Julian Castelli, CEO

Julian is the CEO and founder of VacationRoost. He is passionate about the vacation rental industry and has built a team that shares his vision for building the leading online marketplace for vacation rentals. As a veteran media executive with more than 18 years of senior-level operating experience and a world-class institutional background, Julian is also the CEO of Castles Media Company.

Before founding VacationRoost, Julian served as Chief Financial Officer of Primedia, a $300 million Internet media company that owns and operates leading brands: Apartment Guide/Apartmentguide.com, New Home Guide/Newhomeguide.com, Auto Guide/Autoguide.com, and Rentals.com. While at Primedia, Julian also served as President of the Autoguide.com business, and he was also responsible for the launch and development of Rentals.com.

Julian previously served as CFO of PageNet, a $1 billion public telecom company. He also was a founder and managing director of Cabrillo Advisors, a boutique financial advisory firm. Julian began his career as an investment banker with Goldman, Sachs and Co. in 1990, later serving as a strategy consultant with McKinsey and Company. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from Amherst College. View full bio.

George Trevino, CFO

George leads the sales, back-office and financial teams for VacationRoost. He brings more than 20 years of senior-level executive experience in finance, accounting, operations, and sales and marketing to the company. He is also a founding member of the Castles Media team.

Prior to VacationRoost and Castles Media, George was Director of Finance with Nokia Inc. Enterprise Solutions business group, with global financial responsibility for the ES Sales and Marketing group. While at Nokia, George led Six Sigma projects, winning national and global awards and becoming a Six Sigma Certified Green Belt, making him a master at identifying and removing causes and defects of the business process.

George has held senior-level controller, director, and manager roles at GTE (Verizon) and ILD Telecommunications. His experience includes IPO filings, SEC filings and acquisitions. He has had extensive international business experience, having worked in Europe, Latin America, Africa, and China.

George has an MBA from Southern Methodist University and a BBA in Accounting from the University of Texas at Austin. View full bio.

Jim Barsch, COO

Jim Barsch joined VacationRoost in 2010 and brings with him more than 20 years of experience in the travel and tourism industry. Jim leads our Partner Service Division, Technical Development, Travel Agent Business, and general operations. In addition, he is responsible for exploring and evaluating potential business relationships with VacationRoost.

Jim’s love, expertise, and passion for travel have fueled his leadership in a number of companies. He has held executive positions with The Mark Travel Corporation, Pleasant Holidays, Morris Murdock Travel, and other nationally recognized tour wholesalers. He has led company startups and merger/acquisition implementations. Additionally he has been heavily involved in the technological transformation of several companies in the travel industry over the past 20 years.

He holds a Bachelors of Science in Travel & Tourism from Brigham Young University. View full bio

Jeff Berzolla, General Manager of Consumer Brands

Jeff leads the marketing group at VacationRoost. He brings over 15 years of online marketing, sales, business development and technology experience to the VacationRoost team.

Jeff joined the VacationRoost family in late 2013 as part of the VacationRentalAgent.com (VRA) and HawaiianBeachRentals.com (HBR) acquisition where he served as the CEO. Jeff founded VRA and HBR in 2002 and lead its explosive growth to become a $25 million software and vacation rental company.

Past professional experience includes owning an online media consulting company, working for CDNOW and Mitsubishi International. Jeff holds a Bachelor of Science degree with an emphasis in Finance from the University of Richmond. View full bio

Myron Schram, CTO

Myron leads the technology and product teams for both VacationRoost and LeisureLink. He brings more than 16 years of senior-level experience to the company. Prior to VacationRoost, Myron was Vice President of Engineering with Backcountry.com, a specialty e-retailer in the Outdoor space. He also led the digital transformation of GameStop. While at GameStop, Myron increased the productivity of the online organization over 40% within 6 months.

Myron spent the last year helping companies like Mary Kay and Ralph Lauren create practical paths to convert their current technology divisions into highly flexible and performant modern technology organizations.View full bio

Jeremy Griggs, Controller

Jeremy leads the accounting and finance department at VacationRoost and has extensive experience in accounting and finance with more than ten years of increasing finance and managerial experience. He also has a strong understanding of systems and databases and is responsible for the internal and external reporting of the company. Jeremy has been working in the vacation rental industry for over six years and was part of the original team at VacationRoost.

Before joining VacationRoost, Jeremy worked at Overstock.com as a staff accountant where he was eventually promoted to controller over the travel department. He worked as the director of forecasting and reporting for the merchandising department. Jeremy was also heavily involved with Sarbanes Oxley requirements, internal controls and the PCI compliance project. Prior to working at Overstock, Jeremy worked as an auditor at PRG Schultz and as an accountant for a startup data warehouse company.

Jeremy has an MBA and BA in Finance from the University of Utah. View full bio.

Scott Coccaro, Vice President of Strategic Execution

Scott Coccaro joined VacationRoost in 2013 as part of the acquisition of Hawaiian Beach Rentals, a leader in the Hawaiian vacation rental market. Scott is a seasoned vacation rental industry professional and brings with him several years of senior level management experience outside of the travel industry. At Hawaiian Beach Rentals Scott served in various management positions including as Vice President of Sales where he lead a double digit growth in sales for two years in a row.

Prior to joining Hawaiian Beach Rentals and now VacationRoost, Scott served as Chief of Staff to the Public Advocate of the City of New York, an independently elected citywide official charged with monitoring the policies and operations of all Mayoral agencies. Scott also managed two citywide campaigns for elective office including the re-election campaign of the Public Advocate and several smaller ballot initiatives in New York City..

Scott has a BA in Psychology from Boston College and a Master’s degree in education from the State University of New York College at Plattsburgh.

Michael Thorwegen, Director of Inside Sales

Michael joined the VacationRoost team in the summer of 2004 as a sales agent. In the fall of 2007, he opened a satellite office in Breckenridge, CO, which he managed for two years before returning to Utah to accept his current role as Director of Sales. Michael has traveled extensively and looks forward to developing VacationRoost as one of the finest customer service driven companies in the industry.

Before his tenure at VacationRoost Michael worked in the fine dining industry in Maui, Vail and Martha’s Vineyard. He was general manager of the restaurant Balance for three years in the town of Oak Bluffs, MA. Before his days as a restaurateur, Michael spent three years serving in the United States Army in the communications field. He spent two years in Germany as part of his tour. After his Army days, Michael studied Biology and English at the University of West Georgia in Carrollton, GA.

Michael brings over 20 years of customer service and sales training to VacationRoost. His greatest passion is his wife and two children. Michael enjoys snowboarding, golf, camping and traveling the world.  View full bio.