Laureen Ong is Chief Operating Officer of STAR, a wholly owned subsidiary of News Corporation and Asia’s leading media and entertainment company, serving more than 300 million viewers across 53 Asian countries with over 60 television services in ten languages.

Before joining STAR in May 2007, Laureen was the founding President of National Geographic Channel (NGC). She architected the 2001 launch of NGC, which became the fastest-growing network in the cable television history of the U.S. Before NGC, Laureen served for two years as Vice President and General Manager of WTTG-TV in Washington, D.C. during which she was the first Asian-American woman to lead a top 10 market affiliate. She also helped launch SportsVision in Chicago, one of the first regional sports networks in the U.S., where she served for seven years eventually progressing to Executive Producer and Vice President Broadcasting of Chicago White Sox, the World Series-winning baseball team in which she holds an ownership stake.

Laureen has an M.A. in Communications from Columbia University and a B.A. in Education from Montclair College, during which she also studied in England and Taiwan.

Scott Driggers, CEO of Gemini Mobile Technologies, is one of the world’s leading experts on the convergence of social networking and mobile devices. Scott and his management team have driven many global firsts in the wireless world, from the invention of picture mail to 3-D games for mobile phones, and are behind more than 25 patents in the wireless industry. Their current endeavor combines elements of social networks like YouTube and virtual worlds such as Second life with the consumer appeal for all things on-the-go.

Reed Manville has served as managing director, Asia, NBC Universal Global Networks since January 2006. He is based in Los Angeles and reports to Peter Smith, President of NBC Universal International.

Manville is responsible for overseeing the development of new entertainment television services in Asia. In addition he manages the day-to-day shareholder activities for NBC Universal’s joint venture channel partnerships, reporting to Belinda Menendez, President, NBC Universal International Television Distribution. These channels include HBO Asia, HBO India, Star Channel in Japan, Showtime in Australia, TV1 and Sci fi - Australia, LAPTV in Latin America, and Brazil’s Telecine.

Manville joined NBC Universal from Paramount Pictures Corp., where he was executive vice president, international channels, for worldwide pay television from 1997-2005. In this role, he was responsible for developing and managing Paramount Pictures’ branded wholly owned cable and satellite channels in the UK, Spain and Italy. Manville was the company’s Board representative on six worldwide joint venture partnerships, which provided premium subscription movie and television services via cable and satellite. Before joining Paramount Pictures Corp., he was vice president of marketing and programming for Falcon International Communications. A GE veteran from 1980 to 1995, Manville held several positions during this tenure, including president and general manager of NBC4/KNBC-TV in Los Angeles. He began his career as head of finance and administration for the Hudson River Museum in New York.

Manville graduated from Skidmore College with a Bachelor of Science degree and holds an MBA from the State University of New York.

NBC Universal Global Networks operates 15 entertainment television channels throughout Europe and Latin America under four distinctive channel brands: SCI FI (science fiction), 13th Street (action and suspense), Studio Universal (24-hour movies), and Universal Channel (crime and investigation). These channels have become leading pay services in their individual markets and collectively reach over 70 million subscribers across 40 countries.

NBC Universal is one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience. Formed in May 2004 through the combining of NBC and Vivendi Universal Entertainment, NBC Universal owns and operates one of America’s most profitable television networks, the fastest-growing Spanish-language TV network, a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment cable networks (Sci Fi, USA, CNBC, MSNBC, etc), one of the major motion picture companies, significant television production operations, a leading television stations group, and world-renowned theme parks. NBC Universal is 80% owned by General Electric, with 20% owned by Vivendi Universal.

Dave is responsible for the sales and marketing of WildTangent's products and services, as well as the company's business development activities. Under his guidance, WildTangent has emerged as the leading online game publisher. Its technology is distributed on the world’s premium OEM machines like HP, Compaq and Gateway. Its custom publishing clients include Nike, Pepsi, DaimlerChrysler, GM, Toyota , Microsoft, Disney and Fox. Additionally, its consumer publishing business is driving the growth in the online retail games market, with partnerships in place with AOL, Yahoo, MSN, RoadRunner, Verizon, Earthlink and others.

A media industry veteran, Madden has over a dozen years of global experience in Print, Cable, Broadcast and Interactive. Prior to joining WildTangent, he was the executive vice president of Sales and Marketing for News Digital Media, the Internet Division of News Corporation and before that, the Associate Publisher of Runner?s World magazine. At News Digital, Madden ran the sales and marketing for the digital properties of Fox Sports, Fox News and Fox Entertainment and was tasked with cross-media integration around properties like the World Series and Super Bowl. At Runner’s World, a Rodale magazine, Dave oversaw sales and marketing of the dominant title for the US and overseas editions. Under his guidance, Runner’s World was a top 10 consumer title for advertising sales growth.

Dave is the Chair of the IAB Interactive Games Committee.

Dr. Jeanie Han is a Senior Vice President at Paramount Pictures. She is directly involved with all aspects of releasing Paramount motion pictures, as well as both DreamWorks and DreamWorks Animation films. She is also active in acquisition and distribution for Asian films. As she adamantly recognizes and believes in the region’s artistic style, Dr. Han is a major proponent of introducing and developing Asian films worldwide with a keen sense of their overall potential and commercial value in the American and international markets. She also serves on the AZN Asian Excellence Awards committee.

Prior to Paramount, Dr. Han became invaluable in releasing DreamWorks Pictures’ such notable releases as Shrek 2, Catch me If You Can, Collateral, and The Ring. Before joining DreamWorks, she worked as a management consultant at KPMG Consulting where she was instrumental in forming its entertainment consulting practices. Her clients included DreamWorks, Tribune, and Warner Bros.

Dr. Han is active in teaching Entertainment Marketing at major business schools within the United States. She has a Ph.D. in Business Administration (emphasis in Marketing Strategy) from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. She is a strong advocate of the greater application of scientific approach in entertainment by studying the effects of movie diffusion, branding in the entertainment industry, and movie consumption behavior.

Han Kim is a co-founder and General Partner of Altos Ventures. Han currently serves on the board of Blogcocktail, Lohika, OutSpark, Pandora.tv, Provade, and SeeControl and works closely with DemandTec, Instill Corporation and Vesta Corporation. Han previously served as a director of Digital Market (acquired by Agile Software AGIL), ProduceOnline (acquired by World Commerce Online WCOL) and a number of other private companies.

Han is recognized as a leading investor in the area of supply chain management technologies. He is a frequent speaker on the topic at industry and investment conferences around the world. Han was one of the first supply chain investors to recognize the shift from process and transaction automation to more sophisticated analytical applications that employ complex algorithms and vertical industry domain expertise to solve high-value problems for customers. He is currently focused on investing in supply chain technologies that provide higher levels of collaboration and intelligence to decision makers in large enterprises.

Prior to starting Altos Ventures, Han worked at Booz Allen & Hamilton developing supply chain and business process redesign strategies for major distributors and media companies. His experiences at Booz Allen provided strong industry insights and contacts that have contributed to his success in supply chain investing. Previously, Han worked in the financial management function for Procter & Gamble. Before that, he gained significant military leadership and operational experience during five years of service with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, most recently as a Captain. He received numerous awards for leadership and operational excellence, including a nomination to the prestigious Douglas MacArthur Leadership Award.

Han received his MBA from Stanford University and his BS from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Keizo Tsuchiya is the Chief Executive Director of JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization) Los Angeles. In 1983, he was appointed as a Representative of the JETRO Sri Lanka Office. While he was at JETRO Sri Lanka in 1984, he was elected President of the Sri Lankan Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry.After serving as Deputy Director General of the Affairs Office in 1994, he was appointed to JETRO San Francisco in 1995, where he supported the expansion in Japan of such U.S. companies as Costco, GAP and Eddie Bauer. In 1998, he was appointed Chief of the Invest-in-Japan Section. He promoted and publicized Japanese regional initiatives to attract foreign investment.In May 2003, he was promoted to Vice-Chief of the Investment Promotion Department. During this time the Invest Japan Business Support Center (IBSC) was opened. The IBSC offers assistance and advice to foreign companies, which seek to establish an office or other physical presence in Japan. The IBSC has assisted over 200 overseas companies.

Lifeng Wang is the founder and president of Eastar (Xing Xing) Digital Corp, a leading digital animation studio based in Beijing China. Mr. Wang was admitted to the Special Class for Gifted and Talented Youth at the University of Science and Technology of China in 1987 when he was 14, and received his Master’s degree specializing in Computer Animation from The University of British Columbia in Vancouver Canada in May 1993 when he was 20. Mr. Wang’s work experience includes two years with Vertigo Technology Inc. writing 3-D computer animation software. In 1995, Mr. Wang founded Xing Xing Computer Graphics Inc. in Vancouver to undertake the Digital Yuan Ming Yuan project and produced the award winning game Lotus Spring in February 1999. In 2002, Mr. Wang founded Eastar (Xing Xing) Digital Corp. in Beijing and turned it into the premier digital animation studio in China for both international outsourcing and original content production.

David Alpert is a partner in Circle of Confusion LLC, a film and television management and production company with offices in Los Angeles and New York. Circle represents writers, directors, comic book creators, and video game companies. In his role as a manager, David oversees and advises the careers of many established and developing clients including director James McTeigue ("V for Vendetta"), screenwriter John Pogue ("The Fast & The Furious," "U.S. Marshals"), and comic creator Robert Kirkman ("The Walking Dead," "Invincible"). On the production side, David is shepherding several projects such as the big-budget adventure/ fantasy "Magic Kingdom for Sale" at Universal Pictures and the indie-minded thriller "Reaper" at Media 8. David is an honors graduate of Harvard University and New York University Law School. He grew up in New York where his entrepreneurial spirit led to several successful ventures and ultimately to his relocation to Los Angeles and his partnership with Lawrence Mattis and David Engel in Circle of Confusion.

Thomas Lee is a video game executive with more than 15 years of experience at leading game publishers in the US, Japan, and Korea. He is currently heading up Business Development at Nexon America, focusing on payment gateways for their Item Selling business model.

Nexon America Inc. is the North American publishing arm of Nexon Group, a pioneer of interactive entertainment software and the world's leader in massively multiplayer online games. Based in Los Angeles, Nexon America was founded in 2005 to bring the best of online entertainment to the North American audience. The company's growing library of titles includes the world famous, smash-hit franchise, MapleStory, the new online multiplayer dance game, Audition and the upcoming online racing sensation, KartRider. The foundation of all Nexon America titles is the Item Selling business model, in which users access the full game for free and can later opt to pay for game enhancements.

Thomas is responsible for business development initiatives and branding of Nexon games, as well as localization for upcoming titles from the corporate office in Korea. He also oversees various payment gateway methods, such as PayPal, PayByCash, as well as deployment of Nexon Prepaid Cards at national retailers, including Target, 7-Eleven, and other massive drug and grocer chains with focus on promoting free to play micro-transaction games based on social networking. Prior to Nexon, Thomas worked on a variety of multimillion-unit selling Triple-A franchises, including Chris Robert's Wing Commander III, Hironobu Sakaguchi’s Parasite Eve, and Final Fantasy IX.

Thomas is a founding member of the International Game Developers Association, Korea Chapter and he has served on several advisory boards, including The Korea Game Development and Promotion Institute (KGDI) as well as The Korea IT Industry Promotion Agency (KIPA) and stays at the forefront of the continuously evolving world of the video game industry. He was a speaker at G*Star in 2006 and is a member of an Online Game Consortium at the Korea Culture & Content Agency in Los Angeles.

Brent Weinstein is CEO and one of the key architects of 60Frames Entertainment, the innovative, Beverly Hills-based financing, ad sales and syndication company for professional artists to create and monetize original online content.

Prior to 60Frames, Weinstein was head of Digital Media at leading Hollywood talent and literary agency UTA, where he helped form the department in 2004 to oversee the agency’s digital practice areas, including broadband, video games and mobile entertainment. Weinstein led the dept.’s team of dedicated digital media agents to identify and evaluate opportunities for UTA clients: actors, writers, directors, producers, and recording artists, in addition to many business-to-business and consumer-oriented technology and corporate clients.

Weinstein, with UTA co-founder and partner Jeremy Zimmer, also formed UTAOnline (www.utaonline.net), a dedicated broadband division that finds and represents the next generation of web-based content artists. Launched in October 2006, UTAOnline is the first of its kind among major talent agencies.

During his tenure at UTA, Weinstein made digital media deals for many of the best known artists in entertainment, including Johnny Depp, Jack Black, Jim Carrey, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, as well as top digital media artists such as Big Fantastic (“Prom Queen”), AskANinja (askaninja.com), and others.

Prior to joining UTA in 2001, Weinstein practiced corporate and business litigation in Los Angeles and Irvine, California. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California, where he earned a Bachelors degree in Business Administration, and the University of San Diego School of Law.

Kacy Andrews has been actively involved in the entertainment industry for more than 20 years. Her diverse resume includes feature films, television series, theater, and animation. She has worked all over the world, and most recently was profiled in PEOPLE Asia Magazine in their People of the Year issue.

Kacy spent nine years in production and project development at Los Angeles-based Hyperion Studio. This includes work as one of the Producers on Miramax's Playing By Heart (Sean Connery, Gena Rowlands and Angelina Jolie). Kacy's portfolio at Hyperion also includes the feature film Tom's Midnight Garden (Joan Plowright); BoneChillers, a children's television series for ABC (Linda Cardellini); and numerous other animated projects such as FOX's Life With Louie (Louie Anderson); HBO's Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child (Denzel Washington and Whoopi Goldberg); and Paramount Pictures' The Oz Kids (Jonathan Taylor Thomas).

Moving from Hyperion, Kacy had a short stint as Vice President of Development at Blue Focus Management where she worked on projects for MGM, Disney and Sony. She then dabbled in the dotcom and software arena at Creative Planet and Entertainment Partners.

In 2003, her consulting work at Bigfoot Productions in Asia led to the creation of the International Academy of Film and Television and Bigfoot Entertainment. As the founder and CEO, respectively, she has overseen the set up and development of the company, production facilities and campus located in Cebu, Philippines. The company has since grown to more than 175 employees.

Over the past 2 years, Bigfoot Entertainment has invested in several feature films, including Shanghai Kiss (Kelly Hu), East Broadway (Margaret Cho) and 3 Needles (Lucy Liu, Stockard Channing and Sandra Oh).

During her tenure at Bigfoot she has served as a Producer on such feature films as; The Curiosity of Chance, Irreversi (Estella Warren), Hui Lui, Within, Simple Man and Midnight Movie, as well as the documentary, USS Cooper. These projects have been shot in such international locations as Belgium, Hong Kong, Thailand, Los Angeles and The Philippines. Many have played the film festival circuit and received numerous accolades before going into the marketplace.

Kacy is a recipient of the David Letterman Internship Award and a graduate of Ball State University with continuing studies at the American Film Institute. In 2000, she was awarded Ball State University's Graduate of the Last Decade for achievements in her career and charitable involvements. Since her move to Los Angeles, where she is currently based, she has been actively involved with organizations such as Women in Film, Step-Up, and Big Sisters/Big Brothers of Los Angeles.

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As Director of New Product Development at TOKYOPOP Inc., the leading publisher of English-language manga, Jeremy Ross is responsible for developing a wide variety of digital & analog manga products.

He worked with TOKYOPOP Digital partner Uclick to launch the first mobile manga viewer on major cell phone carriers in the US. Other TOKYOPOP Digital products include mobile games (with partner Konami), MangaPod radio plays, iManga & Manga Movie 2-D and 3-D animations for broadband & mobile.

Jeremy initiated manga development at TOKYOPOP, planning & supervising creation of original manga in graphic novel formats from licensors & creators around the world. He worked with Andrews McMeel Universal to run TOKYOPOP manga in major US and international newspapers.

One of his specialties is working with top authors & artists on commissioned books, plus recruiting and nurturing young talent through school presentations and TOKYOPOP’s Rising Stars of Manga competition. Jeremy regularly speaks at schools with sequential art & illustration programs. He created a pioneering week-long seminar about how to make manga that he first taught at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in June, 2006.

Jeremy handles the company’s Korean relationships, working closely with publishing partners and artists.

Jeremy’s previous career has had a common theme—adapting print storytelling & information for cross-media deployment, especially emerging formats. Immediately prior to joining TOKYOPOP, Ross served as executive producer at Kleiser-Walczak, 3-D CG visual effects pioneers. Ross’ previous posts include director of new technology & editor at Callaway Editions, and vice president at Byron Preiss Multimedia.

Jeremy holds a master of fine arts degree in photography from the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, New York. He received his bachelor’s degree with an independent major in “The Creative Process” from Brown University.

HJ Ahn is the Vice President of the Media Division of KT (formerly Korea Telecom), the top integrated wired/wireless communications service provider in Korea and a leader in the development of the information and communications business for the last 25 years. KT owns Korea’s only satellite provider SkyLife, which reaches over 2 million households in Korea. Its other subsidiaries include film company Sidus FNH, TV show production company OLIVE NINE and mobile communications company KTF, amongst many others.

Ahn joined KT in 2005 as Vice President of content strategy and investment and now works in the IPTV Division. He is responsible for content acquisition and programming for newly launched IPTV and other digital platforms.

Prior to joining KT, Ahn began as a marketing manager for Walt Disney Company’s home entertainment division when the company first opened its Korean subsidiary in 1993 and went on to become the marketing director in 1997, until leaving Disney in 2000. His responsibilities at Disney included marketing, distribution, acquisition and new product development.

After Disney, Ahn co-founded Synergy Media which was engaged in international sales and distribution of Korean entertainment content including movies, games, animations and TV shows. His specialty was on product development, international co-production arrangement and overseas distribution of animated TV series.

Ahn began his career after graduating university as an account executive in ad agencies such as Leo Burnett for 9 years, from 1984 – 1993.

Integrating his widespread digital authority in music, mobile, IPTV and product & service development, Ted Cohen is the Managing Partner of TAG Strategic. In an industry that's been slow to embrace change, Cohen is the exception to the stereotypical music-exec rule. Of course, when you start a career on the road with Alice Cooper and Van Halen, you're more primed for the unexpected.

Known throughout the technology and music industries as being "part ambassador and part evangelist," Cohen was instrumental in crafting the licensing agreements upon which the Rhapsody subscription service and the iTunes Music Store were built.

In his previous role as Senior Vice President of Digital Development & Distribution for EMI Music (home of artists including Coldplay and the Rolling Stones), Cohen led next-generation digital business development worldwide for this "big four" record company, which includes labels such as Capitol, Virgin, Angel/Blue Note, Parlophone and Chrysalis. During that time, EMI led the industry by embracing and exploiting new technologies and business models such as digital downloads and online music subscriptions, custom compilations, wireless services, high-definition audio and Internet radio.

In addition to seeking out, evaluating and executing business opportunities for the company on a global basis, Cohen served as both a strategist and key decision-maker for EMI's global new media and anti-piracy efforts. He worked to establish company-wide digital policies, which have provided EMI's artists and labels a substantial advantage in the digital music arena.

Prior to his role at EMI, Cohen served as Executive Vice President of Digital Music Network Inc., where he co-founded and served as Chairman of the groundbreaking Webnoize conferences.

Cohen also led two highly successful new media consulting operations, DMN Consulting and Consulting Adults, attracting clients such as Amazon.com, Microsoft, Universal Studios, DreamWorks Records, Liquid Audio, Wherehouse Records/Checkout.com and various other entertainment, technology and new media organizations. Cohen also held senior management positions at both Warner Bros. Records and Philips Media.

A 30-year industry veteran, Cohen was recently elected Chairman of the Mobile Entertainment Forum Americas board, and currently chairs MidemNet, an international music/technology conference convened in Cannes each year. Cohen also serves on the NARAS (Grammy) Los Angeles chapter Board of Governors as well as the national Trustee Board, the Board of Directors for the Neil Bogart Memorial Fund, co-chairs the new media arm of the T.J. Martell Foundation, and lends his time and talents to music & technology education efforts such as the Grammy In The Schools Program.

Terry Thoren is CEO of Rocket Fish Studios, a leading, diversified, global entertainment company developing and producing high-quality animation for feature films, TV, DVDs, mobile phones, the Internet, podcasting and all emerging forms of digital transmission in all genres in animation.

Rocket Fish Los Angeles is an “intellectual property development and management” company, where ideas are transformed into intellectual assets that are monetized globally to produce profit in the next generation entertainment industry.

Rocket Fish Kuala Lumpur is a full service Flash animation studio with a "flash" forward approach to digital animation, combining technology with years of experience and cutting edge design, "rocketing" animation into the next generation. The result is a level of comprehensive service and support equal to the most discerning producer.

Terry Thoren has been recognized by the Los Angeles Times as “one of the most important figures in the marketing and promotion of independent animated films in the United States”.

For eleven years, Thoren served as CEO/President of Klasky Csupo. During his tenure he grew the company from 75 to 450 employees and diversified it into a full service entertainment and media entity. Klasky Csupo, Inc. was the first to produce the TV series “The Simpsons,” “Aaahh!!! Real Monsters” and “Duckman,” Under Thoren’s leadership the “Rugrats” skyrocked to success and the popular characters enjoyed success in all media. The Klasky Csupo Televison division produced a slate of top-rated series for Nickelodeon including “The Wild Thornberys”, the Emmy nominated “As Told By Ginger”, “Rocket Power”, two Rugrats spinoffs entitled “The Rugrats All Grown Up” and “Pre School Daze” and “The Immigrants” for the Spike network. Since 1994 Thoren was the Executive in Charge of Production on more than 600 episodes of TV animation.

As Chief Executive Officer of Klasky Csupo, Thoren initiated the movie division and oversaw the development and production of four successful animated features. “The Rugrats Movie” marked the first time a non-Disney animated feature grossed over $100 million. This was followed by “The Rugrats in Paris.” “The Wild Thornberrys Movie”, and “The Rugrats Go Wild”.

Simultaneously, Thoren oversaw the extraordinary growth of Klasky Csupo’s two global commercials divisions and the successful broadcast design division responsible for producing the title sequences for 20 new TV series including “The Osbournes’, “The Anna Nicole Smith Show’ and “The Wayne Brady Show”.

He has also provided vision, direction and financial oversight for Klasky Csupo’s two specialized record labels (Tone Casualties and Casual Tonalities), guided the creation of an art-oriented publishing division and skillfully exploited the many merchandising opportunities that present themselves to the makers of America’s most beloved children’s programming.

He presided over the purchase and construction of a 110,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility in the center of Hollywood and consolidated of all Klasky Csupo operations under one roof. He successfully balanced his leadership role within the animation industry against the day to day demands of challenging and developing Klasky Csupo’s crack team of development executives guiding more than 150 projects in development for movies and television.

An entertainment industry veteran with 35 years experience in the exhibition, distribution and marketing of theatrical feature films and television programming, Thoren began his film studies career at the University of Colorado. Upon graduation in 1975 he created the Visions Film Program and in 1976 became the Director of the Western States Film Institute.

Managing Denver’s Flick Theatre while an undergraduate, he served as an original staff member of the Telluride Film Festival in 1976 and then in 1978 co-founded the Denver International Film Festival. In 1979 he was recruited by America’s largest art theatre chain Landmark Theaters and moved to Hollywood and learned the business of distribution and marketing by working as a film buyer and a marketing Vice President.

In 1984, he founded Expanded Entertainment, a production and distribution company specializing in compilations of animated shorts. Seeking to open new markets for the promotion and exhibition of Expanded’s product line, he acquired the rights to the then little-known International Tournee of Animation. He soon transformed that sleepy specialized feature film into a North American success story with each year’s release appearing on the top-ten list of highest grossing foreign and specialty releases.

Leaving no avenue of promotion unexplored, in 1985 Thoren launched Animation Magazine as a way to publicize Expanded’s offerings. After 20 years of publishing success, Animation Magazine has become the animation industry’s leading trade publication.

Thoren produced nineteen feature length animation compilations each of which were distributed to 350 cities in North America. This list includes six editions of the International Tournee of Animation, four editions of the Animation Celebration, The Computer Animation Show, Outrageous Animation, The National Film Board of Canada’s Animation Festival and The British Animation Invasion.

A global ambassador of animation, Thoren inaugurated the Los Angeles International Animation Celebration (re-named the World Animation Celebration), a biennial affair that has hosted thousands of filmmakers, studio heads, dignitaries and industry creatives from around the world since 1985.

A savvy, multi-media entrepreneur who, in the words of the Wall Street Journal, turned “a once-obscure event for aficionados into a moneymaking product palatable to mainstream movie-goers,” Thoren is uniquely situated to understand and navigate the much-heralded convergence of traditional entertainment with new media.

Janet Yang has recently been named President and COO of American Sterling Productions -- a new initiative created with CEO Larry Dodge under the auspices of his American Sterling Group -- to finance and produce movies and television. Dark Matter, a cross-cultural drama set at an American University, directed by celebrated theater director Chen Shi-Zheng and starring Meryl Streep, Aidan Quinn, and Chinese star Liu Ye, is their first film. Dark Matter premiered at the Sundance Film Festival 2007 and won the prestigious Alfred P. Sloan Award. American Sterling has just completed production of their second project – The Defector – a documentary directed by multiple Academy Award winner Mark Jonathan Harris, and based on the true-life story of an American man who grew up under extremely privileged circumstances to find out that his biological father, whom he met only occasionally, is a high-profile Soviet defector from the Stalin regime.

Yang also recently executive produced the critically lauded film by David Kaplan, Year of the Fish, a modern retelling of the Cinderella story set in New York’s Chinatown, which also premiered at the Sundance Film Festival 2007.

Throughout her career, Yang has distinguished herself by working with some of the most formidable directors and actors in the world, as well as discovering unique, often unheard voices and stories, and bringing them into the mainstream. She has particular interest in bringing these talents to the Asian and Chinese marketplace.

Ms. Yang also continues to produce films under her long-time banner, The Manifest Film Company. Manifest productions include: Carl Franklin’s High Crimes, a military courtroom thriller starring Ashley Judd, Morgan Freeman and Jim Caviezel (20th Century Fox), and The Weight of Water, Kathryn Bigelow’s tale of murder and betrayal, starring Academy Award-winner Sean Penn, Elizabeth Hurley, Sarah Polley and Catherine McCormack (Lion’s Gate Films).

Previous Manifest productions include the critically acclaimed films Zero Effect, starring Bill Pullman and Ben Stiller, and Savior, starring Dennis Quaid, Nastassja Kinski, and Stellan Skarsgard.

From 1989 to 1996, Yang served as president of Ixtlan, the company she had with Academy Award-winning writer/director Oliver Stone, spearheading all aspects of the company’s development and production. At Ixtlan, she produced The People vs. Larry Flynt, which won the 1996 Golden Globe Awards for Best Director and Best Screenplay, and garnered Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Actor. Starring Woody Harrelson as the renegade publisher, rock star Courtney Love as his wife, and Edward Norton as the lawyer who won Flynt’s landmark Supreme Court case, The People vs. Larry Flynt was directed by two-time Academy Award-winner Milos Forman (One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and Amadeus) for Columbia Pictures.

Yang served as executive producer of the groundbreaking film directed by Wayne Wang, The Joy Luck Club, based on the best-selling novel by Amy Tan. She is also recipient of both the Emmy and Golden Globe Awards for Best Made for Television Movie for Indictment: The McMartin Trial starring James Woods and Mercedes Ruehl.

Prior to her association with Oliver Stone, Yang worked closely with Steven Spielberg and his Amblin Entertainment as a production executive at MCA/Universal. In 1986, she served as Spielberg's liaison in China, facilitating the historic production of Empire of the Sun (Warner Bros). While at Universal, she also initiated the project Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story.

From 1985 to 1987, she functioned as a link between major Hollywood studios and China. Representing Universal, Paramount, and MGM/UA, Yang brokered the sale of the first American studio movies sold in the Chinese market.

Before joining MCA/Universal, Yang was president of World Entertainment in San Francisco, a domestic distributor of films from Hong Kong and China. World Entertainment was the North American distributor of early works by now internationally prominent Chinese filmmakers such as Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige.

Janet Yang holds a B.A. from Brown University in Chinese studies as well as an M.B.A. from Columbia University. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a board member of the Committee of 100, an organization of prominent Chinese-Americans, and an advisory board member of the Asia Society of Southern California. She also has taught producing and production at the Sundance Institute and the Independent Feature Project.

Ms. Yang has been named one of the “50 Most Powerful Women in Hollywood” by the Hollywood Reporter, and has been featured in articles in THE NEW YORK TIMES, LA TIMES, VARIETY, HARPER’S BAZAAR, and numerous radio and television shows both here and in Asia.

Nadav Neufeld serves as Senior Product Manager for Microsoft TV, where he helps shape Microsoft Mediaroom’s product strategy, overseeing product roadmap, product positioning, worldwide sales support and joint marketing activities. Prior to Microsoft, Nadav served as Director of Product Marketing at Orca Interactive, and later as Sales Manager for the Americas. He has held various product management and consulting positions in software companies. Nadav holds an MBA in Marketing and Information Systems from Bar-Ilan University (Israel), and a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Tel-Aviv University (Israel).

Recent Events: Heavy Reading Links 2006 Executive Summit (November 2006).

Marty Shindler is the CEO of The Shindler Perspective, Inc., a husband and wife management consulting team that provides a unique blend of hands on management roles, strong educational credentials and many years of professional service work to companies all along the entertainment and entertainment technology food chain.

Their backgrounds include Big 4 consulting/CPA firm experience, top 5 business graduate school with work experience at, 20th Century Fox, MGM, Lucasfilm/Industrial Light & Magic, Kodak’s Cinesite and Bank of America.

The types of projects include business and strategic planning, operational reviews, market assessments, research & analysis and consulting on trends in the various market segments in which they are involved, with special attention paid to the anticipated impact on the professional and consumer marketplaces.

These include IPTV, digital content production and distribution, digital cinema and its transition, digital image acquisition, 3D stereoscopic imaging, computer animation, sophisticated software tools and the next generation of DVDs.

Levi Shapiro is Director of Audience Metrics at Telephia (a unit of Nielsen), where he is responsible for developing partnerships with movie studios, TV networks, game and internet publishers, record labels and advertising agencies. He has also created innovative audience measurement products, including audience and campaign effectiveness tools for mobile video and mobile advertising.

Previously, Mr. Shapiro founded two mobile start-ups, Two Minute Television and Snack Mobile. Two Minute Television is a creator of 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 proprietary software enabling an entirely new category of mobile media— combining casual mobile gaming with live-action video.

Mr. Shapiro is fluent in Japanese, Mandarin Chinese and Italian and spent the early part of his career in Tokyo and Beijing, with Toyota Motor Corporation. He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences, sits on the board of Double Agent and is the Associate Editor of Video Age magazine. Mr. Shapiro is on the Executive Committee of two Los Angeles-based charities focusing on youth education. He holds degrees from Tulane (BA), Cornell (MA) and MIT (MBA).

Maura Kawai is a Senior International Trade Specialist with the U.S. Commercial Service, export promotion arm of the U.S. Department of Commerce (USDOC). She covers the electronic media, IT and telecom, entertainment and education industries/services sectors in Los Angeles. The Commercial Service, in conjunction with its network of offices in eighty U.S. Embassies and U.S. Consulates worldwide, helps companies to market globally. She assists firms develop overseas contacts, as well as provides guidance on cultural issues and business protocol facing U.S. firms abroad.

As the USDOC’s national Information Communication Technologies (ICT) Team’s Electronic Media/Broadcast Technology Specialist and Asia Now Coordinator she advises clients about solutions available to help them meet the following challenges that they face in international regions: 1) geographic (infrastructure), and cultural diversity and its affect on logistics and supply chain; 2) complex commercial environments (and thus the importance of contacts with customers, partners, competitors, and governing bodies); 3) lack of harmonization of standards and regulations (including foreign government procurement); and 4) IPR theft.

She hosts U.S. Embassy led digital media and broadcast technologies buyer delegations to Los Angeles from overseas. She is an ICT Team leader for the USDOC’s international program at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) annual trade show. Her experience includes managing and executing 17 (10 were first-time events) overseas U.S. Pavilions and trade missions featuring U.S. fashion in Europe, Latin America and Japan.

Dennis Young, 42, is a veteran media and telecommunications expert with over fifteen years of hands-on experience in building some of the world’s leading media and telecommunications systems.

Currently, Young is a co-founder and CEO of Glocal Media Networks, a U.S. based television venture created in 2005 to focus on developing and operating pay television channels for the cable, satellite, IPTV and mobile TV platforms. The company is vertically integrated and assembles the channels through a combination of acquisitions and original productions. Currently the company operates 3 Asian channels in the US on Echostar’s DISH Network. It is also launching full linear mobile TV channels in Asia for several CELCO’s DVB-H platforms in Asia and launching 2 more Asian channels in the U.S., Canada and Europe.

Prior to founding Glocal Media Networks, Young was a co-founder and President of the Soundtrack Channel (“STC”), a traditional linear music video channel available in 40 countries.

Young also worked at DIRECTV and DIRECTV JAPAN. In Japan, Young was responsible for leading all business development activities leading to the formation of the company and the service. This included the acquisition of regulatory approvals, the development of the business structure/model and the establishment of thirty new television channels.

Young holds a Master’s in Business Administration degree with emphasis in finance from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and a Master’s of Science degree in Electrical Engineering with emphasis in digital communications from the University of Southern California (USC).

May Yin Oh is Senior Director of Business Development for Greater China and India for QUALCOMM | MediaFLO Technologies. Prior to joining QUALCOMM, she held the position of Senior Vice President at STAR Ventures, a division of News Corporation’s media and entertainment subsidiary, STAR. In this role, she was responsible for the strategy for maximizing the value of each of STAR’s joint ventures.

During her time with STAR, Ms. Oh also held the position of Vice President for Distribution and Marketing. In addition, she served as Vice President of the Digitisation and Encryption Project at the STAR / Koos joint venture with China Network Systems in Taiwan, where she managed a multi-unit project team for the roll-out of digital interactive television.

Ms. Oh previously held business development and analysis roles at companies such as FOXTEL and OPTUS Communications, both based in Sydney, Australia. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Western Australia, where she majored in Finance and Accounting.

Won Seok Chung is the Senior Director of Business Development for Trion World Network, Inc., the publisher and developer of original entertainment and games for the connected world. Chung is a key executive, focusing on a broad range of business development initiatives worldwide, and in particular, Asian markets. He manages activities to identify, evaluate, negotiate and execute new selective strategic alliances for the company.

Chung joins Trion with more than twelve years of business development, strategic planning and marketing experience. Prior to joining Trion, he spent several years as Department Head & Director of Business Development at Cyworld, Inc., one of the world’s fastest growing online social networking destinations. During his time at Cyworld, Chung negotiated numerous contracts with major music labels, and identified and negotiated strategic partnership deals for product feature enhancement.

Prior to joining Cyworld, Chung spent several years as the Department Head and General Manager of Business Development for leading online game company NCSoft. While at NCSoft, Chung was directly responsible for setting up major partnership deals and joint ventures with global powerhouses, including Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Intel, NVIDIA and Sina.

Chung holds a Master’s degree in Science and Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and a Double Major in Economics and Computer Science from Boston University.

Peter Shiao is CEO of Ironpond, a US and China based entertainment company that specializes in the production, distribution and finance of Chinese themed entertainment for worldwide markets. Ironpond currently serves as the exclusive entertainment/media brand builder for Shaolin and has multiple joint ventures with the China Film Group, including the launch of www.chinafilm.com.

Prior to the founding of Ironpond, Peter teamed with former Tristar Chairman Mike Medavoy to co-found Ionic Studios – an end-to-end digital entertainment company – and served as its executive director. In that capacity, Peter worked with AT&T, investors and multiple partners to launch an interactive and branded television network, and to develop various methodologies in digital content production, post production and distribution around affinity communities.

Peter also produced and created films under the first movie banner he founded, Celestial Pictures. Celestial Films included RESTLESS – the first-ever official US-China film co-production, The DEBUT and the documentary feature “Persona Non-Grata” for PBS. All Celestial films have been theatrically distributed and received numerous awards. Celestial Pictures was successfully sold to a major Asian distributor in 2000. His first film project, Charlie Apana, was sold to John Woo’s Lion Rock Productions.

Credited as a bridge-builder between Hollywood and China, Peter chaired and organized the first-ever US-China Film Industry Conference with the White House and the Chinese Ministry of Radio, Film and Television, and produced landmark cooperation between the creative, governmental, and entertainment industries on both sides of the Pacific. He was also an organizer of the 1995 Shanghai International Film Festival. Before his career in media, Peter enjoyed a career in politics, serving as staff director multiple bodies in the California Legislature including the Special Committee on the Entertainment Industry, Select Committee on the Pacific Rim, Committee on Insurance, Claims, and Corporations, and Senate Special Task Force on A New Los Angeles.

Peter is also a certified dispute resolution mediator, and specialized in the mediation of racial tensions in Los Angeles in association with the Federal Justice Department and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center. Peter began his public service career as a legislative liaison for then mayor of Los Angeles, Tom Bradley, on Capitol Hill.

As a translator and editor, Peter translated the Chinese/Tibetan book entitled “Dragons Dancing on the Rooftops” into English for the Philosophic Research Society, developed and edited “Merging” as a book, music and immersive art exhibition, and is currently at work on adapting classic Chinese martial arts literature for the Western world.

Peter graduated from UCLA with a degree in political science, and attended graduate school in public policy as a State Senate Fellow.

Marc is a Director of the Intel Capital Digital Home Fund where he drives Intel’s investment initiatives in the digital media and consumer PC segments on a global basis. Before joining the Digital Home Fund, Marc was part of the Intel Capital M&A Group, where he made minority investments in more than 20 companies. Selected investments include – Iridigm (acquired by Qualcomm), Telera (acquired by Siemens), Chinacast (IPO in Singapore), Apache Designs, and Polyfuel. Marc serves as a board observer of Bellrock Media, Gotcha Media, ManiaTV, and Zensys.

Prior to joining Intel Capital, Marc was an Associate at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the investment arm of the World Bank. As a member of the Telecom and Infrastructure Group, Marc made both equity and debt investments in the emerging markets. In addition, Marc worked at AT&T’s global strategy team and Deutsche Bank. Marc holds a BS in Economics from the Wharton School, the University of Pennsylvania.

Austin Chang (Director of Strategy & Operations) manages the Online Games group at MTV Networks (MTV, MTV2, VH1, Comedy Central, CMT and MTV International). The Online Games group develops games covering everything from viral topical games, small scale online games, downloadable games, multiplayer games, and large scale game destinations as well as robust game services connecting people together and providing the glue to keep people coming back. In addition, the Online Games group partners, publishes, and licenses games/branded content for distribution and syndication where ever people play games.

Outside of MTVN, Austin is also an Adjunct Professor at Parsons School of Design where he teaches game design and interactive design in the MFA and BFA Communication, Design and Technology department. Austin has an undergraduate degree from Williams College and graduate degrees from the Rhode Island School of Design and Parsons School of Design.

Lou Volpano (B.Sc. Mgmt. Pepperdine) is the managing partner of ascertain-ment®, the only entertainment and media consulting company focused on finding the hidden value in America’s largest export: copyrights and IP, for private equity, V.C’s, and media companies. Current clients lead the markets in TelecomTV, direct response TV, and the internet and include: being featured entertainment content columnist for the leading telecom analysts: Heavy Reading’s new content site http://www.contentinople.com/, an owning the media properties “Searching-for-Elvis”, the TV series “Great Yoga Teachers, and Op-Tix.com.

Volpano served as director of corporate development for Kibel/Green, Inc., a leading Santa Monica-based turn-around firm. In 2001, as director of strategic marketing and licensing sales, he provided Discovery Channel’s Great Chefs™ with the strategy to implement the global branding needed to enter the trademark licensing market. From 90 to 99, his consulting assignments included House of Blues and Billboard Live, and production companies, Dick Clark Productions and RadioVision for which he managed the digital media content acquisition for PPV/DVD, of 50 superstars for Columbia Records Celebrates Bob Dylan 30th anniversary tribute Madison Square Garden. Based in Chicago from 75 to 89, he produced the world’s largest music festivals and led the vanguard of event marketing, provided global brands including: Philip Morris, Miller Brewing Company, Kraft, Perrier and Budweiser, with the strategies needed to compete in the young-adult market. He was also an integral member of the team that personally managed the Blues Brothers band and brand.

Published articles include “TelecomTV Should Not Commoditize Entertainment” Heavy Reading, “Creating and Communicating a Vision” Handbook of Business Strategy, “An Analysis of Pricing Pay-Per-View Events” and “How To Rationalize Concert Ticket Pricing” Journal of Pricing and Revenue Management, and a bi-monthly analysis of Internet IPO's in VIC /e.

CINDY BOND is an entertainment industry veteran acclaimed for her pioneering work in developing and making films that appeal to families and people of faith throughout the world.

She is president, chief operating officer and co-founder of Promenade Pictures where, aside from her corporate responsibilities, she conceived the idea for and is producer of a 12-film franchise entitled Epic Stories of the Bible, which debuts with The Ten Commandments. Bond was involved in every step of the development and production of The Ten Commandments. Initially pitched the bare-bones concept of an animation film based on the Ten Commandments, she found Ed Naha (Honey I Shrunk the Kids) to write the screenplay, co-developed the script, arranged the financing and produced the motion picture. She is currently working on the second picture in the franchise, Noah’s Ark -- The New Beginning.

Bond began her producing career at Wild Horse Entertainment where she served as president and co-executive produced Total Stranger, starring Lindsay Crouse, Zoe McLellan and Jay Thomas. In addition to developing and producing other film, television and publishing projects, Bond anchored a $1 million film rights deal with Paramount Pictures for the James Byron Huggins novel Cain.

Next, Bond served as president of Norann Entertainment, a production company she co-founded in 1996 with Interstate Batteries Chairman Norm Miller. During her tenure at Norann, she produced The Joyriders (Martin Landau, Kris Kristofferson and Diane Venora) and The Joyriders soundtrack CD album. Additionally, Bond acquired rights to various intellectual properties including The Reckoning, by author Huggins.

As a producer, Bond recognized the power of distribution and marketing and the growing demand for family and faith films. In 1998, she co-founded Providence Entertainment with Norm Miller, a domestic theatrical distribution and marketing company. Under her leadership as president of production and acquisitions, Providence acquired and distributed various films including The Omega Code, which went on to become the No. 1 limited theatrical release of 1999 and the first film to identify the faith market to Hollywood.

Among other films released were Grizzly Falls (Richard Harris, Bryan Brown), a Marco Island Festival Audience Award winner; The Amati Girls (Mercedes Ruehl, Paul Sorvino and Sean Young) a Heartland Film Festival Award of Excellence winner; Mercy Streets (Eric Roberts) and the critically acclaimed documentary Hands on a Hard Body.

Bond co-founded the Backyard National Children’s Film Festival (BNCFF), a nationally recognized film festival solely devoted to showcasing films made by kids. She is a member of the Producers Guild of America, Screen Actors Guild, Women in Film and Biola University Studio Task Force and sits on the advisory board of the Dove Foundation.

Anni Sarah Lam is the CEO of Parc Landon, Inc., a music agency that books live concert appearances for major US recording artists in Asia. Parc Landon represents and works with more than 100 concert and sports promoters in China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, The Philippines, India, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and more. Just recently, Parc Landon booked Akon’s 2007 Asia tour and represents multi-platinum rapper 50 Cent in the Asia territory. Parc Landon is a respected and recognized buyer in the concert and celebrity business, purchasing 5- to 7- figure opportunities on behalf of exclusive clients. Parc Landon likens itself to a serious financial institution and aims to soon become a major entertainment agency for Asian artists in the territory.

Anni is a specialist in international music in U.S. and Asia. Business-savvy and unusually creative, she envisions what doesn't exist and engineers ideas into reality. Anni has been interviewed by the Asian Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stones Magazine, Lifetime Television, San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, Sing Tao Daily, Blackbook Magazine, The Straits Times, South China Morning Post, Yellow Magazine, Encore and The British Council.

Prior to starting Parc Landon, Anni was a concert promoter and worked at MTV Networks, Sony Music and Glamour Magazine. Anni’s greater mission is to standardize entertainment law in Asia’s “wild west” world to ensure artists are treated and compensated fairly. Ultimately, Anni envisions working in the criss-cross between Asia and America, opening up these vast continents to share culture and music.

Michael Song is the founder, president and chief executive officer of Visure Corp., a privately held technology company with a unique marketing and benchmarking solution to enhance and foster growth of the $4.2 billion product placement industry.

Michael created Visure in 2003 following his work with Atlanta Motor Speedway’s promotions and marketing communications department, where he conducted a research study to evaluate the performance of NASCAR sponsorships and its correlation to athletic performance. From that study, Michael recognized an industry-wide need for data that evaluates the performance, effectiveness and potential of brand activity as a result of the product placement process and whether this has an affect on consumer purchasing behavior. Leveraging this knowledge, Michael created a robust, patent-pending technology platform known as iVisure that offers advertisers and marketers an opportunity to focus on what happens after the placement appears. This platform extends the life of the placement through increasing brand awareness, stimulating consumer purchasing behavior, and expanding revenue-generating potential by up to four to six times.

As the visionary behind the company, Michael continues to develop new industry-wide solutions for the rapidly growing product placement industry. He recently launched Visure’s new consumer-interfacing catalog test site, eVisure.com, which is powered by its technology platform and helps its media partners deliver the full advantage of total transparency for the product placement process. For the first time ever, consumers can now easily identify any branded or non-branded product placed in an entertainment production. Whether it’s television or a movie, eVisure.com’s searchable online catalog currently features thousands of products and hot spots from more than hundreds of titles across 20 different categories such as accessories, women’s fashion, events and tourism, electronics, and more.

Previously, Michael held positions at Planet Central Advertising and the Newrich Group, an urban wear retail group in Virginia, where he designed a unique inventory software system for guiding inventory turnover benchmarks and price points to ensure profitability, and significantly reduce company losses.

Michael is considered an expert in entertainment and sports marketing. He also served on a panel focused on entrepreneurship and government policy for Treasury Secretary John Snow of the George W. Bush administration. The panel included Sir Richard Branson (Virgin Management, Ltd.), Rick Sharp (CarMax, Inc.), Jeff Bluestein (Harley-Davidson, Inc.), and other high-profile business experts from both the U.S. and the U.K. Michael also serves on the advisory boards of LaxSports, Inc. (LacrosseWorld Online, ZSPN) and ServiceOmni.com.

Michael graduated with a bachelor of science in Business and Economics from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and attended the Yonsei University language program in Seoul, Korea.

As CEO of RampRate, Anthony Greenberg drives a new vision in actionable, data-driven sourcing services, radically improving the IT purchase process from start to finish. Having founded the company on the principle that millions of dollars and time are wasted every year in misguided sourcing decisions, Greenberg has since overseen the building of the RampRate vision, team, and partnerships and has driven multi-million dollar sourcing engagements for clients including CBS, Microsoft, Yahoo and Sony.

Prior to RampRate, Greenberg ran the sales and marketing organization at Raindance (RNDC), serving as an executive team member who increased sales by 900%. He also served as the senior vice president of business development and marketing for the Digital Entertainment Network, carving out more than 50 deals which included licensing, infrastructure, low cost media distribution, fundraising and marketing. Previous to that, Greenberg held senior executive roles in marketing and sales at Exodus Communications, now Savvis, helping drive the firm to public offering by increasing annual revenue from $5mm to over $600mm by the time of his departure.

Anthony is an investor in over 15 companies, holds many board and advisory positions, and is an active member of the Tech Coast Angels.

He has experience in chain retailing, direct response marketing, sales culture, business development, and manufacturing, having founded and sold companies in these disciplines.

Creative Director Nathan Pearce leads the Product Design team for Sony Online Entertainment’s Platform division. He brings 9 years of experience in innovating new ways to interact with online video games, bringing trademark passion and creativity to industry innovators like EverQuest, Unreal Tournament and Star Wars Galaxies. Having previously directed web presence for GT Interactive and Atari, Nathan is now breaking new ground in designing the player-facing toolsets surrounding SOE’s innovative massively multiplayer online games, including StationExchange.com, a user-to-user digital assets auctioning system and StationPlayers.com, a robust suite of character and guild profiles.

Steve is best known for his recent work as Executive Producer on The Lord of the Rings video games series. This set of four games published by Electronic Arts sold over 18 million units. Prior to this series, Steve founded and later sold to THQ the game development studio currently known as Heavy Iron Studios. His background also includes a decade of work in the visual effects business contributing to films such as True Lies, Interview with the Vampire and Apollo 13. A mathematician and computer scientist by trade, Steve is also an active musician and sound designer having contributed to numerous stage plays, radio and TV commercials over the last 20 years.

Jay H. Eum is the co-founder and Managing Director of TransLink Capital. Jay is responsible for investments in mobile and digital media as well as supporting TransLink’s portfolio companies with their customers and partners primarily in Korea.

Most recently, Jay was the head of Samsung Ventures America. He was responsible for starting the U.S. operations for Samsung Venture Investment Corp., the corporate venture investment arm of Samsung, and leading their U.S.-based investments and portfolio management. Under Jay’s leadership, Samsung Ventures America grew to a team of five investment professionals and invested over US$80M in 27 US-based startups.

Prior to Samsung, he was General Manager of the North Asian operation of Aicent, a Vertex portfolio company, which provides mobile data roaming services, responsible for business development and sales in Korea and Japan. He was also the Assistant Vice President at Vertex Management and an investment officer with the US office of Vertex Management which is a global VC firm headquartered in Singapore. Before Vertex, Jay was a Senior Director of business development at Dialpad Communications (acquired by Yahoo), a voice over IP service provider. Jay also worked as an Associate at McKinsey in Palo Alto, New York, Beijing, and Seoul, and at Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong.

Jay received his MBA degree from Stanford University and an M.S. in Biochemistry and a B.S. in Chemistry from Seoul National University.

Alex St. John is the CEO and co-founder of WildTangent, the leading online game publisher and creators of 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.