TED Community » Vipe Desai

About Me

The majority of Vipe’s life could be described as a 30+ year personal case study in action sports, giving him a unique insight into this dynamic subset of youth culture. A passionate surfer since the age of 14, Vipe operated one of the most influential action sports retail businesses in Southern California, founded and managed the daily operations of a youth brand consultancy and most recently held a senior marketing role at Monster Energy, one of the most globally recognizable brands in the beverage industry where he was responsible for athlete relations, event sponsorships and brand partnerships on a global level.

In March of 2010, Vipe is founded HDX Hydration Mix. A new beverage company that delivers a healthy and environmentally friendly choice for today's active consumers.

Prior to his role with Monster, Vipe was the Founder and Brand Strategist for the youth marketing consultancy, Propaganda Headquarters.

Before launching Propaganda in 2000, Vipe owned the H2O Surf and Snowboard Shop in Orange County, CA, for nearly eight years. He considers H2O his masters degree in action sports and an experience he still draws upon when creating brand building campaigns.

Outside of his professional career, Vipe is the founder and director of the project BLUE (www.betruetoblue.com) initiative, a partnership between leading brands in the multi-billion surf industry, that produce a complementary line of premium and co-branded products, with a portion of the proceeds going to the Surfrider Foundation and the SIMA Environmental Fund.

In addition to project BLUE, Vipe is Chairman of the Rob Dyrdek Foundation. Over the past 10 years, he has also been a Board Member of the Surfrider Foundation, SIMA Humanitarian Fund, and Life Rolls On Foundation.

In recent years Vipe has been called upon to speak at numerous marketing focused events, including group Y’s Action Sports Conference, Motorsports Marketing Conference, Board Retailers Association Retail Summit and Street and Smith’s Action Sports Conference.