Jon founded The Brooklyn Strategist, in Carroll Gardens in 2012, responding to his daughter’s desire for a better after school program. It grew from there into one of the area’s most popular board game cafes, with a special focus on children and families, after-school programs and summer camps. Jon recognized that when they played board games together, kids were actively participatory, learning fundamental strategies and more advanced concepts.
Jon's favorite games include: Strat-O-Matic Baseball and Football, Puerto Rico, Go, Scrabble and Railways of the World.
Prior to starting The Brooklyn Strategist, he developed and ran a state-of-the-art, Neuroscience Research facility. As Director of Neuroscience Research, Dr. Freeman managed over 40 employees and was responsible for overseeing scientific and ethical clinical trial research. As a consultant, Dr. Freeman has advised companies regarding study development and data analyses. And during his years of private psychotherapy practice, Jon worked with a wide range of clientele.
Greg May
Greg founded The Uncommons, Manhattan’s first board game cafe, in 2013. Running out of space for his rapidly growing collection, he found some friends to help start the business, bringing coffee, beer, wine, tea, and a wide menu to Greenwich Village- along with one of the largest demo libraries in the world. The collection quickly outgrew that space too, and is now on semi-permanent loan to Hex & Company. The Uncommons continues to serve as a home for NYU gamers, and occupies the former home of The Village Chess Shop.
Some of Greg's favorite games include Lords of Waterdeep, Star Realms, Pandemic Legacy, Catan, and Splendor.
Prior to creating The Uncommons, Greg traveled around the world, living in places as far afield as San Francisco, Honolulu, and Beijing, China. A native of Newton, Iowa and graduate of GWU in Washington, DC, he’s worked in fields as diverse as photography, education, web design, computer security, and journalism.
Mark Miller
Mark joined the team as our CFO, bringing aboard his lengthy experience, including in Operations and Financial Management of a 1,400 unit mixed-use real estate investment portfolio in the New York metropolitan area. Previously, he also served as the Director of Business Development at Harmonix and founded an interactive TV firm.
Mark's a long-time Magic: The Gathering fan, and has recently been working on his mono-black Zombie deck.
If he’s not making some of the best smoked salmon around, Mark can probably be found on stage. He’s the co-founder of Spuyten Duyvil, a roots revivalist Americana folk music group that’s been covered positively everywhere from the New York Times to Huffington Post. Check out 2015 Album Of The Year Nominee (International Folk Music Awards) “The Social Music Hour Vol. 1”.