Meet NYSVA's Board of Directors

Michael Frennier, President NYSVA, MT Vapes LLC &
Co-Owner Status Design Shop
Michael Frennier has been in the business world for more than 35 years in ownership, partnership and in management. He has always enjoyed the world of business and all its challenges.
   He has especially enjoyed creating jobs. He has developed business skills in building a company's processes and its procedures, as well as building its team, enabling the members to flourish. Now in addition to being President of MT Vapes LLC, Co-Owner of STATUS Design Shop and former GM of a 12 store e-cig company with almost 50 employees, he is leading the New York State Vapor Association Inc., focusing his efforts on working with a great team and strategically working to save the vaping industry in New York. 

Andrew Osborne,Vice President, NYSVA
& Owner, Vapor Trails
Andrew Osborne is the president and co-founder of Vapor Trail Electronics Inc, which was one of the first vapor retail stores in New York State.  He was named co-chairman of the NY chapter of the Smoke-Free Alternatives Trade Association (SFATA) in 2015 and was elected to the national board of SFATA in 2016. Currently, Andrew is the Vice-President of the New York State Vapor Association (NYSVA).

Prior to entering the vapor products industry, Andrew had extensive experience working with the FDA and other government agencies and he received a federal license in customs brokerage.

Co-owner Cherry Vape LLC
Cheryl Richter has been an advocate of vaping rights since the FDA had US Customs seize her brand new vapor company’s shipment of e-cigs at the border in 2010. She was a member of the first vaping advocacy organization, National Vapers Club which started in 2010 in Long Island, NY. From 2013-2016 she was an NVC board member, helping fund much-needed research of e-cigarettes through the twice-yearly "Vapefest“ for the first-ever Indoor Air Quality Study (IVAQs), published in the peer reviewed journal, Inhalation Toxicology in 2012.

  Also in 2012, Cherry Vape®, well-known for innovative designs of drip tips and its e-liquid brand, Nicter®, was one of the first small businesses to join SFATA, (Smoke Free Alternatives Trade Association), now the leading national trade association for the vapor industry. In 2014, Cheryl was one of four panelists to address Congress at SFATA’s Senate Educational Forum on E-Cigarettes, where she represented vaping manufacturers and retailers. That year she helped create NY In 2015, Cheryl testified on behalf of consumers and industry interests and against the FDA Deeming Rules at the White House Office of the OMB. For the last 5 years, she has participated in all of SFATA's Fly-ins to Washington to meet and educate legislators.

  Now as ED of NYSVA, Cheryl was part of the team that successfully advocated with more than 100 meetings with legislators, regulators and the Governor’s office this Spring in Albany.

Spike Babaian, Technical Analysis Director, NYSVA & Owner, VapeNY
Spike Babaian has a Masters in Psychology from Adelphi University.
A former adjunct professor at Mercy College in NYC, she has been usinge-cigarettes since 2008 and founded National Vapers Club, the first consumer group for e-cigarette users, in 2009.

She co-authored the first peer reviewed paper in the US on vapor toxicity (McAuley et al., 2012).

In 2011, she opened VapeNY, an e-cigarette retail shop and has grown to four NYC locations and has day to day contact with tens of thousands of vapor product consumers. She has consulted with hundreds of politicians, researchers and media outlets regarding e-cigarettes for more than 8 years to educate academia, scientists and the public on vapor product use and safety.

Owner, Gottavape
Mike Kruger has been in the vape industry since 2012.  He got his start by getting his friends and family who were smokers to convert to e-cigerettes.  As time went on, friends of friends and other people started contacting him to help them quit smoking.  He eventually opened an e-commerce site and as referrals kept coming in he opened his first of three brick and mortar shops in the Capital District of NY in late 2013.  

  Mike started advocating for vapor products by meeting with his local representatives and getting to know them. The relationships he honed proved invaluable to our fight in Albany last Spring.

  As a life long smoker who has not used a tobacco product in several years due to the availability of e-cigs, Mike is dedicated to keeping vapor products available for the millions of people who rely on them now and the millions who will need them in the future.