Chad Lakkis, Founder & Publisher

Chad (better known to family and friends as Chady) is the Founder, Publisher, Illustrator, and Designer behind ripten.com (pronounced Rip-Ten). The only thing he doesn’t do is dishes and laundry.

He attended James M. Coughlin High School in Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania and college at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn NY where he majored in illustration. After college Chad joined the working world as an internet artist in 1999 for toysmart.com, an e-commerce website specializing in educational toys for children, owned by The Walt Disney Company and located in Waltham Massachusetts. During his time in the New England area Chad worked for several large corporations including Bose, Berkshire Hathaway, Tyco, and National Leisure Group. His nine year professional career has spanned both the web and printed media outlets.

In 2007 Chad left Massachusetts and moved back to the Pennsylvania area to be closer to his mother, grandmother, sister, and niece. It was at this time he decided to apply the knowledge he gained throughout his career to the things he was most passionate about.

In May of 2007, Chad started ripten, a site dedicated to videogames, movies, and the latest gadgets. Ripten aims to be very tongue in cheek, a mix of news and reviews paired with humor and outspoken opinions. Chad has often described the site as a marriage of “The Daily Show” “Maxium Magazine” and “The Onion”. His belief is that while news should be accurate, it doesn’t have to be boring. With the assistance of several talented writers, including his Editor, Andrew Podolsky, the site is headed in the right direction.

Chad has an amazing girlfriend (Denise) who keeps him on his toes. Without her, he would constantly forget where he puts pretty much everything, bills would go unpaid, starvation would set it, and he would likely wear wrinkly clothes everyday. He has two cats (Mary Jane and Zoe Jane) who remind him that life is much easier when you are covered in fur and lick yourself all day long. When he isn’t working he enjoys playing videogames, surfing the web, watching football, eating Chinese food, and sleep.