John Giacchino – President / Founder
Mr. Giacchino is a graduate of Rutgers University in the field of Business Economics and Computer Science. He also has an M.B.A. from Pepperdine University. He started his career employed by McDonnell Douglas Aerospace where he worked in the Business Operations Division creating and managing operating plans for the Commercial Aircraft Division.
Mr. Giacchino started his sports facility career in 1992 managing the local roller hockey leagues for the Saddleback Valley school district in southern California. In 1997 Worldwide Roller Hockey Facilities, owners and operators of the Wayne Gretzky Roller Hockey Centers hired Mr. Giacchino to be the General Manager of their first facility in Irvine, CA. There he developed many of the operating procedures and marketing materials for the company. Mr. Giacchino also wrote the facility management database program that handles the registration and league operations for the facilities. His system was used in all of the Gretzky Centers.
During this time the three rink facility grew to almost 275 teams that played four seasons a year. Teams included youth recreation, youth club, high school, and adult recreation. Skating classes and hockey clinics were held as well. There was also a retail store along with concessions that operated within the facility. Membership grew to over 2,500 people at this facility.
Two years later Mr. Giacchino served as the Director of Operations for the corporate office. There he was responsible for the operations for all of the Gretzky Centers. During that time Mr. Giacchino helped open and manage five additional facilities.
In 2002 Mr. Giacchino left Worldwide Roller Hockey Facilities to start his own recreational facility consulting business. He started Rink Smart in order to help others who wanted to create their own recreational facility. The years involved in planning, construction, and management of recreational facilities enables him to give a unique first hand prospective to people who are venturing out on their own. The knowledge Rink Smart provides is invaluable and will help others avoid the trials, tribulations, and overexpenditures you may experience without it.
Andrew LoBue – VP, Sales and Marketing / Founder
Mr. LoBue is a graduate of North Carolina State University in the field of Electrical Engineering. In the year 1999 he started the planning and fundraising for his first sports facility project. He became the founder of Sportsplex Ventures, LLC and authored the original business plan and assisted in construction of 72,000 square foot indoor sports facility. He is also responsible for raising $3.5M in Venture Capital for the Sportsplex Ventures project and initiated and negotiated partnership with Worldwide Facilities Management (Wayne Gretzky Roller Hockey Centers).
In 2001 the doors opened as Mr. LoBue acted as the General Manager for the Gretzky Center in Cary, North Carolina for its first year of operation. Those responsibilities included overseeing the day to day operations of the facility, training of employees, interviewing, assessment and hiring of personnel, overseeing financial transactions related to programming, obtaining and managing all accounts, and the strategic planning and pricing of new accounts.
He also handled the marketing and promotion of facility, implementing and enforcing all company policies and procedures, discipline of staff and/or members for infractions, and implementing all company issued marketing plans and promotional events.
In 2003 Mr. LoBue joined Mr. Giacchino as part of Rink Smart, LLC. Mr. LoBue handles most of the facility development projects for Rink Smart.