MSC Malaysia Kre8tif Digital Content Conference

Speakers

• 

  David Abramowitz

  Writer/Producer

  David Abramowitz is a veteran producer and writer of television and movies, including "21 Jump Street", "V", "Macgyver" "Cagney and Lacey" "Murder She Wrote". He was the creative force behind the Highlander TV series where he served as its Showrunner and is now consulting on the coming Highlander videogame and Summit Features remake of the original Highlander movie.

  David's feature film "The No Game" will be in production in New York City and Jerusalem during the fall of 2009. He is the writer/producer of “War of the Worlds: Goliath”, and will continue to be a strategic partner for Tripod Entertainment.

  David has previously lectured on the craft writing and storytelling for the screen at the Sorbonne in Paris and has decades of experience shaping IP and creating compelling characters and plots.

• 

  Guillaume de Fondaumiere

  CEO and Executive Producer, Quantic Dreams, France

  Guillaume de Fondaumière is today's Co-CEO of Quantic Dream which produced FAHRENHEIT, which was one of 2005's most critically acclaimed games on multiple platforms is now also the executive producer of HEAVY RAIN, an exclusive PLAYSTATION 3 title developed with Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios which aims at breaking new grounds in the fields of interactive narration and emotion in games.

  Guillaume has been president of France's video game trade body SNJV between 2005 and 2009, and has been recently appointed Chairman of the EGDF (European Games Developer Federation).

  He was recently knighted in France's National Order of Merit in recognition for his contribution to his country’s digital economy.

• 

  Zainir Aminullah

  Executive Director, Astro Entertainment Sdn Bhd

  Zainir is responsible for an end to end content solution for Astro platforms and distribution network within the region. Astro Entertainment Sdn Bhd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Astro All Asia Networks plc, covers concept development, content creation, content aggregation, channel packaging, marketing solutions, content syndication, channel distribution and digital exploitation activities for almost all content genres from general entertainment and factual to news and kids programming. Programmes such as Akademi Fantasia, Raja Lawak, Geng Bas Sekolah and Tom Tom Bak reach a wide audience with massive popularity.

  Prior to Astro, Zainir spent 7 years in Shell Malaysia covering various aspects of network and dealer management activities. Zainir obtained his Engineering degree from University of Birmingham, UK and his MBA from University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.

• 

  Ramin Zahed

  Editor-In-Chief, Animation Magazine

  Ramin Zahed is the Editor-in-Chief of the Los Angeles-based monthly publication, Animation Magazine. He has been covering the animation and visual effects world for over 15 years. Before joining Animag, he was a senior editor at Daily Variety. His articles have also appeared in Variety, Hollywood Reporter, The Los Angeles Times and Entertainment Weekly. When he's not interviewing artists and executives who work in the animation and vfx field, he can be found torturing people with his karaoke songs, watching "SpongeBob" and "Mad Men" on TV, or reading cheap, time-wasting blogs online.

• 

  Fred Hasson

  CEO Redbedlam Ltd & Chair EGDF ON-line

  Fred Hasson has worked in senior positions in broadcasting (BBC) independent TV production (Pact), and in internet industries with dotcom Victoria Real, which was acquired by Endemol in 2001. He was Founder and CEO of both Tiga - the trade association for UK games developers and of its European sister EGDF, which he chaired for 3 years. He is currently with start -up company Redbedlam specialising in MMOG and Virtual World technology and services, and is Chair of a new EGDF On-line section. He has served on the BAFTA Games Committee for 4 years, was the founder of the Edinburgh Interactive event in 2002, and is currently a member of the British Screen Advisory Council.

• 

  Vaibhav Kumaresh

  Director, Vaibhav Studios, Mumbai

  Vaibhav Kumaresh is an animation film maker and Director of Vaibhav Studios who has created some of India's favourite animated content including the Amaron Battery commercials, Buladi’s AIDS awareness campaign for the West Bengal Govt and Simpoo the angry Sardaar math teacher on Channel [V] to name a few.

  A Fine Arts graduate, Vaibhav studied animation film making at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. Vaibhav is an active committee member and Jt. Secy of TASI: The Animation Society of India. He also teaches animation and is a visiting faculty at various animation schools in India.

• 

  Tony Sealy

  Managing Director, Intense Animation

  Tony Sealy in the co-founder and Managing Director of Intense Animation Studio in Singapore. Tony has worked in the professional media industry for over 20 years. Tony has divided his time working in South East Asia and Australia. Tony was Lead Compositor at Video Headquarters (VHQ) in Singapore and General Manager of VHQ in Jakarta, followed by a 5-year stint as the Head of VFX at ABC Television in Sydney.

  Tony co-founded Intense Animation Studio in 2004. Intense creates combines original content creation and facilities-based animation production in addition to graduating over 600 students from its training facility.

• 

  Hj Burhanuddin Md Radzi

  Managing Director, Les' Copaque Productions Sdn Bhd

  Tn. Hj. Burhanuddin joined Petronas Carigali Sdn. Bhd. in 1982 and progressed speedily through ranks and file. In 1992, he left Petronas and was invited to be part of Dayang Enterprise Sdn. Bhd. in 1994 as the managing Director and Partner where managed to increase the company's turnover from RM10 million to an annual of RM130 million. He resigned in 2005 and decided to enter the Entertainment Industry and formed Les' Copaque Production Sdn. Bhd.

  Today, Les' Copaque Production is one of the most well known animation company in Malaysia. Their 3D animated feature film, Geng: Pengembaraan Bermula, managed to collect RM6.31 million in ticket takings, becoming the 2nd highest local box-office collection of all time. Their main attraction, Upin & Ipin is also one of the most popular icons in Malaysia, with a hit TV show and sought after merchandise.

• 

  Usamah Zaid

  Creative Director, Les' Copaque Productions Sdn Bhd

  Muhammad Usamah Zaid is the Creative Director of Les' Copaque Production. Upon graduating from Multimedia University in 2006, this 25-year-old and his two friends collaborated with their now managing director Tuan Hj. Burhanuddin to form the 3D animation company with his first position being the animation director.

  Their first film Geng: Pengembaraan Bermula was an immense success, being one of the highest grossing local film of all time, and has won numerous awards locally and internationally.

• 

  Alex Fernandez

  CEO, Streamline Studios, Netherlands

  Alexander L. Fernandez serves as Streamline Studios' Chief Executive Officer and is one of the founding members of the company. Serving as the company's first sales director, Alexander transferred his knowledge of the IT industry to the gaming industry and watched his ideas flourish into a creative environment that employs over fifty people. His role quickly evolved into transforming Streamline Studios into one of the world's foremost leading co-production and production management studios for interactive entertainment. Alexander has been a key component in Streamline’s success and has several franchises and titles under his belt, including Gears of War, Saints Row, Ghost Recon 2, and James Bond 007: Nightfire. He has an unrivaled enthusiasm when it comes to knowledge sharing about the benefits of external content creation and developing original content.

• 

  Hector Fernandez

  Creative Officer, Streamline Studios, Netherlands

  Hector R. Fernandez joined Streamline Studios in 2001 to become the studio's first Creative Officer. Bringing years of graphic management and design experience to the studio, Hector was integral in crafting the foundation for what has become Streamline Studios' core business activity: Creative Service Solutions. As Vice President, Mr. Fernandez leads the studios' Business Development unit while evangelizing the studio's creative and technical expertise. Mr. Fernandez also serves on Streamline's Board of Directors and on the Board of BGIn, the Benelux Game Initiative.

  Prior to joining Streamline Studios, he worked at Electronic Arts as part of the World Wide Graphical Training Department, and he also worked as an independent graphic designer/cross-media consultant for companies and organizations including Hewlett Packard and the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City.

• 

  Larry Bafia

  VP, Faculty & Business Development, Vancouver Institute of Media Arts

  An animator who works with various media, Larry started his career in stop motion and Claymation with the Will Vinton Studios.

  During his seven year tenure as Commercial Animation Director at PDI/Dreamworks, Larry directed commercials for many top clients including Coca-Cola, Sega, Intel, Kraft, Target, Circle K, and Saturn. Larry was also Sequence Lead Animator on several hit films including Antz, Batman & Robin, and was on the effects team for Mission Impossible II & The Peacemaker. At Warner Brothers Larry served as Lead Animator on Tim Burton's feature Mars Attacks.

  Larry is currently the Vice President of Faculty and Business Development for the Vancouver Institute of Media Arts, also known as VanArts.

  In 2002, Larry founded his own animation company, Blam! Animation. As the company's Creative Director, Larry continues to develop commercials and short films with animated characters.

• 

  John Stevenson

  "Kung Fu Panda" Director

  John Stevenson is one the world's pre-eminent animation With more than three decades of experience in filmed entertainment, John Stevenson brings a full and varied skill set to every project, all of which bear the stamp of his keen eye and unending creativity. His journey as co-director of Kung Fu Panda began in May of 2003.

  Prior to that, Stevenson held the post of Head of Story at PDI/DreamWorks serving as story artist for the DreamWorks worldwide blockbusters Shrek, Shrek 2 and Madagascar. He also created storyboards for the animated features Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, starring Matt Damon; and Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, starring Brad Pitt, Michelle Pfeiffer and Catherine Zeta-Jones. A core member of PDI/DreamWorks' creative review committee, John had input on a variety of projects and also taught classes on the story process to artists at PDI and the San Francisco-based Wild Brain Productions.

  John was also storyboard artist and character designer for DreamWorks/PDI's Antz, Pixar's Toy Story 2, Nickelodeon's Fathead, Wild Brain/Fox's direct-to-video feature FernGully 2: The Magical Rescue, Jim Henson Production’s Brats of the Dark Nebula and the title design of Walt Disney's George of the Jungle. During this period, he also acted as an independent creative consultant to CBS, NBC, Walt Disney Productions, Colossal Pictures and Protozoa Pictures.

  His previous freelance career as an artist, illustrator, character designer and art director exposed him to myriad projects in nearly every medium, working on: England's Wonder World theme park and the Children's Museum of Bogotá, Columbia; commercials for Pepsi, Kellogg's Rice Krispies and Fosters Lager; feature films The Great Muppet Caper, The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Raggedy Rawney.

  Stevenson's entrée into entertainment began with character/product design, storyboarding, show concepts and background puppetry on the seminal The Muppet Show for Jim Henson Productions.

• 

  Eric Rollman

  President of Marvel Animation

  Eric Rollman is President of Marvel Animation. In his current capacity as President, Eric is responsible for development, financing, production, co-productions, marketing and worldwide distribution to television and home entertainment of all animated television and film properties.

  Marvel Animation has an unprecedented slate of direct to video animated films including: Ultimate Avengers, Invincible Iron Man, Hulk VS. and the soon to be released Thor: Son of Asgard. In addition, there is an unprecedented lineup of animated television series, which currently includes Iron Man Armored Adventures, Wolverine & The X Men, Spectacular Spider-Man, Super Hero Squad, Black Panther, The Avengers and Marvel Anime. Under Rollman, Marvel Animation is now in the unique position of having current series on all major kids networks in the U.S. and in most international markets where he has secured significant on-air block commitments on both free and pay channels.

  Prior to joining Marvel in 2004, Rollman headed the launch of the Global Gaming League, founded to organize competitive video gaming and manage the careers of the top players where he served as President & Chief Creative Officer.

  Eric was a key executive from 1987-2002 for Haim Saban where he spearheaded worldwide production for Fox Family Worldwide/Saban Entertainment/International. In his role as President, Fox Family Productions, Rollman managed thousands of hours of programming as well as the internal production infrastructure that serviced the Fox Kids Networks, Fox Family Channel, and Saban International until its sale to ABC/Disney in 2001 for US$5.4 Billion.

  Rollman began his career in variety television as a casting director working for legendary producer Bob Banner on the television series Star Search as well as a myriad of series and specials.

  Rollman is credited on over 5000 hours of animated and live action television series and films and is a graduate of Indiana University with a B.A. in Telecommunications.

• 

  Suresh Seetharaman

  Founder and President, Virgin Comics and Virgin Animation (Bangalore, New York)

  Suresh Seetharaman is the co founder and President of Virgin Animation and Virgin Comics.

  Virgin Comics is a character entertainment company creating original IP for worldwide audiences. It creates content for the entertainment industry for the production of Movies, Animations, Games and Merchandise.

  In 2005, Sharad Devarajan and Suresh Seetharaman teamed with Gotham Chopra to invent new mythologies and spark a creative renaissance in Indian character entertainment. Joined with the visionaries Deepak Chopra and Shekhar Kapur, they formed Virgin Comics under Sir Richard Branson's Virgin group of companies. The objective of Virgin Comics/Virgin Animation was to create a platform to showcase the enormous creative talent that has been dormant in the Southeast Asian countries. Virgin Comics believes in the vision that East has the potential to culturally revolutionise the entertainment industry.

  Suresh is also the co founder and Chief Operating Officer of Gotham Entertainment Group, South Asia's largest comic book publisher. He oversees the company's international operations, including production, distribution, promotions and sales.

  Suresh Seetharaman's experience also includes positions as Senior Vice President and Executive Director of Clarion McCann and National Creative Director of J Walter Thompson India. Suresh is also the Founder Director of Creative Works, a creative hot-shop that has developed and built many of today's leading brands in the Asia-Pacific region.

• 

  Si-Bum Kim

  Founder and CEO at Characterline Korea (Seoul)

  Si-Bum Kim is one the most highly respected and influential people in Korean animation, combining both creative production and industry policy development.

  Si-Bum is the Founder of Characterline Inc. which creates, manages, and markets IP (Intellectual Property) including characters, animation, comic, cartoons, including licensing and merchandising across print, broadcasting, online, mobile, and theme parks.

  Mr. Si-Bum KIM has been active in many areas. Besides of his own business, he was also a chairman of an internet company providing 3D animation creating software in online, and advisor of an IT company producing GPS golf rage finder.

  He has been a senior advisor of KOTRA (Korea Trade and Investment Promotion Agency) which is the government agency to promote international business between Korea and other countries. Now he is an advisor of KOCCA (Korea Culture Contents Agency) which is the Korean government agency charged with the promotion of Korean culture business including character, animation, movie, music, game, etc. He has conducted trainings in many countries including Japan, Taiwan, Denmark, Bangladesh, Uzbekistan, Mongolia as well as Korea.

  Professor Kim has also served as an adjunct professor of business in Hanyang Business Graduate School and now teaches International E-Commerce, International Marketing for Culture Business, Character Planning & Creating at Hanyang University.

  He has developed a training program, Leadership Academy; conducts "Intellectual Property Marketing" courses at KOCCA; and is a co-author of two books: Introduction of Cultural Contents and Becoming CEO with Idea and Guts at Twenties.

• 

  Sue Erokan

  Supervisor, Character Animation, Dreamworks (San Francisco)

  Sue Erokan is the Production Supervisor for Character Animation at Dreamworks Animation.

  She has been at Dreamworks for 5 years, working on films including Shrek 2 and 3, Madagascar, and Bee Movie.

  Sue has been in the industry for 20 years. Her previous jobs include scheduling manager at Western Images, a post-production facility and producer at Pomegranite Editorial. She also produced media for live events at Shout Creative.

  Sue's team of animators is currently working hard to complete Madagascar 2.

• 

  Henry LaBounta

  Chief Visual Officer, EA Sports

  LaBounta is currently working with the Need for Speed, Godfather and Skate teams. He recently completed work on EA's new highly rated game Skate while he consulted on Burnout Paradise and Need for Speed Pro Street. LaBounta joined EA as Senior Art Director for "SSX3" and since then has also held the role of Chief Visual Officer for EA Sports.

  LaBounta came to EA via PDI/DreamWorks, where he supervised visual effects for the Steven Spielberg film Minority Report. Other recent film credits include A.I., Mission Impossible 2 and Forces of Nature. He originally joined DreamWorks in 1996 to supervise the climactic Red Sea sequence in The Prince of Egypt.

  Prior to joining DreamWorks he worked at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) on many feature films including: Twister, Casper and Star Trek VII Generations. Prior to working at ILM, LaBounta did award-winning broadcast and commercial work in New York and Atlanta.

  In 1996, LaBounta was nominated for an Academy Award for designing the look and techniques for the tornadoes and related effects on Twister.

  In the same year, he was awarded the BAFTA (British Academy Award) for his work on that film.

• 

  Anand Gurnani

  Co Founder, CEO & Managing Editor, AnimationXpress.com

  Anand Gurnani is the Co Founder, CEO & Managing Editor of AnimationXpress.com, the internationally acclaimed Animation, VFX, Gaming information portal and Business2Business company. He is thoroughly networked with a 1000+ studios across India, China and the Asia Pacific and with an equal number of content buyers, distributors and outsourcing studios from the US & Western Europe. He also loves writing and traveling and is currently developing four children focused Intellectual Properties that will reach children across the globe in 2010.

• 

  Norman Abd Halim

  President / Group CEO, KRU Studios

  With Norman's vision and strategic leadership, he has masterminded success after success, putting his unique combination of skills, talent and business acumen to the test. His numerous achievements resulted in him receiving the Outstanding Entrepreneur Award in 2007 from the Asia Pacific Entrepreneur Awards. Today, more than fifteen years later, he has propelled the Company to the forefront of the world of media and entertainment both domestically and across foreign shores. Norman's expertise is sought by many other organisations as reflected by his posts in various associations including, Vice Chairman of Recording Industry Malaysia, Chairman of Anti Piracy for the Malaysian Film Producers Association, and Director on the Boards of Kuala Lumpur International Film Festival and Public Performance Malaysia.

• Laura Dohrmann

  Business Development & Marketing Manager, NVIDIA Corporation

  Since 2001, Laura Dohrmann is Business Development and Marketing Manager, Worldwide, for NVIDIA Corporation, where she's responsible for all business development, product management and marketing, including messaging, product development, channel marketing, client management, placement and presence for all NVIDIA software and hardware products in film and game production, animation, and visual effects worldwide including emerging markets in India, China, Malaysia, Singapore and Korea.

  Previously, Laura was Director of Account Management and Operations, where she was responsible for managing the strategic and the day-to-day business operations of Sales, Human Resources, Training, Facilities and Finance. Exluna was acquired by NVIDIA in March 2002.

  Laura earned a Bachelor of Arts from Media Studies & Theater- Fordham University- New York, NY.

• 

  Matthew Dewees

  Application Engineer, Media and Entertainment, Autodesk ASEAN

  Matthew Dewees has a 10-year combined experience in the broadcast, animation and visual effects industries, specializing in character rigging, matchmoving, 2D/3D integration, visual effects and photo realistic rendering.

  Prior to joining Autodesk, Matthew was an Application Engineer with Realviz, where he worked closely with the feature film, games, and visualization companies in North America on their production pipelines. Matthew is a certified Maya Instructor and has run specialized 3D courses worldwide.

• 

  Yuri Wong

  Yuri Wong is the founder of The Factory Music Studio, a music and audio production company based in Kuala Lumpur. His previous experience working in the consulting field (in Accenture) provided useful lessons for building his own organization. He has scored many television and radio commercials as well as theme songs for television, brands and corporations. He recently scored music for the hit animated movie Geng: Pengembaraan Bermula, of which his music was nominated for Best Original Score at the 22nd Malaysian Film Festival.

• 

  John Wong

  Founder CEO and one of the board of the Director of Dream Tube Entertainment and GOGo pictures

  Founder and CEO, John Wong has built a creative team that is both highly skilled and experienced in art, design, manufacturing. He is an accomplished artist and his personal work has been exhibited in MOCA Shanghai (www.mocashanghai.org). Also in the last 8 years he has become a respected commercial director in Taiwan and China. His Fortune 500 clients include Acer Computer, General Motors, Coca Cola and Motorola. Prior to relocating to China in 2000, John developed more than 20 years of experience in Hollywood with credits ranging from children's shows. He and his team won SIGGRAPH AWARD BACK in 1987. (The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Ghostbusters Animated Series) to feature films (The Fifth Element, City of Angels and Double Team).

• 

  CJ See

  Sales & Marketing Director, Inspidea Sdn Bhd

  CJ See is the Sales & Marketing Director of Inspidea, a digital animation company based in Kelana Jaya that creates, produces and distributes animated content. He has been in the same position since 2002 but he doesn't hold a grudge for being passed on for promotions. Throughout the seven years, he helped build the company from a small local startup to an internationally recognized studio, with clients such as Disney XD, Cartoon Network Asia and co-producing partners such as Kidsco and Astro Ceria. Even though his arms are tired, he is still pushing the company to grow aggressively year after year. This accounting graduate from The University Of Melbourne, Australia is also an entrepreneur who set up an IT distribution company in Malaysia before venturing into animation. He believes strongly in Inspidea's philosophy - Let The Kid Out - that you can often see him in cosplay costumes during office hours.

• 

  Markus Kurtz

  Production Technology Manager, Rhythm & Hues LA

  With more than 13 years of production experience in visual effects, Markus Kurtz serves as production technology manager at Rhythm & Hues Studios in Los Angeles, a position he has held since 2007. Markus interacts closely with all of the studio's productions and technology teams to design solutions based on their current production needs and future technology goals. Markus has been actively involved in such recent movies as "Night at the Museum" "Land of the Lost," "Fast & Furious," "The Incredible Hulk" and "Mummy 3: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor."

  Previously, Markus worked as a digital effects supervisor at Rhythm & Hues and CG supervisor at Digital Domain. His many film credits include "Titanic," "Lord of the Rings," "Happy Feet" and "Superman Returns."

  Markus holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University for Arts and Industrial Design, in Linz, Austria.

• 

  Christine Thaarup

  General Manager, Eidos Shanghai (Shanghai)

  Christine Thaarup joined Eidos and the game industry in 2004 with IO-Interactive in Copenhagen, Denmark. She oversaw the integration of outsourcing as a natural part of the workflow in production of Hitman, Kane & Lynch, and Mini Ninjas.

  Since September 2007 Christine entered the position as World Wide Studio Outsourcing Manager for Eidos, establishing an outsourcing hub in China: the beginning of Eidos Shanghai.

  Christine Thaarup has a background as an Executive Producer in European films; business development of International co-productions, and management of large creative teams.

  She is the producer of the animated short When Life Departs which was nominated for an Academy Award.

  For animated films and TV-series, since 1996 Christine has been building her outsourcing network, working with studios in The Philippines, Thailand, China and Taiwan, as well as in Spain and Eastern Europe.

  Christine Thaarup holds a Masters from the Royal Academy of Arts in Denmark.

  In 2005 she was appointed Honorary Guest Professor of the Shanghai Institute of Film Art (SIFA).

• 

  Dr. Naif A. Al-Mutawa

  Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa is the creator of THE 99-the first group of superheroes born of an Islamic archetype. THE 99, has received positive attention from the international media including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, Newsweek Magazine, Wired, Elle, The Washington Post and The Guardian. Recently, Forbes named THE 99 as one of the top 20 trends sweeping the globe. Read more about the worldwide coverage of THE 99.

  A PhD in Clinical Psychology from Long Island University, Al-Mutawa completed a Masters in Clinical Psychology from Long Island University, a Masters in Business Administration from Columbia University and a Masters in Organizational Psychology from Teacher's College, Columbia University. He earned his undergraduate degree from Tufts University, where he triple majored in clinical psychology, English literature and history.

  Dr. Al-Mutawa has had extensive clinical experience working with former prisoners of war in Kuwait as well as at the Survivors of Political Torture unit of Bellevue Hospital in New York. He has seen first hand the cancer that intolerance can bring to any society. His direct contact with the horrors of prisons and with people tortured because of their religious and political beliefs, led to his writing a timeless children's tale that won a UNESCO prize for literature in the service of tolerance. He is also the recipient of The Festival Internacional de Humour e Quadrinhos Comics Award presented at Cartoons & Comics Festival in Brazil, The Ecademy Award from Columbia University School of Business, The Eliot-Pearson Award for Excellence in Children's Media from Tufts University, The United Nations Alliance of Civilizations "Marketplace of Ideas" Award and 'The Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneurship Award', 2009 presented at the World Economic Forum on The Middle East, Dead Sea, Jordan.

• 

  Isaac Kerlow

  Author of "The Art of 3D Computer Animation Effects"

  Isaac Kerlow is a visual creator who continues to pioneer the use of digital and computer technology to produce creative content.

  Prof. Kerlow was recently Artist-in-Residence at Microsoft Research Asia in Beijing, China, and is the Festival Director for SIGGRAPH 2010's Computer Animation Festival in Los Angeles.

  Prof. Kerlow just completed People-Coral-Mentawai, a documentary short about earthquakes and tsunamis in West Sumatra's Mentawai Islands. He is currently in production with Mayon: The Volcano Princess, a documentary produced by the Earth Observatory of Singapore about the people living around the Mayon Volcano in the Philippines. Recently he completed the Creative Direction of Draconika, a large-scale animatronic Dragon Float that won the Audience Award at Singapore's 2009 Chingay Parade, and also completed the development and preproduction for Holy Night! a Spanish computer-animated feature film.

  Prof. Kerlow is also the author of several best-selling books, including the successful 4th edition of The Art of 3D Computer Animation and Effects published by Wiley and translated to Mandarin, Japanese, Russian, and Korean.

  Between 1995 and 2004 Prof. Kerlow led the group of digital artists and animators at Disney Interactive and multiple initiatives related to producing entertainment with new media at The Walt Disney Company, including 3D computer animation and 24P High-Definition digital moviemaking. While at Disney Interactive Prof. Kerlow oversaw creative and production aspects of over 20 computer games including the successful Animated Storybooks (Hercules, Mulan, Toy Story, 101 Dalmatians, etc.) and action games such as Escape from DeVil Manor, Hades Challenge, and Hercules Action Game.

  Prof. Kerlow's academic career includes being the Founding Dean of the School of Art, Design and Media (ADM) at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) from 2005-08. ADM is the first professional art school in Singapore offering six BFA degree programs, including animation and film. Prof. Kerlow was also the Founding Chairman of the Department of Computer Graphics and Interactive Media at Pratt Institute in New York, and the youngest full professor ever tenured at the institution.

• 

  Mike Bloemendal

  Imaginex Studios, Elemental Ventures and Tripod Entertainment Sdn Bhd

  Mike founded Imaginex Studios in 1997 in his adopted country of Malaysia. Since then he has been heavily involved in music and sound design in Asia's advertising scene. He got into music and audio engineering 20 years ago in his native New Zealand, and today is a mentor to many talents in these fields.

  Mike has won numerous local and international awards including a Silver at the d&ad awards in 2003.

  Mike also designed and built both the Malaysian and Indonesian music studios under Elemental Ventures.

  As a former lecturer in Audio Technology Mike has also nurtured a new generation of audio engineers.

  Today Mike is one of the partners in the Elemental and Tripod Entertainment Group, comprising audio and music studios and an animation company. 

• 

  Shawn Beck

  Application Specialist, ACA Pacific Technology

  An Autodesk Maya specialist, Shawn conducts Autodesk Maya feature & workflow demonstrations for education institutions, commercial firms as well as government sector. He also provides onsite support to customers and is a trainer for Maya users.

  Shawn holds a Diploma in Digital Animation and Game Design.

• 

  Pradeep Mittur

  Digital Entertainment Consultant, Formerly the Asia Pacific head of Walt Disney Internet Group and Paramount Pictures Digital

  An experienced Interactive and Digital entertainment executive, having performed with renowned Hollywood Studios, Pradeep brings a multifaceted background in interactive advertising, marketing, multi-platform digital strategy, brand development in new media, viral marketing and global distribution.

  Pradeep setup the Asia Pacific regional operations of Paramount Pictures Digital Entertainment from scratch and is credited with the swiftest distribution footprint from Dubai to Auckland and record revenues for digital video, online and mobile properties. He has successfully executed innovative marketing programs for some of the biggest blockbusters and his team created many firsts in niche content development.

  Before Paramount Pictures, Pradeep setup the regional operations of The Walt Disney Internet Group based out of Singapore. Focused on games and applications, he was responsible for managing the company’s regional expansion into digital content development, distribution and marketing. He was instrumental in successfully executing, localized Interactive marketing's campaigns for various tent-pole theatricals.

  Prior to Disney, Pradeep had extensive experience in building and developing global brands and partnerships whilst holding a multitude of senior management roles in well known interactive agencies, online portals, carriers and game developers across the US, Middle East, India and SE Asia, including US Web/CKS, Rediff,com, Wunderman, EuroRSCG, AKQA, Batelco and Living Mobile GmbH. Pradeep has expertise and key accomplishments in multiple-platform marketing, content development for emerging digital touch-points and regional distribution in such high-growth markets as broadband, mobile, online, IPTV, participatory media, proximity marketing and social networks.

  An electronics engineer by profession and successful, innovative marketer by practice, Pradeep's passion is to create affordable digital interactions and offer memorable experiences that enhance lifestyles.

• 

  Ming Chan

  Emmy Award-Winning Interactive Technical Consultant; CEO/CTO of The1stMovement

  Ming Chan is regarded as one of the world's leading experts in Flash animation development. As CEO/CTO of The1stMovement, Ming Chan brings a passion and dedication to Interactive technology rarely seen in the industry today.  His Emmy award-winning experience leading emerging technology assignments for Fortune 500 companies such as Apple, Cisco, Disney, Sun Microsystems and many others led him to start the award-winning digital communication agency in 2006.  The1stMovement focuses on using emerging technology creatively to build digital communications for some of the world’s most renowned brands including Adobe, AT&T, Comcast Entertainment Group and more.

  Ming started his career as a software engineer in Silicon Valley developing video chat and compression programs.  He then joined Design Reactor, a leading integrated digital marketing agency in 2002 and led their Flash design/development efforts. His work included web sites, games, and applications for clients such as 20th Century Fox, AMD, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Universal Pictures and more.

  His work has been recognized by numerous awards and publications including the Emmy Technical Excellence Award, FWA awards, KeyArts Awards, ADDY, Omni awards and Horizon Interactive awards.  He is also very active in both the local and national Interactive community and currently serves as a mentor in the American Film Institute's Digital Content Lab.

• 

  Samuel Seow

  Director, Samuel Seow Law Corporation

  Samuel's expertise and forte is in the field of intellectual property as well as in general commercial and corporate law, with a special focus on the application of these laws to the entertainment, arts and media industries. He is a much recognised name in these industries. His clients today include Sony Entertainment Television; Tanya Chua; Andrea Fonseka and Sun Ho, who recently released a single with reggae superstar, Wyclef Jean.

  His law corporation is ranked in the Asia-Pacific legal 500 and this year he have been conferred the prestigious "Patrons of the Arts Award" by the National Arts Council.

• 

  Tim Brooke-Hunt

  Executive Head of Children's Content, ABC TV (Sydney)

  Previously a producer of children's programs, Tim Brooke-Hunt joined ABC Television in September 2007 as Executive Head of Children's Content, responsible for children's content on all ABC platforms, including on-line. His department looks after program development and commissioning, the acquisition of Australian and International content, the programming and scheduling of children's programs across three channels, and the ABC's on-line destinations for children.

• 

  Wang Lei

  Vice President of Toonmax TV, Vice Director of SMG Film and  TV Drama Center, Shanghai

  Wang Lei is the Vice President of Toonmax TV, Vice Director of SMG Film and TV Drama Center, also in charge of SMG animated movies, animated television production, project management, Toonmax programs editing, co-production and introduction of international animation products. Wang Lei has been invited by MIPCOM as guest speaker two years in succession.

  During his tenure of Vice Director of SMG Film and  TV Drama Center, Wang Lei is mainly in charge of creation, production and distribution. As the leader of the production team in Center's Animation department, Wang Lei and his colleagues produced and distributed "The Storm Rider" and "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf", created a brand new marketing model for domestic animated movies, broke the bottleneck of domestic animated film box office. This achievement has drawn the attention of domestic and internationl media. CCTV, China Movie News have given special reports.

• 

  Mohd Nizam Abd Razak

  Managing Director Animonsta Studios Sdn. Bhd.

  Nizam is best known as the Director for the popular "Upin & Ipin" series and Malaysia's First 3D Animated Feature Film "Geng: Pengembaraan Bermula which became the 2nd highest grossing local film in Malaysia of RM6.3 Million. As the Director, Nizam has worked closely from scriptwriting, animation production, film directing to even business dealings and international sales. Now Nizam and 3 other partners have formed Animonsta Studios Sdn. Bhd. to seek new opportunities and bring fresh new IPs with Universal content but with a local touch.

  As Managing Director of Animonsta Studios, Nizam aims to position the company as a brand and content developer that brings fresh content with good values to the universal market. Through bringing entertaining stories and memorable characters Animonsta specializes in Feature Films, TV Series, Merchandising and other related products in the Intellectual Property business. His new product BoBoiBoy, a 3D Animated Television series will be debuted in 2010.

• 

  Sandrine Pechels de Saint Sardos

  VP Program Distribution, Bejuba! Entertainment

  With almost 20 years of TV experience, Sandrine came to Bejuba! Entertainment in February 2007 because of her love and passion for Children's programming. Born in Paris, France, she studied Economics at Paris University X. Simultaneously she was a journalist intern at La Cinq Berlusconi and a sales manager at Double V, a production company specialized in MOW and family programming.

  Upon moving to Santa Barbara, California, Sandrine studied Journalism and was a PA for KEY News ABC. She then moved to Toronto and worked as a Business Development Manager at Alliance Atlantis. She spent 12 years in New York working  for an array of major entertainment companies in creative development, production and distribution for Sunbow Entertainment, Sony Wonder, TV-Loonland, Hallmark and Classic Media/ Entertainment Rights. In all these companies, she was tapped for high level positions spearheading global distribution and was responsible for generating revenue through: television sales, video sales, mobile sales and co-production agreements. She became lately an expert in new media rights through Bejuba! Entertainment where she is currently a partner.