Vince Thompson

Executive Director

Vince Thompson is a consultant and author specializing in revenue generation and business creation. Through his Los Angeles based consulting firm, Middleshift, Thompson and his partners have helped a variety of major media companies and high profile early stage ventures achieve revenue success and scale (e.g. TV Guide, Michael Eisner’s Vuguru, Break.com, Manta, and Total Beauty).

Prior to Middleshift, Thompson was an early executive at AOL and Facebook. He is the author of the bestselling management book, Ignited as well as contributor to the textbook Media Selling.

Paige Craig

Board of Advisor to Amplify

Craig was the co-founder and CEO of BetterWorks and an investor in several tech startups. Now he is focused on angel investing and advising startups. Previously, he was a Marine, intelligence consultant, and founder of defense companies.

Jim Wiatt

Board of Advisor to Amplify

Former Board Member & Strategic Advisor of AOL. Jim previously served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the William Morris Agency from 1999 until 2009, overseeing all areas of the entertainment company, including motion picture, television, music, publishing, theater, digital, sports marketing, business development, investments and corporate consulting.

Before joining WMA, Wiatt was Co-Chairman and Co-CEO of International Creative Management. A graduate of the University of Southern California, Wiatt is a member of the Board of Councilors of the USC School of Cinematic Arts, former Chairman and current member of the Board of the Los Angeles Police Foundation and on the Board of Directors of the Music Center of Los Angeles.

Jarl Mohn

Board of Advisor to Amplify

Jarl was founding president and CEO of Liberty Digital, a publicly traded subsidiary of Liberty Media Group that invested in interactive television, cable television networks, and Internet enterprises. Additionally, Jarl founded and served as President and CEO of E! Entertainment Television, growing the business internationally, on-line and with the additional creation of Style. Jarl also served as Executive Vice President and General Manager of MTV and VH1.

Jarl is on the board at KickApps, CNET Networks, the E.W. Scripps Company, XM Satellite Radio, and MobiTV. He is also a trustee of numerous nonprofit organizations.

Scott Dudelson

Scott Dudelson is an internet entrepreneur and co-founder / Chief Operating Officer of Prodege, LLC. As COO of Prodege, Dudelson spearheads the operations and business development of Prodege – owned properties, including the web’s premier online rewards destination, Swagbucks.com. Since 2011, Prodege was placed highly on the Inc 500 fastest growing company list; Ranked two years in a row as a top 10 fastest growing private company in Los Angeles by the LA Business Journal; and named a finalist for the Colloquy award for excellence in loyalty marketing.

Paul Rappoport

Paul most recently lead the Entertainment, Media & Gaming vertical and Los Angeles studio for Rosetta Marketing, a consulting-focused digital agency. In this role Paul owned engagements that have driven audience engagement and profitable business impact for industry-leading clients by combining deep consumer insights and analytics with world-class technology, commerce, CRM, design and user experience expertise. Paul’s key clients and engagements included personalization-driven CRM Agency of Record for Activision’s Call of Duty franchise and cross-service/device user experience strategy and design for Sony Entertainment Network. Paul was actively involved in new business development and drove results for other clients including Electronic Arts, Zynga, Namco Bandai, Participant Media, Dwell Media, Vizio, Major League Gaming and Qualcomm.

Jason McDowall

Jason is a mobile and SaaS entrepreneur. He has been founder and CEO of two mobile startups and a director or VP of product at several SaaS companies, including Salesforce.com. He currently works with startups as an interim CEO or Chief Product Officer to help drive strategy and execution.

Jason is an avid practitioner of lean startup methodologies and has been actively building companies in LA for over a decade.

Scott MacDonell

Scott MacDonell knows how to acquire a customer. And a thousand customers. And a million. Scott has been instrumental in the growth and success of LegalZoom.com – creating the national brand name in legal through response-based advertising. Prior to his “client-side” work, Scott led media strategy efforts at some of the country’s largest ad agencies; across offline (TV, Radio, print, outdoor), online (search, display, video, audio), and event marketing.

Arlene Zeichner

Arlene Zeichner is principal of Zeichgeist, a digital media advisory practice focused on content strategy/business planning, licensing and programming, with a sub-concentration in digital health.

David Baron

David Baron is Vice President of Content Partner Management at Hulu, where he is in charge of maximizing the value of the relationship between Hulu and its content providers. He came to Hulu from Fox, where he was Vice President of Digital Media. In this capacity, he developed content distribution strategies based on new technologies, new partners and new business models.

David Anson

David Anson heads platform strategy and business development at AT&T AdWorks, the digital media group within AT&T. His team identifies, structures, and executes partnerships with the industry’s leading start-ups and media companies. Prior to AT&T, Anson led strategic partnerships for venture-funded startups Yodle and The Rubicon Project. Earlier, Anson spent over three years at Google in sales and business development.

Rojeh Avanesian

Rojeh Avanesian is responsible for all aspects of PriceGrabber’s global marketing strategy including search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO), email marketing, global communications and corporate positioning. Additionally, he oversees the business intelligence team, which performs operational reporting, market research and site optimization. Prior to joining PriceGrabber, Rojeh served as the Vice President of Finance at MyLife.com (formerlyReunion.com) where he was responsible for all corporate financial and strategy functions. Additionally, Rojeh spent over seven years at Yahoo! leading the Yahoo! Media Division’s financial operations where he managed corporate revenues of more than $700 million. Prior to Yahoo!, Rojeh held a wide variety of positions at companies such as Hewlett-Packard, 3Com, McAfee, and Clorox. Rojeh holds an MBA from Santa Clara University.

Adam Rockmore

Currently VP Marketing at Fandango.

Building, Innovating & Fixing Brands; Understanding & connecting with consumers; Creative & Strategic leadership; ROI driven — revenue, profitability & ratings; Development, Innovation and Launching of new products, media and services; Ecommerce, Social and Digital Innovator and Strategist, Team leadership and coordination; Success across industries — Entertainment & Media, Food & Lifestyle, Retail, Consumer Product.

Sam Wick

Sam Wick is svp of business development & operations at Maker Studios, where he is responsible for identifying new revenue opportunities and developing strategic partnerships that extend Maker’s content, commerce and advertising relationships. He most recently served as svp of marketing and programming at Myspace, where he oversaw the company’s programming, editorial, marketing, music, entertainment, video and production departments. Prior to Myspace, he served as vp of corporate development at AOL and has also held senior positions at MP3.com and Sony Music.

Erik Kellener

Erik Kellener is a consultant (and former technology executive) to leading U.S. consumer brands in Media & Entertainment, Travel, and eCommerce. Erik scales businesses by fine-tuning their technology platform, evolving their team operations, and expanding their product & digital marketing portfolios. His contributions have increased revenues, reduced operating and capital costs, and improved efficiency company-wide. While Erik’s primary focus is in technology, his leadership experience spans across operations, digital marketing, and finance.

Erik’s portfolio of businesses include WarnerBros., DreamWorks SKG, Ticketmaster, Hollywood.com (sold to Times-Mirror, 1999), Qwest Communications, Luxury Link, and Evite. Additionally, he’s consulted for Holland America Cruise Lines, ESPN, Yokohama Tire Corporation, Cedars-Sinai, and Alaska Airlines.

Ori Neidich

Ori Neidich consults to CEOs of technology companies, studios and agencies, from established players to startups. With nearly two decades of technology experience, including a decade at Hollywood studios such as DreamWorks Animation and Digital Domain, he is an expert at the intersection of media & technology. He guides his clients on how to create next-generation products based on the emerging trends that are about to shake up our world of storytelling.

Eli Portnoy

Eli is the GM of Scout Advertising at Telenav. Previously he was the founder/CEO of ThinkNear, which was acquired by Telenav in 2012. Eli has been named one of the “Top Young Entrepreneurs” by BusinessWeek and the “21st Coolest Young Entrepreneur” by Inc. magazine. He earned a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Brandon Lucas

As VP of Mobile for BET (a leading Viacom TV network), Brandon oversees mobile product development and management, as well as mobile advertising, mobile marketing and content licensing.

His primary focus is on dreaming up, building and distributing highly innovative apps. He’s been in the mobile space for over a decade, having previously led MySpace’s mobile BD team and held other BD roles with Disney and U.S. Cellular. He’s excited to lend a hand to startups playing in or thinking about playing in the mobile and social media arenas.

Craig Howe

Craig Howe brings more than 21 years of core entertainment, digital, and brand marketing experience to his diverse business ventures. In addition to an ongoing role as Founder of award-winning social media agency Rocket XL, Craig is an investor or active board member in multiple early stage digital, social, and mobile ventures, as well as a consulted advisor to brands that have a passionate global social fan base including Major League Baseball Advance Media, InBev (FIFA World Cup global strategy), National Hockey League, Rue La La, Major League Soccer, etc.

Bob Sirmans

Bob Sirmans is a business development and strategy executive who has headed-up strategy teams in both start-ups and corporate. Most recently, he was SVP, Business Development at Oberon Media (now I-Play), where he also ran the interactive television division. Prior to moving into the start-up space, Bob spent seven years as Vice President of Business Development and Strategy at AOL. He was responsible for multiple business development teams supporting $850 million in annual revenue across AOL’s content, programming, commerce, marketing and product businesses. He personally negotiated, restructured, and closed close to one billion dollars of partnerships including relationships with mission-critical partners. Bob is also an attorney with a specialty in ecommerce and securities. He started his professional career in banking at Citibank.

Mark Shedletsky

Mark Shedletsky is the Head of Digital for Simon Fuller’s XIX Entertainment, overseeing all global digital activities for the company. Mark is also Co-CEO of XIX Digital, a joint venture with Simon Fuller, focused on optimizing the talent to fan relationship through investments and strategic acquisitions.

In 2006, Mark was the co-founding Head of Marketing & Brand Partnerships at MTV in Canada, overseeing all consumer marketing and integrated sales activities for MTV’s most successful channel launch globally.

Mark has also held strategic marketing and business development roles at MTV (U.S.), Rogers Media and Universal Pictures.

Tom McInerney

Thomas McInerney advises and invests in early stage Internet companies. Tom is an investor in Klout, and also spent time as the COO helping the company raise money and scale up. He is currently an advisor to Klout, is a mentor at i/o Ventures, is an advisor to BeachMint and was an EIR at Trinity Ventures. Tom is the President of NALA Investments – an early stage media and technology fund based in Santa Monica.

Matthew Papish

Veteran executive leader and revenue catalyst with a consistent track record in creating B2C and B2B successes – leading teams and building businesses across digital media, broadcast media, information media, consumer technology, consumer internet, retail and entertainment. Throughout his career, Matt has been known to inspire and energize with a passion for the goal while taking companies to the next level.

Dana Settle

Dana Settle is a Partner with Greycroft LLC, and she heads the firm’s west coast office.

Prior to joining Greycroft, Dana spent several years as a venture capitalist and advisor to startup companies, first as a Venture Partner with Mayfield, where she focused on early stage companies in the mobile communications and consumer Internet markets, and later as a Partner with VSP Capital.

Dan Gould

Dan is a founder of Namesake and leads the technology team. Dan also founded Newroo (acquired by Fox Interactive Media), Ad.ly (the world’s largest celeb endorsement network) and Corridor. At Fox Audience Network, Dan served as Vice President of Technology. Dan previously was a researcher at the National Institutes of Health and at the Brown University Computer Graphics Group and has won a number of Computer Science awards.

Courtney Holt

Courtney Holt served as President of MySpace Music; in this role, Courtney oversaw the growth and development of the MySpace Music brand. Courtney brought music industry depth and relationships to MySpace Music, as well as experience and focus on product, promotion, and marketing.

Prior to joining MySpace Music Courtney served as Executive Vice President of Digital Music for the MTV Networks Music and Logo Group where he oversaw all digital initiatives for the company’s MTV, VH1 and CMT music brands, as well as for Logo.

Darren Rush

Pose – CTO
Koders Inc. – Founder and CEO
Tivix – VP Technology
Telinet – CTO

Yarone Goren

Goren is an entrepreneur with a background in software engineering, focused on building, launching, and growing technology ventures.
Iteration Group – Founder and CEO
Zumbox, Inc. – Co-Founder and COO
Academy123, Inc./Discovery Education – Co-Founder, GM & VP

Yair Landau

Yair Landau is the founder of Mass Animation, a digital entertainment and wiki movie site, and a partner at MK Capital. He founded Mass Animation in 2008 after resigning as Vice Chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment and President of Sony Pictures Digital.

Landau formed Sony Pictures Digital in 1999, bringing together all of Sony Pictures’ digital artists and software engineers from Sony Pictures Imageworks, Sony Online Entertainment, and Columbia Tristar Interactive into one division. Landau supervised production of Imageworks first animated short, The Chubb Chubbs, which won several awards including an Academy Award for Best Short Film (animated) in 2003.

Dennis Miller

Dennis Miller, a technology venture capitalist and entertainment industry executive, is on the Board of Directors of Santa Monica-based social service agency OPCC. The nonprofit organization works to empower men, women, and children to rebuild meaningful lives of self-sufficiency through a continuum of care and assistance.

Miller, currently a digital media advisor to Lionsgate Entertainment Corp, oversees the growth and development of Lionsgate’s multiple digital entertainment initiatives. He was a general partner at Spark Capital, a Boston-based venture capital firm that funds early-stage companies working in media and technology and served as executive vice president of Lionsgate Entertainment.

Diego Berdakin

Diego is a serial entrepreneur who specializes in building business from the ground up. He has taken an innovative approach to many established business ideas, adapting them to shifting technological paradigms.

Currently, Diego is President of social commerce startup BeachMint. Previously, Diego was the Executive Vice President of Strategy and Product at Slingshot Labs, a division of News Corporation a web incubator dedicated to building new Internet companies. Diego was responsible for product strategy, corporate strategy, business development, corporate development and marketing. Additionally, Diego co-founded online escrow service iEscrow.com, where he served as President. He also co-founded a Los Angeles based internet incubator, MD Capital

Dustin Rosen

Pose.com – Founder and CEO (February 2010 – Present)
The Mail Room Fund – Senior Associate (January 2009 – January 2010)
William Morris Agency – Intellectually Property Group (August 2007 – December 2008)

Emrah Kovacoglu

Emrah Kovacoglu is the co-founder and CEO of Total Beauty Media, Inc. Emrah developed the concept of TotalBeauty.com after working at Procter & Gamble as the global digital brand manager for the cosmetic category. He spent more than a decade at P&G working on several brands including Cover Girl and Max Factor.

Evan Rifkin

In addition to co-founding Burstly, Evan Rifkin has over 10 years of online advertising and social media experience. Most recently, Evan was a co-founder of TagWorld/Flux (acquired by MTVN/Viacom), a distributed social network that powered content partners such as 50 Cent, The Pussycat Dolls, MTV, Comedy Central, etc. Prior to TagWorld/Flux, Evan helped start and provide seed capital for Adconion, a leading international ad network according to comScore.

Fiona Posell

Posell founded Produce Communications, which provides senior level communications and marketing counsel to established and growth companies across varied industries. Posell has also worked at several large companies, including Roll Global and eHarmoney.com, and specializes in corporate communications and public relations.

William Belk

William is a designer, product strategist, and entrepreneur focused on web/mobile consumer software.

He currently serves as Head of Product for BeachMint, a next generation eCommerce company focused on social and curated commerce (backed by New Enterprise Associates and Anthem Ventures). Additionally, William was Director of Product Development for News Corporation’s Slingshot Labs incubator initiative and he advises several local startups and regularly contributes to the entrepreneurial community in Los Angeles.

Tyler Goldman

Professional Information:
Buzzmedia – CEO
Movielink – SVP Business & Corporate Development
Broadband Sports – CEO, President, Founder
Steinberg & Moorad – Senior Associate
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati – Associate
NASA Ames Research Center – Intern

Hamet Watt

Hamet Watt has launched several innovative companies, and frequently advises businesses on their marketing and media ventures.

Watt is a co-founder and co-CEO of bLife, Inc., a company that offers technology-based mobile tools to help users realize their own potential. Watt and bLife’s team have formed a Scientific Advisory Board and are collaborating with the Behavior Change Lab at Stanford University.

Ian Swanson

Ian Swanson is Vice President, Enterprise Growth, Serve Enterprises at American Express. He oversees development of Serve’s loyalty programs and virtual currencies on a global scale across multiple consumer sectors.

He previously served as CEO and co-founder at Sometrics (acquired by American Express), where he led the company’s analytics, in-game payments and optimization platform expansion to online game developers worldwide. Prior to co-founding Sometrics, Swanson was business development manager for Userplane, an AOL company that provides social media apps to hundreds of thousands of online communities; he was instrumental in helping the company extend the reach of its hosted chat, IM and other communications apps, and in building the company’s ad network. Prior to Userplane, he was an executive with Sprint and helped launch two mobile web startups.

Tom Andrus

Leading up to Andrus’s position at AEG he worked for companies such as MySpace and EarthLink. During his career he has launched in excess of 70 products, which have been used by over 200 million customers and generated billions in revenue. He has hired and trained over 150 product and design professionals. He has a unique view on how to build a great product team and how to build successful products and successful businesses. Six times in his career he has led or participated in growing businesses across the 100 million mark in revenue.

Sean Spector

Sean Spector is the Co-founder and SVP of Business Development and Content for GameFly and on its BoD. Spector was previously a Producer at Disney Online, a division of The Walt Disney Company, and an Agent in the New Media Group at Creative Artists Agency.

Scott Bushman

Scott Bushman is an entrepreneur who excels in building teams that produce digital products. He founded EXPN and is an expert in developing cross-platform digital media content and programming. Bushman is an internet business development executive focused on growth and revenue. His previous work experience includes Goldman Sachs, Walt Disney Internet Group, ESPN’s EXPN, Bluetorch/Broadcom, Yahoo!, Metacafe, and Wasserman Media Group.

Jason Nazar

Jason Nazar is the co-founder and CEO of Docstoc, which hosts professional documents (over 30 million) and resources including articles, videos, and productivity tools for small business. Before starting Docstoc, he was a partner in a venture-consulting firm in Los Angeles where he worked with dozens of startups. Nazar is also the creator and host of Startups Uncensored, which brings together entrepreneurs, techies, and investors.

Jason Rapp

Jason Rapp is the president of Mahalo. Previously, he was CEO of Gifts.com, Senior Vice President of Mergers and Acquisitions at InterActive Corp.

Jay Boberg

Jay Boberg is chairman of the board at Isolation Network, the parent of indie distributor INgrooves Fontana. Additionally, he served as a close adviser to company founder-CEO Robb McDaniels during the recent acquisition of Fontana.

Previously, Boberg founded and headed indie film and TV company Liberation Entertainment, was president MCA Records (formerly UMG’s flagship label), and co-founded I.R.S. Records, which enjoyed success with acts like R.E.M., the Go-Gos and Fine Young Cannibals.

Jeff Lapin

Jeffrey Lapin is the CEO of Atari and the CEO and President of Razorgator. Additionally, he served as CEO of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., COO of THQ Inc., President and COO and then President and CEO of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide (Formerly Starwood Lodging Trust), and an Attorney for Mitchell, Silberberg & Knupp in Los Angeles. He also served as Executive Chairman of the board at IN-FUSIO. He has been Vice Chairman of Supervisory Board of IF Europe (formerly In-Fusio S.A.)

Ryan Scott

Before founding CAUSECAST, Ryan Scott co-founded NetCreations, Inc. (acquired SEAT Pagine Gialle), the first 100% opt-in e-mail marketing company. NetCreations illustrated that ethical email marketing was profitable, sustainable, and defensible. Since then, Ryan has turned his knowledge of business and technology into a full-time passion, helping non-profits and their supporters to raise money and awareness. Additionally, Ryan serves as an active member of the Keiretsu Forum, the President’s Council of Planned Parenthood, the Long Now Foundation, and the Methuselah Foundation, among others.

Robert Jadon

Jadon is a technology executive, entrepreneur, and investor focused on consumer-facing and B2B web companies, big data plays, cloud-based platforms, storage, DSP, and embedded projects. He is not focused on content-plays, especially those in the movie and music world. He is focused on investing, through both Dauntless Fund, where he is a manager, and independently as an angel.

Jeff Lipp

Jeff Lipp’s experience is in the payments and marketing services industries. Currently, Jeff is the Executive Director of Gift and Loyalty Services for Heartland Payment Systems, one of the largest merchant credit card processing companies in the United States. Jeff was the co-founder and CEO of Chockstone, Inc. (acquired by Heartland Payment Systems) and Pure Payments, Inc. (acquired by iMALL). Prior to those experiences, Jeff worked in the merchant acquiring and e-commerce business of First Data Corporation, as well as in corporate finance in Lehman Brothers’ Technology Group.

Nate Redmond

Nate is managing partner of Rustic Canyon. He draws on experience as an investor, entrepreneur, and strategic advisor to work alongside extraordinary entrepreneurs. Nate has an interest in disruptive change to help emerging companies create breakthrough products and build value.

Before Rustic Canyon, Nate worked with Professor Clayton Christensen at the Harvard Business School and co-founded an Internet infrastructure company. Previously, Nate worked with the Boston Consulting Group, The Boeing Company, and General Electric.

Jennifer Reuting

Jennifer Reuting is a business consultant, author, entrepreneur and public speaker on corporate structuring and legal document production.

She is the founder and CEO of DocRun, a software company that lets users create legal documents. Reuting has founded two successful businesses: InCorp.com, the nation’s third largest registered agent company and MyLLC.com. She is also the author of, Limited Liability Companies For Dummies and speaks regularly on television and radio shows addressing common business issues, such as the formation and management of limited liability companies.

Jim Davis

In addition to working for large corporations like Pepsi, Ebay, and USA Network, Davis has extensive experience working early stage start-ups and helping them achieving rapid growth. He is an entrepreneur and strategic advisor to early and mid-stage businesses and has experience helping entrepreneurs develop their business strategies and finding key leverage points to scale their growth. His primary focus and expertise is with consumer focused entertainment, internet, media, and wireless businesses. Davis has developed new revenue opportunities by leveraging new technology platforms, building businesses around communities, and building branded businesses that connect with consumers, and negotiating strategic partnerships that scale the business and drive revenues.

Joey Tamer

Strategic consultant to Internet, software, technology, and media entrepreneurs

John Volturo

Before leaving to start his own company, John Volturo was the Chief Marketing Officer of BeachMint, a next generation eCommerce company that is focused on social and curated commerce, which is backed by New Enterprise Associates and Anthem Ventures.

Jordan Posell

Jordan Posell is the CFO of BeachMint. Previously, he was the CFO of Total Beauty Media and COO of ContentNext (parent company of news sites paidcontent.org and moconews.net, as well as the organizer of events such as the EconSM and Future of Business Media conference), where he was responsible for managing the financial, sales, HR, legal, business development, and traffic functions.

Additionally, Posell was the CFO of Neven Vision, an image recognition software company (acquired by Google); VP, Finance & Administration for GameFly; held executive-level roles at LivePlanet, a creator of integrated media entertainment properties; eToys, a leading online seller of children’s products; idealab!, a technology and business incubator; Gemstar, a video programming and interface technology company; Lone Eagle Publishing, a entertainment industry publisher; and CS First Boston, a global investment bank. He has also lived and worked extensively in Europe and Asia.

Matt Gray

Gray is Co-founder and CTO of Sometrics (acquired by AmEx in 2011), a software company that develops virtual currency and payment management tools and technology for social applications, games and websites across the internet. Gray was responsible for all technology operations, general management of the business, and member of the board of directors.

Before joining American Express as part of the Sometrics acquisition Gray founded several other companies, including Gray Data Systems and Triple 7 Systems

Joseph Varet

Joseph Varet is Interested in the production, distribution, marketing, and monetization of video, lifestyle media, and interactive entertainment on all platforms.

Varet is the president of Plum TV, an affluent lifestyle television network available on cable systems in select US markets and streaming live 24/7 at www.plumtv.com, and founder and president of Media Greenhouse, which cultivates media ventures through incubation, investment, and advisory. Previously, he founded and was CEO of LX.TV (acquired by NBC), a producer and distributor of original lifestyle programming for all platforms.

Mark Surfas

Surfas founded Multiplayer Ventures as a seed stage investment firm and project incubator. Making investments across internet media and video games; Multiplayer specializes in being “first in.” Previously, Surfas launched GameSpy and co-founded a biotech company, California Stem Cell.

Additionally, Surfas was National Director of Online Communications for Coldwell Banker and founded Critical Mass Communications, a web and internet applications development company.

In addition to serving as CEO at Multiplayer Ventures, Surfas advises on boards for multiple companies within the technology, games, and biosciences and is a member of the California Coast Chapter of Young Presidents Organization, Gen-Next, and Tech Coast Angels.

Marc Ruxin

Marc Ruxin is Co-founder and CEO of TastemakerX. Prior to founding this company, Marc was the CIO at Universal McCann and McCann Erikson, where he worked with media companies on brand integrations and developed cross platform programs with emerging media startups to create scalable digital marketing opportunities. Previously, Marc was COO of The Mill Group, a leader in commercial visual effects, and Beam.tv, a leading advertising digital asset management system. Before that, Marc served as vice president of business development at iVast, the early leader in MPEG4 technology, and as VP of Business Development and Marketing at Eveo, Inc., one of the earliest user generated content portals.

Liz Heller

Liz Heller experience in the entertainment spans film, music and technology. She was one of the first people in the entertainment industry to capitalize on the power new mediums, such as visual media, internet, and social media. Liz has worked in the entertainment industry in multiple capacities, ranging from EVP of Capitol Records, to producing The Basketball Diaries.

She is the founder of Buzztone, a marketing company dedicated to engaging consumers and designing brand-building experiences for clients. As the chief “alchemist” she has worked on projects for clients from global brands such as TOMS, Pepsi, and JoinRED, to early stage projects and companies such as Tim Kring’s Conspiracy For Good.

Lisa Kraynak

Lisa Kraynak is a pioneer in the development of consumer brands and experiences that bring value to consumers’ lives. Her extensive background includes key roles at Demand Media, NBC Universal, iVillage, Viacom, Intuit and The City of New York.

Most recently Lisa served as Senior Vice President and General Manager at Demand Media. Lisa joined Demand to launch the company’s major extension into the women’s category and build the consumer brand and business in the fashion and beauty segment.
Prior to Demand, Lisa was Senior Vice President of Digital Media for NBC Universal where she helped lead the company’s digital media strategy across the entire portfolio of NBC and Universal properties. Kraynak has also held key executive positions with the City of New York under the Bloomberg Administration, with Viacom, Intuit and iVillage where she was part of the founding team.

Josh Resnick

Josh Resnick was the co-founder and President of Pandemic Studios (acquired by Electronic Arts). Before founding Pandemic, Resnick spent four years at Activision as a Producer. His credits there include Mechwarrior 2 (1995), which sold over 1 million copies worldwide, and Dark Reign (1997), a successful RTS game. Resnick also led the Strategy division of Activision’s product development department, which produced Battlezone (1998)

Kevin Donahue

Kevin Donahue is an angel investor and advisor to early-stage companies. Previously, Donahue worked at Google in Strategic Partnerships and was a member of YouTube’s original team, where he served as Vice President of Content. At YouTube, Donahue helped shape the company’s early content strategy and spoke on behalf of the company at conferences and in publications, including Newsweek, Forbes, and The New York Times.

Prior to YouTube, Donahue worked for start-ups and other media companies. At Turner New Media (Turner Broadcasting, Inc.), Donahue led a large team that designed, launched, and managed Cartoon Network’s web presence. Donahue also was a producer with Disney/ABC Television’s Multimedia Group where he designed and managed ABC’s first online community for kids. Donahue began his career in television with DIC Entertainment and has written and developed series programming for Disney, ABC, Fox, Cartoon Network and others.

Kelly Perdew

Perdew was the CEO of Fastpoint Games, a developer of live data-driven games. Fastpoint Games’s game-as-a-service model has powered web, social, and mobile friendly games for clients including Sony Online Entertainment, Fox.com, American Idol, NBA.com, NASCAR.com, Turner Digital, ABC, Wenner Media (US Weekly), Sports Illustrated, Bloomberg Sports, Pro Football Weekly, Military.com, and Fox Espanol.

Previously, Perdew was the President of ProElite.com, an online social network that provides tools for combat sports enthusiasts and, after winning Season 2 of the NBC show The Apprentice, served as an EVP in the Trump Organization in New York, where he managed several real estate projects and worked directly for Donald Trump.

Additionally, Perdew has held numerous positions in companies, such as CoreObjects Software, MotorPride.com (Sold to TrueCar), K12 Productions, and eteamz.com (sold to Active Networks). He also served in the US Army as a Military Intelligence Officer and an Airborne Ranger

Keithe Boesky

Boesky has been active in the technology and entertainment communities as a lawyer, executive, and agent. He joined Eidos Interactive, Inc. as president and, most recently, he have been applying his 20+ years of game experience to the emerging mobile and social markets.

He is an adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s MEIM program and has given keynote and other addresses at the Consumer Electronic Show, Showbiz Expo, E3, San Diego Comic Con, Game Developers Conference, Game Developers Conference Austin, NATPE, Digital Hollywood, The Rotterdam Film Festival, Xmedia Lab – Sydney, Australia, Europrix- Vienna, Austria, and The UCLA Entertainment Law Forum.

David Waxman

Dorset Square – CEO
Spot Runner, Inc. – Co-founder
Kodak Gallery – Consultant, European Launch
PeoplePC Inc – Co-Founder
Firefly Network Inc. – Co-founder
Instructor at IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique – Researcher