MAY 21-22, 2007
   The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel

   
Digital Media Wire

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SPEAKER BIOS

John Welch, President & CEO, Playfirst

John Welch is the President/CEO of PlayFirst, the leading publisher of highly-original games made for casual gamers wherever they play. Prior to founding PlayFirst, John spent five years at AtomShockwave as VP of Games and Product, where he helped build Shockwave.com in to one of the Internet's top games portals. Previously, John held posts at SEGA and Anderson Consulting. John has also served as a steering committee member of the IGDA Casual Games group. He holds a Bachelor's degree from MIT and a Master's Degree from the University of Massachusetts.
Ed Zobrist, President, Sierra Online (Vivendi Games)

Ed Zobrist is president of Sierra Online, a division of Vivendi Games.  Zobrist oversees all of the division’s initiatives which include the creation and publishing of quality short- and mid-session, casual online games for all viable gaming platforms.  Sierra Online’s titles include Assault Heroes, an award-winning game for Xbox® Live Arcade, and the upcoming FreeStyle Street Basketball, an online PC game from leading Korean developer JC Entertainment, Inc.  The division is also developing a variety of other Xbox Live Arcade and PC online games targeting the mass-market audience. 

Zobrist previously was senior vice president, Global Marketing for Vivendi Games. In this role he was responsible for overseeing worldwide marketing initiatives for brands such as Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, Leisure Suit Larry, Empire Earth, SWAT, The Incredible Hulk, Scarface and 50 Cent    

Prior to joining Vivendi Games, Zobrist was a founding partner and president of Zono, Inc. and ASAP Games, a consulting and videogame software development company. Among his clients were Electronic Arts, Sony, Sega, Fisher-Price, Universal Studios, PopCap and Disney Interactive. While consulting for Disney Interactive, he led the company’s marketing efforts to achieve three top-10 selling games including the number-one hit, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.  

Previously, Zobrist held several senior level marketing positions for Mattel including director of Marketing, Hot Wheels and senior marketing manager for the Boy’s Toys division.  His experience also includes a role as product manager for the Kenner division of General Mills where he led The Real Ghostbusters product line to more than $100 million in sales.   

Zobrist holds a master's degree in business administration from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor’s degree in biology from Columbia University.

Roy Sehgal, VP, Strategy & New Businesses, Shockwave & AddictingGames

Roy is a new media veteran with extensive experience across the value chain of the online, entertainment, mobile and retail industries.  In his current role, Roy is responsible for building and managing new businesses and driving strategy for MTV Networks’ Shockwave.com and AddictingGames.com which each attract over 19 million users per month and host hundreds of online and downloadable games, creativity applications and other digital media.   Previously, Roy was Vice President of Business and Corporate Development for Atom Entertainment, a broadband entertainment pioneer that was acquired by Viacom’s MTV Networks in August, 2006.   At Atom Entertainment, Roy had a dual role developing partnerships for a portfolio of leading online video and game destinations including AtomFilms.com, Shockwave.com, AddictingGames.com and AddictingClips.com while also managing corporate development activities.   Prior to joining Atom Entertainment, Roy was Senior Vice President of Sales and Business Development at July Systems, where he helped companies such as Cingular Wireless, Electronic Arts POGO, Ziff Davis and RealNetworks create and deliver cutting edge mobile entertainment services such as the industry’s first try-before-buy and subscription models for mobile games.  As Vice President of Mobile Commerce at InfoSpace (NASDAQ: INSP), he was part of the early mobile business development team that built the company into one of the world’s largest mobile content creators and enablers. Prior to InfoSpace, Roy was Director of Business Development at Prio, a provider of turnkey online and mobile promotion services (acquired by InfoSpace) and an Associate at Marakon Associates, a strategy consulting firm to Fortune 100 clients such as Nordstrom and Bank of America.  Roy holds a B.S. in Economics with concentrations in finance and marketing from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Alex Terry, CEO, NeoEdge Networks

Alex Terry is an avid gamer and a lifelong entrepreneur with extensive industry experience in the fields of Internet services, software and entertainment; and has a proven track record in building technology startups into market leaders. 

Most recently Alex served as co-founder, vice president and general manager for AOL’s Voice Services Division. In this position Alex was responsible for a portfolio of four consumer services with over one million paying customers, a suite of wholesale offerings, and a wholly owned subsidiary in Canada as well as overseeing all aspects of AOL’s Voice business.  

Prior to AOL, Alex was co-founder and chief operating officer of ThinkLink (acquired by Microsoft, 2001), a privately held telecommunications Enhanced Service Provider delivering unified messaging and integrated calling services over one of the country’s fist VoIP networks. During his tenure, ThinkLink reached over 5 million account holders using ad-supported and free-paid- up-sell revenue. As an Internet pioneer, Alex co-founded and served as CEO for RockWeb, an award winning online music company. 

Alex holds multiple patents for his work in integrated communications, Internet services and interactive billing systems.

Alex is a graduate of Harvard Business School and Dartmouth College.

Morgan Guenther, CEO & Chairman of the Board, Airplay Network, Inc.

Morgan Guenther is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Airplay Network, Inc. Prior to AirPlay, Morgan served as President of TiVo, a position he held from 2001 - 2003, where he was responsible for the company’s consumer service and technology licensing businesses. Between 1999 and 2001, Morgan was a Vice President and Senior Vice President at Tivo, with overall responsibility for the Company’s commercial and strategic deals, including alliances with partners in the satellite, cable, consumer electronics, technology development and broadband spaces. Additionally he oversaw the TiVo Entertainment Group and TiVo Studios business units, with responsibility for the Company’s advertising, commerce, content delivery, audience measurement and other service related revenue streams. Morgan holds J.D. and B.A. degrees from the University of Colorado and an M.B.A. from the University of San Francisco. He also serves on the boards of directors of Integral Development, a provider of internet based electronic trading systems, Avvenu, a leading provider of media routing and managed peer-to-peer content distribution technology, and Tier Technologies, a financial transaction processing and system integration services company.

Greg Mills, Director of Casual Games, AOL Games, AOL

As Director of Casual Games, Greg develops the strategy of monetizing free and premium game usage across all AOL brands, and creates new sales and revenue opportunities for online and downloadable games. Greg’s responsibilities include interacting with AOL’s marketing team to develop concepts for games, establishing a financial model and working with partners to build and launch games on the AOL service. Greg Mills has more than thirteen years of marketing and business experience in the gaming industry. Prior to his nine years at AOL, Greg worked at WorldPlay Entertainment and at The 3DO Company in a variety of marketing and business development positions. Mills earned his Bachelor’s degree from Pomona College and an MBA from Santa Clara University.

Consistently ranked among the leading online gaming sites, AOL Games offers hundreds of online and downloadable games from the best game publishers on the Web. It’s video game counterpart, GameDaily.com offers exclusive demos of the hottest video games, comprehensive video games information including cheats, tips and reviews, and exclusive original streaming video programming.

Kitt McCurdy, GameSpot Trax Analyst, CNET Networks Entertainment
 
Kitt McCurdy serves as CNET's primary contact for GameSpot Trax, the gaming industry's premier real-time market intelligence tool that monitors the online behavior of millions of visitors to GameSpot, one of the most popular Web sites for gaming information and entertainment. Using GameSpot Trax, Kitt follows trends in the gaming industry and then leverages the information to create data-rich analyses for clients, the media, and CNET Entertainment's sales team.

Since joining CNET in 2006, Kitt has played a major role in integrating GameSpot Trax's business intelligence capabilities into a cross-media platform, which lets GameSpot Trax users monitor consumer interest across all of CNET's entertainment properties: GameSpot, TV.com, MP3.com, and FilmSpot. With this enhanced technology, one can quickly and easily learn, for instance, which music artists and television shows fans of a given game are interested in.
Kitt has discussed gaming trends on Berkeley's KPFA 94.1 FM and has been featured in a story on female gamers in Right On! magazine. She has also provided industry analysis to several media outlets, including The New York Times, USA Today, CBS Evening News, MSNBC, and CNBC's Power Lunch.

Before joining CNET, Kitt developed marketing campaigns and performed online advertising analysis for the gift site RedEnvelope. She has also worked in marketing and financial analysis with Independent Capital Management, the Roadmaps Institute, and First Franklin Financial.
Kitt holds a B.B.A. from the University of San Diego. She grew up and currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area. Along with video games, her interests include camping, tennis, snowboarding, and travel.
Adeo Ressi, Founder & CEO, GameTrust
 
Adeo has extensive experience building media and entertainment companies, as well as developing complex systems on time and on budget. In 1994 he was a founder of Total New York, Inc., one of the first advertiser-supported web media and entertainment properties. The property was later sold to AOL and Tribune Media, becoming AOL Digital Cities. In 1995 he founded methodfive, inc., a strategic web development firm focused on the media and entertainment industry. methodfive developed strategies and systems for global media companies such as The New York Times, The BBC, NewsCorp, The Economist, Scripps and Fox Networks. As CEO, he secured a $2 million investment from PricewaterhouseCoopers, the first investment of its kind from a "Big 5" firm, and then sold the company for $88 million in 2000. From February to September 2000, he was Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Vice President of Xceed, Inc. the NASDAQ-listed web architecture and design firm, where he oversaw the filing of a secondary stock offering, organized complimentary service offerings across 13 offices worldwide and developed the first intra-company financial projections. Most recently, Mr. Ressi was a founding partner and Executive Committee member of Sophos Partners, a venture consulting and turnaround firm with offices in New York, Boston, Sao Paulo, and Tokyo. Mr. Ressi attended Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pennsylvania from 1990 to 1994.
Matthew Bellows, GM & VP, Marketing, Floodgate Entertainment

Matthew is responsible for the operations, sales and marketing of Floodgate Entertainment, a top mobile games developer based in Boston, Massachusetts. Floodgate develops ambitious, engaging mobile games with companies like Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Disney 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. Matthew received his MBA with high honors from the Olin School at Babson College.

Ned Sherman, CEO & Publisher, Digital Media Wire

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 six annual conferences - Digital Music Forum East and West, Future of Television Forum, Digital Media Conference, Future of Film Conference, LA Games Conference and The Millennials - and provides daily news, information and community to tens of thousands of 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 Los Angeles Times, 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.
Scott Goldberg, Sr. Writer/Director of Bus. Dev., Digital Media Wire

Scott Goldberg is the Director of Business Development for Digital Media Wire and a Senior Writer for DMW Online. His editorial focuses include the Millennial Generation (people between the ages 12 and 28), the video game industry, music and film media, and poking fun at anything that takes itself too seriously. He is responsible for Digital Media Wire partnerships, and the development of content for DMW Online. He has several years of experience in the financial services and media industries, and is a strong advocate of the consumption of new personal technology. Scott received his BA in Economics from Williams College in 2002, and his MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management in 2005. He was born and raised in Colorado, and spent much of 2005-2006 traveling abroad, retooling his Spanish and Portuguese, and freelance writing. Scott believes no program is more important for discovering the newest music than Nic Harcourt’s Morning Becomes Eclectic on KCRW.
Mike Yuen, Sr. Director, Gaming Group, QUALCOMM Internet Services

Mike Yuen is Senior Director, Gaming Group, for QUALCOMM Internet Services. QIS is responsible for QUALCOMM's BREW solution and is the division chartered with accelerating next-generation wireless data applications, technologies and value-added services worldwide.

Mike manages the team chartered with defining and driving the BREW gaming experience as well as ensuring the platform is profitable and viable for game publishers and developers. Prior to founding the Gaming Group in 2005, Mike led the BREW Developer Relations team that is responsible for signing up companies such as Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo!, Disney, Sony, and EA to deliver wireless consumer and business applications to users around the world. He helped create a virtuous mobile content ecosystem resulting in more than $1 billion being paid out to BREW publishers and developers as of March 2007.  

Mike is a frequent speaker at gaming and wireless industry events and is an evangelist of cross platform game design, wireless digital distribution, and the converged computing and entertainment device for emerging markets (the GEC or "Good Enough Console"). He previously held positions with Accolade, GTE Interactive Media, Hammerhead Entertainment, AMD and NCR, and holds an MBA from UC Davis and a BA in computer science from UCSD. 

Mike is a member of the advisory boards for Game Developers Conference (GDC) Mobile and Floodgate Entertainment, the board of directors of the San Diego Software Industry Council (SDSIC), and was a member of the founding board of directors for Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) Americas.

Margaret Wallace, Co-Founder & CEO, Rebel Monkey

Margaret Wallace is the Co-Founder and CEO of Rebel Monkey -- a New York-based game development studio focusing on casual games.

Before Rebel Monkey, Margaret was a Co-Founder and CEO of Skunk Studios  in San Francisco, CA. Ms. Wallace was named in Next Generation as one of the Game Industry's 100 Most Influential Women of 2006. She serves on the Steering Committee for the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) Casual Games Special Interest Group and was a Co-Editor of the 2006 IGDA Casual Games White Paper.

Prior to the establishment of Skunk Studios, Ms. Wallace produced and designed games at Shockwave.com, including Shockwave Tetris, and contributed to Mattel's Planet Hot Wheels. She also created CD-ROM and online content for Mindscape Entertainment (then also encompassing SSI & RedOrb Games) and at a start-up called PF Magic, makers of the "virtual pets" game series, Dogz and Catz, a brand currently published by Ubisoft.

Ms. Wallace holds a B.S. in Communication from Boston University and an M.A. in Communication from the University of Massachusetts/Amherst.

Greg Harper, President, iWin

Greg Harper is the President of iWin, a leading developer and publisher of games for the mass market. Greg has over 15 years of management and marketing experience in the Internet, Entertainment and Games industries, including the launch of 3 new, start-up ventures. Prior to iWin, Greg was a freelance consultant in the video game industry for clients who included GameSpy (vertically integrated online game service) and Transplay (in-game advertising start-up). In 1995, Greg co-founded and served as Vice President of Business Development for the Total Entertainment Network (T.E.N.), an online service for multiplayer PC video games. T.E.N. later morphed into Pogo.com, providing an online service for "Family Games." Pogo was sold to Electronic Arts in 2001. Before launching T.E.N., Greg founded two start-up companies, EOS Corporation (interactive television) and Digital Blackboard (edutainment software development), and worked at the Walt Disney Company.
Charles Merrin, Vice President, RealArcade, RealNetworks, Inc.
 
Charles Merrin is Vice President of RealArcade at RealNetworks. Prior to joining RealNetworks, Charles managed worldwide Sales, Marketing and Product Management efforts for TikGames, an emerging casual game publisher. In this role, he was intimately involved in all aspects of the games development, publishing, and distribution business. Prior to joining TikGames, Charles was deeply involved in the emergence of Electronic Software Distribution (ESD) as a major force within online computer gaming. As Vice President of Sale & Business Development at Trymedia Systems, he directed a broad range of strategic initiatives that established Trymedia as the premier provider of ESD technologies.

Charles has been involved in a number of other entrepreneurial e-commerce businesses, including ReleaseNow, Ancestry.com, and Broderbund / The Learning Company. At each, his product strategy and day-to-day management resulted in consistent growth and exceptional performance. He played several key roles in the early growth of online genealogy, helping it become one of the largest and most profitable subscription businesses on the Internet.

Prior to Broderbund, Charles served marketing and sales roles with several leading Bay Area firms.

Charles holds an undergraduate degree in Economics from Washington University in Saint Louis, and a Masters of Business Administration from Santa Clara University.
Chris Petrovic, Vice President, Digital Media, Playboy Media Group

Mr. Petrovic is a new media veteran, having started his career in the digital media arena in the late 90’s.  He has held executive management positions in a variety of corporate settings, from start-ups to publicly traded companies to venture capital firms. 

Petrovic currently serves as Vice President of Digital Media for Playboy Media Group.  In this role, he is responsible for developing and managing strategic and business development initiatives for all divisions the group, including Playboy Mobile, Playboy Online, Playboy Radio and Playboy TV. 

Before joining Playboy, Mr. Petrovic served as VP, Business Development for AG Interactive, a division of American Greetings.  Petrovic oversaw all business development efforts across of the division’s digital business units.  Petrovic joined AG Interactive from theglobe.com, where he served as VP, Strategy and Business Development and was responsible for developing and growing the company’s digital and print media businesses.

Petrovic is a graduate of Columbia University in New York and holds a J.D. from Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles.  He began his new media career as the CEO of an Internet start-up in 1998, and from there went on to become COO and General Counsel of Buzztone, a leading viral marketing agency, before joining the venture capital firm Prime Ventures as their VP of Business Development and Legal Affairs, managing the business development and legal operations of its portfolio companies, including most notably drkoop.com.  

Petrovic is based in Playboy’s Los Angeles office.

Robert Nashak, General Manager, Yahoo! Games

As general manager of Yahoo! Games, Robert Nashak oversees the growth and development of the #1 online gaming site.  Nashak leads the strategy for the site’s portfolio of casual and video games, partnerships with top gaming and entertainment companies and exclusive editorial and gaming content.  He joined Yahoo! in 2006.

Prior to joining Yahoo!, Nashak led creative development at Glu Mobile, the worldwide leading independent mobile games publisher of acclaimed titles such as Driver3, Project Gotham Racing and Monopoly.  He was also previously vice president of product development at Acclaim Entertainment, whose franchises included AllStar Baseball, Turok and Legends of Wrestling, and was executive producer at Vivendi Universal Games.  He also held positions as adjunct professor in interactive design at University of Southern California School of Cinema and Television and was a producer at Disney Online, during the earliest days of Flash.  

Nashak holds a B.A. from Georgetown University where he was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa fraternity. He went on to receive a Masters at Oxford University and was a Fulbright scholar to the Netherlands.

Cooper Moo, VP, Business Development, FUN Games

Cooper Moo is vice president of business development for FUN Technologies’ FUN Games division.  FUN Games develops and distributes skill-games solutions across a broad network of games and lifestyle sites worldwide, including market leaders AOL, EA’s Pogo, GSN, “the Network for Games”, Lycos, and MSN.

Cooper has extensive experience in the online space, focused primarily on B2C business development.  Prior to joining WorldWinner, a wholly-owned subsidiary of FUN, in 2004, he was senior manager of e-commerce for Monster.com.  In this role, he represented Monster's interest in a $104 million dollar, four-year partnership with AOL.  As director of strategic partnership for Salary.com, he created and managed partnerships with Monster, Yahoo!, CareerBuilder and other major 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 focused on China.

Adam Boyden, VP, Business Development & Marketing, Xfire

Adam Boyden is in charge of all Business Development and Marketing initiatives at Xfire. Prior to Xfire, Adam was the CEO and co-founder of Autodaq, and the Associate Director of The China Consultancy. He graduated from the University of Exeter and received his MBA from Stanford Business School.

About Xfire, Inc.
Xfire, Inc. one of the fastest growing online gaming platform and community in the world helping gamers to easily connect, chat and play with their friends online. Xfire is a free service that allows gamers to easily browse for game servers, chat with friends through IM and voice chat, as well as download the latest updates and additions to their favorite games. With more than seven million members in over 100 countries, Xfire is an international community connecting gamers across the globe. Xfire is a wholly owned subsidiary of MTV Networks and is based in Menlo Park, CA.

Mike Vorhaus, Managing Director, Frank N. Magid Associates

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.

Jill Braff, SVP, Worldwide Marketing/GM of the Americas, Glu Mobile

Game industry veteran Jill Braff leads Glu Mobile's corporate and consumer marketing initiatives, including co-marketing programs with licensors and carriers. Braff was named one of the game industry's 100 most influential women by Next Generation and sits on the board of the Mobile Entertainment Forum. Prior to joining Glu, Braff most recently consulted with Sega of America as interim vice president of marketing. She also served as a creative director at Konami of America, worked with Sprint on its entry into wireless gaming and has held senior marketing positions at Photopoint Corporation and MyFamily.com. She also held positions at The Learning Company, Sega of America, Griffin Bacal and Nintendo of America. Braff has a B.A. from Colgate University.

Jess Dominguez, Product Manager, Gaming Group, QUALCOMM Internet Services

Jess Dominguez is product manager of the Gaming Group for QUALCOMM Internet Services (QIS).  QIS is the QUALCOMM division responsible for the BREW® solution, a family of offerings that includes uiOne, deliveryOne, QPoint and BREW Signature Solutions as well as the QChat® push-to-talk solution.  QIS is chartered with driving the development of next-generation wireless data applications, technologies and value-added services.

In his current position, Dominguez collaborates with key partners in the mobile gaming value chain, including top mobile game publishers and developers, mobile platform providers and wireless service providers, to ensure QUALCOMM BREW Gaming Signature Solution and flexible offerings are the premiere choice all companies seeking to differentiate mobile game service offerings.   He also is involved in developer and partner relations, business development and technical evangelism as it relates to the BREW mobile gaming space and drives QUALCOMM's next generation gaming service, BREW Gaming Signature Solution.

Prior to his current role at QUALCOMM, Dominguez worked at Midway Games contributing in their San Diego game studio where he focused on Xbox and PS2 console game development.  Dominguez also held a position at Monkeystone Games where he focused on wireless game development.  Dominguez earned his Bachelor of Science at MIT in Electrical Engineering and his Masters of Science at Stanford in Management Science.

Teemu Huuhtanen, President, N.A., Sulake (Habbo Hotel)
 
Teemu Huuhtanen is President, North America and Executive Vice President, Business Development for Sulake Corporation. Previously he held the position of SVP of Sales and Business Development. Mr. Huuhtanen also served as VP, Sales & Marketing, for Sulake at its headquarters in Finland since January of 2003. Prior to this, he has held several senior posts in consumer & B2B sales & business development functions for several international digital start-ups such as Small Planet, a mobile application company, as EVP and the CEO of Orchimedia, a mobile & internet entertainment company. Huuhtanen has studied at Kuopio Polytechnic and University of Kuopio. Sulake's virtual world and social networking site for teens, Habbo, is one of the world's fastest growing online destinations for teens. Sulake is an interactive entertainment company specialized in developing, publishing and distributing multiplayer online games and communities, like Habbo.
Steven Roberts, VP & GM, Games & Strategic Initiatives, DirecTV

Steven Roberts is a 20 year veteran of the sports, television and entertainment industry. Currently, as Vice President and General Manager for Gaming and Strategic Initiatives at DIRECTV, Steven Roberts is responsible for the development and launch of both Game Lounge, a new, 24/7 interactive games channel as well as, the highly anticipated Championship Gaming Series, a global professional video gaming league beginning in 2007. Both of these initiatives and other gaming related original programming, represents the commitment that both Roberts and DIRECTV has to the gaming industry.

Before joining DIRECTV, Steven was Executive Vice President at Sportvision, the worldwide leader in sports television broadcast technology. His focus at the company was not only bringing the ubiquitous “yellow line” to every televised football game but also, expanding the product line to include broadcast enhancements for NASCAR, Major League Baseball and the Olympics. The company tripled in revenue during his tenure.

Steven honed his marketing and overall business skills, first as Managing Partner of Pinnacle Promotions, a promotional consulting agency for such companies as Coke Foods, AIG and Coors and then, at two divisions of Sony, Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) and Sony Sports and Entertainment. As Managing Director of Sony Signatures, the consumer merchandising and licensing arm for SPE, Roberts was responsible for new property acquisitions, branding and managing one of the world’s largest licensing businesses at the time, World Cup Soccer 1998.  The following year, Roberts was tapped to start a new business for Sony Corporation, Sony Sports and Entertainment. As General Manager of Global Operations, Roberts was responsible for leading Sony’s foray into sports marketing beginning with the Sony Open, a PGA TOUR Event and other sports oriented initiatives.

Steven graduated from University of California at Berkeley, is on the Board of Mi6, the video game industry’s only marketing organization and is married with two daughters.

Dave Madden, EVP, Sales, Marketing & Business Development, WildTangent

Mr. Madden has been with WildTangent since March 2000 and is responsible for the sales and marketing of WildTangent’s products and services and for its business development efforts. A media industry veteran, Mr. Madden has over a dozen years of experience in the print, cable, broadcast and interactive media industries. Prior to WildTangent, he was the Executive Vice President of Sales for News Digital Media, the Internet Division of News Corporation. At News Digital Media, Madden ran sales and marketing for the digital properties of Fox Sports, Fox News and Fox Entertainment and was tasked with cross-media integration around such properties as the World Series and Super Bowl. Previous to News Digital Media, Mr. Madden was the Associate Publisher of Runner’s World magazine. At Runner’s World, he oversaw sales and marketing of for the U.S. and overseas editions. Under his guidance, Runner’s World was a top 10 consumer title for advertising sales growth. Mr. Madden is the Chair of the IAB Interactive Games Committee and sits on the IAB Board of Directors. Mr. Madden received his B.A. degree from Princeton.

Alex St. John, CEO, 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 which led to the creation 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. 

Gordon Bellamy, Dir. of Business Development, Double Fusion
 
At Double Fusion, Gordon is responsible for developing strategic business partnerships for Double Fusion with Video and PC game publishers and developers, casual games publishers and developers, providers of online communities, 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 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.
Levi Shapirio, Sr. Dir. Audience Metrics, Mobile Content, Telephia
 

Levi Shapiro is the Sr. Director of Audience Metrics for Telephia. In this role, Mr. Shapiro has created partnerships and products for leading movie studios, television networks, game publishers, record labels and advertising agencies. He has also developed innovative new products, including the industry's first-ever Mobile Video Report. Mr. Shapiro is a veteran speaker, having presented at high level wireless industry conferences, including CTIA, NAB, NAPTE, IIR, Informa, IQPC, iHollywood, Terrapin and other industry forums.

 

Previously, Mr. Shapiro served as CEO of two mobile video companies, Two Minute Television and Snack Mobile. Two Minute Television created short-form TV series with episodes averaging 4 million broadcast and cable TV viewers, carriage on 110 major websites and distribution on wireless carriers in North America, Asia and Europe. Snack Mobile developed software enabling a completely new category of mobile media— combining casual mobile gaming with live-action video. Prior to that, Mr. Shapiro helped re-launch a multi-million euro line of online digital services for IBM in Europe, growing revenue in a previously flat segment. Mr. Shapiro is completely fluent in Japanese and Italian and spent the early part of his career in Tokyo and Beijing, with Toyota Motor Corporation. Mr. Shapiro is an Editor at Video Age Magazine (www.videoageinternational.com), where he covers the business of film and television. His education includes Tulane (BA), Cornell (MA) and MIT (MBA).

Kanishka Agarwal, VP, Mobile Content, Telephia

Kanishka Agarwal is the Vice President of Mobile Content at Telephia. Mr. Agarwal is responsible for driving the growth agenda of the company in mobile content, as well as the company’s 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. He is a seasoned speaker and mobile industry expert on such topics as mobile content, including gaming, music, TV, and entertainment and converging communications. He’s presented at many industry conferences, including CTIA, Mobile Games Summit, Digital Media Wire, Wireless Week EXPO, among others. 

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.

Phaedra Boinodiris, CEO, WomenGamers.com

Phaedra Boinodiris is the co-founder and CEO of WomenGamers.Com, the largest women’s’ gaming portal on the Internet providing marketing and consulting services to game companies that target women as consumers. 

Three years after college, Phaedra launched her first startup Atlantis Internet Technologies,  a 10-year old custom software services development company specializing in ecommerce and WebSphere. 

Phaedra is currently pursuing an MBA from the Kenan Flagler Business School at UNC-Chapel Hill, serves on the advisory board of many educational institutions who have fledgling game design and development degrees and is an active contributor to events hosted by Women in Games International.

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.

Howard Marks, CEO, Acclaim Games
 
Howard Marks is the CEO of Acclaim Games, the rebirth of the former Acclaim Entertainment, an online social gaming company with free to download multi-player games, in-game advertising and virtual items.
With over 2,000,000 registered players, Acclaim is one of the fastest growing destination for online games. Marks is President of the recently formed Online Game Consortium. Marks was Chairman of Activision Studios from 1991-1997.
Brad Singer, EVP, Products & Markets, PaymentOne
 
Brad Singer is Executive Vice President of Products and Markets for PaymentOne, a leading online payment solutions provider. Brad leads the company’s overall market strategy, new product initiatives, and partnership activities. Brad has over 18 years of business and general management experience in the media, payment and technology markets. Previously, Brad served as Vice President of Strategic Marketing and Content Licensing at NewsEdge, an early pioneer in content syndication, which achieved annual growth rates of over 40%, consistent profitability, and a successful IPO during his 8-year tenure (later acquired by Thomson Corporation). Brad also served as General Manager of the NewsPage.com business, an early innovator in on-line fee-based services. Most recently, Brad served as Vice President Marketing and Business Development at TeleKnowledge, a billing and e-commerce infrastructure company. Brad has also held management positions at Citibank and General Electric and served on the Dun and Bradstreet executive Advisory Board. He earned a BS in Computer Science and Economics from Tufts University, and holds an MBA in Finance from the Wharton Business School. Brad has been featured in the technology and business press, and has been a frequent speaker at industry events.
Stan Liu, VP, Mobile Content Development, The Walt Disney Internet Group

As vice president of mobile content development for the Walt Disney Internet Group’s (WDIG) domestic mobile content division, Stan Liu oversees creation and development of games,  ringtones, graphics and applications for the mobile platform  under WDIG’s mDisney and Starwave Mobile publishing labels.  

mDisney mobile content is based on a long list of both classic and current Disney and Disney/Pixar theatrical favorites as well as popular Disney Channel, Walt Disney Records and Buena Vista Games franchises.  The company’s Starwave Mobile arm is a licensor and publisher of third-party brands as well as non-Disney brands within The Walt Disney Company which allows WDIG to offer a full demographic suite of content in the mobile space. 

Liu has more than 15 years experience in digital media development within the interactive entertainment market. He has pioneered unique and addictive game play mechanics through the creation of the MotionFX™ engine. Prior to joining Disney, Liu founded and served as the creative director for Atomic Bullfrog LLC and its media production division Atomic Bullfrog Studios.  

Liu began his career at Kronos CG Consulting and later spearheaded the launch of Kronos Digital Entertainment where he served as president and CEO. There he created and developed the “Fear Effect” franchise for video games, comic books and motion picture licensing, which received multiple perfect ratings as well as game of the year award.  

He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Design from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.

George Borkowski, Partner, Mitchell Silberberg Knupp LLP

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.
Mark Friedler, Publisher/Founder, GameDaily

Mark is CEO and co-founder of Gigex, Inc./GameDAILY (http://www.GameDAILY.com) a leading provider of video game news, reviews, free downloads and the leading provider of trade news with the GameDAILY newsletter. He has been with the company since 1995. He has 10 years experience marketing video games online and is a frequent speaker and panelist at industry events including CES, E3, Digital Hollywood and events sponsored by Microsoft, IQPC, Jupiter Communications, Digital Media Wire and IEMA. He was chairperson for both conferences "Best Practices for Marketing, Selling and Distributing Software over the Internet" and the European Electronic Software Delivery Conference. Mark’s television experience includes several features in 2003 including NBC’s "TechNow," "NBC Today About the Bay" (San Francisco/San Jose KNTV) and "Silicon Valley Business." He is the video game columnist for the IMedia Connection newsletter and he has written for industry publications Software Business , GameDAILY and SIIA’s Upgrade. Previously, Mark was Director of Marketing at Reach Networks in New York from 1994-1995 where he managed marketing and sales of integrated services to Fortune 500 clients. From 1992 – 1994, Mark was Managing Director of Teleworld Sweden AB, a division of Philips Media. Teleworld developed and operated interactive voice and television-based online entertainment and transaction services together with MTV Europe and other major European broadcasters. From 1988-1992, he founded and operated Sweden’s first chain of cookie stores. He holds a B.A in Political Science from Hamilton College in New York and has taken graduate courses in business law, programming and network management. Mark is 40 years old and lives in the San Francisco bay area with his wife and 2 sons.
Mike Breslin, VP, Marketing, Americas., I-play

Mike has deep roots in the video games industry spanning over 12 years.  Having managed marketing and communications for some of the video game industry’s most prolific and best selling titles, such as The Doom series, Hexen, The Quake series, Duke Nukem, Star Craft, Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil, Deus Ex, Tron and Kingdom Hearts, Mike brings a seasoned approach to the marketing of I-play’s exciting roster of mobile titles.  

In addition to managing the global marketing communications for some of the video game industries most successful brands, Mike has managed the marketing communications, licensing and development of consumer products for entertainment leaders such as Disney, Paramount, Sony and Mattel.  Mike has also been instrumental in coordinating and delivering some of the mobile gaming industry’s most impactful and successful marketing and promotions for award winning titles like Jewel Quest and Skipping Stone, as well as for Hollywood studio licenses such as Fox’s 24, the mobile game, and Universal’s The Fast & Furious mobile game franchise.  

Mike has presented at numerous conferences and events such as GDC, Austin Game Developers conference, E3, and ECTS, and has been widely quoted in several entertainment and business publications from PC Gamer, Computer Gaming World, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Forbes and Newsweek, to on air interviews.  

Born in Los Angeles, California, Mike was raised in Dallas, TX.  He attended the University of Texas at Austin where he played and lettered in Football, was Honorable mention Academic All America, and double majored in Advertising and Business Administration.  A self proclaimed entertainment and gaming junky, Mike currently, lives in Half Moon Bay California with his wife Michelle and is still known to master games at a thumb blistering pace whether playing console, PC or mobile games.

Karl Long, Web/Social Media Integration Manager, N-Gage Group, Nokia

Karl Long is the Web/Social Media Integration Manager for the N-Gage group at Nokia. In this group Karl helps develop tools and strategies to deepen and extend the relationships with customers, and market our products and services through the web and social media. Karl has been blogging since 2003 at experiencecurve.com where he has been writing and instigating conversation around social media, customer experience and marketing since 2003. Karl holds an MBA in Design Management from the University of Westminster in England.
Karin Pagnanelli, Partner, Mitchell Silberberg Knupp LLC

Karin Pagnanelli’s legal expertise is in civil litigation with a concentration in intellectual property disputes involving copyright, trademark, piracy, trade secrets, defamation, and unfair competition in state and federal courts. She was the lead counsel in the successful representation of Take2 Interactive and Rockstar Games in a trademark infringement suit before U.S. District Court alleging the company's game "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" infringes upon the marks of a Los Angeles business establishment.

She graduated from Southwestern University School of Law, J.D. magna cum laude in 1994.
Jay Moore, Head of Special Ops, The Strategery Group

Jay, founder of The Strategery Group, works with talented game developers to help build their ventures. Providing insight on fashioning strong business side teams and advising on brand and business development. Jay was previously Dir. of Business Development, Marketing Director & Evangelist for GarageGames, an online tool dev and game publisher. He joined GG in '02 when they were 5 guys crammed into a one-room office. When he left, they were a team of 30+. While at GG, he launched IndieGamesCon, oversaw the online publishing of independent games, and worked to establish Torque as the game engine platform of choice for independent game developers.
Joseph Olin, President, Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences

Joseph Olin brings more than 25 years of experience in video games and consumer products to his position as President of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.  Since taking the helm of the non-profit organization in July 2004, Olin has championed the $25 billion video game industry by raising awareness of individuals, games, companies, organizations/associations and changing issues by promoting innovation and commitment.  As President of AIAS, he is the voice of the Academy and oversees the annual DICE Conference and Interactive Achievement Awards.   

Prior to his presidency with the AIAS, Olin spearheaded the introduction of gaming’s most famous heroine, Lara Croft, with the launch of the blockbuster Tomb Raider franchise as vice president of marketing and business development for U.S. GOLD, INC. / EIDOS Interactive.   

Olin also served as senior partner and group account director at Ogilvy & Mather where he launched Mattel’s Generation Girl Teen Dolls product and the first Barbie brand advertising campaign. 

Earlier in his career, Olin held senior level positions in game publishing, advertising, sales, and marketing. At Elliot Portwood Studios, Olin co-created Leonardo’s Multimedia Toolbox, an educational product, developed with Gene Portwood and Lauren Elliott (creators of Carmen Sandiego).  His impressive background also includes tenure with NEC’s System Laboratory Group of Japan, Voiceweb Corporation, Kovel/Fuller, Inc., Della Femina McNamee, Panda Management Company and Microprose/Hasbro Interactive.   

Olin is active in the Agoura Hills community, a board member with Agoura Pony Baseball League and a number of local school support groups.  Olin also sits on the advisory board of FMX. 

Olin earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Southern California.

William Wohnoutka, VP, Bus. Dev. Content Markets Group, Level 3 Communications

Bill Wohnoutka is Vice President of Business Development for the Content Markets Group at Level 3. In this role he leads Level 3’s Content Markets Group in providing end-to-end digital distribution solutions to digital media companies – enabling the acquisition and distribution of digital content to end-users around the world.  From the highest quality live events, to massively multiplayer online games and into the world of user generated content, Level 3 network and services help the worlds’ leading content providers reach their audiences directly with compelling content and the highest quality end-user experience. 

Prior to Level 3, Bill directed product development at LogicTier, a managed services company focused on helping major media companies architect and operate high-volume web sites.  Bill held product management positions with GlobalCenter, an early leader in providing digital distribution services to leading entertainment companies, and began his career with NetManage, the developer of the first commercially successful consumer Internet applications.

Suzanne Stefanac, Director, AFI Digital Content Lab

Suzanne Stefanac is director of the American Film Institute's Digital Content Lab. For nine years, the AFI DCL, in collaboration with a community of first-tier mentors, has served as the premiere incubator for innovative interactive solutions for producers of film, television, games, mobile applications, and more.  Previously, Stefanac was co-founder and SVP creative/production for RespondTV, an interactive television infrastructure company based in San Francisco where she oversaw the build of more than 100 applications for clients such as Coca-Cola, Comedy Central, Ford, the Sci-Fi Channel, American Airlines, and PBS. With the launch of MSNBC in 1996, Stefanac was named an executive producer for "The Site," an hour-long nightly news program and website. As founding editor of Macworld Online in 1994, Stefanac oversaw the creation of that organization's award-winning website. For fifteen years prior to these ventures, Stefanac was a journalist covering technology issues for Wired, Salon, Macworld, PC World, New Media, Publish, San Francisco Chronicle, California Lawyer, and Rolling Stone, among others. Stefanac is author of "Dispatches from Blogistan: A Travel Guide for the Modern Blogger," published by Peachpit/New Riders, as part of their Voices that Matter