Doug Lowenstein · President
Entertainment Software Association

Douglas Lowenstein became the first president of the Entertainment Software Association (formerly the Interactive Digital Software Association) in June, 1994. Since then, he has built the ESA into the most influential and important worldwide trade body representing the computer and video game software industry. Under Lowenstein’s leadership, ESA has created the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), established the world’s largest trade show dedicated to interactive entertainment, the Electronic Entertainment Exposition (E3), built a worldwide anti-piracy program, and developed an effective federal, state, and local public policy advocacy program.

Prior to joining the ESA, Lowenstein was an executive vice president in the Washington and New York strategic communications firm Robinson Lake Sawyer Miller, Inc. From 1986-1991, Lowenstein was a Principal in National Strategies, Inc., a Washington public policy consulting firm. He worked for U.S. Senator Howard Metzenbaum (D-OH), from 1982-86, spending the last two years as legislative director.

Lowenstein spent the first eight years of his career as a newspaper reporter, starting with the Buffalo Courier Express, followed by two years at the Capitol Hill News Service and from 1976-82, in the Cox Newspapers Washington Bureau.

Lowenstein received a B.A. degree in Political Science in 1973 from Washington University (MO). He is the author of a book entitled Lowenstein: Acts of Courage and Belief, published in 1982 by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich in hardback and paperback editions. The book chronicles the life of his late Uncle Allard K. Lowenstein, a Congressman and antiwar and civil and human rights activist killed in 1980.

Mika Salmi · Founder & CEO · Atom Entertainment, Inc.

Mika founded AtomFilms in 1998 with the vision that the creation and distribution of entertainment was rapidly changing due to the rise of new digital technologies. After establishing itself as a leading next-generation entertainment company, AtomFilms merged with Shockwave.com in early 2001 to form Atom Entertainment, Inc. (formerly AtomShockwave Corp.) Today, the company’s consumer services (Shockwave.com, AtomFilms, AddictingClips and AddictingGames) attract more than 35 million unique users per month, comprising one of the largest entertainment audiences on the Internet.

Prior to Atom Entertainment, Mika led business development for the media and entertainment industries at RealNetworks. He also spent seven years in the music industry working for TVT Records, Sony Music and EMI Music, discovering bands such as Nine Inch Nails and Presidents of the United States of America. Mika was born in Finland and he graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Wisconsin and earned his MBA from INSEAD in Fountainebleau, France.

Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel · Professional Gamer
Auravision/Fatal1ty

Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel is the most accomplished, professional PC Gamer in history and is the breakthrough name and face of the sport. As the world’s most famous PC gamer he spreads interest in PC gaming wherever he goes and, in the process, has become the sport’s worldwide ambassador. Wendel wants PC gaming to be considered a true sport and considers himself an “E-Sportsman.” Like any other professional athlete, he trains for hours a day and analyzes his performances by watching videos of himself in action — all with the goal of being the best in the world.

No one has ever come close to the earnings, titles and media coverage of Fatal1ty. His record of success speaks for itself. He presently reigns as the only 11 time World Champion, winning titles in 5 different games, a feat never before accomplished. Wendel started professional gaming in 1999 by entering the CPL (Cyberathlete Professional League) tournament in Dallas and won $4,000 for placing third. Since then Fatal1ty has traveled the globe to compete against the best in the world, winning prizes and acclaim, including the 2005 CPL World Tour Championship in New York City for a $150,000 first place finish.

From the time Fatal1ty began to realize success he has preached a doctrine of “giving back to gaming” and has convinced his business partners to do the same as part of their overall goal to position gaming in a positive light. As part of this quest he has organized events that have given away a great deal of money and prizes, including an exhibition held at The Great Wall of China for a prize of $125,000 to selected challengers who could beat him. The relationship that has been built between him and his business partners, combined with the sales of his own branded products, provides the capital and human resources needed to pull off these types of attention getting promotions.

Morgan “Rhoulette” Romine · Professional Gamer
Ubisoft / Frag Dolls

Morgan Romine fell in love with video games when she was six years old and she’s been playing ever since, with online games being her current passion. Better known as “Rhoulette” in the video game online community, helped found and build Ubisoft’s all-girl gaming team, the Frag Dolls. As captain of the team, she serves as spokesperson, gamer, road manager, and has participated in several panels discussing gender and games.

Romine studied anthropology and music, and played PAC10 basketball as an undergraduate at University of California, Berkeley. During her senior year she coordinated and led a class about the “anthropology of online gaming communities.” The lesson plan was based on extensive research into psychological, sociological and demographic studies, and assignments involved in-game activities. Using her personal experience with MMORPGs like EverQuest, Star Wars Galaxies, Lineage, and Dark Age of Camelot, she engaged the class in discussions about the unique and growing social world of online games.

Her introduction to Ubisoft was through their MMORPG title, Shadowbane, where she led a clan of more than 200 players. She entered the game industry after graduating with her degree in anthropology, and now as a Community Manager for Ubisoft she interacts directly with their core video game audience and serves as a communication hub between the gaming communities and dev teams.

In her personal gaming life she is currently playing games like World of Warcraft, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, Halo 2, Guitar Hero, and Oblivion. Romine is excited about the continued growth and diversification of the video game industry and how women will play an integral role as gamers and within the business itself.

David Higley · Managing Director & Head of Digital Media Technologies · UBS Investment Bank

David joined UBS from Prudential Volpe Technology Group where he was head of the Interactive Media and eBusiness Groups. During his career, Dave has raised over $6 billion for his clients and advised on over $2.5 billion in M&A and restructuring transactions.

Prior to investment banking, Dave was a securities attorney at Thelen Reid & Priest, a national law firm based in San Francisco. During his time at Thelen, Dave was involved in numerous equity and debt offerings and M&A transactions for emerging growth companies. Dave has a bachelors degree in Business Administration from the University of Southern California (where he was part of the Business Scholars Program) and a Law Degree from the University of Virginia.

Andrew Katz · Partner, Corporate Group · MS&K

Andrew Katz is a Partner in MS&K’s Corporate Group. Katz’s expertise lies in corporate securities and finance, with an emphasis on asset-backed securities (“asset securitization”) and on public and private offerings of equity and debt securities, primarily as issuer’s counsel. Another area of expertise is the representation of thrift institutions and their holding companies, including regulatory applications and equity and subordinated capital debt securities offerings. Katz is also adept at general corporate representation of small to middle market entrepreneurial clients and is actively involved in all aspects of asset securitization transactions, including developing structures for emerging asset types such as recurring revenue streams and royalty incomes.

Katz has acted as lead investor’s counsel as well as special counsel in numerous asset securitization transactions involving recreational vehicles, auto leases, boat loans and consumer receivables. The transactions for which Mr. Katz has been responsible have been structured utilizing collateralized notes, grantor trusts, owner trusts and conduit financing facilities. In addition he has lead issuers’ counsel on several public and private offerings of common stock for financial companies and on public and private offerings of subordinated capital debentures and senior subordinated notes totaling over $800 million since 1987. Katz is also an active speaker on asset securitization topics to both business and legal audiences.

Katz received his J.D. and B.S., both from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Mike Vorhaus · Managing Director · Frank N. Magid Associates, Inc.

Mike founded the Magid Internet and New Media research and consultation practice in 1995, AOL and Excite as our first two clients. Mike began the Magid Gaming Practice in 2001 with EA and Sony Online as our first two clients. The Magid Game Practice now works with most of the major game publishers.

Bill Kispert · VP, Interactive · NBC Universal

Bill Kispert is Vice President, Interactive for Universal Studios Consumer Products Group. In this role, Kispert is responsible for business and creative development of Universal Pictures and NBC Television intellectual property in the interactive gaming space. This includes game projects created for console, pc, online, interactive dvd, and interactive tv platforms. Recent titles overseen by Kispert include The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay; Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie; The Fast and the Furious; and Scarface: The World Is Yours. Prior to joining Universal Pictures, Kispert was a business development executive at Disney Interactive, and an acquiring editor for Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group in New York. A native of New York City, Kispert is an honors graduate of Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

Peter Wanat · Executive Producer · Vivendia Universal games

John Broady · Director of Business Intelligence · CNET Networks Entertainment

John Broady, Director, Business Intelligence for CNET Networks Entertainment, manages GameSpot Trax, which is used by marketers, retailers and investors to analyze current and future trends in gaming. Bringing 10 years of experience to his role, he provides the tools and discipline to allow the CNET Networks Entertainment brands to make data-driven decisions which range from optimizing site performance to product development to sales programs.

John began his career as an intern at GameSpot in 1996 and has been involved in nearly every aspect of the online industry: production, editorial, design, sales, product management, operations, marketing, business intelligence and management. Most recently, he served as senior product manager at Yahoo! Shopping where he played a key role in launching Yahoo! Product Search and a new cost-per-click revenue model at Yahoo! Shopping. As senior product manager, Yahoo Personalization, he designed and launched Universal Location Manager, a major back-end service which allows Yahoo! properties to share location information that users enter.

John has a BA in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin.

Michael Dowling · CEO · Interpret LLC

Michael has spent his career building new business in the entertainment, media and interactive industries. With over 15 years of experience in media and entertainment, Dowling most recently led VNU’s growt into emerging industries, such as video games, wireless and broadband. As a leading expert in new media and measurement, Michael launched Nielsen Entertainment’s in-theater advertising measurement and interactive groups.

He’s widely acknowledged as a thought leader in the in-game advertising space, working with Activision and dynamic ad-serving companies such as Massive to establish in-game as a viable alternative to traditional media for reaching and influencing consumers.

Prior to joining Nielsen Entertainment, Dowling co-founded and served as President of iFUSE, a youth oriented Media Company that provided integrated marketing solutions to major advertisers, such as Evian, Nike, Fox, Warner Bros, Altoids, Yoo-Hoo, among others. iFUSE’s investors included Coca-Cola, Odyssey LP, Interpublic Group of Companies, Alloy, Inc. and Cisneros Television Group. Dowling also served as President to Dali Media, a software development company, which built an infrastructure to support massively distributed artificial intelligence for MMOGs.

Andrew Wallenstein · Digital Media / TV Features Editor
Hollywood Reporter

Andrew Wallenstein is the Digital Media and TV Features Editor at The Hollywood Reporter in Los Angeles. In addition, he is the co-host of the TV Guide Channel weekly series Square Off and TV critic for the National Public Radio program Day to Day. He has served as commentator on television-related matters on CNN, CNBC, ESPN, E! and MTV and has a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University.

Kanishka Agarwal · VP, Development · Telephia

Kanishka Agarwal is the Vice President of New Products at Telephia. Mr. Agarwal is responsible for driving the growth agenda of the company into new markets including mobile devices, mobile content, wireline and wireless convergence, as well as the international expansion. He is frequently quoted in top media and trade publications, including CNBC, Associated Press, San Jose Mercury News, Washington Post, RCR News, and Wireless Week. Mr. Agarwal has more than 10 years of comprehensive experience in the communications, media, technology and mobile market research industries, and is a seasoned speaker and mobile industry expert on such topics as mobile content, including gaming, music and entertainment and converging communications.

Prior to Telephia, Mr. Agarwal spent seven years in the communications, media and technology industries. He spent five years at Booz Allen Hamilton, including a year at Sprint PCS developing new products for the enterprise wireless data market. Mr. Agarwal also helped launch a wireless middleware start-up and a telecom infrastructure software spin-off from Lucent - both through Booz Allen’s incubator arm. For more than two years years, he also ran sales and marketing at an enterprise software start-up (now a part of PeopleSoft), and stints at Twentieth Century Fox and Universal Studios. Mr. Agarwal holds an MBA from Stanford University, as well as an ME and BS from Harvey Mudd College.

Cody Alexander · Head of Video Games · William Morris Agency

Mr. Alexander is Head of Video Games for William Morris Agency. In this capacity, he represents all of the agencies creative clients such as Quentin Tarantino, Bryan Singer, Ridley Scott and John Carpenter. Additionally he consults or has consulted for companies in the game and technology area such as ESPN Videogames, Texas Instruments, MySpace.com, Amp’d Mobile and several leading AAA game developers such as Terminal Reality. Mr. Alexander is a regular speaker on entertainment technology including Consumer Electronics Show, Sundance Digital, Digital Hollywood and E3. He is a member of Digital Coast Roundtable and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He believes in the democratization of content thru the power of digital distribution ever since his first Internet experience in 1989.

Mr. Alexander joined William Morris in December of 1999. Prior to that, he was in business development for The Image Bank, a subsidiary of Kodak and a consultant for Energy Film Library, a Getty Images company.

He is a graduate of the University of North Texas where he earned a Bachelors in Cinema/Television.

Clancy Brown · Actor

This prolific and versatile actor emerged from the fertile Chicago theatrical scene of the early 1980’s. Roles such as “Jean” in August Strindberg’s Miss Julie; “Aaron” in Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus; and “Geisler” in Glen DeCoasta’s A Constant Wish brought him to the attention of critics and audiences alike. His film debut as “Viking” in Bad Boys’ starring little known actor Sean Penn, brought him to the attention of Hollywood.

Clancy has just finished two new feature films. The first film for Disney is a Coast Guard film called The Guardian. Clancy portrays the best friend of Kevin Costner. The second for FOX is entitled Pathfinder. He is playing the lead villain Viking named Gunnar and the movie is scheduled for release January 2007. Clancy was also recently seen on HBO’s Emmy® award winning series, Carnivale, as the 1934 preacher, Brother Justin Crowe, and in the Emmy® nominated film Normal opposite Jessica Lange. He also brought his Mr. Krabs character to the big screen in The Spongebob Squarepants movie.

As a personality, he has managed to remain elusive and mysterious; and while well known and respected within the entertainment industry, has not sought the public exposure and popularity that many of his peers have exploited over the years.

Gordon Bellamy · Strategy & Business Development · MTV Networks

In his current role, Bellamy provides creative guidance on the content, direction and strategic marketing partnerships for the annual Spike TV Video Game Awards show and the highly rated weekly program Game Head also on Spike TV. Previously, he was Executive Director of the game industry’s trade organization, the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences.

Bellamy has also played key business and product development roles at Electronic Arts, where he was named the company’s Rookie of the Year for his work on the best-selling Madden Football franchise, THQ, and Activision subsidiary Z-Axis. He earned a BA degree from Harvard College in engineering, where he was also a John Harvard scholar and AT&T/ Bell Labs Engineering scholar.

Mathew Bellows · GM & VP Marketing · Floodgate Entertainment

Matthew is responsible for the operations, sales and marketing of Floodgate Entertainment (www.floodg.com), a top mobile games developer based in Boston, Massachusetts. At his time at the company, Floodgate has worked with companies including Electronic Arts, Disney, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Warner Bros, and Sony BMG.

Before joining Floodgate, Matthew led Gamespot.com’s mobile entertainment initiatives. He arrived at Gamespot (a division of CNET Networks) through that company’s acquisition of Wireless Gaming Review. Matthew was the co-founder, editor and publisher of WGR (WGamer.com), the leading publication for mobile entertainment consumers. While leading WGR, he grew revenues to $1.5 million and distributed content through Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, Yahoo! and Ziff-Davis.

Matthew received his MBA with high honors from the Olin School at Babson College.

Matthew is a frequent speaker at industry events, including the Game Developer Conference, where he serves on the Board of Advisors for Mobile, the Seattle Mobile Games Conference, where he co-chaired this year’s gathering, CTIA, E3, and the Games & Mobile Forum.

John Blakely · VP, Development
Sony Online Entertainment, Austin

John Blakely is the Vice President of Development for Sony Online Entertainment – Austin. Mr. Blakely is responsible for building the development teams, setting the overall vision, and delivering all of the Austin based products for SOE. Mr. Blakely has over a dozen years of management experience in the interactive entertainment industry, holding leadership positions with Magnet Interactive Studios, VR1, and Sony Online Entertainment. Mr. Blakely has been focused on online games for the last 10 years, producing titles such as Fighter Ace, Ultracorps, VR1 Crossroads, Nomads of Klanth, Hasbro Email Games, and EverQuest II as well as Star Wars Galaxies expansions. In addition, Mr. Blakely has produced single player games for both console and PC platforms such as Nightcaster, Icebreaker, Chop Suey, Beyond the Wall, One Small Square, and Wings Over Europe.

Before entering the game business, Mr. Blakely worked in the US Space program at NASA-JSC and for the Consortium for Materials Development in Space, building payloads for the Space Shuttle, SpaceHab, SpaceLab, and sub-orbital sounding rocket programs and is best known in that business for leading a project that produced the first concrete cured in microgravity.

George Borkowski · Head of IP & Tech Practice · MS&K

Borkowski is a member of MS&K Governing Board, and Chair of MS&K Intellectual Property & Technology Practice. He is also a senior member of litigation team representing the record industry in its copyright infringement suit against Kazaa, Sharman, Music City, and Grokster.

Jon Van Canegham · Co-Founder & President / Chief Creative Officer · Trion World Network, Inc.

Jon Van Caneghem is a Founder and the President/Chief Creative Officer of Trion World Network, Inc., the publisher and developer of original entertainment and games for the broadband era. Van Caneghem’s focus is guiding the development of the company’s technology platform as well as providing vision and leadership for Trion’s internal game development teams.

Van Caneghem has built a revered reputation as an exceptional game developer who consistently introduced successful new IP to the market. In 2004 Van Caneghem was inducted into the Computer Gaming World Hall of Fame, and is currently honored in two different categories, Strategy and Role-Playing.

Van Caneghem began his career in 1983 as the Founder, President, and CEO of New World Computing, a publisher and developer of computer and console games. In his twenty years at New World Computing, he oversaw the publishing of more than 250 titles worldwide, representing $1 billion in retail sales, and created the best-selling Might and Magic and Heroes franchises. Van Caneghem successfully sold New World Computing to leading developer and publisher 3DO in 1996. He remained with 3DO as President and Lead Visionary through 2003.

Chris Cao · Studio Creative Director · Sony Online Entertianment

Chris Cao is the Studio Creative Director at Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) Austin. Most recently, Mr. Cao has been involved in the creation of the upcoming DC Universe Online while working on the live design of Star Wars Galaxies. Mr. Cao began his work at SOE as a designer on the original EverQuest, moving to EverQuest II to become Lead Designer for the launch of the product and its first expansion. Mr. Cao has been at SOE since 2003. Mr. Cao holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from the Loma Linda University.

Kenny Dinkin · VP & Executive Producer · Playfirst

As Vice President and Executive Producer, Kenny Dinkin oversees the PlayFirst games portfolio, including content acquisition, creative direction, and game production. Kenny brings nearly a decade of success in consumer technology where he has designed, produced and directed design on a wide array of award-winning consumer products and interactive platforms.

Prior to joining PlayFirst, Kenny was the worldwide head of product design for The Learning Company/Broderbund, where he was creative lead for a portfolio of premiere children’s software brands, including Reader Rabbit, Carmen Sandiego and KidPix as well as licensed properties such as Scooby-Doo, Strawberry Shortcake, Batman, Powerpuff Girls and Arthur. A visual artist, writer, musician, game designer and avid comic book reader, Kenny was also the co-creator of the critically acclaimed, top-selling brand The ClueFinders.

Kenny earned a Bachelor’s degree in History from Brown University and an M.F.A. in Fine Arts from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design.

Jay Moore · Founder · The Strategery Group

Now driving a new consultancy, The Strategery Group (pronounced stru-tee-jur-ee), focused on brand and business development for talented game dev. studios, Jay was previously GarageGames’ Director of Business Development, Marketing Director and Evangelist. As a serial entrepreneur Jay has been the Marketing Director for a computer programing magazine, Sales and Marketing Director for an educational software distributor, and President of an advertising & design firm. Jay started in the game industry with The Even More Incredible Machine!, marketing the game to the educational market. Then worked to bring all the Sierra educational games into the k-12 channel and successfully launched category-creator Driver’s Education ‘98. Jay joined the ‘Garage’ in 2002 and directed the launch of IndieGamesCon, online publishing of independent games and worked to establish Torque as the game engine platform of choice for independent game developers.

Chris Early · Studio Manager · Microsoft Casual Games Group

Early is the studio manager for the Microsoft Casual Games group, the segment of the company involved in creating and publishing games for MSN Games, Xbox Live Arcade, Windows OS casual games, MSN Messenger and Microsoft Mobile games. By creating a casual game universe that’s unified across all of Microsoft’s gaming platforms, Early believes game developers and advertisers will get more bang for the buck — and customers will have more ways to have fun.

Mike Goslin · VP, VIrtual Reality Studio · Walt Disney Internet Group

Mike Goslin is vice president of the Virtual Reality (VR) studio at the Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG). He is primarily focused on the development of Disney’s Toontown Online, a massively multiplayer online game (MMO) for kids and families and Pirates of the Caribbean Online, a MMO created for fans of the popular film franchise.

Goslin joined the VR Studio in 1996, when it was part of Walt Disney Imagineering, to work on virtual reality attractions for theme parks. Over the next several years, he was technical lead on a series of projects that were developed for DisneyQuest; a chain of “super arcades” featuring Virtual Reality rides and games such as “Alladin’s Magic Carpet VR Adventure” and “Hercules in the Underworld” which opened in 1998, and “Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for Buccaneer Gold” which won the award for Outstanding Attraction from the Themed Entertainment Association in 2001.

Before joining Disney, Goslin was a researcher for The Institute for Simulation and Training in Orlando, Florida where he worked with psychologists from the U.S. Army to evaluate Virtual Reality as a means for training soldiers to perform dangerous tasks. During that time, he collaborated with Jacki Morie on “Virtopia,” one of the first examples of Virtual Reality as artwork, which premiered at the Florida Film Festival in 1993.

Goslin holds a bachelor of science degree from Duke University and a master of science degree in computer science from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where under the guidance of the legendary Dr. Fred Brooks, he led a research team whose goal was to push the limits of what was possible in creating immersive virtual worlds.

Jeff Herrmann · Vice President
Nielsen Wireless & Interactive Services

Jeff Herrmann currently leads Nielsen Wireless and Interactive Services, a new business unit within VNU’s Media Measurement and Information Group (MMI). Jeff is responsible for Nielsen’s measurement strategy, development and operations in emerging media categories — specifically for the wireless and video game industries. Nielsen Wireless and Interactive Services is driving media measurement innovation by leveraging a robust intellectual property portfolio, extensive technology infrastructure and a deep foundation of experience in audience measurement and advertising intelligence.

A 10+ year veteran of Nielsen Media Research, Jeff has spent the bulk of his time in business development and product strategy roles focused on emerging media platforms. Jeff’s prior roles include Vice President, Business Development and Strategy for VNU’s Media Measurement and Information Group Operations focused on mergers and acquisition, and Vice President, Product Strategy for Nielsen Media’s Local Business Unit. Jeff has also held sales and development roles with Nielsen//NetRatings.

Jeff holds an MBA in Finance and Economics from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, and a BA from the School of Journalism and Communications at The Ohio State University.

Teemu Huuhtanen
EVP, Sales & Business Dev., Regional President, North America
Sulake Corporation Ltd.

Mr. Teemu Huuhtanen is the Executive Vice President of Sulake Corporation, an interactive entertainment company based in Helsinki, Finland.

Sulake is an interactive entertainment company specialized in developing, publishing and distributing multiplayer online games and communities, like Habbo.

Currently Sulake employs around 270 people and operates in 18 countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and USA.

Sulake’s main product is Habbo, a new type of youth brand, which is based on one of the world’s fastest growing online communities for teenagers. There are localized Habbo communities in 20 countries on five continents supported by a payment network spanning 30 countries. To date, over 60 million Habbo characters have been created and close to 7 million unique users worldwide visit Habbo each month (source: Nielsen Netratings, July 2006).

Mr. Huuhtanen was appointed VP, Sales of Sulake in January 2003. Prior to this, he worked for mobile entertainment & application company Small Planet as EVP. Prior to this, he was the CEO of Orchimedia, a mobile & internet entertainment company. Huuhtanen has over eight years’ experience and a proven track record from senior posts in consumer and B2B sales & business development functions for several international digital entertainment start-up companies (Small Planet, Orchimedia and mm2 consultancy company). Huuhtanen has studied at Kuopio Polytechnic and University of Kuopio.

Sandi Isaacs · VP, Interactive & Mobile
Paramount Pictures, Licensing Group

Sandi Isaacs has been with Viacom since 2000, and currently serves as Vice President, Interactive and Wireless representing Paramount Pictures. In this role, she is responsible for identifying, negotiating and securing business and licensing partnerships to develop video game franchises and wireless applications based on Paramount Pictures intellectual properties. Isaacs has more than a decade of interactive entertainment industry experience and an extensive background in licensing and business development.

Alex St. John · CEO & Co-Founder · WildTangent

Alex St. John is the CEO and co-founder of WildTangent, the leading online game publisher and creators of the Web Driver platform, the most ubiquitous gaming platform on the Internet today.

Prior to founding WildTangent in 1998, St. John was responsible for Microsoft's multimedia strategy. St. John was one of the principal creators of Microsoft’s DirectX technology, which become the foundation for all Windows multimedia applications, 3D graphics, media players, as well as thousands of PC and Xbox games. Several books have been written about St. John’s exploits at Microsoft including Renegades of the Empire by Michael Drummond, Opening the Xbox by Dean Takahashi, and Masters of Doom by David Kushner.

St. John is widely considered to have his finger on the pulse of cutting edge technology trends in the gaming industry and is a frequent speaker at major media & technology events as well as a monthly columnist for Computer Power User Magazine.

Gary Price · Partner · TAG Strategic

Gary is a partner at TAG Strategic, an entertainment, media and technology consultancy. He has extensive expertise in streaming media and content delivery, Internet technology, marketing strategy, and monetization. His career track has included high-level positions at American Express, Reed Elsievier, DIGEX, the Gartner Group, e-Media, and RampRate. His leadership helped them capitalize on the explosion of connectivity, technology, rapid adoption of Internet-based solutions, and the corresponding analysis of corporate and customer technology behaviors therein. Gary has analyzed, presented, and advised on a wide range of technologies, products/services, companies, markets, industry trends, applications and issues. He was an integral player in the formation of ESPN Motion, the NHL DRM & E-Commerce offering, and ABC Radio, as well as a number of other high profile projects for content owners. Before TAG, Gary played a crucial role in the success of AT&T’s Managed Services and is a major force in their push of Intelligent Content Delivery Services

Nicholas Longano · President of New Media · Massive Incorporated

Nicholas has over 15 years in consumer packaged good marketing, with 4 years as General Manager and Head of Marketing for Vivendi Universal Games. He was the former General Manager for Calvin Klein Cosmetics Canada and Latin America operations, and head of marketing, worldwide. Nicholas has an extensive track record of launching successful franchises worldwide, and up to recently was President of MOJO Advertising in Los Angeles – where he formed a new video game division, with clients such as Atari, ESPN Games, VUG, and Groove Games.

Nicholas holds a Business Degree in Marketing from the David Syme Business School, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.

Keith McCurdy · COO · Hands-On Mobile

Prior to joining Hands-On Mobile, Mr. McCurdy was President and CEO of Blaze Entertainment, a venture backed mobile games publisher. Prior to heading up Blaze Entertainment, Mr. McCurdy was a 10-year veteran of Electronic Arts. Mr. McCurdy held a number of positions at Electronic Arts, including Vice President of Product Development, Vice President of World Wide Technology and Vice President of Online, where he was responsible for the creation of Electronic Arts’ Online Division, leading the company's business strategy and product efforts onto the Internet. As Vice President of EA’s worldwide studios, Mr. McCurdy played a key role in product development, M&A efforts, strategic relationships and platform transition strategies

Joseph Olin · President · Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences

Joseph Olin is President of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. Olin has been with AIAS since July 2004. Olin has been instrumental in raising consumer awareness of well-known videogame publishers and properties from Nintendo to Sega Genesis. As Vice President, Marketing & Business Development at U.S. GOLD, INC. / EIDOS Interactive, he directed all sales, marketing and new business development activities, and played a key role in the launch of Tomb Raider & Lara Croft game franchises. Additionally, Olin’s extensive career entails a wide variety of senior level held positions at Elliot Portwood Studios, Voiceweb Corporation, Kovel/Fuller, Inc., Della Femina McNamee, Panda Management Company and Microprose/Hasbro Interactive.

Olin is a graduate of the University of Southern California.

Jim Merrick · CEO · Mobliss

As President and CEO, Jim oversees all aspects of daily operations including game development and publishing, messaging initiatives and the proprietary SMS voting platform as well as identifying strategic growth opportunities. Prior to joining Mobliss, Jim spent 12 years at Nintendo where his diverse roles included Sr. Director of Marketing, Nintendo of Europe and, also, Technical Director of Nintendo of America. As a veteran of the interactive entertainment industry, Jim’s career has seen the growth of the interactive entertainment industry from its infancy to $27.5 billion in global revenue. Prior to that, Merrick was one of three primary developers of a leading CAD/CAM product company, 4D Graphics. Before coming to 4D, Merrick held various executive positions with CAD/CAM systems sales companies, including president of CAD Innovations, Inc.

Michael Schutzler · SVP, Games Division · RealNetworks

Schutzler is responsible for overseeing the worldwide casual games business, advertising sales, and corporate marketing. He has a distinguished 20-year career in tech industries having served as CEO of Classmates.com, SVP of Consumer Products at Monster.com, and CEO of Freeshop.com.

Julie Shumaker · VP, Worldwide Sales · Double Fusion

Formerly EA’s National Director of Sales, Videogame Advertising, Shumaker established EA as the number one direct seller of integrated advertising placements in games. During her five year tenure, she increased year-on-year revenues by more than 60%. Shumaker’s successes include the implementation of a five-title advertising program with Procter & Gamble, a revolutionary sponsorship program with Daimler Chrysler around Madden NFL, and the industry’s first seven-figure product placement deals with McDonald’s and Intel in Electronic Art’s (EA) The Sims franchise.

Prior to her work at EA, Shumaker drove sponsorships and advertising sales on Yahoo! Inc.’s FIFA World cup site (www.fifaworldcup.com). Before joining Yahoo, Shumaker was director of sponsorship sales for Quokka Sports and its joint venture with NBC. Shumaker’s experience in sports and sports marketing was established early on in her career, with three years as a professional golfer on the Asian and US tours. In 2005, Shumaker was featured in the “The Ad Age 2005 Women To Watch Report: Twenty-Five Executives Who Made A Difference,” underscoring her success in building videogames as a viable advertising channel.

Ned Sherman · CEO & Publisher · Digital Media Wire, Inc.

Ned Sherman is CEO and Publisher of Digital Media Wire, Inc., where he works at the center of the rapidly growing digital media industry. Under his leadership, Digital Media Wire has grown from a small newsletter publisher into a well-respected B-to-B brand that owns and produces five annual conferences - Digital Music Forum, Games & Mobile Forum, Digital Media Conference, Future of Television Forum, Digital Commerce Summit and The Billboard Digital Entertainment Conference & Awards (now DEMXPO) - and provides daily news, information and community to 30,000+ executives and professionals at entertainment, media and technology companies throughout the world.

As digital media community-builder, Ned has established partnerships with the leading B-to-B media companies and educational institutions, including VNU Business Media, Billboard Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, Reed Business Information, Multichannel News, Business 2.0, Business Week, CableFax/CableWorld, VIBE/SPIN, MidemNet, NYU’s Stern School of Business, USC’s Center for Telecom Management and UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, and hundreds of the leading digital media companies, including Microsoft, Real Networks, Sony Corporation of America, AOL Time Warner, Napster, Yahoo! and many more.

An expert on legal issues and business methods, Ned provides value to his clients and partners by offering timely news and research, producing executive forum on cutting-edge topics, and leveraging his extensive network of media assets and strategic relationships across games, music, film, television and mobile industries.

Ned’s background is in law. Before joining Digital Media Wire, Ned spent 7+ years as a corporate and entertainment attorney practicing at several of the leading law firms in the world with an international client base across industries including technology, Internet, media and entertainment.

As a founding member of the iLaw Group in the Entertainment Department at Loeb & Loeb LLP in Century City, he handled complex licensing transactions and financings for media and entertainment clients including Universal Studios and MGM and launched dozens of Internet and new media start-ups. He has counseled company founders from initiation of a business plan to seed, angel, venture capital and later-stage private financings and managed all legal aspects of Internet clients from corporate organization, stockholder relationships, board compositions and dynamics, stock option plans, capital raising and security regulatory matters, Internet law issues, trademark, copyright, content and technology licensing, advertising and privacy issues.

From 1997 to 1999, he practiced in the Los Angeles office of Mayer, Brown & Platt where his practice centered on representation of U.S. and foreign banks in complex lending transactions.

From 1995 to 1997, he was a foreign lawyer at Nishimura & Partners in Tokyo, Japan, where his practice involved international mergers and acquisitions and the formation of technology and entertainment joint venture companies. He also served as President of the Roppongi Bar Association in Tokyo.

In 2000, he was an Adjunct Lecturer of Law at Tulane University Law School where he taught an entertainment law seminar. Ned is a graduate of Brown University (AB, with honors, 1990) and the University of Texas School of Law (JD, 1994) where he was Chief Articles & Notes Editor of the Texas International Law Journal.

Ned is a frequent speaker at media and entertainment industry events, including MidemNet (moderator at 2004 and 2005 conferences), Digital Music Forum (host and moderator, 2001-2005), Billboard Digital Entertainment Awards (co-chair and host, 2004) and the O2 Digital Media Awards (judge 2004), and has been quoted in publications including American Lawyer, The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard and Crain’s Mermigas on Media, and interviewed on National Public Radio (NPR), NY1 Evening News and nationally syndicated radio shows, Inside Digital Media, WebTalk and Online Tonight with David Lawrence.

He sits on the Board of Directors of Wild Way, a non-profit dedicated to cultivating environmental awareness and developing educational programs for inner-city and “at risk” kids and has traveled extensively from Europe to Asia to South America to Northern Africa. Ned is married and lives with his wife and son in Hollywood Hills, California.

Keith Boesky · Principal · Boesky & Company

Boesky has been active in the content and technology communities as an attorney, a senior executive, as an agent and now as principal of Boesky & Company. Boesky & Company closed more intellectual property and game development deals, making more money for its clients, than any other agency in the world.

Cooper Moo · VP of Business Development · FUN Games

Cooper is Vice President of Business Development for FUN Games, overseeing business development for the skill-based games companies WorldWinner and SkillJam, the game development company Octopi, and the Flash-based games site TeaGames. FUN Games partners include MSN, AOL, GSN, EA-Pogo, RealNetworks, Hasbro, PopCap, iWin, and Mumbo Jumbo among others.

Cooper has spent the last eight years in the online space, focused primarily on B2C business and product development. As senior manager of e-commerce for Monster.com, he represented Monster’s interests in a $104 million dollar, four-year partnership with AOL. As director of strategic partnerships for Salary.com, he created and managed partnerships with Monster, Yahoo!, CareerBuilder and other online media companies. Before entering the online space Cooper was a partner in a Seattle trading company for eight years.

Cooper resides near Seattle, WA and graduated from the University of Oregon with a B.A. in International Relations with a focus on China.

John Welch · President & CEO · PlayFirst

John Welch is a co-founder and the President and CEO of PlayFirst, the pioneering full-service publisher dedicated to bringing popular downloadable games to the mass market. One of the most visible figures in the casual games industry today, John is responsible for the strategic direction of the company.

Prior to forming PlayFirst, John spent five years at Shockwave.com (now a division of Atom Entertainment) as the company’s Vice President of Games and Product where he drove the product strategy and acquisitions for Shockwave.com. While at Shockwave.com, John helped build the site into one of the Internet's top games portals and discovered some of the top independent game developers in the world. John has been on the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) Online Games group steering committee since its inception, and served as Chairman of the group from 2003-2004. Prior to Shockwave.com, John was at SEGA from 1998-1999 where he led the specification effort for the Sega Dreamcast Network.

John launched his career as a systems integration consultant at Andersen Consulting, then co-founded his own firm which specialized in enterprise solutions. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics with Computer Science from MIT and a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts.

Mike Yuen · Senior Director, Gaming Group · QUALCOMM

Mike manages the team that drives the BREW gaming experience as well as ensuring that the platform is profitable and viable for game publishers and developers. Prior, Mike led the BREW Developer Relations team responsible for signing up companies such as Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo!, Disney, Sony, and Electronic Arts.

Eric Zimmerman · Co-Founder & CEO · gameLab

Eric has been working in the game industry for more than a decade. He is the co-founder and CEO of gameLab, a game development company and publisher that creates online games for sites like Shockwave.com and Microsoft’s Gaming Zone, including the hit downloadable game DINER DASH. Eric has taught courses at MIT, NYU, and Parsons School of Design.

Mathieu Nouzareth · Founder & President · Boonty S.A.

Mathieu Nouzareth founded Boonty S.A., one of the world leaders in digital distribution video games, in 2001. As Chairman, he currently oversees worldwide operations from the company’s headquarters in Paris, France.

Prior to establishing Boonty, Mathieu founded WebConcept with his brother Romain, who currently serves as CEO of Boonty’s United States operations. WebConcept was one of the first e-business consulting companies in France and quickly became an industry leader.

After selling WebConcept to Sweden’s IconMedialab (Euronext: icon) in 1999, Mathieu continued his active role in the company’s development, serving as President of IconMedialab in France until 2001.

Mathieu is a graduate of the Management School of Grenoble, and holds an MBA from the Lubin School of Business in New York.

Jim Banister · Principal · Spectrum MediaWorks

Banister’s diverse career includes roles as a successful film and television producer, a pioneer in computer animation, a renowned expert in cross-media programming and a groundbreaking physicist working in the area of visual simulation. He spent six years as Chief Development Officer and Executive Vice President of Warner Bros. New Media.

Mark Friedler · CEO · GameDAILY

Mark Friedler is CEO and co-founder of Gigex, Inc./GameDAILY, a leading provider of video game news, reviews, and free downloads that launched in 1995. He is a frequent speaker and panelist at industry trade gatherings including CES, E3, Digital Hollywood and events sponsored by Microsoft, IQPC, Jupiter Communications, Digital Media Wire, IEMA, and SIIA.

Eric Goldberg · Managing Director · Crossover Technologies

Eric Goldberg serves or has served as a board member of, advisor or consultant to AOL, Centerscore, Digital Chocolate, In-Fusio, Kayak (dba Blaze), LimeLife, (M)forma (dba Hands-On Mobile), Openwave, Reaxion, Unplugged, Thumbplay, Vindigo, Warner Music Group, and two venture capital firms. He also has advised on a recent series of financings and two acquisitions.

Until 2002, Eric was the President of Unplugged Games, for which he secured distribution with four of the five largest North American carriers. Previously, he served as Founder and President of Crossover Technologies, one of the first online game companies; and, prior to that, as President of West End Games, the adventure game company. His award-winning games include Paranoia, Tales of the Arabian Nights, The Tom Peters Business School in a Box, and MadMaze, the first online game to draw one million players.

Dave Rohrl · GM - SF Studio · PopCap Games

Dave Rohrl has been producing and designing casual games since 2000, shipping more than two dozen games during that period. Dave recently joined PopCap games where he is running PopCap’s fledgling San Francisco development studio. Prior to that, Dave worked at Pogo.com where he conceived, launched, and managed product development and content selection for Pogo’s downloadable games service and created many of Pogo.com's most popular online games, including Word Whomp, Tumble Bees, Payday Freecell, and Hammerhead Pool. Mr. Rohrl is also a co-organizer of the Casual Games Summit Tutorial at GDC.

Megan Galbraith · Sr Game Producer · Atom Entertainment, Inc.

Megan Galbraith is a Senior Game Producer at Atom Entertainment, Inc., which runs the two casual gaming sites Shockwave.com & AddictingGames.com, and which was recently bought by MTV Networks. Megan has worked her way up over the last 3 years from “the jigsaw girl” to her current role, where she oversees the development of such exciting projects as Shockwave’s multiplayer back-end technology (which hosts casual multiplayer games) and their Flash Lite mobile content catalog application (“Shockwave Minis”), which launched with Verizon at the end of October.

Megan also works on managing the production of custom advergames based on the needs of Shockwave’s experienced sales team, and she continually assists her fellow Games Team members with the selection and production of the ever-churning e-commerce pipeline for downloadable games.

Prior to joining Atom Entertainment, Megan was doing wearable technology research with the Aesthetics + Computation Group at the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, MA. At MIT, she received her S.B. in Mathematics w/ Computer Science in 2001, and her S.M. in Media Arts and Sciences in 2003.

Although she didn’t expect to end up “in games” after finishing school, Megan certainly isn’t looking backwards!

Bart Yeary · Co-Founder · Faketown.com

Bart Yeary is the Creative Director and Co-Founder of Identity Play, a social gaming company specializing in virtual world/social network hybrids, including Faketown.com, a multi-player, online “social game” where people can create, compete, and communicate via avatars (also known as Fake I.D.s). Mr. Yeary has over ten years of experience in digital media and online games.

Prior to founding Identity Play, he was a Senior Art Director at Avenue-A/Razorfish. His extensive client list encompasses some of the world's most well known brands, including Diesel (Protokid.com), Kraft (Postopia.com), P&G, Kellogg’s, Foxsports and a variety of entertainment companies.

Mr. Yeary received his BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a dual major: Visual Communication/Art and Technology

Anders Evju · GM Americas · I-Plays

Anders Evju is a wireless industry veteran with 15 years experience covering senior business development positions with both US and European carriers. Before opening the US office of I-play in 2000, Anders had co-founded MobileSpring, gained U.S. wireless carrier experience from Omnipoint Communications and spent 3 yrs with Norwegian carriers NetCom GSM. Major launches include the first commercial launch of SMS-chat over text-TV, downloadable ringtones/icons and the launch of Mother, one of the world’s first mobile content portals.

Joe Lynam · President, CEO & Founder · PaymentOne

Joe Lynam has spent the last two decades as one of the leading pioneers of digital payment. He created the vision and developed innovative, patented digital payment solutions including the industry’s fastest-growing PhoneBill service at PaymentOne. Lynam’s early work in online payment methods, authentication tools, and comprehensive fraud control techniques now are emerging as industry-wide standards.

Lynam is an accomplished entrepreneur and executive with proven ability to lead companies through profitable double and triple digit growth. Under his leadership, PaymentOne has more than doubled its revenues for four consecutive years, culminating in two Deloitte Fast 50 Awards, most recently noted as the 11th fastest growing technology company in Silicon Valley, and 33rd fastest growing company in North America.

Previously, Lynam founded and led a telecommunications billing and payments company, VRS Billing Systems, which was successfully acquired by AT&T. Within three years, Lynam took that organization from startup to annual retail billings of more than $300 million. He also spent time at AT&T earlier in his career, where he served as National Billing Director responsible for managing over 100 employees that implemented and managed advanced nationwide billing and customer service systems.

Lynam holds a Bachelor of Science in Marketing from Santa Clara University.

Don Daglow · President & CEO · Stormfront Studios, Inc.

Don has served as president and CEO of Stormfront Studios since founding the company in 1988. Entering the industry in 1980, Don served as director of Intellivision game development, as a producer at EA, and led Broderbund’s Entertainment division. He programmed the first-ever computer baseball game in 1971, the first mainframe computer RPG in 1975, and the first sim game in 1982. Don also co-designed EARL WEAVER BASEBALL (EA, 1987) and the first graphical MMORPG, NEVERWINTER NIGHTS (AOL,1991-97). In 2003, Don received the Classic Gaming Expo Achievement Award for “groundbreaking accomplishments that shaped the Video Game Industry.” Electronic Games has called him “one of the best-known and respected producers in the history of the field.”

Matthew Bromberg · President & COO · MLG

As president and COO, Matthew is responsible for all day-to-day operations of Major League Gaming, the first professional video gaming league in America. Prior to joining MLG, he was CEO of Davidson Media Holdings LLC, an investment partnership dedicated to the consumer Internet, with a particular focus on games and games media. Matthew spent six years at AOL/Time Warner, first as general manager of MovieFone and then as the general manager of AOL Games. Under his leadership, the MovieFone business became the number one movie show times and ticketing service in the world, both online and on the phone. During his time at AOL, Games became the most popular service on AOL after e-mail and instant messaging. Previously, Matthew was at CMP Media, most recently as Publisher and General Manager of the TechWeb Network. During his tenure, CMP Media IPO’d and was subsequently sold for $920MM to United News and Media. He began his career working for Steven Brill as head of sales and marketing for Lexis Counsel Connect, a pioneering online service started by Brill in the early 90’, and later became Deputy Publisher at Brill’s American Lawyer Media/Court TV. Matthew has a B.A. in English from Cornell University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.