MARK BURTON
HARRY BECK
StudioW's management team is supported by a world-class Board of Advisors with expertise in the areas of publishing, technology, media, government, non-profit and international business. These Advisors provide invaluable input and help advance the company's efforts in many areas.
Mr. Beck is currently Director of Enterprise Business Development at Velocify. He has twelve years leadership experience with a strong background in business development, operations, strategic development, finance and administration. He has applied his skill set in a number of start-ups, mid-cap and Fortune 500 companies, holding positions including CEO, President, Director and EVP Business Development.
Previously, Mr. Beck Founded Capital Grove, a financial services company, working with high net-worth clientele placing investments in non-traditional asset classes; resulting in a private sale in early 2008.
Mr. Burton is Managing Director of Genrich Family, providing multi-asset class families a platform to oversee all of their holdings and maintain the family’s wealth and legacies on an intergenerational basis.
Mr. Burton has over 15 years of transactional and business /corporate development experience working for firms providing valuation, legal and transactional advisement. Mr. Burton specializes in the corporate finance and securities sectors with a specific focus on merger and acquisitions and related services markets. He holds a degree and a Certification in Merger and Acquisitions Advisory from Loyola of Chicago.
Dario is a partner in the law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer and Feld, leading the firm's California public law and policy practice.
Mr. Frommer's law practice is a mix of strategic political advice to key clients and representation of clients on high-stakes matters before state and local government entities. He has represented many of California's most prominent companies and government agencies.
Most notably, Mr. Frommer is a former majority leader of the California State Assembly and has held a variety of high-level state government positions. Prior to his return to private practice in 2006, Mr. Frommer, in addition to serving as the Assembly's majority leader, chaired that body's Health Committee. He also occupied a number of high-level state government posts, including serving as appointments secretary to California Governor Gray Davis.
He is a member of the board of directors of the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation and previously served on the California Film Commission. He received a J.D. degree from the University of California, Davis, School of Law and a B.A. degree, cum laude, from Colgate University.
Art is President and CEO of Manzana Energy, Inc. and a Principal in Goldfield Capital, Inc.
Art Castañares brings 22 years of public-sector and private-sector political, public policy, and marketing experience to Manzana's management team.
As founder of Manzana Energy, Mr. Castañares crafted an innovative approach to solar energy projects to deliver powerful results for governmental and non-profit organizations. By combininghis background in strategic marketing with an extensive experience in public policy and finance,he created new solutions to fit within the unique budget constraints of these specialized clients.
Prior to his tenure at Manzana Energy, an alternative energy development company focused on public, non-profit, and entertainment-sector solar energy projects, Art served more than 13 years as staff to the California State Legislature. His experience in government included policy development, budget appropriations, managing legislation, press relations, and community outreach. Art also has extensive experience in the communications industry and the deployment of emerging technologies.
DARIO FROMMER
ART CASTANERAS
MARK JEFFREY
VINCE MENDILLO
Mark Jeffrey is a serial technology entrepreneur and author. He has co-founded four internet companies and written two novels. He is currently Chief Product Officer of Glossi.com.
Most recently, Mark co-founded web television network ThisWeekIn.com with Jason Calacanis and comedian / actor Kevin Pollak. Investors included Sky Dayton and Jarl Mohn (founder of E! and Liberty Digital). Mark served as CEO from its inception in Jan 2010 until May 2011, during which time the company grew to 27 shows getting 4 million views per month. He remains Chairman of the Board.
From 2007 to 2010, Mark was CTO of Mahalo.com, Inc., a human-powered search and learning site backed by Sequoia Capital. Prior to this, Jeffrey co-founded a business social networking company ZeroDegrees, Inc. in 2002 and sold it to IAC/InteractiveCorp in 2004 with more than one million registered users. He was VP of Product, charged with building the tech team and leading product design.
Mark has been named on of ‘50 to Watch’ by Variety Magazine, selected as one of the “Digital Coast 50′ by the Silicon Alley Reporter, and one of the “Heroes of Multimedia” by Entertainment Weekly. He was a speaker at the very first Harvard University Conference on the Internet and Society in 1996.
His novel, MAX QUICK: THE POCKET AND THE PENDANT, was published in hardcover and ebook by HarperCollins in May, 2011. The book was initially podcast as a series of episodic mp3's and received over 2.5 million downloads.
Mark Jeffrey holds a BS in Computer Science from the University of New Hampshire.
Mr. Mendillo serves as HP’s Director Product Management & Regional Portfolio Line Management (PLM) since October 2013. He has served as Chief Marketing Officer with Uhuru Software, a Cloud technology provider to VMWare, and Executive Director Advanced Products for PrimeSense a Natural User Interface 3D company who pioneered Xbox Kinect recently acquired by Apple Computer.
Actively Involved in venture capital, he has been a mentor at TechStars to startup cloud consumer and enterprise companies, as well as investor and board advisor to several start-up firms including Positronics which developed big data and predictive analytics technologies acquired by eBay in 2008. Previously he served in executive-level product and marketing positions at Microsoft Corporation within the Office, Windows, Mobile and Server & Tools divisions from 1993 to 2010. Prior to Joining Microsoft, he held senior product positions at Borland International and developed commercial developer and database products as a software engineer at Delphi Systems.
Mr. Mendillo holds a B.S. in Mathematics/Computer Science from the University of California, Los Angeles and an MBA from Anderson School of Management at UCLA .
Based in Singapore, Mr. Balrai Singh has a vast 20+ year career and has held the position of President/CEO/Director & Advisor. His experience spans several industries and he has done several Mergers & Acquisitions over time for several billions dollars for Private family and Sovereign funds. Currently sits as an advisor on several companies around the globe.
V B Balrai Singh
Principal, The Stackel Corporation
Dean Stackel is the former Senior Vice President, Strategic Partnerships at Yahoo! In this role, Mr. Stackel managed a team which handled Yahoo’s largest strategic partnerships as well as Yahoo’s search deals and transactions that cut across Yahoo’s vast internet businesses. Prior to his current role, Mr. Stackel ran the business development team for the Yahoo Publisher Network and personally closed some of Yahoo’s most important deals, including long term partnerships with Google, eBay, Microsoft and Comcast. Prior to these roles at Yahoo, Mr. Stackel was a partner at the law firm of Buchalter, Nemer, Fields and Younger. He left the law firm in February, 2000 to join the revolutionary internet search company GoTo.com (which changed its name to Overture Services prior to being purchased by Yahoo in 2003) where he held various titles including General Counsel, Vice President of Strategic and Operational Affairs and Vice President of Business Development.
DEAN STACKEL
Founder, Weber Communications
For the past 30 years, Charles J. Weber has been a key executive in the Entertainment and Communications Industries. Mr. Weber was the CEO and of Lucasfilm Ltd., where he was Chief Executive for such notable films as Raiders of the Lost Ark and the Star Wars sequel The Empire Strikes Back, among others. He also oversaw Lucasfilm subsidiaries THX and Industrial Light and Magic. ILM is considered to be the leading visual effects company in the industry while THX is recognized around the world as the premier audio technology in motion pictures. During Mr. Weber's tenure at Lucasfilm, the company grew from four employees to nearly four hundred.
Subsequent to Lucasfilms, Mr. Weber was Chief Operating Officer at Embassy Communications, a company owned by television legend Norman Lear. One of his many accomplishments at Embassy was as the Executive in Charge of the iconic classic film, Blade Runner. He has also been CEO of Entertainment Company of America and CanWest International Corp.
Since 1985, he has also been Chairman and CEO of Weber Communications, Inc., an international consulting firm providing professional management, consulting, business development, and financial services; specializing in strategic alliances in the multimedia, technology, location based entertainment, licensing, medical, broadcasting, entertainment, communications and Internet fields. In this capacity, Mr. Weber is also very active in the international marketplace and represents a number of companies in the Far East, South America Eastern and Western Europe. Mr. Weber has been instrumental in securing public and private corporate financing, domestic and international distribution, mergers and acquisitions and the production and financing of motion pictures. He has also served in an executive role for Fortune 500, real estate, and entertainment companies and has been an “Executive Producer” for a number of feature films.
Mr. Weber is a member of The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Mr. Weber is a graduate of Manhattan College; where he received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree and went on to earn a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Hofstra University.
CHARLES J. WEBER
Vice President, The Alford Group
Since May 2005, Ms. Zimmerman has served as a senior consultant at the Alford Group, a consulting firm based in Evanston, Illinois. Ms. Zimmerman previously served as a Crisis Program Supervisor and Director of Development at Alternatives, Inc. a not-for profit corporation. Ms. Zimmerman holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California at Santa Barbara and a Masters degree from the University of Chicago.
