About The Safe Sippy™

Bret Plate
Bret Plate is the founder of Kid Basix, though his business card does not list a title. Since The Safe Sippy™ is the first product brought to market by Kid Basix, calling oneself CEO seems a little high-fallutin'.

Bret began his career in advertising, winning many awards, including three Clio’s, for his work in such diverse businesses as retail, department store chains, banking, the automotive industry, health and beauty products, mortgage lending and financial services.  He also spent over a decade in the film business as a screenwriter. 

Bret holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the UCLA School of Motions Picture/Television.  He has an M.B.A. from The Anderson School at UCLA, with an emphasis in entrepreneurial studies.  He resides just outside Los Angeles with his wife, two children, two dogs and a family of lizards living on the side of the house near the bougainvillea. 

Bret writes novels in what passes for his spare time.  His first book is due out in 2008.

Susan Soja
Susan Soja has been active in children’s marketing for the past 17 years.  She began her career at Simon Marketing, on the Happy Meal toy account.  She subsequently worked at a series of increasingly influential marketing and sales positions for Mattel (NYSE: MAT) and the global promotional marketing firm EMAK Worldwide (NASDAQ: EMAK).  [Susan likes adding the stock symbol because her mom thinks it’s “fancy” and if it makes Mom happy, why not?]  Susan also has worked at several kid-related Internet start-ups, including CraniaMania and Your Own World, where she was responsible for leading the branding, advertising and promotion of the services.

After the birth of her son, Susan decided to abandon hawking Hot Wheels and Happy Meals and do something socially constructive with her career. She became enthralled with The Safe Sippy™ cup and its health benefits for kids after hearing about it through the Anderson School alumni network.  She then began stalking Bret until he agreed to partner with her.

Susan holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Economics with Honors from University of California, Santa Barbara and an MBA from The Anderson School at University of California, Los Angeles.  She resides in Los Angeles with her husband and toddler son.  When she is not working or caring for her son, whom she is convinced is a genius because he squealed in delight the first time he saw our packaging prototype, Susan likes to rollerblade along Santa Monica beach.