2022 AIS Summit at Skywalker Ranch Guests

Natalya Tatarchuk (@mirror2mask) is a graphics engineer and a rendering enthusiast at heart, currently focusing on driving the state-of-the-art rendering technology, graphics performance and character content creation in her role as a Distinguished Technical Fellow and Chief Architect, VP, Wētā Tools at Unity. Prior to that, led the Graphics team at Unity, as VP of Graphics for the Unity Editor and Engine. Before that she was a AAA games developer, working on innovative cross-platform rendering engine and game graphics for Bungie’s Destiny franchise, as well the Halo series, such as Halo: ODST and Halo: Reach, and AMD Graphics Products Group where she pushed parallel computing boundaries investigating advanced real-time graphics techniques, and graphics hardware design and APIs. Natalya has been encouraging sharing in the games graphics community for several decades, largely by organizing a popular series of courses such as Advances in Real-time Rendering, Open Problems in Real-Time Rendering and Rendering Engine Architecture at SIGGRAPH, and convincing people to speak there. It seems to be working.
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Kimball oversees the complex web of user facing tools, new research and the render software which fuels the ever-evolving VFX pipeline. His focus is on building an integrated and flexible system that has the capability to expand the volume and variety of projects that the company can work on, while retaining and enhancing the stunning visuals Wētā FX is famous for. Key components of this are accomplished by managing external relationships with Wētā FX’s technology partners. With the ambition of easing the future of VFX production, Kimball contributes time to the Academy Software Foundation. He also plays a role in defining open standards and software within the industry for the interchange of data between Wētā FX and partners. Kimball brings 25 years of VFX experience to Wētā FX, having originally joined the company in 2017 in a role that focused on our proprietary rendering software, Manuka. He then transitioned into a role that was focused on Gazebo. As a technology leader, he then moved to Head of Department of Engineering, and then Head of Architecture before taking this appointment. Prior to Wētā, Kimball’s career in media and entertainment took him to Dolby Laboratories, Lowry Digital, Dreamworks Animation, Apple and Silicon Grail. Although there are many career highlights, his time at Lowry Digital was particularly special as he received the Academy Scientific & Engineering Award in 2012 for the creation of a toolset to reduce noise and other artifacts in images for the filmmaking process. During this time, Kimball worked on preserving numerous landmark films and repairing current film issues, as well as personally rewarding non-movie projects like working on the Apollo 11 moon landing footage.
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Angela Tietze is President and CEO of ECN (Entertainment Communications Network, Inc.). ECN delivers and schedules commercials on behalf of the largest global ad agencies, and over the past decade led the industry to automate the scheduling process for media outlets.  ECN delivers thousands of electronic schedules to stations and networks in the U.S. and Canada on behalf of over 90% of the Top 100 Advertisers and hundreds more. The company connects ad agency clients to media partners through its proprietary technology and processes.
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Mark Turner is President, Entertainment Technologists Inc, a consulting, and technology development company, helping companies navigate the changes ahead.  Mark also directs the Production Technology program for Movielabs and helped create the 2030 Vision for the future of content creation with the major Hollywood studios.  In Mark’s 26 years in the global media industry he has always been at the intersection of technology and business models.  Mark has held roles across product management, sales, strategy, business development and partnerships for start-ups to multi-billion corporates including Xinsere, Ryff, Technicolor,  Levels Beyond, RSTOR, Dolby Laboratories, Wasabi, TechMahindra, Microsoft, BT Media & Broadcast and Eutelsat.
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David Uslan began his career even before graduating from college as an intern with D.C. Comics, Walter Cronkite’s production company and Wild Brain Animation Studios.  After graduating from Indiana University in 2002, Mr. Uslan joined International Creative Management (ICM), one of the leading international talent agencies.  In late 2003, armed with a passion for comic books, history, and creative development, Mr. Uslan went to work for his mentor and father, Michael Uslan, Originator and Executive Producer of the Batman movie franchise, as well as The Lego Movie, Lego Batman, National Treasure, and many others. Alongside his father, David assisted in developing films including Batman Begins, Constantine, The Spirit, and Joker, including the upcoming Apple TV / Universal Television Lou Gehrig & Babe Ruth limited series being produced alongside Lorne Michaels, the Steinbrenner family, the New York Yankees organization, and being directed by Peter Farrelly (Green Book). Also on the horizon is an animated feature film franchise based on the blue-chip Web3 intellectual property, Moonbirds. We will be partnering on this with the academy award winning company Moonbot, as well as the largest independent animation studio in the world, ReelFX. Uslan’s producing credits include the Emmy award winning animated series Sabrina: Secrets of a Teenage Witch (The Hub Network; Disney Channel), Valentine’s Day Massacre (National Geographic Channel), AMC Mob Week documentary series (AMC Network), and American Icons (PBS Network). A couple years back, David helped produce the The Vault of Horror as a fully immersive audiobook series, based on the iconic EC Comic series from the 1950’s, and still available on Audible and other digital platforms. Today, Uslan runs development and production for his family businesses and is focused on consistently building out a global ecosystem that supports the evolution and distribution of content around the world. Beyond North America, Uslan continues to concentrate on strengthening relationships between the US, Asia, and Middle Eastern media markets, including the building of global franchises through international co-productions and strong, local partners in a number of key categories, including licensing and publishing. Past and current partners include iQIYI, Huace, and Tencent, including Tencent Academy, in China, as well as JTBC, MBC, KBS, and Kakao in South Korea, Zee Entertainment in India, and SRMG in KSA. At MIP in 2017, Uslan announced a new joint venture between Banijay (Big Brother), Bunim/Murray Productions (The Real World), Uslan Entertainment, and Signal Entertainment in South Korea. In December 2018, Uslan signed a first look deal with Renegade 83 (Naked and Afraid), an eOne Entertainment company, in the area of unscripted, international formats. In 2019, David formed a strategic producing partnership with Jeff Jenkins Productions (Keeping Up With The Kardashians) and 3 Ball Entertainment (Bar Rescue) focused on reality and docu-drama content. Partnerships that Uslan initiated and oversee include Iconic Engine, the immersive entertainment and metaverse white-labeling company, as well as The Digit Group, a next generation real estate company specializing in smart city and metaverse strategies + solutions across the world, and Legible, a next generation e-book company and the first to incorporate ChatGPT and other AI features into its search engine and other components.  Currently, for Kartoon Studios, a publicly traded, family focused entertainment company, both David and Michael Uslan are overseeing The Stan Lee Universe, including hundreds of characters created by Stan post-Marvel. Stan’s likeness and signature rights are also included so we have the chance to preserve his legacy the way he should be remember. Later this year, in late September, there will be some extraordinary announcements pertaining to this specific, yet vast, opportunity with one of the top media studios in the world. In the meantime, at San Diego Comicon’s permanent museum this past July 2023, the Uslan Boys premiered an exhibit they curated on the life and times of Stan Lee. It was one of the most popular attractions in San Diego and will run for an additional six months before going on tour around North America for the next two years. During the fall of 2009, David helped start a revolutionary digital publishing, conversion, and distribution company called Graphicly. Before the company was acquired, Graphicly had partnered with over 12,000 top comic book and graphic novel publishers, mainstream publishing houses, and many small press and independent companies, as well as over 15,000 individual creators and renowned feature film and television talent, to help produce, convert, and distribute their content across a wide range of eBook, mobile, web, and desktop platforms in new, exciting, socially interactive ways. Many of these publishers were brought in through Uslan’s pre-existing relationships including Penguin Random House, Scholastic, Chronicle Books, Capstone, DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Dark Horse Comics, Image Comics, Legendary Pictures, Relativity Media, Warner Bros., Universal Studios, Amazon Studios, and many more. Even though Graphicly was sold many years ago, David currently has several strategic publisher relationships in place around world, including Macmillan, one of the top five international publishing houses on the planet. Along with his career in the feature film, television, gaming, and the publishing industry, Uslan has consulted for a number of media companies and events as well, including Smithsonian Enterprises located in Washington D.C., where he also co-created and was an instructor, alongside Stan Lee and his father, of the Smithsonian Institution’s first on-line course, The Rise of Superheroes. Additional clients include VenSat Animation, a leader in the Indian animation industry later bought by the Reliance Group, the Hong Kong International Film Festival, the Shanghai International Film Festival’s Film Finance Forum, and the Asian Film Awards. David also expanded his consulting business into the Chinese mobile gaming market by adding Beijing Tongzhuo Game Technology Co. (aka Same Table Games) and EGLS Technology LTD to his list of clients, helping locate and acquire Western intellectual properties that could make successful Chinese mobile games, as well as with endorsement, sponsorship, and live event opportunities. Uslan and his partners at Persona Media, based in Shanghai and Seoul, are also acquiring the exclusive rights to manage the social media for western celebrities and brands across the top social media platforms in China and Korea. Clients include the current #1 DJ’s in the world, Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike, movie stars like Gerard Butler, television stars like Damon Wayans Jr.,and a variety of other prominent talent across film, television, music, and sports. In 2020, David began advising Legion M (Colossal, Mandy), the first media company in history designed to be owned by fans. Within the last couple years, Web3 has been a priority focus with the formation of IP3, LLC. Clients include Proof Collective’s Moonbirds, 0n1Force, GAMA.io, Heist World, and many others. IP3’s strategic partners include Macmillan, Vine Alternative Investments and Village Roadshow, KPMG, PalmNFT, Veve, Story Kitchen, ReelFX, and so many more.  Additionally, he is an independent contractor for The Third Floor, the global leader in previsualization, a former member of the board of advisors for the NAB Show, and is currently an advisory board member for the National Law Enforcement and Organized Crime Museum (The Mob Museum) in Las Vegas, San Diego Comicon and their permanent museum, and Team Prime Time, an influential afterschool organization based in Los Angeles. He also maintains strong ties to the Association of Film Commissioners International (AFCI) as well as the New Jersey Film Commission, where his father is currently serving as Chairman. Uslan is a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and the Producers Guild of America, as well as being elected to the Producer Guild of America’s China Task Force. David was awarded the 2016 Korean Culture Supporters award by KOCCA, the Korean Creative Content Agency. Recent speaking engagements include events such as CES Las Vegas, San Diego Comicon, New York Comic Con, LA Comic Con, C2E2 in Chicago, Bangkok Comic Con, Hong Kong’s FILMART, NAB Show Shanghai, The American Film Market, The International Licensing Expo, KOCCA & KOTRA related events, The Frankfurt Book Fair, Book Expo America, Digital Book World, AFCI, Anime Expo, Project Anime, and The Red Sea Film Festival. In June 2016, David had the honor of giving one of the two opening night, keynote addresses alongside his close friend, renowned Chinese director Stanley Tong, at the Shanghai International Film Festival. Uslan is represented by William Morris Endeavor and Zuber Lawler LLP
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Brian Vogelsang is an accomplished product leader in Qualcomm Technology, Inc.’s XR business group, where he leads the award-winning Snapdragon Spaces™, a platform empowering enterprise and consumer developers to create immersive XR experiences for AR Glasses and VR/MR headsets that blur the lines between our physical and digital realities.   Brian is a 25-year veteran of the mobile industry with a passion for pushing the boundaries of immersive technology and delivering products that accelerate the pace of innovation on the frontiers of spatial computing.  Brian sits on the advisory boards of VRARA and AREA and co-leads the $100M Snapdragon Metaverse Fund.
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As Chief Technology Officer for The Walt Disney Studios, Jamie is responsible for the oversight and strategic leadership of the technology that supports Disney's film and theatrical stage play businesses.  Additionally, Jamie has led several key strategic initiatives throughout the Studio and Company, including the StudioLab innovation incubator, Disney Movies Anywhere, Disney Research Studios, and the cross-company Technology Innovation Evangelists program. Before joining Disney in 2010, Jamie served as Chief Technology Officer for the National Football League, where he oversaw all technical aspects of the League's digital initiatives including NFL.com, the creation and operation of the platform that runs the digital media operations for all 32 of the member clubs, the League’s fantasy football platform, and massive-scale live event streaming infrastructure.  In addition, Jamie led Research and Development for the League's Digital Media Group.  Prior to his tenure at the NFL, Jamie held technology leadership positions in other global brands including Intel, Wells Fargo, and Office Depot, as well as venture-backed startups. Jamie sits on the Board of Directors of MovieLabs, the Entertainment Technology Center at USC, and the Southern California Innovation Alliance; is an executive advisor to multiple organizations including the University of Michigan School of Information; and is a member of several influential industry bodies including the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (“the Oscars”).  He holds a degree in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan.
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Dashun Wang is a Professor of Management and Organizations at the Kellogg School of Management and the McCormick School of Engineering, Northwestern University, where he is the Founding Director of the Center for Science of Science and Innovation (CSSI). He is best known for his contributions on the Science of Science, a quest to turn the scientific methods and curiosities upon science itself. His research has been published in journals like Nature and Science, and has been featured in virtually all major global media outlets. Dashun is a recipient of multiple awards for his research and teaching, including the AFOSR Young Investigator award, Poets & Quants Best 40 Under 40 Professors, Thinkers50 Radar 2021, Top scientific awards from the Complex Systems Society and Network Science Society, including the Erdos-Renyi Prize, and more. Check out his first book: The Science of Science, published in March 2021.
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Kara Whitfield is the North America Enterprise Workstation and OEM sales leader.  She began working for HP Inc in August of 2016. Her end-to-end responsibilities include implementing winning end user sales force structures, influencing and steering product and technology strategies, and developing customer relationships across both Commercial and Public Sector market segments. Kara is an accomplished executive with more than 25 years of diverse experience in the IT business.  She has resided in numerous places around the United States as well as abroad, where she oversaw Latin America sales.   Kara is a motivated leader who uses consistent, clear communication to convey her vision and inspire her team to exceed customer expectations. Kara formerly held sales and product marketing senior positions at IBM and Lenovo. As an Executive Sales Director at Lenovo, Kara built Lenovo's first outbound inside sales team; revitalized Lenovo's Mid-Market Commercial business through the creation of a new business sales team and new channel partner programs; and expanded Lenovo's Public Sector business by championing education specific products and services. In Kara’s WW Product Marketing role as a Managing Director, she led the M&A and integration initiatives for the services portfolio of IBM’s x86 Server division. Within 3 years Kara’s team transformed the Data Center Services’ portfolio, developing and launching Professional Services offerings and an As-A-Service offerings for all Data Center hardware. Kara currently resides in Raleigh, NC with her husband Price, son Mateo and daughter Ireland.  She holds a bachelor’s degree in business from Michigan State University and studied Marketing at the University of Puerto Rico.   Kara is on the Board of Governor’s for Opportunity International, a faith based philanthropic organization that provides micro financing to millions of people working their way out of poverty.  In her off time, she loves to travel and cheer on her daughter in competitive gymnastics and her son’s Jr. Carolina Hurricanes’ hockey team.
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Michael Wise is Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, a position he has held since first joining the studio in 2014. In this role, he leads the development and execution of a comprehensive technology strategy and is responsible for the day-to-day delivery of all technology initiatives and operations in support of the business. Wise and his team are focused on identifying and leveraging innovative technologies and emerging platforms as well as strategic partnerships to enable the studio to accelerate initiatives across production, marketing, and distribution functions. In addition, Wise facilitates Universal’s corporate innovation program. Prior to his tenure at Universal, Wise held various technical and managerial roles at WarnerMedia companies. He served as Vice President, multiplatform distribution for Turner Broadcasting System where he oversaw the development of the company’s online video platforms including leading the technical architecture and industry outreach work for Turner’s TV Everywhere and CNNgo strategic initiatives. Before that, Wise held various technical and managerial roles at WarnerMedia corporate, Warner Music, and AOL divisions leading digital media strategy, planning and execution where his team built one of the first at-scale CDNs and supported some of the earliest digital media stores and music services. In addition, he held roles at WarnerMedia leading antipiracy technical strategy across music, pay TV and filmed entertainment. Wise received a B.A. in Environmental Studies and Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He serves as Chairman of the Board at the Entertainment Technology Center @ USC and serves on the boards of MovieLabs and Blu-ray Disc Association. Wise is a member-at-large serving the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. He resides in Los Angeles.
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Jim Wuthrich has spent the last 24 years optimizing revenue at Warner Bros. and is the former President of Content Distribution at Warner Bros. Discovery, where his team was responsible for monetizing film and tv from WB, HBO, Turner and Discovery.  During his tenure he directed the launch of new product categories including DVD, Digital Ownership, Virtual Reality and Video Games.  Jim is currently Chair Emeritus of the trade group Digital Entertainment Group (DEG) and was inducted into Variety’s Digital Hall of Fame in 2017 for his many industry contributions.
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Joachim Zell is currently the Head of HDR Content Workflow at Barco. For 12 years he served as VP of Technology and Imaging Science at EFILM/Deluxe, where he designed and monitored production workflows from on-set production to release. Previously, he was VP of Advanced Technology at Technicolor Thomson in Burbank. Joachim is an Associate Member of the ASC. He is Co-Chair of the ASC’s Motion Imaging Technology Council's Next-Generation Cinema Display Committee and served on the MITC DI team that defined the ASC CDL standard. As a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), he holds the position of ACES Project Vice Chair, supports SMPTE as Hollywood Section Manager and is a Board Member of the Hollywood Professional Association (HPA).
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