Ronnie is an animation storyboard, story artist and designer. He was recently Story Supervisor on Pixar's tenth full-length computer-animated film titled Upand director of its accompanying short film on DVD, Dug's Special Mission.

• Dug's Special Mission (2009) (Director/writer)
• Up (2009) (Story Supervisor)
• WALL-E (2008) (Story/Character Design)
• Ratatouille (2006) (Story)
• One Man Band (2005) (Production Design)
• Finding Nemo (2003) (Story Supervisor)
• Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002) (Story Supervisor)
• Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (2000) (Storyboard)
• The Road to El Dorado (2000) (Story Supervisor)
• The Prince of Egypt (1998) (Story)
• Freakazoid! (1995) (Director)
• Batman: The Animated Series (1991-95) (Storyboard, character Design)

Chorion is a huge digital content business which spans TV, books, games and the web, and whose catalogue includes Enid Blyton, Noddy, the Mr Men and the works of Agatha Christie.

It expanded further last year with the purchase of Copyrights Group, which owns the licensing rights to classic children's characters such as PaddingtonBear and The Snowman.

Close to the Murdochs (he is a shareholder in Elisabeth Murdoch's production company, Shine), Alli has been chairman of Chorion since 2003 and led a successful management buyout of the company backed by private equity firm 3i.

The Labour peer first came to prominence with Planet 24, the production company he founded with his partner, Charlie Parsons, and Bob Geldof. Its hits included Channel 4's Big Breakfast and one of the first global reality formats, Survivor. It was later sold to Carlton TV with Alli becoming its Head of Production.

Alli is also a director of Paul O'Grady's production company, Olga Television, and chairman of online retailer Asos.
Alli was once a candidate to be chief executive of Channel 4 and has been talked about as a possible future chairman of the BBC.

Kim Dalton is one of Australia's most celebrated screen executives.

Kim has been a practitioner and program maker producing a number of award wining television dramas and documentaries including two major television miniseries, In Between for SBS TV and The Magistrate for ABC TV. As an investment manager at the Australian Film Finance Corporation in the early ‘90s he was involved in the financing of numerous projects across documentaries, television drama and feature films including the hugely successful Muriel’s Wedding and Priscilla.

In 1992 Kim joined Beyond International, one of Australia’s leading international film and television companies, and worked on the international financing, production and distribution of a large slate of television and feature films.

From 1999, as Chief Executive of the Australian Film Commission, Kim was responsible for overhauling its development programs, expanding its screen culture programs and ensuring the agency’s and industry’s engagement with digital and online technology, production and distribution. As CEO Kim led the policy debate around Australian content on television and was a spokesperson for the industry and a key advisor to government on the audio visual industries during negotiations on the Aust/US Free Trade Agreement.

Since joining the ABC as Director of TV in 2006 Kim has made a major contribution to the policy debate around Australian content and the role of the public broadcaster in the digital era. Under Kim’s leadership ABC TV has gone from being a single linear channel to delivering its content across multiple digital channels – ABC1, ABC2, ABCforKids on 2, ABC3 and an imminent 24 hours news channel – and multiple platforms including www, VOD, iView and mobile.

In 2009 the ABC received a significant increase in its budget in order to establish its dedicated digital children’s channel and to increase its output of Australian drama.

In 2007 Kim was awarded an OAM for service to the film and television industry in policy, in assistance to Indigenous producers and in the promotion of emerging visual technology.

Kim is the Chair of Freeview, the organisation established by Australian free-to-air broadcasters to promote and brand the digital free-to-air platform. In 2009 Kim was re-appointed by the Minister for Foreign Affairs as a Board member of the Australia Korea Foundation.

With well over a decade of experience in the entertainment industry, Leah Hoyer has overseen more than 200 hours of programming for network and cable television, both in the US as well as internationally.

Ms Hoyer was Director of Development for Disney Television Animation, working on such global hits as Phineas & Ferb, Recess and Kim Possible.  She is now Creative Producer at Levity Group, where she develops live action and animated television series and seeks out strong creative talent for management and co-production opportunities.

Leah was an attorney before attending the prestigious UCLA Film School to earn her MFA in Animation and pursue her passion for cartoons.  She guest lectures at several universities and is on the Board of Directors of Women in Animation International.

Steven DeNure, President and Chief Operating Officer of DHX Media, is responsible for overseeing overall operations of DHX Media and its subsidiaries. Mr. DeNure also serves as Executive Producer on many of the company’s television and interactive media projects.

 Mr. DeNure co-founded Decode Entertainment in 1997 and, in 2003, merged the operations of Decode with Halifax Film to create DHX Media, which has become a leading international producer and distributor of television programming through its production companies, Decode Entertainment, Halifax Film and Studio B Productions, and an award-winning, industry leader in game development and interactive content through DHX Interactive.
Prior to founding Decode, Mr. DeNure was at Alliance Communications Corporation for more than 10 years and served in a number of senior positions including President of Alliance Productions and President of Alliance Multimedia. During his tenure at Alliance Communications Corporation, he was involved in the development, financing and production of all television and feature film projects, and was responsible for the animation division, music-publishing division and for merchandising and licensing.

Mr. DeNure serves on the board of the Canadian Film Centre as Vice Chair and is past Vice Chair of ACT, the Alliance for Children’s Television. Mr. DeNure graduated from Simon Fraser University with a BA in Economics & Business Administration.
 

Heather Kenyon oversees new project initiatives for Starz Animation Toronto. Her extensive animation career includes serving as head of series development for Cartoon Network as well as monitoring the industry pulse as editor-in-chief for Animation World Network. There is nobody that Heather Kenyon doesn’t know.

Co-founder, Tiger 62 Media

Experience in marketing and finance in various positions in USA, Europe and Asia, for consumer products and entertainment companies both as manager and management consultant.

Worked with Day-one (Consulting, USA)  Unilever (Consumer prods. Europe), McKinsey (Consulting, USA and Europe), Walt Disney Studios (Entertainment, Europe and Asia) and Sony Pictures Entertainment (Entertainment, Asia)

Pietro spent more than fifteen years in Media/Entertainment holding a variety of position for Disney and Sony Pictures in both the Theatrical and Television divisions. His expertise encompasses Marketing and Distribution as well as Finance and Business Development. After stints in USA and Europe, Pietro was more recently Vice President for Sony Pictures TV Int’l. Based in Hong Kong, he was the head of the team responsible for Sales, Distribution and Acquisition for all filmed entertainment of Sony Pictures Entertainment in Asia. Pietro is credited for having almost doubled the business in three years in that Region.

From 2005 to 2008, Pietro was the Managing Director of NPV Partners. With offices in Singapore and Los Angeles, NPV Partners provided strategic solutions to media companies and private equity firms with interests in the Asia Pacific Region. Among various projects, he has served as Chief Marketing Officer for HanaTV in Seoul, the IPTV service of Korean telecom Hanaro (now SK Telecom) and has also been supervising a number of business and marketing for the global blockbuster The Forbidden Kingdom starring Jackie Chan and Jet Li.

About Tiger 62 Media

Tiger 62 Media is a new venture formed by Rob Minkoff and Pietro Ventani combining Minkoff’s renowned storytelling talents and Ventani’s business expertise in marketing and distribution.  Chinese Odyssey is the first of a series of Film and TV projects that Tiger 62 Media is developing with a keen eye toward the way new technologies and international markets are changing the rules of the content creation business.
 

Sarah Muller is currently Head of CBBC Acquisitions and Drama Development.  Passionate about both drama and animation, commissioned projects include Spirit Warriors, Halfmoon Investigations, We Are Family, Tracy Beaker’s Back, My Single Dad, Sadie Jones, Wolf Blood, Just William and Muddle Earth – which she is also Executive Producing.

Previously, she was Managing Director of Elephant Productions – a well-known company specialising in the development and production of animation and children’s programming.  As a producer, credits include 6 series of the multi-award winning, ratings success Grizzly Tales For Gruesome Kids (CITV) – winner of the Best Children’s Series and Children’s Choice awards at the BAA and nominated for Best Animated Series and Best Original Writer awards at BAFTA, 2 series of Animal School (CBBC), 2 series of Pop Skool (BBC1), 2 series of animated Short Change (BBC1), 3 Brothers Diamond (C4), the top-rated New Willo The Wisp (Disney) and Johnny Casanova (C4), as well as developing the BAFTA-winning drama series The War Diaries of Alastair Fury (BBC1).

After graduating with a BA in Drama from Middlesex University, Sarah moved from fringe theatre to work as a runner at BBC Bristol and the old Canary Wharf studios. From there, she went into the Art Department, working mainly on prestige adult and children’s drama programming – freelancing for companies including TVS, TSW, Thames, BBC Bristol, HTV Wales and many more. A move into Location Management took her to Talkback to work on 3 series of Smith & Jones prior to starting at Elephant. Sarah was also Head of Development at Isle of Man start-up venture Lough House Animation – now Cinnamon Animation.
 

Tatiana started her career working in production at TVOntario in Toronto, Canada.  After 6 years, she moved to Japan and began working on the business side of the industry at NHK.  There, she secured co productions in the HD Hi-Vision dept.

Later, she moved to England where she lived for 7 years and concentrated on the Children’s Animation market.  She worked in distribution and financing at BBC Worldwide and was later named the children’s genre specialist.  At Endemol UK she was brought in to spearhead Endemol’s thrust into the children’s market but left when she became the Managing Director of Egmont Imagination UK.  Egmont Imagination UK was a subsidiary of Egmont, the largest children’s publisher in Europe.  Here Tatiana lead the distribution team and built the catalogue.  The world market fell under her remit and she was instrumental in placing and financing series like Lizzie McGuire, Paz, the Penguin for Discovery Kids US, and The Fairytaler, a Hans Christian Andersen Fairytale anthology.

She founded Bejuba! Entertainment in 2004, specializing in the executive production, financing, co-production and international distribution of children’s and family entertainment. 
 

Matt joined Spin Master more than 10 years ago and was later involved with the creation of Spin Master’s licensing department. Throughout his tenure, he has been an integral member of Spin Master's management team and has helped significantly grow the company's licensing-based revenues. In 2003 Matt worked in Japan helping to build Spin Master's presence in the region, fostering new relationships with partners on some of the company’s strongest brands - including the global entertainment phenomenon BAKUGAN. Following the success of Bakugan, upon which he continues to serve as Executive Producer, Matt has been charged with developing and producing new entertainment opportunities for Spin Master Entertainment, the toy co’s new film and television production division. He is based in Toronto.

Frank Dietz, Head of Acquisitions and Co-Productions joined Super RTL in 2000. Super RTL is Europe’s leader in children’s television and jointly owned by RTL Group and Walt Disney International Television.

Dietz manages the channel’s programme supply for daytime and primetime including content for various platforms such as merchandising, mobile and online services. The channel broadcasts more than 5000 half hours of animation, live action documentaries, comedy formats and pre-school productions as well as hundreds of family movies per year.
In order to secure the best content for the network Dietz has developed partnerships with majors, independent distributors and producers worldwide.

Before joining Super RTL, Dietz was manager of Acquisitions and Co-Productions at ZDF Enterprises, the distribution company of Germany’s public broadcaster ZDF, which he joined in 1996.

He started his career at BMG France where he was in charge of international sales and marketing of local music productions.


 

Mr Zhang is President and General Artistic Supervisor of Shanghai Fantasia Animation Company.

With an illustrious career spanning twenty five years, more than a dozen major film and television productions, and the animation industries of China and France, Mr Zhang is one of China’s most highly acclaimed Animation directors.

Mr Zhang’s award winning work includes:

Martin Morning (Vice Director) which received the China Cartoon Gold Frog Award; the Excellence Prize of the 22nd China Gold Eagle Award; the Excellent Coproduction Prize of the 7th National TV Programs Award; the 2005 Achievement Award of China Cartoon Association; and 2005 Best Animation Works of Luchon TV Festival of France.

Shaolin Wuzang (Director) which was awarded the 2004 CCIF Best Trailer Prize at the Red Stick International Animation Festival USA; the Best TV Series and Best Director Prize of the 8th Sichuan TV Festival Gold Panda Award in 2005; the Jury Special Prize of 2006 Japan TBS Asian Digital Content Competition; the China Animation Gold Prize of the 13th Shanghai TV Festival in 2007; and the best TV production of China International Animation and Digital Arts Festival (CICDAF) in 2007.

Mr Zhang’s expertise and guidance is highly sought after throughout China’s animation industries. He is an Executive Council Member, Committee of Cartoon Arts of China TV Artists Association; Executive Council Member, China Animation Association; Vice President of the Animation Academy of the Shanghai Film Art Institute; and a Master’s Tutor at the China Media University Animation Academy. Mr Zhang is a member of the Ministry of Culture’s Cartoon Industry Development Experts Committee, and he serves as an Annual Observer of the CCTV Children’s Channel. Mr Zhang served as a Juror for the 21st and 23rd China TV Golden Eagle Award, and the inaugural China Lifetime Animation Award.

Prior to his work at Shanghai Fantasia company, Mr Zhang spent eight years in France where for four years he served as the Director and Artistic Supervisor at Les Cartooneurs Animation Studio. Mr Zhang began his career at the Shanghai TV Station Animation Studio.

Founder and General Manager, Tian Run An Ding Animation Company (Suzhou)