’ business development team as a special advisor and business consultant. Mr. Lobock will be driving Encore’s business strategy for the Customer Loyalty Accelerator into the merchant markets and identifying new business opportunities.
Mr. Lobock has previously served as Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of Marketing for SkyMall, whose quarterly catalogs appeared on most domestic commercial aircraft for 25 years.The company grew quickly and had its IPO in the mid-1990s. Later, the company was taken private by Gemstar/TV Guide and then was sold to a private equity group.
Mr. Lobock went on from SkyMall to other successful ventures in software, renewable energy, consumer products, biotech, and more. Lobock has been published on entrepreneurship in the Wall Street Journal and other prominent publications. Mr. Lobock also served as a Visiting Professor of Entrepreneurship at Arizona State University. Mr. Lobock serves as an advisor to numerous startup companies and is on the Board of Advisors for the Chandler Innovation Institute in Chandler, Arizona. He is a sought after speaker on entrepreneurship and angel investing.
One of Mr. Lobock’s first initiatives for Encore will be to help spearhead the rollout of the Customer Loyalty Accelerator program to First Data Corp.’s Clover POS user base. The Customer Loyalty Accelerator transforms a retailer’s existing loyalty plan into a digital marketing powerhouse through the use of a innovative cash-incentive loyalty rewards card which identifies “digitally invisible customers” and integrates with the Clover and other POS systems.