MISSION

As Simple As That ™ fosters self-esteem in children and teaches them to accept, respect, and celebrate all cultures, choices and abilities.

COMPANY

As Simple As That ™ is an innovative organization devoted to educating and entertaining preschool children and their parents.

With programming designed to appeal to all families with children between the ages of 3 and 8, As Simple As That ™ directly addresses the needs of a burgeoning broad audience: multi-racial and multi-cultural families. Our message encourages the celebration of diversity and promotes tolerance at home, in the neighborhood and in the community at large.

As Simple As That™'s founder, Deborah Capone, recognized the great need for intelligent and sensitive material designed for families after she and her Chinese daughter became a family in 2000. Ms. Capone's experience, like that of many parents of multi-racial and multi-cultural families, underscored the urgency to provide an empowering set of role models for children whose race and ethnicity differ from other members of their families.

Frustrated by the lack of quality material and the absence of any ongoing programming that featured identifiable characters that would speak directly to the needs of her own multi-racial family, Ms. Capone set out to create such an enterprise herself. As Simple As That ™ is the result.

Through its appealing and enlightened characters and the broad range of services and products offered, As Simple As That ™ teaches children to respect their own uniqueness while understanding the ways in which they are similar to children of other races and heritages. Ms. Capone's vision is straightforward: She wants to help children build the self-esteem necessary to navigate and celebrate their own unique place in the world.

It's As Simple As That ™.

MANAGEMENT TEAM

Deborah Capone, President and CEO Deborah Capone has nearly 20 years of publishing, sales and marketing experience in the high-technology arena. Over the course of her career, Ms. Capone has successfully launched such new print publications as InformationWeek and InternetWeek, developed new revenue streams for existing brands and re-tooled product positioning and execution.

Deb has also successfully marketed technology publications, websites and custom media products to diverse audiences.

In addition to a successful career, Deb has considerable experience in the not-for-profit world as a board member for the Make-a-Wish Foundation of the Mid-Atlantic and Metro New York Chapters. She sits on the International Parents Committee at Spence-Chapin, a leading adoption agency in New York City.

Deb has a B.A. in Speech Communication from the University of Virginia and an MBA from Emory University, and is the mother of a two-year-old Chinese-American daughter, Noelle, upon whom the character of Rain is based.

Craig Shemin, Lead Writer Craig Shemin is a staff writer for the Jim Henson Company, and has been with the Henson organization since 1988.

Shemin served as writer and consultant for the first season of The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss and received a Writer's Guild of America Award nomination for his work on the show. More recently, he worked on two Hallmark Channel shows for Henson; co-authoring all 26 episodes of Telling Stories with Tomie dePaola, and contributing to two seasons of Donna's Day.

Shemin also wrote the award-winning Muppet CD-ROM: Muppets Inside, an interactive computer game and co-wrote The Muppet Treasure Island CD-ROM, a game based on the feature film.

Shemin's non-Henson work includes seven installments of the Cartoon Network series Courage the Cowardly Dog, as well as an episode of the popular Nickelodeon series Gullah Gullah Island. He recently completed eight scripts for the Crayola Kids Club, a new interactive cable venture created by Hallmark Entertainment.

A graduate of Northwestern University, with a B.S. in Speech-Radio/TV/Film, Craig Shemin is a member of the WGA-East, BMI, The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and The Dramatists Guild.