Dean mavrikis

Armed with an MFA Degree from the American Film Institute, Dean landed a production and partnership deal with The Chesterfield Film Company Writer’s Project, funded by Steven Spielberg, where he oversaw the development of several screenplays for Universal and Amblin Entertainment. It wasn’t long before Dean’s entrepreneurial spirit kicked in, and in 1998 he left Chesterfield to found ValuMedia, a startup that secured $5M in venture capital in its first year. ValuMedia quickly grew to a staff of 25, marketing a patented in-store utility to 50+ consumer packaged goods companies in 3,000 retail stores. Sadly, the company couldn’t withstand the impact of 9/11 and filed Chapter 11 soon after. A year later, Dean returned to his restaurant roots and opened Citrine with his late brother Peter. Citrine quickly became one of LA’s most sought-after restaurants, and before heading back to New York for his next venture, he sold it to former Disney president and CAA founder, Michael Ovitz. Today, Dean’s full-time focus is to bring two patent-pending software utilities to market through his startup, DinersGroup and MobileGiftcard.com where he continues to oversee the company's day-to-day operations. Dean is also a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu at the California School of Culinary Arts.