Board of Directors

Ted Karkus, CEO and Chairman of ProPhase Labs, drives the company’s diverse and synergistic businesses with his successful track record in biomedical and health companies. He transformed ID Biomedical’s strategy and valuation from $25 million to $1.4 billion sale to GlaxoSmithKline.  As CEO of ProPhase Labs, he restructured the go-to-market strategy for the flagship product Cold-EEZE, turned around and significantly grew revenues, ultimately selling it for $50 million to Mylan.

ProPhase Labs is a fast-growing biotech, genomics and diagnostics company due to its commitment to growth, innovation, and execution excellence outlined in Ted’s high growth roadmap. He pivoted into industry leading CLIA labs, and then further diversified by acquiring genomics leader Nebula Genomics.  Constantly innovating, Ted then created ProPhase BioPharma to deliver antivirals, cancer tests and therapeutic cancer compounds. The new acquisitions and legacy businesses work to drive synergistic growth with multi-billion-dollar potential.

He holds a BS in Psychology from Tufts University with Magna Cum Laude Honors and an MBA in Finance from Columbia University School of Business with Beta Gamma Sigma Honors.

Ms. Abenante, founded NYIAX, Inc., a financial and advertising technology company, in 2012. At NYIAX, Inc. she serves as Vice Chairperson since 2016 and prior to the time she served as the sole director NYIAX from 2011 to 2016. Ms. Abenante served as President of NYIAX from June 2012 to April 2018 and later became NYIAX’s Chief Strategy Officer and General Counsel in April 2018. Starting from May 23, 2022, Ms. Abenante has served as Chief Evangelist and Chief Strategy Officer of NYIAX, and at the same time ceased to be General Counsel. She has been in the New York City technology and advertising industry since 1999, when she was the Director of Corporate Development for Juno Online Services, Inc. from 1999 to 2000, focusing on corporate development, mergers and acquisitions and domestic and international strategic partnerships. In 2001-2005, she became the Senior Director of Business Development and was part of the digital advertising tech and advertising team for Reed Elsevier Ltd (Reed Business Information), in the U.S. (NYSE and LSE listed) working with creating and developing partnership for business-to-business publishing through the Reed Elsevier family of digital publications and bringing Reed Business Publications to foreign markets. In 2005-2009, she held the position of Vice President/Sr. Director of Business Development, Legal and Policy for Phorm Inc. (AIM: PHRM), developing strategy and legal framework in US and foreign jurisdictions, namely the United Kingdom, Brazil, Italy, Spain, and China, and made inroads into internationalization of its brand and products for behavioral advertising collaborating with companies such as British Telecom. Ms. Abenante later became a consultant and legal counsel in strategy and business development from 2009 to 2015 for US and International start-ups and traditional publishers seeking to develop new strategies for the development and creation of Programmatic advertising platforms, advertisement operation and compliance, e-commerce, and privacy. Ms. Abenante holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Management and Finance from Seton Hall University in May 1992, a J.D. from New York Law School in May 1997, an M.B.A. in General Management with a concentration in financial management from SDA Bocconi School of Management, Universita Luigi Bocconi in Milan, Italy in December 1998, an LLM in Corporate Taxation from New York Law School in May 2007, and an LLM in Commercial Real Estate Financing from New York Law School in May 2009. She is a practicing attorney and a member of the Bar of the State of New Jersey. She sits on various New Jersey Bar and committees of the New Jersey Bar Association (Tax and Media) and is a member of the American Bar Association. She has been a featured speaker at Imperial College London, England, Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal, IAB Blockchain and other forums multiple times in the area of advertising, blockchain as a technology for compliance in advertising, and the intersection of AdTech to FinTech. She has spoken multiple times as a featured speaker for TechUpForWomen on advertising, hiring, crypto currency and blockchain. Additionally, she is one of the inventors of the series of NYIAX/Nasdaq AB US patents on “Systems and Methods for Electronic Continuous Trading of Variant Inventories” (Patent No. 10,607,291).

Louis Gleckel, MD, has been a member of our Board since June 2009 and currently serves as a member of our Compensation Committee and chairman of our Governance and Nominating Committee. In 1997, Dr. Gleckel co-founded ProHealth Care Associates, a comprehensive state of the art multi-specialty physician group practice with offices in Long Island and Bronx, New York. At ProHealth, he is the Division Chief of Cardiology and Internal Medicine specializing in Preventative Cardiology, Metabolic Syndrome and Internal Medicine with particular emphasis on high-risk patients with complications from diabetes and heart disease. He was named to New York Magazine’s Best Doctors list for three years, New York Metro Area Best Doctors list for 14 years and the 2008 Nassau County Best Doctors list. For over ten years Dr. Gleckel has been a team physician for the New York Jets and New York Islanders as well as for the tennis players at the US Open. Dr. Gleckel also served as Chairman of the Board of Invicta Corporation, a development stage company that designed, manufactured and marketed photochromic eyeglass lenses, for approximately four years until his resignation in February 2005.

Warren Hirsch has over 35 years of experience as a Certified Public Accountant. Mr. Hirsch owns and operates Warren Hirsch, CPA, which offers a full range of accounting, tax and small business consulting services. From 2000 to May 2019, Mr. Hirsch served as a registered representative of Royal Alliance, a national financial advisory firm. Mr. Hirsch graduated with a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Hofstra University in 1980.