Dave Kerpen

For a period in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Kerpen was well known in the Boston professional sports vending industry, often referred to as "the Crunch 'n Munch guy".[1] Kerpen gained prominence due to his unique vending pitches, featuring dancing and singing, at Fleet Center, Fenway Park and Gillette Stadium.[2] Former Boston Celtics coach Rick Pitino once had Kerpen ejected from Fleet Center, claiming that he was too distracting to his players.[3]

In 2003, Kerpen appeared as a contestant on the Fox reality show Paradise Hotel, which featured competitors vying to stay in the hotel as long as possible. Each week couples paired off by electing to share a room, and the odd person out had to leave the hotel, ultimately concluding with one male and one female winner.[1][2] Kerpen was a runner-up on the program and the only finalist not to receive prize money.[4] In the finale, female winner Charla Pihlstrom had the option of splitting her $250,000 prize money with Kerpen but elected to keep it for herself.[5]

Kerpen is the co-founder (with his wife Caroline Kerpen) and CEO of Likeable Media, a social media marketing firm founded in 2006 and based in New York City.[6] He is also the author of the book, Likeable Social Media: How to Delight Your Customers, Create an Irresistible Brand, and Be Generally Amazing on Facebook (& Other Social Networks), featured on the New York Times Bestseller List in June 2011. Kerpen's writings on the industry have been featured on Forbes, Inc Magazine, Mashable,[7] The Huffington Post,[8] and other outlets,[9] and he is a featured speaker on social media for publisher McGraw-Hill.[10]

In March 2009, Kerpen formed an exploratory committee to determine whether to run for the position of borough president of Queens.[11] Following a few weeks of campaigning, he left the race, due to the entrenched strength of incumbent Helen Marshall.[12] He was previously expected to run for New York City Council in 2009, but he abandoned that bid when he decided to seek the borough presidency.[13] During the spring of 2017 Kerpen ventured back into local politics when he ran for and won a seat on his district's School Board.

Kerpen published his second book, Likeable Business: Why Today's Consumers Demand More and How Leaders Can Deliver in October 2012.[7] While Likeable Media continued to grow and work with brands including, Verizon, Neutrogena, Entenmann's, Grubhub and more, Kerpen had a growing passion for helping small businesses. So in 2013, Kerpen started Likeable Local on a mission to transform small businesses into a Likeable businesses through the power of social media. Likeable Local is a platform designed with small business owners in mind to help them succeed. Currently Kerpen is the Chairman of both Likeable Media and Likeable Local.

In March 2016 Kerpen published his third book, The Art of People: The 11 Simple People Skills That Will Get You Everything You Want. This book is a modern take on Dale Carnegie's classic, How to Win Friends and Influence People. Kerpen's book includes specific action steps that help readers drastically improve their people skills both personally and professionally. Following the release Kerpen has expanded his speaking resume including delivering keynotes at dozens of conferences across the globe including Singapore, Athens, Dubai, San Francisco, Cologne, Toronto, Bangkok, and Mexico City.