| The founder of Breath Asure, Inc., Anthony Raissen shepherded his product development and marketing company from concept and start-up in 1992 to a global, multi-million dollar entity. Raissen was primarily responsible for product development and advertising, including special events and cross-promotional opportunities, as well as
the establishment of international business and retail relationships. Raissen’s key relationships strengthened the company’s abilities from a strategic standpoint, as well as financial standpoint. His advertising agency partner in that venture with Inter/Media Advertising®, whose strategies and media buying savvy were the catalyst for the product’s success.
Now he has come back to join with Inter/Media to put all of those talents to work in the new Inter/Media business unit InterQuantum™, chartered to help companies plan and manage their growth from direct response or Internet sales to retail. He assists them with evaluating the market, positioning their products, leveraging their assets, navigating the retailer relationship and insuring sell through.
Raissen began his first entrepreneurial ventures in his youth while growing up in South Africa. Upon graduating from Technikon, Witwatersrand, in Johannesburg with a degree as an “Illumination Engineer”--an electrical engineer specializing in lighting design--he joined with his older brother to form Raissen’s Electrical, a consulting and installation company whose clients included banks, art galleries, malls, and custom homes. Finding Southern California, the hub of the entertainment industry, a hospitable environment for lighting designers, Raissen moved to the U.S. and opened an office in North Hollywood, CA.
Ever the inventor, in the late ‘80’s Raissen was challenged by his wife, Lauren, who confessed that she was sensitive to his strong breath. Her husband’s daily habit of eating pickled cucumbers and spicy foods seemed the likely source. Determined to find a solution, Raissen reasoned that since bad breath is natural, it seemed that a remedy would also be natural. So in 1991, the Raissens teamed with researchers to create a perfect product to bring to the consumer market. The result: a tiny golden capsule which the couple introduced at a local garlic festival. A blend of all-natural sunflower and parsley seed oils in a gelatin capsule soon won over skeptics and became the hit of the festival. Anthony and Lauren went on to found Breath Asure and make it a nationwide phenomenon and multi-million dollar success.
Having established himself as a business innovator in both hemispheres, Raissen has lectured before the Entrepreneurial Program at the University of Southern California, among other business and academic audiences, and in June 1998 was elected to the Board of Directors of the Southern California Entrepreneurship Academy. |
