2023 AIS Summit at Skywalker Ranch Guests

Originally from Mexico City, Mariana’s been at home in Los Angeles for over a decade. A technologist, VR pioneer, veteran pixel pusher, Variety magazine top 10 innovator, a finalist on the Women Startup Challenge in AI, mentor for the Virtual Production Fellowships by Epic Games, software creative and entrepreneur. Before joining Technicolor Creative Studios as SVP of Global Virtual Production & On-Set Services, Mariana was Chief Product Officer at Glassbox, a Technology Lumiere Award winning company that develops tools for Virtual Production. Prior to her switch into tech, she worked as a VFX supervisor and senior compositor, and has over 13 years’ experience in the motion picture industry.
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Former federal prosecutor James M. Aquilina is an accomplished business leader and strategic advisor, a renowned cybersecurity expert and digital investigator, a regular speaker and commentator, a published author, and a certified boardroom Qualified Technology Expert. James currently serves on the advisory board and as a strategic advisor to the CEO of cybersecurity firm BlueVoyant; as a member of the advisory board of League, a leading healthcare PaaS provider; as a member of the advisory board of global investigative firm Nardello & Co.; as a member of the board of governors of the Advanced Imaging Society, a trade association formed by content creators and tech companies to advance the use of emerging technologies in film and TV production; and as an Emeritus board member of the Constitutional Rights Foundation, a nonprofit helping young people understand civics. James also serves as a cybersecurity investment advisor to Silicon Valley private equity firm Gryphon Investors. He is a current director member of the National Association of Corporate Directors, the Corporate Directors Forum, and the Digital Directors Network. James was the President of Aon Global Cyber Solutions after its acquisition of Stroz Friedberg, the technical and cyber security consulting firm he built with other former federal law enforcement officers from the ground up. Mr. Aquilina was an instrumental business executive and leader in negotiating and structuring private investments, identifying, acquiring, and integrating multiple acquisitions, and growing the firm to a global and internationally recognized powerhouse. James served over 500 unique clients in the tech, internet, media and entertainment, financial, manufacturing, healthcare, aerospace and defense, energy, telecommunications, and retail industries, including more than 50 of the 2020 Fortune 500. He has been retained by over 150 different law firms, including many of the 2020 Am Law 100. In various complex matters involving digital evidence, James was selected as a special master or court-appointed neutral, including in disputes between two major universities over clinical drug studies, the conflict between CrossFit and the National Sports Conditioning Authority, and the 1-800-Get-Thin federal criminal prosecutions. After stepping down as President of Aon Global Cyber Solutions, James served as an advisor to the board of directors of The Crypsis Group through its acquisition by Palo Alto Networks; as the co-chair of the advisory board of ESG consulting firm Wallbrook through its acquisition by Anthesis; and as the independent member of the board of directors of Cadien Cyber Response through its initial start-up phase. Before entering the private sector, James served for almost a decade as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, where he led significant multi-defendant cybercrime investigations and prosecutions, served as a member of the Los Angeles Electronic Crimes Task Force and chair of the Computer Intrusion Working Group, and helped establish and run the Legal Section of the FBI’s Emergency Operations Center following the September 11, 2001 attacks. James co-wrote Malware Forensics: Investigating & Analyzing Malicious Code and two associated field guides, published by Elsevier/Syngress in 2008, 2012, and 2013, respectively. Together these books constitute the first complete published work on the topic. A regular speaker and commentator on cyber, Mr. Aquilina has appeared on Bloomberg, CNN, and CNBC, and at Interpol, the International Law Enforcement Academy, the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference, the Media Finance Focus Conference, and the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology. He has been quoted in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Newsweek, and Fortune. James is a graduate and Richard Erskine Academic Fellow of the University of California Berkeley School of Law and completed his undergraduate studies magna cum laude at Georgetown University.
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Bill Baggelaar has recently stepped down as the Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Sony Pictures Entertainment. He was responsible for the media technology strategy, along with research & development efforts into emerging technologies that will shape the future of cloud-based production, post-production and delivery of content. Bill brings his extensive experience in production, visual effects and post-production along with his work collaborating with industry partners and internally across Sony in developing and implementing key technologies that have been instrumental, including IMF, 4K and HDR. Baggelaar joined Sony Pictures in 2011, focusing his efforts on streamlining and advancing 4K workflows from on-set capture to post-production for film and TV. He led the studio’s transition to the file-based world of IMF (Interoperable Master Format) for UltraHD. He also headed the team at Sony Pictures to help develop the world’s first 4K video service, Sony’s “4K Video Unlimited”. Bill is a member of The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, The Television Academy  and SMPTE.
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Andy Beach is the CTO for Media and Entertainment Industry at Microsoft. In this capacity he is responsible for the technical strategy for our three clouds -Azure, Dynamics, and Office 365 as they relate the M+E industry. He collaborates closely with product groups and account teams to help customers and partners in developing their media related technology solutions and reference architectures that address their rapidly changing needs.  He has extensive experience in combining technology, creativity, and business strategy in the media industry. Andy has published books on video compression and streaming media and is a recognized expert on topics spanning the media creation and distribution pipelines.
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Vicki Dobbs Beck has more than 30 years of broad-based management experience in the entertainment industry. Variety named her a “Digital Innovator to Watch in 2020,” and in 2019, the Advanced Imaging Society recognized Vicki with a Distinguished Leadership Award for being a significant “entertainment industry growth catalyst.” Currently, Vicki is VP, Immersive Content for Lucasfilm and has overall responsibility for ILM Immersive, the award-winning storytelling studio that launched in 2015 to pioneer a new era of interactive entertainment in virtual and mixed reality across multiple platforms. ILM Immersive allows audiences to interact with engaging characters and worlds, inviting fans everywhere to “Step Inside Our Stories” in ways never before possible. The studio, formally known as ILMxLAB, aspires to create connected experiences that transform places, spaces and our daily lives as we transition from story-telling to story-living. Vicki is a member of the Television Academy; the Producers Guild of America; and a BAFTA Associate member. She is also Chairman of AIXR’s Advisory Group and an Advisory Board member for the Los Angeles-based Infinity Festival. Vicki received her MBA from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business where she also completed her undergraduate studies, earning a BA with distinction in International Relations.
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Stephen is an Emmy award-winning producer and technologist who currently serves as Senior Vice President of Production Operations at HBO & Max. Credits include shows like Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon, The Last of Us, Westworld, Succession, True Detective, The Newsroom, True Blood, From the Earth to the Moon, and Sesame Street to name only a few. Stephen received a Television Academy Emmy award for his work on Westworld VR and has produced HBO’s one of a kind Camera Assessment and Image Study documentary series for over 10 years. Stephen’s insights and experience have made him a popular guest speaker at various industry events, including the Variety Production Forum, Inter BEE Japan, IBC Amsterdam and the Range Rover Leadership Summit among others. When Steve's not making television shows, he can be found in his workshop tinkering with one of his many vintage Land Rovers with his brilliant and precocious daughter. He is also an adjunct professor with Full Sail University, his alma mater, where he is also a member of the full Sail Hall of Fame and creator in the DC3 online education program.
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Richard Berger joined MovieLabs as CEO in 2017, arriving with an extensive digital strategy background and a proven and unique ability to bring companies together to solve the most challenging problems and achieve profound industry change. He is responsible for the overall direction of MovieLabs and oversees technology initiatives on behalf of the major studios. Rich led the development of the “2030 Vision” which has become the industry’s reference for the future of media creation. Rich is a 25-year veteran of the Media and Entertainment Technology industry. Before joining MovieLabs, he served as SVP of Worldwide Digital Strategy & Advanced Platforms, where he built a reputation for innovation, particularly around emerging digital platforms and formats such as Movies Anywhere and UHD (4K-HDR). He also was one of original founders of UltraViolet and helped launch the DECE consortium. Other roles during his 19 years at Sony included SVP New Media & Technology, where he was responsible for establishing digital policy across all Sony Pictures digital distribution businesses. Rich also worked at Sony Music Entertainment’s New Media Department where he developed Sony Music’s first Enhanced CDs. Rich is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, the Television Academy, and has been awarded over 30 patents. He holds a Master’s degree in Interactive Telecommunications from NYU - Tisch School of the Arts and a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Rutgers College.
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Bret has more than 24 years of experience in the software, industry and has worked in large enterprise organizations, hyper - growth companies, and multiple start-ups. Bret has over 20 years in cyber security with expertise in enterprise risk analysis, compliance, security architecture and consulting. Bret has written over 10 cyber security thought leadership pieces and was awarded the 2016 StateScoop50 Award for his positive impact in the government IT community and in public sector. While in the Cyber Security space, Bret built a reputation for protecting the safety and security of customers in Government, Healthcare, and Education entities. He has helped hundreds of clients solve some of the most difficult and high-profile security challenges, guiding them down the path for meaningful transformation – ranging from resiliency, cost optimization, and adopting best practices. He is well-respected in the Public Sector Community and has been a trusted advisor to Governors, Attorneys General, and Congressmen, as well as CIOs and CISOs throughout the United States. Bret has expanded his skill set beyond Cyber and has worked in the quickly growing area of DevOps and network infrastructure where he was the VP of Sales for North America at a highly disruptive technology company, Cumulus Networks. While there, Bret led the transition in the go-to-market (GTM) sales motion by transitioning the focus to Top-Down selling into the C-Suite. This approach translated in growing the revenue 167% in the first year and helped position Cumulus Networks to a successful exit with Nvidia. Bret currently leads sales for two critical vertical areas at Nvidia, Media & Entertainment (M&E) along with Architecture/ Engineering/Construction/Operations (AECO). Today Bret is singularly focused on adding value to the M&E space by proving how AI can transform the business to maximize productivity and dramatically shrink expenses. Additionally, Nvidia is a primary player in the rapidly evolving Metaverse and we are sharing strategies on how best to embark on the journey to the Metaverse. Bret has held different leadership and senior sales roles at companies such as: FireEye, ShieldX, Intel, McAfee, IBM, and Informix. Bret is currently doing advisory work for several start-ups including: Strata.io, Prime ID, and Worklyn- a Private Equity group. In addition to his love for Family, Health, and Travel, Bret has a penchant for fine wine and cooking.
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Rob Bredow is an Academy Award-nominated VFX Supervisor who serves as SVP, Chief Creative Officer of Industrial Light & Magic. Bredow has a particular focus on the creative strategy for the storied visual effects company where he is responsible for the company’s overall creative teams, innovation, and technology. Rob also serves in the role of SVP, Creative Innovation for Lucasfilm where he serves as a creative producer on select films and series. Some of Bredow’s previous projects include VFX Supervisor and Co-Producer on Solo: A Star Wars Story, writer and director of Lucasfilm’s story-based virtual reality experiment Trials on Tatooine, and films dating back to Independence Day.
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Jason Brenek is Founder and CEO of MetaMedia, the first global platform for delivering movies, live-streamed events, and other big-screen programming into cinemas, drive-ins, arenas, and other out-of-home venues. Prior to launching MetaMedia, Brenek was President of IMAX HOME, a division at IMAX Corporation responsible delivering the IMAX theatrical experience into homes, including the award-winning IMAX Private Theatre and IMAX Enhanced consumer electronics.  Brenek also helped IMAX launch their IMAX Virtual Reality centers by acquiring and curating VR experiences for the centers.  Immediately prior to IMAX, Brenek spent more than a decade in senior management at The Walt Disney Company.  At Disney, Brenek served as Senior Vice President of International In-Home, where he led a multi-billion dollar marketing and distribution segment at Disney’s film studio.  Brenek also worked in Disney’s global cinema division as Senior Vice President, Worldwide Digital Cinema and Cinema Programming.  In this position, he oversaw Disney’s global transition from analog film to digital cinema and launched Disney’s foray into 3D, co-producing multiple Disney 3D feature films.  In 2015, the International Advanced Imaging Society awarded Mr. Brenek with their first Founders Award.
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Wim Buyens is the CEO of Cinionic, the cinema joint venture between Barco, Appotronics, and CGS. Wim is a seasoned business leader that has held senior management positions in high tech companies during the past 15 years. He started his career in IT and CAD/CAM, later joining the Danish company Brüel & Kjaer, and subsequently held multiple global leadership positions. Before Cinionic, Wim led the Entertainment division of Barco, responsible for years of growth and a market #1 position in cinema projection. Wim is a strong advocate for new technologies, such as laser projection, and serves on several technology company boards around the world. Wim studied at Stanford University and Lausanne University. An active member of the cinema community, Wim regularly speaks at industry events and sits on industry association boards, such as the Advanced Imaging Society, where he served as Chairman in 2017.
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Nick has served as Chief Technology Officer at Walt Disney Animation Studios since 2016 where he is responsible for technology and innovation across the studio. His credits at the studio include “Moana”, “Frozen 2”, “Encanto”, and “Wish”. Before Disney, Nick spent 13 years in visual effects leading technology for work on over 100 feature film productions from “Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets” to “The Jungle Book”. An active participant in the visual effects and animation community, Nick is an advocate for community-wide collaboration and innovation. As a member of the Visual Effects Society’s Technology Committee Nick was a founder, and still co-leads, the VFX Reference Platform initiative which drives software harmonization and interoperability across digital content creation software. Nick started his career working across a variety of industries, helping organizations with digital transformation and integrating new technologies. These experiences sparked a passion for taking a people-first approach to leading technological change that he now combines with his interest in the intersection of art and technology. Nick graduated from Royal Holloway, University Of London, where he studied Computer Science, and currently resides in Pasadena, California.
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A thirty-year veteran of the technology industry, Christian has worked in the trenches, the C-Suite, and all points in between. A native of the East Coast, he oversaw multinational marketing and publishing companies from New York to London, melding differing technologies and ideologies through acquisitions of companies both domestic and foreign. In the early 2000’s, Christian relocated to the West Coast and dove headfirst into the technological playground that is Entertainment. After successful outings at award-winning networks, trailer and reality production companies, bringing innovation and modernization to each, Christian has found his home at a premiere studio, FOX Entertainment. Helping forge a new post and production department after the FOX/Disney split, he is part of the team ushering in remote workflows, cloud deployments and virtual production initiatives to FOX and its sibling companies in the US and abroad.
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Jim Chabin has served as President of The Advanced Imaging Society since it’s creation by Walt Disney Studios, Dreamworks, Sony, IMAX, Dolby,Technicolor, StereoD and others to drive technical innovation in content creation. He is a past president of The Television Academy overseeing the Prime Time Emmys. He also served in management capacities at CBS  and E! Entertainment Televison.
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Rick Champagne leads Global Media & Entertainment Industry Management for NVIDIA. In this role, Rick works closely with customers and industry partners in the Film, TV, and Broadcast industries to promote the advancement and adoption of new technologies. With a long history of managing products such as the Autodesk 3ds Max and Maya Entertainment Creation Suites, Softimage, Mudbox, and Painter, Rick has been in the service of Artists and Technologists for over two decades. Rick maintains close ties to industry as a member of the Visual Effects Society, HPA, and serves on the Board of Governors of the Advance Imaging Society, and as a committee member of ASWF. Rick holds a Master's in Business Administration.
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Annie Chang is the Vice President, Creative Technologies for Universal Pictures, responsible for developing strategies and designing innovative next-generation workflows across film and emerging immersive media experiences.  Prior to joining Universal Pictures, Chang was the VP, Technology for Marvel Studios and held various roles during more than a decade tenure at The Walt Disney Studios.  Chang is the AMPAS ACES Project Co-Chair and served as the Co-Chair of the AMPAS SciTech Council until 2022.  She has been a Co-Chair of the 10E Essence Technology and Chair of the Interoperable Master Format (IMF) Working Group at SMPTE.  She is an SMPTE Fellow and is a recipient of the SMPTE Workflow Systems Medal Award, Advanced Imaging Society’s Distinguished Leadership award and StudioDaily’s 2018 Exceptional Women in Production and Post.  In 2020, The Hollywood Reporter named Chang on their list of top “Hollywood Innovators.”  In 2021, Hollywood Professional Association honored Chang with the HPA League Honor of “The Catalyst” which recognizes a leader who has successfully inspired and sparked positive change and innovation in entertainment as a “mover and shaker,” and TVNewsCheck recognized Chang with their Women in Technology Futurist Award.  In 2022, Women in Technology Hollywood honored Chang with their WiTH Leadership Award.
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As Chief Technology Officer of Technology for Lucasfilm, Francois is responsible for all aspects of global studio technology for Lucasfilm, Industrial Light & Magic, and ILM Immersive. With a background in computer science engineering, Francois was initially involved in industry-driven research to enable real-time immersive collaboration through virtual reality. In 2003, his passion for visual effects led him to co-found a startup company whose goal was to provide R&D consulting services to smaller visual effects studios. Francois later worked for Sony Pictures Imageworks, where he helped drive production technology for more than a decade before joining Lucasfilm in 2016. Francois is a member of the VFX Branch of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences, as well as the AMPAS Scientific and Technical Awards Committee, and the Visual Effects Society Technology Committee.
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As Vice President of Strategic Partners, Matt leads all business negotiations and partnership execution with Unity’s largest partners in gaming, entertainment, and the metaverse. Prior to joining Unity, Matt was Vice President of Business Development at MasterClass from January 2021 to March 2022. Matt spent 7.5 years at Amazon where his last role was Director of Worldwide Content and App Partner Engagement for Amazon Entertainment Devices and Service. He was a member of the leadership team that grew Fire TV to be the best-selling streaming device in North America, Western Europe, India and Japan with over 50 million active users. Matt advised Amazon executive leadership on all aspects of video streaming and mobile/cloud gaming including business strategy, corporate development, product development, and marketing, and led distribution negotiations with all major streaming services.
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J.D. Connor is an Associate Professor and holds The Alma and Alfred Hitchcock Family Chair in the Division of Cinema and Media Studies at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. He is the author of Hollywood Math and Aftermath: The Economic Image and the Digital Recession and The Studios after the Studios: Neoclassical Hollywood, 1970–2010. He received his PhD in from the Humanities Center at Johns Hopkins University. Prior to joining USC in 2016, he was on the Art History and Film & Media Studies faculties at Yale and the Visual & Environmental Studies and English faculties at Harvard. His research and teaching focus on the art and industry of contemporary Hollywood. He currently writes the City of Industry column for the Los Angeles Review of Books.
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Danielle Costa is the VP of Visual Effects at Marvel Studios, and has been with Marvel Studios since 2009 working on 29 of their films. She has 19 years experience in visual effects and animation, production and post-production. Besides spending long hours on set and in creative reviews, Danielle has spearheaded the creation of multiple studio-side pipelines for streamlining visual effects, animation, stereo, post production and the digital intermediate process at Marvel. She is also involved in new technologies, including virtual reality.
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Patrick Costello, Senior Director of Business Development at Qualcomm Technologies Inc., is responsible for building partnerships in support of Qualcomm’s XR and Gaming initiatives. the sports and entertainment verticals.  In support of Qualcomm’s XR business, Patrick leads North American engagements with film studios, sports leagues, top brands, OEM’s, and ISV’s to drive both content partnerships and adoption of Qualcomm’s broader technology portfolio. Prior to joining Qualcomm, Patrick led business development for Kyocera Wireless in emerging markets in EMEA and SEA.  Following completion of his International Relations degree from the University of San Diego in 1995, Patrick obtained his MBA from San Diego State University.
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Simon Crownshaw serves as Worldwide Media and Entertainment Strategy Director for Microsoft. He provides leadership and direction to teams across studios, broadcasting, sports, interactive and live events and the solutions that power those focus areas. In addition to supporting the hundreds of global customers and helping them harness the power of Microsoft to enable media workflows, he is focused on media cloud adoption and the critical data, AI and metaverse elements that will redefine content creation and delivery in the future. Simon has almost 20 years of experience across all elements of the digital media landscape. Before joining Microsoft, he led technical solutions and strategy at multiple studios including the Walt Disney Company across production, postproduction, and the entire media supply chain. He has also been involved in cutting edge solutions that have leveraged game engine processing, and advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning. His philosophy is civilized content creation and to enable creative talent to be able to use whatever technology they want wherever they want to use it. He also sits on the boards of MovieLabs, Hollywood Professionals Association, and the Entertainment Technology Center at USC. Simon is a champion and advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion in the technology and media industries. He is also helping the industry examine a more focused effort on sustainability with clients across the world.
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