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"Nurturing the Mobile Gaming Experience" Leo Jun - Head of Games, Helio |
Click on the names below to view bios.
Dave Astle is has worked in the game industry for several years, and is currently a staff engineer in the Handheld Content Group at AMD. Previously, he played a key role in developing early OpenGL ES implementations at Qualcomm. He is the cofounder of GameDev.net, one of the leading sites serving the game development community, and has authored four books covering OpenGL and OpenGL ES.
Dave Bell
Vice President, Business Development, Playphone
Dave Bell has been involved in mobile entertainment and media since consumers began to purchase their first mobile handsets in the mid-1990s. Bell currently serves as the vice president of business development for PlayPhone, where he has spearheaded the company's content programming strategy and manages its business-to-business efforts. While at PlayPhone, Bell has secured relationships to distribute content for and power mobile destinations on behalf of some of the world's top media companies including ABC, RealNetworks, Vivendi Universal, Konami, I-Play, SEGA, Bandai, Square Enix, Gameloft and many others.
Prior to working with PlayPhone, Bell founded Chasma, one of the first publishers of branded, top-tier mobile games in North America. Under Bell's leadership as chief executive officer, Chasma pioneered innovative content for the CDMA BREW platform as one of QUALCOMM's first ten content partners. Before Chasma’s sale to Kayak Interactive in 2005, the company had raised two rounds of venture capital from institutional and angel investors and launched more than a dozen branded and original products on hundreds of mobile devices.
Bell has been a guest lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management and has been a featured participant at QUALCOMM's BREW Developers Conference, CTIA Wireless, the Mobile Entertainment Summit and E3. He has been profiled in Fortune Magazine, Inc. Magazine, Newsweek, the Boston Globe, Mass High Tech and CNNMoney. He was also included in the business management book Internet Technology and You: Thriving in the Internet Age, published by McGraw-Hill.
Matthew Bellows
General Manager, Floodgate
Matthew is responsible for the operations, sales and marketing of Floodgate Entertainment, a top mobile games developer based in Boston, Massachusetts. Before joining Floodgate, Matthew led Gamespot.com's mobile entertainment initiatives. He arrived at Gamespot (a division of CNET Networks) through that company's acquisition of Wireless Gaming Review. Matthew was the co-founder, editor and publisher of WGR (WGamer.com), the leading publication for mobile entertainment consumers. While leading WGR, he grew revenues to $1.5 million, distributed content through Verizon, Sprint, AT&T and Ziff-Davis. Matthew received his MBA with high honors from the Olin School at Babson College.
Mike Breslin
VP of Marketing, I-Play
Mike has deep roots in the video games industry spanning back over 11 years ago. Having managed the marketing communications for some of the gaming industries most prolific and best selling titles, such as The Doom series, Hexen, Quake, Duke Nukem, Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil, Deus Ex, Tron and Kingdom Hearts, he brings a seasoned and proven approach to the marketing of I-plays mobile titles. Having delivered some of the mobile gaming industry's most impacting and successful marketing and promotions campaigns in 2005 with Jewel Quest and Award wining Skipping Stone, 2006 with the launch of 24 and Fast and Furious: Tokyo, is sure to bring strategic and creatively executed marketing communications solutions. He attended the University of Texas at Austin where he double majored in Advertising and Business Administration.
John Carpenter
Director of Technology, KnowledgeWhere
John is an accomplished Geomatics Engineer and programmer. He has seven years direct experience in the wireless location industry, spanning from hardware deployments and position determination algorithm research using neural networks, to end-user application creation and testing. John was the architect of the Location Application Platform (LAP) and its related services.
Prior to working at KnowledgeWhere and Blister Entertainment, John was an accomplished Geomatics Project Manager with Colt Engineering and Canadian Geomatics Solutions. He has successfully completed large-budget projects using a structured approach to project management and open communication between all parties. In addition he holds two patents in wireless location and has published a number of peer-reviewed papers on the application of geomatics technologies. John joined KnowledgeWhere in April of 2003 when the company was founded. He developed and delivered the LAP, which has been operating commercially for over three years.
Stevie Case
Director of Sales, Tira Wireless
At Tira Wireless, Stevie Case is charged with establishing and maintaining relationships with the top mobile content publishers and developers in the North American market. Stevie has wide-ranging experience in the video game and mobile entertainment industries, and has participated in the development and distribution of hundreds of interactive entertainment projects. She has directly managed projects for platforms as diverse as BREW, J2ME, Symbian, Windows Mobile, PalmOS, Gameboy Advance and the PC. Stevie has also managed major brand licenses, ranging from The Simpsons to Scooby-Doo. Prior to joining Tira Wireless, Stevie served as Manager of Mobile Product Development at Warner Bros., Executive Producer at mobile content developer Alacre, and was CEO and Founder of Monkeystone Games. Stevie has been named one of PC Gamer’s Next Game Gods and Working Woman Magazine’s 20 Under 30 Women to Watch in business.
Jonathan Correa
Senior Producer, EA Mobile
Bio to follow.
Timothy Chang
Principal, Norwest Venture Partners
Tim brings a combination of operational, technical and international business experience to Norwest Venture Partners. Tim focuses on investments in wireless and digital media as well as business development initiatives in Asia-Pacific.
Prior to joining NVP in 2006, Tim was a principal at Gabriel Venture Partners where he was actively involved in over a dozen wireless-related deals and led Gabriel's investments in Iridigm Display Corporation (acquired by Qualcomm), Eyespot, Sequoia Communications, Sandbridge, and Kajeet. He also contributed to the boards of Placeware (acquired by Microsoft) and Arula Systems (acquired by Raritan), TestQuest, NextG Networks, and IPWireless. Tim built Gabriel's wireless sector practice and helped establish business development capabilities through strong, strategic relationships across the wireless value chain, particularly in Asia-Pacific.Tim holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar, and an MS in electrical engineering/system engineering as well as a BS in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan.
Erica Chriss
VP of Strategy and Business Development, Greystripe
Erica is responsible for the development and deployment of strategic partnerships, licensing, syndication and advertising programs. Prior to Greystripe, Erica was the VP of Business Development for LimeLife Inc. where she brought in notable partners and licenses like NBCUniversal, Time Inc., Bravo Television and others. Erica was also the Director of Business Development for Digital Chocolate where she acquired and managed external relationships including OEMs and technology partners. Before Digital Chocolate, she worked for Bain & Company with the Telecom and Technology Practice to identify strategic development priorities. She currently leads the Downloadable Working Group of the MMA's Ad Standards Committee.
Kris Davis
Sr. Director, Business Development, Capcom Interactive
ris is the senior director of Business Development with Capcom Interactive, Inc., the mobile games division of the originator of top selling franchises such as Street Fighter, Resident Evil and Mega Man . Kris manages relationships with key wireless distribution accounts and OEMs across North America. He also develops new business models, negotiates deal terms and executes contracts.
Prior to Capcom, Kris managed relationships with dozens of leading mobile game publishers for 3 years in product marketing at Sprint. He holds a BS in Business with an emphasis in Information Systems from the University of Kansas. At all times, he is carrying a hot wireless phone with Street Fighter II and the Game Theory music tone to signal a call from his family.
Jonathan Feldstein
ISV Engineer, AMD
Jonathan Feldstein is a graduate from the University of Waterloo. He has subsequently worked for a large Toronto studio on several computer animated television projects, the movie Silent Hill, and a variety of production tools. Jonathan has most recently made the transition over to mobile game development as a part of the AMD Imageon SDK team.
Peter Paul Gadi
CTO, Anino Mobile
Paul is a founding partner of Anino Mobile. He has worked with companies in numerous projects ranging from web development, high-level embedded programming and database systems. His main expertise is in mobile game design and development, and has been involved in several award-winning mobile game projects. He was producer and concept designer for Anima Wars, a 3D GPRS-driven multiplayer game which won the International Mobile Gaming Award for Best Use of Connectivity held in the 2006 3GSM Congress.
During his tenure at Anino Mobile, his responsibilities included improving the company’s development processes and developing tools for effective project and knowledge management. This allowed the project teams to decrease product development time, from up to 6 months to less than 3 months, increase reliability of project deliverables, and provide better feedback and agility in projects. Paul is an active member of the Game Developers Association of the Philippines (GDAP) and the Manila Chapter of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA).
Guido Henkel Guido is a 20-year veteran of the game industry and the acclaimed producer of many award-winning computer game classics, including the REALMS OF ARKANIA series, ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, PLANESCAPE: TORMENT. Starting in the computer games industry in 1985, Guido has been the co-CEO of German developer and publisher Attic Entertainment Software where he oversaw development, marketing, sales, distribution, licensing, and public relations, while making the company one of Germany’s leading computer game enterprises that found world-wide recognition. He has been working on a vast number of titles in both the traditional computer game industry, and mobile industry, and has covered all aspects of the development, publishing and distribution of games.
Scott Jensen
SVP, Head of Distribution & Business Development, Zingy, Inc.
Scott M. Jensen is Senior Vice President, Head of Distribution & Business Development for Zingy Inc. and oversees all revenue generating partnerships worldwide, including mobile operators and media companies. Jensen secures distribution for Zingy’s mobile entertainment catalog, which includes G Unit, MapQuest, Plaxo, and NY Times branded products.
Jensen joined Zingy from Hands-On Mobile where he led business development efforts and established their global licensing group, which managed relationships with 25+ brand partners ranging from Activision to Viacom and World Poker Tour.
Jensen brings 15 years of mobile, business development and legal experience and has structured deals for all channels of distribution, including online, retail, television, and telecommunications operator networks. Selected accomplishments include establishing relationships with AOL, Disney, FOX Sports and NBC Universal along with various technology companies like Nokia and Motorola.
Jensen holds a JD from Southwestern University and a BA, Political Science from Rutgers College.
Annakaisa Kultima
Researcher, University of Tampere
Annakaisa is currently working on GameSpace project (gamelab.uta.fi/GameSpace) at the University of Tampere. GameSpace research group studies design and evaluation methods of casual, mobile and multiplayer games. In the first phase of the project, focus has been on ideating processes and creativity techniques for casual, multiplayer and mobile game ideas.
Mitch Lasky
Partner, Benchmark Capital
Mitch Lasky has spent more than two decades in the mobile gaming, new media and interactive entertainment business. Prior to joining Benchmark Capital, Mitch served as EVP of Mobile and Online at Electronic Arts. Previously, he was chairman and chief executive officer of JAMDAT Mobile, Inc, the leading global publisher of wireless entertainment applications, which was acquired by EA in 2005. Prior to JAMDAT, Mitch served as general manager of eCompanies Wireless LLC, an Internet business incubator. He also spent five years at Activision, most recently serving as executive vice president of Worldwide Studios. In that role he was responsible for product development, business development and global operations. Earlier in his career, Mitch practiced law, worked at the Walt Disney Company and started a massively multiplayer online game company. He received his Bachelor of Administration degree in History and Literature from Harvard College and earned a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.
Tom Hubina
President & CEO, Mofactor
Tom is president and CEO of Mofactor, Inc. a mobile games company that is integrating best-of-breed development practices with innovative product design and distribution methods. Tom has developed top titles for multiple mobile publishers, and is now leading all of Mofactor's game design and technology teams.
Mark Menell
Partner, Rustic Canyon Partners
Mark joined Rustic Canyon at inception in 1999 as a partner. At the firm his primary areas of investment have been in information technologies with a focus on communications, consumer oriented technologies, and media/technology convergence. Mark contributes more than 12 years of strategic and financial advisory experience focused on companies in the technology, media, and telecommunications sectors.
Formerly an investment banker, he was, most recently, co-head of Morgan Stanley's Technology Mergers and Acquisitions Group. Under his tenure, Morgan Stanley was recognized as the leading technology mergers and acquisitions advisor for three consecutive years. During that time, Mark was responsible for advising on more than 50 completed transactions valued in excess of $150 billion involving clients such as Excite@Home, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Netscape, USWeb/CKS and VeriSign. Before moving to Silicon Valley in 1996, Mark was responsible for Morgan Stanley's media and telecommunications M&A practice, advising clients such as Times Mirror, AT&T, Softbank and Time Warner. Mark graduated with a bachelor's degree magna cum laude in economics from the University of Pennsylvania. He earned both a bachelor of science degree magna cum laude in finance and his MBA from the Wharton School of Business.
Jeff Miller CEO, Four Corners Development Group
Jeff is a 22-year veteran of the software industry whose company, Four Corners Development Group (FCDG), has been publishing and consulting for the mobile games industry since 2002. In 2003, FCDG created one of the first Multiplayer applications for BREW, Multiplayer Pool.
Rich Moran Partner, Venrock
Rich joined Venrock in 2007. As a 25-year veteran of Silicon Valley, he has served as a business consultant, social scientist, best selling author and evangelist for organization effectiveness. His work is derived from his observations as a Partner at Accenture and a lifetime of trying to improve the effectiveness of organizations, including News Corporation, Hewlett Packard, Apple Computer, AT&T Wireless and Electronic Arts. His work also draws from the public sector, where he has applied his organizational expertise as Chairman of the Board for Golden Gate University, San Francisco; San Francisco Museum and Historical Society; and Project Open Hand, San Francisco. Rich has written five best selling books, including his latest, Nuts, Bolts and Jolts. He earned his A.B. in English from Rutgers College, his M.S. in Personnel Administration from Indiana University, and his Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from Miami University. Rich currently sits on the board of Glu Mobile and Sutura.
Tom Park
Director of BREW Operations, Digital Chocolate
Tom is a director of Operations at Digital Chocolate. He has been developing mobile apps since 2002, including MobiTV's BREW client and the first branded word games on Verizon's deck. He also managed the porting team at Hands-On Mobile for two and a half years. Prior to going mobile, he worked on computer games including titles in The Sims and Star Wars franchises.
Daniel O'Connell Offner
Partner, Nixon Peabody
Daniel has a corporate and intellectual property practice where he represents businesses and individuals in the videogame, new media, digital content, wireless and merchandise licensing industries. He performs a wide range of services for his clients, often functioning as outside general counsel. He regularly handles licensing, publishing, and distribution transactions, as well as corporate formation, financing and mergers and acquisitions work, in addition to dispute resolution matters. Daniel has represented numerous companies in the videogame and internet industries, including some of the leading videogame publishers and developers in the videogame business since the mid-1990s. His clients often are working directly at the intersection of content and technology where new products, companies and industries are emerging.
Ed Plowman
Product Manager & Senior Systems Architect Graphics, Media Processing Division, ARM Ltd.
Ed has more than 13 years of experience in media and graphics processing. He is currently working within ARM's newly formed Media Processing Division, guiding ARM's graphics processing strategy. Ed has taken a very active role in creating and evolving mobile graphics standards as a founding member of the OpenGL ES working group. He continues to play an active part in the working group and has also occupied the ARM seat on the Khornos board of promoters since the incorporation of Khronos.
Ed started his career as one of the founding members of Argonaut technologies an off shoot of Argonaut Software a games company with a rich history of 3D gaming. Argonaut created what was probably the world first consumer 3D graphics accelerator in the form of the SuperFX chip for Nintendo for use in the very popular Star Fox game for the SNES system. At Argonaut Ed spent most of his time working on the creation of 3D graphics technology and later the ARC processor core.
Mitch Rotter
VP Content Acquisition and Programming, Thumbplay
Mitch has over 15-years of experience in the music and entertainment industry. He joined Thumbplay from Infospace Mobile where he most recently served as director of Content Licensing and Acquisition overseeing all of Infospace's media distribution agreements. Prior to Infospace, Mitch served as SVP of Soundtracks and Music Development for New Line Cinema where among other accomplishments he served as executive producer for the Grammy nominated soundtracks to I Am Sam and Lord of the Rings.
Dan Scott
Global Head of Production - Games Publishing, Nokia
Bio to follow.
John Szeder
Co-founder, Mofactor
John is the cofounder of Mofactor, Inc. a new mobile games publisher that is integrating best-of-breed development practices with innovative product design and distribution methods. He started his engineering career at Research in Motion in 1995, developing software for what eventually became the Blackberry. John formed his own studio, Seismic Studios, in 2001, which is now part of Mofactor. During 2003, John was part of the launch team at Digital Chocolate, where he served as director of development. He has a degree in Mathematics from the University of Waterloo.
Robert Tercek
President, PeopleJam
Robert is the founding chairman of the GDC Mobile. He has been an executive in the game industry since 1993, and has served as an advisor to the GDC since 1998. Robert played an instrumental role in the worldwide growth of two pioneering mobile companies, PacketVideo Corporation and Mforma Group, before co-founding PeopleJam in 2006.
Earlier in his career, he was a senior executive at MTV: Music Television and at Sony Pictures Entertainment. Robert has supervised the creation of content services on several innovative platforms, including the first satellite TV service in Asia, the first interactive TV services in the US, the first Java-based multiplayer games on the Web, and the world's first wireless video deployments. His credits include online and interactive TV versions of the most popular game shows in the world, including Jeopardy!, Wheel of Fortune and the Dating Game, as well as the Monty Python game series for PC. He supervised the creative content and marketing of dozens of best-selling mobile game titles, including Call of Duty, True Crime, The World Poker Tour, Marvel's X-Men, Connect Four, Monopoly Tycoon, Top Gun and many more. Robert has been a featured speaker at many industry events including CES, CTIA, 3GSM, NATPE, E3, MILIA, MIPTV. He is on the faculty of the University of Southern California's School of Cinema- Television.
Marc Wachmann
CTO, KnowledgeWhere
Marc Wachmann joined KnowledgeWhere in December 2003 and brings 23 years of development, leadership and project management experience in the technology sector. In his role at KnowledgeWhere, he leads product development and operations including establishing and maintaining best practices to ensure each KnowledgeWhere application is a world-class, tier 1 product. His industry experience and involvement have allowed him to drive KnowledgeWhere's product development based on where the industry is evolving, not where it is or has been. Since joining KnowledgeWhere, Marc has implemented new quality and development processes that enable KnowledgeWhere's team to develop products quickly, efficiently and successfully.
He has held leadership roles in operations, new technology development, manufacturing and infrastructure planning, deployment, and growth both domestically and internationally. He has worked in businesses ranging from fibre optics, GSM wireless, enterprise and consumer telephony with Nortel Networks and wireless location at Cell-Loc. At Cell-Loc, he led the deployment of location networks and development of new location technologies in Canada, the United States, and Brazil. Marc left industry in early 2003 to start his own consulting firm to help young businesses get traction by ensuring adequate process, resources and commercial viability and to help mature businesses optimize process and resource distribution
