Jay Baage, VP of Content, Digital Media Wire
Event Director, LA Games Conference

Jay Baage, both a "suit" and a creative, is a Sweden-born media professional, focused on shepherding media and brand properties from an analog to a digital world. Jay plays a key role at Digital Media Wire (DMW), a leading provider of news, financial information and conferences for media professionals. He keeps tabs of the most innovative companies and manages many of DMW’s most significant advertising and sponsorship relationships across its events and publishing properties. His clients range from Fortune 500 companies to start-ups and cover such industries as games, music, film, television, publishing, mobile and internet commerce. He has furthermore transformed the company’s approach to marketing by audience and community development through social media. He has during his career established high-profile strategic partnerships with other leading industry organizations such as PGA, SAG, GDA, CTIA, E3 and Canadian Music Week and connected senior executives in the media and entertainment industries, leading to high level deals.

Gordon Bellamy, Executive Director, IGDA

Gordon has served as the Executive Director of the International Game Developers Association since November 2010.

He has spent the past seventeen years producing and marketing interactive content. He also develops strategic business partnerships with video game publishers, social media developers and technology partners.

As an executive consultant for MTV, Bellamy provided 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 GameTrailers TV with Geoff Keighley, 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. Gordon previously served as Chair of the Board of the International Game Developers Association and serves as a judge for the Promax/BDA MI6 Awards, which celebrate the best in marketing, advertising and design within interactive and game entertainment. He earned a BA degree from Harvard College in engineering, where he was also a John Harvard scholar and an AT&T/Bell Labs Engineering scholar. Gordon resides in Los Angeles, California and can be reached via Gordon@igda.org.

Allen DeBevoise, Chairman and CEO
Machinima.com

Allen DeBevoise is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Machinima Inc, and its operating site Machinima.com, a premier entertainment network for gamers. With more than 25 years of experience in the entertainment and interactive multimedia industries, DeBevoise oversees the company’s programming, marketing and sales. Since taking the reins the company has grown three-fold and is now boasts over 100 Million views per month. Additionally, he has recently closed a $3.5 Million venture capital deal for Machinima.com bringing the total funds DeBevoise has raised during his 25 year industry tenure to over $130 Million for a variety of business ventures including dotTV, LowerMyBills.com and Dealer.com, where he was on the Board of Directors. Prior to joining Machinima, DeBevoise co-founded Creative Planet, an online resource for film and television production professionals, after serving as President and CEO of TCI Interactive. Allen was featured on The Hollywood Reporter’s DIGITAL POWER LIST for 2009 and has just been recognized as one of Digital Media Wire’s “25 Executives to Watch” for 2010. The company has fast become a revolutionary social media marketing tool due to its highly engaged and interactive community, delivering high CTR and ROI to the brands, studios, networks and retailers who advertise with them.

Albert Donahue
Co-Founder and VP, Xsolla USA Inc.

Albert Donahue is the Co--Founder and Vice President of Xsolla USA Inc. Al has been involved in the gaming industry for eight years and has brought an extensive business management and financial consulting background to the table at Xsolla. He has previously worked as a financial underwriter and consultant, working with venture capital investments and has always taken an interest in new business development opportunities. Al has broad experience in marketing, consulting, data analysis, and risk evaluation.

Chris Donahue
Director, Global Publisher/Developer Relations
Onlive, Inc.

Chris is responsible for Publisher and Developer Relations at Onlive, Inc., the world’s first cloud gaming service. Prior to Onlive, Chris was President of the SparkWorkz online division at inXile entertainment. Chris was also with Live Gamer, Inc. as SVP of Sales & Marketing and at Microsoft as Director of Games for Windows, where he helped define and build the Games for Windows program and define the gaming strategy for Windows. Chris previously ran developer relations for Nvidia and ATI and was Executive Producer at The ImagiNation Network and Sierra Online.

Jon Estanislao
Director, Digital Distribution
Activision, Inc.

Jon Estanislao is the Director of Digital Distribution at Activision Publishing, where he manages the worldwide digital distribution of games and content to console, PC, mobile and other connected devices. Since joining in 2002, he established most of the company's key digital relationships, led business development and licensing deals for feature phone mobile games, and launched several smartphone games.

Prior to joining Activision, Jon worked with Accenture's media and entertainment strategy practice servicing several video game and communications clients. Jon received his M.B.A. degree from the UCLA Anderson School of Management and his B.S. degree in Business Administration from Georgetown University.

Jim Greer
Co-Founder & CEO
Kongregate

Jim is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Kongregate and is responsible for the company's strategic direction. He is the driving force behind its vision of community around games, including its focus on game developers, and most importantly its ability to identify and retain great talent. Jim, a self-described gaming addict and spokesperson for developers and publishers, is a regular contributor to Kongregate's codebase, and developed many of the site’s customer support and fraud screening tools.

Before founding Kongregate in June 2006, Jim was technical director for Pogo at Electronic Arts and led the web and game engineering teams. Jim was also a software engineer at shockwave, and co-founder and product director at game development studio Titanic Entertainment. He has worked in the game industry since 1991, when he went from summer intern to leading the game world design team on Ultima VII: The Black Gate. Despite the advice of his then boss Richard Garriott, he finished his computer science degree at Princeton University before returning to the game industry.

Before coming up with the idea for Kongregate, Jim was forced to get both his poker and World of Warcraft habits under control. The busy father of two spends more time than he would like to admit on Hacker News and Reddit, and he also tries to fit in a little snowboarding, golf and running from time to time. He can also be found on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Marshall Jensen, Managing Partner
DMW Hexagon

Marshall has nearly two decades experience working with emerging growth companies, largely within the TMT (Technology, Media and Telecom) and Digital Media sectors. A seasoned investment banker, attorney and private equity professional, he has completed in excess of one hundred and fifty financing and M&A transactions in either an advisory (investment bank and legal) or principal investment capacity. From 1996 to 2005, he worked in New York and San Francisco in the investment banking groups of several major financial institutions including CIBC, UBS and Adams Harkness (subsequently acquired by Canaccord) where he was a Managing Director and Head of the Equity Private Placement Group. Marshall also spent three plus years (2005 to 2009) at a San Francisco-based $100+million AUM hedge fund and private equity vehicle (Fort Mason Capital, LLC) where he was a Managing Director, lead the origination and structuring of over 30 TMT-focused and related private investments and where he was integrally involved in numerous fund administration matters. Pre-dating his investment banking and principal investment experience, Marshall briefly practiced corporate law as an associate attorney with Shearman & Sterling, supporting clients including Apple Computer, Viacom and Silicon Graphics. Today he continues to advise numerous emerging growth clients as a Managing Member of DMW Hexagon Advisors. Marshall holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Brown University and JD degree from Columbia University.

Michael Maher
Director of Business Development, Enterprise Growth
American Express

Michael Maher is Director of Business Development, Enterprise Growth, at American Express. Prior to its acquisition by American Express, Maher held a similar position at Sometrics, where he worked with online game publishers to implement in-game payments and optimization platforms. Leading the business development team, Maher executed agreements with direct payment partners, closed advertising and licensing deals, and was directly responsible for exponential revenue increases annually.

Maher’s professional background spans a variety of industries including IT, medical, real estate, aerospace, and finance. An expert on social media utilities, micro-transactions, gaming and advertising, he graduated from the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business with an MBA in 2008.

Davin Miyoshi, Vice President, Social Games, GSN Digital

DAVIN MIYOSHI leads GSN's Games application, a top 20 game on Facebook, where over 7 million users play casual Flash games and compete in tournaments for virtual currency every month. Previously, Davin was a Co-Founder and CEO of Mesmo, a leading social game developer that since the launch of the Facebook platform in 2007 had engaged over 25 million users on Facebook, MySpace, hi5 and Bebo. In addition, Davin helped build two other Internet start-ups. At Intraware, a pioneer in online digital media distribution, he was integral in helping the company achieve a $2+ billion market cap and $50 million in annual revenues. After Intraware, Davin joined as VP of Business Development and one of the first employees at EQuill, an early social web discovery company that was acquired by Microsoft. He started his career in Investment Banking at Montgomery Securities (acquired by Banc America Securities) and also led corporate development initiatives at 3Com. Davin serves on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors for Hands On Bay Area, a Bay Area non-profit where he previously served as the Board Chair and Treasurer. He received a Bachelors degree in Economics with honors from the University of California at Berkeley.

Jay Moore, Co-Founder & Dir. of Business Development, BitRaider LLC

A serial / parallel entrepreneur who thrives on building successful new ventures. As co-founder of BitRaider, his current venture, he sets out to change the rules of digital distribution and create a better consumer experience for all games, especially online games. An evangelist and brand manager in the games industry since 1994, he was an original partner in GarageGames and hosted Indie Game Con `02-`05. He's consulted with a wide variety of studios and spoken at GDC SF & Austin, e3, LA Games Conf., LOGIN and Casual Connect. As a start up advisor to game entrepreneurs he is an insight merchant focused on building strong business teams and advising on brand, business and corporate development.

Andrew Pedersen
VP & General Manager, Social Games
Tagged

Andrew joined Tagged as Vice President & General Manager of Social Games and head of Tagged’s new in-house Game Studio.

A respected visionary with 20 years experience in the design and development of online entertainment and software properties, Andrew Pedersen knows casual games and the casual gaming audience. Most recently SVP of Creative for BlueNoodle, Pedersen was previously the creative and design lead as Vice President and General Manager for EA’s Pogo. While there he developed more than 100 games for the platform and introduced the Club Pogo subscription service, Pogo Badges and Pogo Minis (avatar system) to deepen player engagement and increase monetization. Andrew’s experience also includes Executive Producer with Mattel, The Learning Company, Berkeley Systems and Broderbund Software where he was a responsible for well-known franchises such as Prince of Persia, Carmen Sandiego and After Dark.

Chris Petrovic
GM
GameStop Digital Ventures

Chris Petrovic serves as GM of GameStop Digital Ventures, the digital strategy, M&A and incubation arm for GameStop, the world’s largest provider of video game products and services. As a member of the company's senior management team, Chris serves as the principal leader of GameStop's global digital strategy. He is responsible for building on the company's ongoing efforts to integrate digital initiatives into the company's multi-channel strategy, as well as overseeing the development and execution of digital acquisitions (Jolt Online Games, Kongregate, Impulse & Spawn Labs), strategic partnerships (IGN) and investments. This includes leveraging the company's unique and distinctive relationship with customers in-store, online and around the globe.

Chris has over 12 years of experience in digital media, having held senior level positions at Playboy, AG Interactive (a division of American Greetings), drkoop.com and theglobe.com. He began his career in the late 90’s as an entrepreneur, serving as the CEO of Internet start-up BannerGreetings.com. From there he went on to become COO of Buzztone.com, a leading interactive marketing agency, before joining Prime Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm started by current Demand Media CEO Richard Rosenblatt

Ned Sherman, CEO & Publisher, Digital Media Wire
Founder & Chair, LA Games Conference

As CEO, Publisher and Executive Editor of Digital Media Wire, Inc., Ned Sherman works at the center of the rapidly growing digital media industry, where he brokers relationships and keeps a tab on the most important developments shaping the industry. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Publisher Ned Sherman is more than the average pundit: He is an attorney and has an inside grasp of what is happening.”

Ned has established Digital Media Wire as a leading digital age media company that owns and produces nine annual conferences and provides daily news, information and community to tens of thousands of executives and professionals at entertainment, media and technology companies throughout the world. The advertising, sponsorship, client, partner and subscriber relationships that Ned has brokered make Digital Media Wire one of the best known media and entertainment industry brands to emerge in the digital age.

Ned is responsible for establishing DMW's partnerships with NYU's Stern School of Business, the Consumer Electronics Association and numerous other industry publishers, associations and businesses. Future of Television Forum, which he co-chairs, with NYU's Professor Al Lieberman, is widely considered to be the most prestigious event of its kind, bringing together industry leaders from around the globe twice annually in Los Angeles and New York to network, do deals and discuss the industry's future. He also co-chairs and hosts Digital Music Forum, the industry standard among digital music industry events.

In 2004, Ned created the Billboard Digital Entertainment Conference & Awards, which was acquired from DMW by VNU (now Nielsen) in 2005. Ned continued to be active in the Awards, which he co-chaired with Billboard and Hollywood Reporter President and Publisher John Kilcullen. In 2006, Ned was instrumental in securing an investment from the Consumer Electronics Association, now a partner on two DMW events, Digital Music Forum East and Future of Television Forum. In 2007, Ned established a partnership with Canada's leading media and entertainment event, Canadian Music Week, and chaired, produced and hosted the successful Millennials Canada Youth Marketing event in Toronto.

As Publisher and Executive Editor of DMW since 2000, Ned overseas all content for the site and newsletter, writes a weekly column Digital Media Week in Review and has published two books, Millennials & The Digital Entertainment Age: A Sourcebook for Consumer Marketers and The Digital Entertainment & Media Directory. From 2003 to 2004, he was Editor-in-Chief of Digital Media Law Report.

Before co-founding Digital Media Wire, Ned spent seven years as a corporate and entertainment attorney practicing at several of the leading law firms in the world. 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.

Mike Vorhaus, CEO & President, Magid Advisors

Mike Vorhaus, President, Magid Advisors founded the Magid Internet and New Media research and consultation practice in 1995, with AOL and Excite as his first two clients. Mike’s team has completed over 2,500 engagements with over 100 Internet clients. Mike began the Magid Gaming Practice in 2001 with EA and Sony Online as his first two clients. The Magid Game Practice now works with most of the major game publishers. Mike provides research and consulting services to a number of major traditional media companies in regard to their new media initiatives, as well as consulting a number of leading Internet and gaming companies. He has also provided advice to venture capital and private equity firms in regard to investments in the media space. Mike has been involved in strategic and tactical consulting, including the launch of new services and programming, as well as development and implementation of online and offline marketing programs. Mike has also been extensively involved in video and PC gaming strategies for a number of our companies, as well as the development of game concepts. Mike has consulted on a number of film projects such as You’ve Got Mail and The Matrix. He holds a B.S. in psychology and sociology from Wesleyan University and has worked as a fundraiser and transfer of technology officer at the California Institute of Technology and the University of California. Mike also worked for the U.S. House of Representatives, The U.S. Senate, and for two Administrations in the White House.

John Welch
President, Making Fun, a News Corp. division

John Welch is veteran leader of the online games industry and one of the early pioneers of digital distribution of entertainment. He is President of Making Fun, Inc., a division of News Corporation Digital Media Group. John came to News Corp via its acquisition of Making Fun, where he was CEO and co-founder. Making Fun is the first full-service social games publishing company. Making Fun blends the financial, production, technology and marketing resources of a big publisher with the passion and creativity of independent developers to deliver an innovative and diverse portfolio of games. By working with external studios across a variety of platforms — including social networks, smartphones and tablets — Making Fun is working to bring high-quality games to consumers on their preferred device. For more information about Making Fun, please visit: www.makingfun.com.

Prior to forming Making Fun, John was co-founder & CEO of PlayFirst, the casual games publisher famous for the best-selling "Diner Dash" brand that has touched hundreds of millions of consumers. John was responsible for the vision, financing, strategic direction and operations of the company for its first five years. Like Making Fun, PlayFirst was an innovator in bringing the full-service publishing model to its sector, casual online and downloadable games.

Prior to forming PlayFirst, he spent nearly five years building Shockwave.com into one of the Internet's top game portals as the company's Vice President of Games and Product. He was a key member of the Dreamcast Network leadership team at SEGA from 1998 to 1999. Previously, John spent several years running a small consultancy he co-founded. He began his career at Andersen Consulting.

In addition to his operating role, John is an active advisor and investor in several startups including Secret Builders, a creative virtual world heavily endorsed by parents and teachers.

John has served as steering committee member and chair of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) Online & Casual Games groups, and he is a regular faculty member of the annual Game Developers' Conference. John is an active member and officer of the Golden Gate chapter of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO). He holds degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science from M.I.T. and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Simon Whitcombe
VP Games, CBS Interactive

Simon Whitcombe has worked in the gaming and publishing industries for more than 20 years. A UK native, he started in the print world, working in ad sales on Zero Magazine and Game Zone Magazine for Dennis Publishing. Later he contributed to the success of Amiga Format, Total Nintendo and Edge Magazine. After moving into business development, Simon began the task of persuading consumer advertisers to buy into the video games. In 1995 he left the UK to work on Next Generation and GamePlayers magazines for Imagine Media.

In 1996 Simon became the launch publisher of IGN. Three years later he helped spin IGN and other internet properties out of Imagine Media into Snowball.com, a company that later became IGN Entertainment. In 2001 Simon left IGN to run the games group for Future US. During his tenure Simon was instrumental in helping win the official print magazine licenses for all three major hardware platforms. He also launched Qore, a digital video magazine on the PlayStation network, oversaw the launch of GamesRadar before he joined GameSpot in 2009.

Mara Winokur
SVP, Digital Media, Business Development and Strategy
Starz Media

Mara Winokur is the lead executive for Starz Digital Media, overseeing the strategy, operation and execution of the digital businesses and initiatives supporting Starz’ various film, television and digital-only content properties. Winokur and her team manage digital distribution, licensing, syndication, content and vendor relationships across a wide array of partners and distributors ranging from traditional cable/satellite/telco multichannel video affiliates to internet/mobile distributors to game and social media developers/publishers to consumer electronics companies.

The video content Starz Digital Media distributes and markets ranges from theatrical features to short-form animation from each of Starz’ various business units including: Starz Entertainment (pay television), Anchor Bay Entertainment (home entertainment), Manga Entertainment (Japanese Anime) and Film Roman (animation). In addition to Winokur’s business development responsibilities, she also handles operational activities for the Starz Media digital team, including coordinating release schedules, managing content delivery, adjusting pricing and tracking and reporting financial results

Winokur served previously as vice president, digital media and business development. Prior to joining Starz Media, Winokur was the Senior Director of Digital Business Development at EMI Music Entertainment. In this role, Winokur led the team responsible for evaluating business proposals; structuring and negotiating deal terms; and executing agreements in the online and mobile spaces. She also analyzed developing digital trends and advised on new product strategies and business models.

Before her position at EMI, Winokur was a Director of New Technology Business Development at Sony BMG Entertainment, coordinating new media deals across territories and guiding regional sales and marketing teams in assessing business development opportunities. In addition, Winokur assisted in analyzing new technology solutions such as anti-piracy, watermarking, and digital formatting. Winokur has also worked in New Media Strategy at The McGraw-Hill Companies, Strategic Alliances at Palm, Inc., and has consulted with several Silicon Valley companies.

Winokur received her MBA with honors in Strategy and Finance from the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business and her BA in Communications and Psychology from Stanford University.

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For more information, including speaker, sponsorship and exhibitor opportunities, contact our Event Director, Jay Baage at jay@digitalmediawire.com

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