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.

President of Marvel Animation (Los Angeles)

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.
 

As Founder and CEO of The1stMovement, Ming understands digital media technology in a way rarely seen in the Advertising industry today. 

Named as one of the "Top 10 Asian Entrepreneurs"by Inc. Magazine, Ming has led the agency to numerous accolades including 2-time Inc. 500 fastest growing companies in America, 2-time Best Places to work in LA, Top 20 agencies in LA & Denver, Digital Media Firm of the Year, and 5000% growth in 5 years with his passion for innovation and company culture.

As the recipient of the prestigious Emmy® award in Interactive Media, Ming has created innovative digital assignments for some of the world's most renowned brands including 20th Century Fox, ABC, Adobe, Apple, AMD, Cisco, Disney, Microsoft, Nike, HP, Intel, Sun Microsystems, Sony Pictures and more.

A vocal member of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Entrepreneurs' Organization, Ming serves as a proactive advocate for entrepreneurs everywhere. He serves as a mentor in the AFI's Digital Content Lab, is an Interactive member for the National Academy of Television Arts & Science and is sought after as a thought-leader from his remarkable perspective of the digital advertising industry.

    "Fastest Growing Private Companies" - Los Angeles Business Journal - 2011
    "Digital Media Firm of the Year" - ABA Los Angeles - 2011
    "Top 10 Asian-run Companies in America" - Inc. Magazine - 2011
    
    "Inc. 500 Fastest Growing Private Companies in America" - Inc. Magazine - 2011
    "Best Places to Work" - Los Angeles Business Journal - 2011
    "Agency Person of the Year" - Finalist, thinkLA - 2011
    
    "Top 20 Ad Agencies" - Los Angeles Business Journal - 2011
    "Top 20 Minority-Owned Companies" - Denver Business Journal - 2011
    
    "Top 15 Ad Agencies" - Denver Business Journal - 2010
    "Inc. 500 Fastest Growing Private Companies in America" - Inc. Magazine - 2010
    "Best Places to Work" - Los Angeles Business Journal - 2010
    "Top 10 Asian Entrepreneurs in America" - Inc. Magazine - 2010

Specialties:

• Digital Brand Strategy

• Interactive Advertising

• Integrated Marketing

• Emerging Technologies

• Digital Media Innovation

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.

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).

LaBounta is currently working with the Need for Speed, Godfather andSkate teams. He recently completed work on EA's new highly rated gameSkate 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 2and 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.

Production Supervisor for Character Animation at 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 PomegraniteEditorial. She also produced media for live events at Shout Creative.

Sues team of animators are currently working hard to complete Madagascar 2.

 

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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.
 

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 (祥龙腾飞系南洋), 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.

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.
 

Juhaidah Joemin is Managing Director of Giggle Garage; an IP creation, development and 3D production studio based out of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She is also taking a role as Executive Producer; overseeing creative development and project execution for the company original IPs and co-production properties of children and family entertainment.

Prior to Giggle Garage, she was Representative Office Manager of Al Jazeera Children’s Channel (JCC); a Qatar based Pan-Arab edutainment channel. Based in Malaysia, Juhaidah’s key areas of responsibility include marketing & communication, and business development in the Asia Pacific. She was specifically responsible for evaluating and overseeing development of the channel’s co-production projects in the region; among others SEEFOOD the Movie (co-production with Silver Ant) and Saladin TV Series (co-production with Multimedia Development Corporation) which has been nominated for the International Emmy Award 2011 for the Children and Young People category.

Prior to JCC, Juhaidah spent over seven years with the Multimedia Development Corporation Malaysia, under its Creative Multimedia Cluster. She worked closely with the creative industry policy-makers and content producers, participated and witnessed its evolution over the years.

Juhaidah serves on various industry development programs as mentor and judge, including the X Media Lab, Malaysia IPCC (Intellectual Property Creative Challenge), the Asia Pacific PANORAMA and in a panel of judges for the International Digital Emmy Awards.

Having spent more than 13 years in both government and private sectors within the creative industry, Juhaidah’s expertise includes industry development, content creation, animation production and management; as well as television & broadcasting.

Award-winning U-Wei is often described as one of Malaysia’s finest directors as well as one who would not shy away from incorporating taboo social issues in his productions for the sake of avoiding controversies.

Born in the State of Pahang, Malaysia where he grew up nurturing a passion for early films, U-Wei then moved to the US, where he spent 15 years living in New York. During this time he attended the New School studying film directing.

U-Wei debuted as a television director in 1987 and made about 16 television movies up until 1996. His first films, “Woman Wife and Whore” 1993, received 5 awards at the 11th Malaysian Film Festival including Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay. In 1995, his film “Kaki Bakar” (The Arsonist) was invited to Un Certain Regard in Cannes Film Festival as well as Berlin, Montreal, Nantes, Fribourg, New York and Pusan. The film was awarded Grand Prix at Brussels Film Festival.

His third film “Jogho” (The Bullfighter) 1998 was also invited to numerous film festivals such as Singapore (1998), Pusan (1998), Cinemanila (1999) and Nantes (2001).  In 2004, he released “Buai Laju Laju”, a feature film loosely based on James Cain's crime novel The Postman Always Rings Twice. In 2005, U-Wei's short film, Sepohon Rambutan Indah Kepunyaanku Di Tanjung Rambutan (My Beautiful Rambutan Tree in Tanjung Rambutan) was invited to participate at the 2006 Nantes Film Festival.
U-Wei is currently working on feature film “Hanyut” (Drift), which is based on Joseph Conrad’s 1895 novel Almayer’s Folly.

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.

Sandrine was born in Paris, France and 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.