Founding Advisory Board

Lawrence Bender, Film Producer

Lawrence is an American film producer. He rose to fame by producing Reservoir Dogs in 1992 and has since produced all of Quentin Tarantino's films with the exception of Death Proof and Django Unchained.  He also produced Good Will Hunting, An Inconvenient Truth (Al Gore), and Countdown To Zero.  His films to date, including such hits as Inglourious Basterds, Pulp Fiction and Good Will Hunting, have been honored with 29 Academy Award nominations, including three for Best Picture, and have won 6. His film An Inconvenient Truth, which raised unprecedented awareness about climate change, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. His latest documentary, Countdown to Zero, features Tony Blair, Presidents, Musharef, Gorbachev, De Klerk and Carter among others, details the urgent risk posed by proliferation, terrorism, and accidental use of nuclear weapons. Other films include, From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), Anna and the King (1999), The Mexican (2001), Innocent Voices (2004), and Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs (1992), Pulp Fiction (1994), Jackie Brown (1997), Kill Bill Volume 1 (2003), Kill Bill Volume 2 (2004) and Inglourious Basterds. Lawrence has also produced, Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights; Knockaround Guys; A Price Above Rubies; White Man's Burden; Killing Zoe; and Fresh. He produced the 2012 film Safe, which starred Jason Statham. Since May 2005, Bender has been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post. He now works in Hollywood running the day-to-day operations of his own production company, Lawrence Bender Productions. Bender has been working with Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor to create a television TV series based on the 2007 album Year Zero.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Bender

Victoria Hopper, Social Activist

Victoria Hopper is a political consultant and journalist.

Arianna Huffington, Editor-In-Chief, The Huffington Post

Arianna is the Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Huffington Post. She was a popular conservative commentator in the mid-1990s, after which, in the 1990s, she became a liberal. [3] She is the former spouse of former Republican congressman Michael Huffington. In 2003, she ran as an independent candidate for Governor in the California recall election. In 2009, Huffington was named as number 12 in Forbes ' first-ever list of the Most Influential Women In Media. She has also moved up to number 42 in The Guardian ' Top 100 in Media List. As of 2014, she is listed as the 52nd most powerful woman in the world by Forbes. In 2011, AOL acquired The Huffington Post for US$315 million and made Huffington President and Editor-in-Chief of The Huffington Post Media Group, which included The Huffington Post and then-existing AOL properties such as AOL Music, Engadget, Patch Media, and StyleList.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arianna_Huffington

Mike Medavoy, Film Producer

Mike is an American film producer and executive, co-founder of Orion Pictures (1978), former chairman of TriStar Pictures, former head of production for United Artists (1974–1978) and current chairman and CEO of Phoenix Pictures.  He became Creative Management's vice president of the motion picture department in 1967, where he worked with Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola among others and headed to IFA in 1970. In 1974, United Artists brought Medavoy in as senior vice president of production. There, he was part of the team responsible for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Rocky, and Annie Hall, which won best Pictures Oscars® in 1975, 1976 and 1977 respectively. United Artists made a number of other notable films at the time, including Apocalypse Now, Raging Bull, Network and Coming Home. In 1978, Medavoy co-founded Orion Pictures. During his tenure there, Orion released films such notable and successful films as Platoon, Amadeus, Robocop, Hannah and Her Sisters, The Terminator, Dances with Wolves, and The Silence of the Lambs. In 1990, Medavoy became the chairman of TriStar Pictures where he oversaw release of films such as Philadelphia, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Sleepless in Seattle, Cliffhanger, The Fisher King, Legends of the Fall and Hook. In 1995, Medavoy co-founded Phoenix Pictures. As its chairman and CEO, Medavoy co-produced such films as The People vs. Larry Flint, The Mirror Has Two Faces, U Turn, Apt Pupil, The Thin Red Line, The 6th Day, Basic, All the King's Men, Zodiac, Pathfinder and Miss Potter, among others. The Thin Red Line and The People vs. Larry Flint received Oscar nominations. Most recently, Phoenix Pictures has produced Shutter Island and Black Swan. Shutter Island was released on February 19, 2010, earning over $42 million its opening weekend. Black Swan was directed by Darren Aronofsky and won numerous awards including the Oscar® and Golden Globe for Best Actress (Natalie Portman). In 2011, Medavoy announced his newest project surrounding the 2010 Chilean mining accident that left 33 men trapped underground for 69 days. Medavoy will collaborate with Chilean officials and Academy Award-nominated screenwriter José Rivera to create an authentic retelling of this story that, as Medavoy explains, "at its heart, [is] about the triumph of the human spirit and a testament to the courage and perseverance of the Chilean people".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Medavoy

Paris Hauter, Principal, FinTecDEPLOY

As Founder of FinTecDEPLOY,  Karen 'Paris' Hauter is a leading operations, financial, accounting and business development specialist focused on reorganizing emerging market start-ups and transitioning corporations for efficiency and best practices, including Sarbanes Oxley implementations. Prior to founding FinTecDEPLOY, Paris was most recently Managing Director of Etonien LLC's New York City office (Soho), where she was the lead reorg operations consultant for a diverse range of firms from Broadway Video (SNL) to Vice Media. Previously, she spearheaded and implemented transformative changes for ReachLocal (google advertising) as it transitioned from privately held to SEC reporting. As direct report to Chairman and CEO Patrick Soon-Shiong (#42 Forbes400 wealthiest man in L.A.), Paris was asked to lead the SEC filings for the merger of American BioScience, Inc. (ABI) and American Pharmaceutical Partners into Abraxis BioScience Inc. as well as the implementation of SOXs for ABI. As direct report to the CEO of CIM Group Inc., Paris led the reorganization of the financial reporting, accounting, audit and IT departments for Hollywood’s premier $5B private equity real estate firm (properties include Dolby Theater, Hollywood & Highland, Grauman’s Chinese; backing includes large pension funds CalPERS and CalSTRS). Prior to her work at ABI and CIM, Paris was a SOX implementation specialist for clients, domestic and international offices, including International Rectifier, MSC Software Inc. and News Corp’s DirecTV. She also managed reorganizations and SOX for the Chicago Tribune's The Los Angeles Times and KBHomes. Prior to her work on Sarbanes Oxley implementations, Paris was a senior business strategist and client development lead with top-tier Internet consulting firm, ZEFER Inc., managing accounts including Gillette Corp., Chicago/Los Angeles Merchandise Marts, Rubbermaid and Sanford Corporation. She previously was the U.S. President and chief representative of a Swiss-based privately held international venture capital firm creating a portfolio of U.S. companies as diversified as real estate, fashion and home furnishings. She led the start-up and acquisition process as well as national sales training programs, marketing campaigns and contract negotiations. She obtained her C.P.A. while at the New York City headquarters of KPMG where she reported to both the Managing Partner of the National Bank Practice and the Managing Partner of the International Financial Services Practice. Her clients included Fleet Bank, Prudential Financial, Irving Bank (Bank of New York), Bankers Trust, Banamex andParibas Banque. She received advanced training at KPMG and Arthur Anderson.
www.parishauter.com
www.fintecdeploy.com

Larry Winokur, Founder/CEO, BWR PR

Larry is Co-Founder and Co-CEO of BWR Public Relations, a leading entertainment industry PR firm.
Mr. Larry Winokur Co-Founded Baker/Winker/Ryder Public Relations and serves as its Chief Executive Officer, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide. Mr. Winokur was also responsible for shepherding Green Cross International's president, Mikhail Gorbachev on his visits to the U.S. Mr. Winokur was responsible for staging the first Western concerts, one in Beijing's Forbidden City and another at India's Taj Mahal. He promoted two unprecedented art exchanges in the Soviet Union and publicized the closure and reopening of Biosphere 2. Mr. Winokur has been a driving force in the signing and servicing of corporate entertainment, special events, consumer product and non-profit accounts. He worked on special events projects for three U.S. presidents, including Habitat for Humanity's Jimmy Carter Work Project and Bill Clinton's Voices of Change featuring Barbra Streisand. Mr. Winokur has honed a reputation as a capable facilitator of business-to-business communication. He has spearheaded trade missions to Hollywood for several United States' governors and promoted independent film through representation of AFMA. His clients have included financial institutions, real estate giants and some of the nation's largest law firms. In the television realm, Mr. Winokur has been integral in waging launch campaigns for cable channels such as E!, the Sci-Fi Channel and Pax TV. He serves as Advisor of Entertainment Media Works, Inc. He received his law degree in 1976.

Mark Canton, Film Producer

In 1991, Canton quit Warner Bros. where he was executive vice president of the Worldwide Motion Picture Production unit.[6] Warner Bros. let him out of his contract fifteen months early with studio head Bob Daly saying "from our standpoint this was a job that was going to be eliminated." He then became chairman of Sony's Columbia Pictures (later Columbia-TriStar Pictures), where he was involved with some failures like Geronimo: An American Legend, but also with blockbusters like Men in Black, Air Force One and My Best Friend's Wedding. Canton was fired by Sony in 1996, after a series of relative flops including Last Action Hero (a film Conton described as "probably the best action movie of all time") and The Cable Guy but before his final string of movies could become blockbusters. Described at the time as both "known for enthusiasm, rapid-fire talk, a sleek Italian wardrobe and a youthful style" and "a braggart who was lucky to have become chairman of a studio in the first place", Canton was in those years "one of the most powerful executives in Hollywood". In 1998, Canton became an independent film producer, with Jack Frost, starring Michael Keaton, as his first major production.[11] Backed by the German company Senator Entertainment from August 2000 on, he struck a first-look deal with Warner Bros. By the end of 2001, the shares of Senator had dropped substantially and Canton had to close down his production company. In 2002, he was the chief executive of Artists Production Group, the movie branch of Artist Management Group. After leaving APG in November 2003, he created Atmosphere Entertainment together with Mark Kimsey, an investment manager. The aims were to produce films and television programming. With this company, he produced blockbusters such as 300, Immortals, and The Spiderwick Chronicles. In his roles as executive, chairman, and producer, Canton has been involved in over 300 major Hollywood productions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Canton

Advisors

Jonathan Zittrain, Co-Founder, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard; Professor of Internet law at Harvard Law School and the Harvard Kennedy School, a professor of computer science at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and a faculty co-director of Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Zittrain)

Ethan Zuckerman, Director, MIT Center for Civic Media (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethan_Zuckerman)

Callie Khouri, Writer/Director (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callie_Khouri)

Scott Z. Burns, Writer/Director (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Z._Burns)

Scott Ross, Digital Entertainment Pioneer; Founder & Former Chairman/CEO, Digital Domain (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Ross_%28film_executive%29)

Frances Arnold, Founder, Gevo; Dickinson Professor of Chemical Engineering and Biochemistry, CALTECH (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Arnold)

Alex Steffen, Journalist / Co-Founder, WorldChanging.org (https://www.alexsteffen.com/)

We have many, many people to thank for our successful journey. Our Founding advisors for their initial belief in us and the mission of our organization. Lawrence Bender in particular for giving up his home for 10 straight events in 2010. Victoria Hopper for giving up her home for two seismic holiday parties at her home in Venice. The advice and mentorship of Lawrence, Victoria, Arianna Huffington, Mike Medavoy, Mark Canton, and Larry Winokur has and continues to be invaluable. Our other advisors have been equally instrumental, with a big thank you to Francis Arnold, Jonathan Zittrain, Ethan Zuckerman, Robin Hunicke, Susan Bonds, Doug Church, Mark Deloura, and Adam Sussman. Hundreds of our members have contributed countlessly, and among them a huge thanks goes out to Mike Werb, Keith Addis, and our hardcore event volunteers Berly Ellis, Ina Burke, and Jessica Kill. Our early Strategy Council also helped tremendously with our early stage growth - among them Jason Blum, Stokely Chaffin, Jennifer Roskind, Martha Haight, Pam Abdy, Donna Langley, Keri Selig, Sheryl Clark, Hannah Minghella, and Richard Demato. Darren Star for hosting our micro-finance conference cocktail party at his home, and Ari Arad for hosting our mobile social change app conference cocktail party at his home. Scott Z. Burns for his hosting as well. And to our major project-specific loaners and donors over time including Dan Abrams, Betty Thomas, Nicole Clemens, JC Spink, Ron Bernstein, Babak Razi and others anonymous. And Paris Hauter for her very significant financial contributions to our operations. (we're currently updating this section, so if your name is missing, don't fear, we're making our way through this very long list and we'll be adding your name if you're on it!)