Digital Media Insider

Richard Bullwinkle, Chief Evangelist
Rovi Corporation

Richard Bullwinkle joined Rovi Corporation, formerly Macrovision Solutions Corporation, in January 2007 after the company acquired Mediabolic, where he had served as vice president of Products and chief evangelist. Since that time, Richard has served as chief evangelist responsible for corporate strategy. In his role, Richard helps define the direction of Rovi’s products and technology solutions. He represents the company at numerous industry events to gather market perspectives and understand trends that have an impact on the company’s customers and the end consumer in order to provide recommendations to the senior team. He also works to establish standards and lead the discussions to promote a better consumer experience throughout the CE industry.

With roles at Mediabolic, Rio Audio, and TiVo, Richard is well known in consumer electronics and entertainment industries.

As vice president of products and chief evangelist at Mediabolic, Richard helped pioneer the connected home strategy of connecting entertainment media devices. As a senior member of Rio Audio's product marketing team, Richard played an instrumental part in the creation of some of the most popular MP3 players in the US. At TiVo, Richard was the company’s chief evangelist and a senior member of TiVo's product marketing team. He helped create and develop the TiVo products and was behind the campaign to make the TiVo product a household name.

Richard graduated from Rollins College in Florida with degrees in English and Music.

Michael Cai, Vice President, Video Games
Interpret

Michael Cai serves as Vice President of Video Games for Interpret, a leading media and technology research firm. He leads the company’s gaming vertical, providing a wide variety of market research and analysis products to help clients gain a comprehensive understanding of consumer gaming habits and interest and make strategic decisions. Prior to joining Interpret, Cai served as Director of Digital Media and Gaming for Parks Associates. During his tenure with Parks Associates, Cai established and grew its gaming coverage practice and led a research team to provide syndicated and custom research for digital media, gaming and service provider industries.

Cai has authored and managed more than 30 industry reports and custom research projects and has presented his findings at such high-profile events as Game Developer’s Conference, E3, Consumer Electronics Show, Digital Hollywood, Virtual Worlds Expo, and The New York Games Conference.

Cai was born and raised in China, where he received his Bachelor of Economics in 1997 before earning his Masters from Landegg International University in 2000 and his MBA from Baylor University in 2002.

Steve Canepa, General Manager, Global Media and Entertainment
IBM Corp.

As Vice President, Global Media and Entertainment Industry, Steve is responsible for IBM’s overall results in the Entertainment, Publishing, Broadcast, Cable, Satellite, Sports and Advertising customer segments worldwide. He is also the founder of and a key leader in IBM’s cross-industry Digital Media organization. Since its formation in 1994, Steve has guided the marketplace strategy and solution offerings for IBM’s M&E Industry organization. He directs the worldwide sales of IBM’s broad portfolio of hardware, software and services and is responsible for IBM’s marketing activities, including crafting IBM’s partnerships and business development efforts. During that time frame, IBM’s overall business has grown dramatically, now the largest technology and services organization serving the M&E industry. Steve has a deep understanding of the key business imperatives facing firms in the M&E industry and has consulted extensively with many senior executives as they look to transform their organizations; providing enhanced profits by extending their brands; gaining better customer insights and by linking existing physical goods and licensing processes to digital initiatives. IBM recently launched a portfolio of cost optimization and revenue maximization solutions to address the profit pressures at work in today’s highly competitive marketplace; and enhanced the digital media framework, addressing content value chain transformation as content creation, acquisition, management and distribution evolve to encompass digital technologies. Steve has delivered many keynote addresses at conferences: NAB, IBC, Broadcast Asia, Digital Hollywood..., and often speaks at M&E industry events, including: NEXPO, CES, iStudio, Content World... He regularly contributes to the press/media and has over 60 television appearances, including CNBC, CNNfn, C/NET, CBS, ABC, NBC...First joining IBM in January 1983, Steve has 20+ years of experience building and leading significant sales, marketing, strategy, consulting, solutions and systems integration organizations. He graduated from UCLA in 1982 with two bachelor of arts degrees: Economics and Political Science with Phi Eta Sigma honors. He received a MBA in 1990 from UCLA, with Beta Gamma Sigma and top study honors. He has participated in the Wharton School financial management program and the IBM President’s class and International President’s class at Harvard University. He has also participated in the Harvard executive session on Strategy formation. With a personal dedication to improving the health and education of children; Steve serves on the Board of Directors for both the Junior Achievement of Southern California and The Bogart Pediatric Cancer Fund. Steve and his wife, Marianne, live with their three children in Los Angeles, California. Marianne is a Supervising Producer of prime-time one-hour dramatic episodic television series’.

Tim Chang, Principal
Norwest Venture Partners

Tim brings a combination of operational, technical and international business experience to Norwest Venture Partners. Tim focuses on investments in wireless and digital media as well as business development initiatives in Asia-Pacific. Tim led NVP's investments in and joined the board of directors of 3Jam, Brite Semiconductor, Lumos Labs and ngmoco. Tim also led NVP's investment in PCH International, a turnkey global supply chain services firm based in Shenzhen. Tim works with the boards of deCarta, Double Fusion and Veveo.

Prior to joining NVP in 2006, Tim was a principal at Gabriel Venture Partners where he was actively involved in over a dozen wireless-related deals and led Gabriel's investments in Iridigm Display Corporation (acquired by Qualcomm), Sequoia Communications, Sandbridge, and Kajeet. He also contributed to the boards of Placeware (acquired by Microsoft) and Arula Systems (acquired by Raritan), TestQuest, NextG Networks, and IPWireless. Tim built Gabriel's wireless sector practice and helped establish business development capabilities through strong, strategic relationships across the wireless value chain, particularly in Asia-Pacific.

Prior to joining Gabriel, Tim spent more than five years working in Japan. He was a product manager at Gateway Inc. where he successfully launched direct-marketed PC servers in the Japanese market and quickly grew an enterprise product line into a full offering of network desktops, workstations, servers and configurable turn-key solutions. Prior to Gateway, Tim was a development engineer for General Motors. As a tri-lingual engineer based in Tokyo, Tim led project teams in China, Korea and Japan in the development, testing and sales of advanced chassis control systems for clients such as Toyota and Daewoo.

Tim currently serves on the advisory boards of the Silicon Valley Telecom Council, Dealmaker Media, Digital Hollywood, TiE Wireless SIG, MIT/Stanford VLAB, VC Task Force, and Silicon Valley Chinese Wireless Association. He was also listed on the AlwaysON Hollywood IT List recognizing technology leaders in the entertainment industry, as well as by The Deal as one of five emerging VCs to watch.

Tim holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar, and an MS in electrical engineering/system engineering as well as a BS in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan.

Steve Klebe, SVP, Business Development
Vindicia

Steve has over 30 years of experience in sales, business development, strategic alliances and product marketing in electronic payments, authentication and fraud prevention including the last 15 years specifically in ecommerce. He has worked in a variety of senior management roles at companies such as; VeriFone, CyberCash, CyberSource, and PassMark Security (acquired by RSA/EMC). Steve has driven numerous innovative solutions from infancy through their mainstream stage. He was responsible for a wide variety of partnerships with companies such as First Data and Visa including the equity investment by Visa in CyberSource and the co-branded product - the CyberSource Advanced Fraud Screen enhanced by Visa.

Steve has taught classes at the NACHA Payments Institute, was on the board of directors of the Electronic Transactions Association (www.electran.org) and on the advisory boards of the DRF (www.directresponse.org) and the EFTA (www.efta.org). He has spoken at over 50 banking and technology conferences during his career. Steve received a Bachelor of Science with honors in Business Administration from Northeastern University, Boston, MA.

Chris Petrovic, GM
GameStop Digital Ventures

Chris Petrovic is the General Manager of Game- Stop Digital Ventures, the newly created strategy & investment arm of the world’s largest video game and entertainment software retailer. Petrovic serves as the principal leader of GameStop’s digital strategy. He is responsible for building on the company’s ongoing efforts to integrate digital media into the company’s multi-channel strategy, as well as overseeing the development and execution of a digital acquisition strategy.

Ned Sherman, CEO & Publisher
Digital Media Wire

As CEO, Publisher and Executive Editor of Digital Media Wire, Inc., Ned Sherman works at the center of the rapidly growing digital media industry, where he brokers relationships and keeps a tab on the most important developments shaping the industry. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Publisher Ned Sherman is more than the average pundit: He is an attorney and has an inside grasp of what is happening.”

Ned has established Digital Media Wire as a leading online media company that provides daily news, information and community to tens of thousands of executives and professionals at entertainment, media and technology companies throughout the world and owns and produces nine annual conferences. The advertising, sponsorship, client, partner and subscriber relationships that Ned has brokered make Digital Media Wire one of the best known media and entertainment industry brands to emerge in the digital age.

Ned is a frequent speaker at industry events in the U.S. and overseas and has been quoted in publications including American Lawyer, The Los Angeles Times, The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard and Crain's Mermigas on Media, interviewed and featured on C-SPAN, National Public Radio (NPR), NY1 Evening News and nationally syndicated radio shows, Inside Digital Media and WebTalk, and recognized in the Wall Street Journal.

Before co-founding Digital Media Wire, Ned spent seven years as a corporate and entertainment attorney practicing at several of the leading law firms in the world.

Ned is active in alumni affairs for Brown University and is currently Los Angeles Chair for Brown University's Alumni Interview Program. He has traveled extensively from Europe to Asia to South America to Northern Africa. Ned is married and lives with his wife, son and daughter in Los Angeles, California.

David Straus, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder
Withoutabox (IMDb, an Amazon Company)

David Straus brings an entrepreneur's vision and an idealist's passion to his position as Founder and CEO of Withoutabox, a company that builds systems to democratize distribution for indie filmmakers that he co-founded in 2000. IMDb.com, a division of Amazon, acquired Withoutabox In January of 2008. Today Withoutabox works with nearly 300,000 independent rights owners in over 200 countries around the world. Straus continues to lead Withoutabox while also heading up strategic partnerships and business development for IMDb.

In addition to his work running the Los Angeles office of IMDb, Straus is also a board member of the Zimmer Children’s Museum in Los Angeles California, and actively participates in helping to shape and grow its YouThink program (http://youthink.org/), which provides resources for inner-city children to become active in local and state government. Straus also serves on the Board of Directors of the Jewish World Watch, whose mission is to eliminate genocide anywhere around the world.

Straus is a graduate of Pitzer College (one of the Claremont Colleges); holds a Master’s Degree from the UCLA School of Film and Television; and is a Fulbright Scholar (research conducted in Hungary before the political changes). Prior to founding Withoutabox, Straus produced several films as well as worked on several political campaigns. He worked on Dianne Feinstein’s gubernatorial bid in 1990, and served as a member of the National Advance Staff for President Clinton during his 1992 campaign.

Straus often participates on panels about distribution and rights transactions, and speaks about how to democratize the filmmaking and distribution process. In 2007, he and Withoutabox partner and co-founder, Joe Neulight, presented a paper titled “Thinking Withoutabox: The Promise on Self-Distribution in the New Age of Expression” at the World Intellectual Summit in Geneva Switzerland.

Ville Virtanen, Director, Business Development, NA
Tieto Telecom & Media

Ville Virtanen has more than 15 years of multidisciplinary background in business development, consulting and academic research in telecom and media industries, including work history in Nokia. He specializes in strategy development and business models for mobile services. At Tieto he is in charge of business development for mobile device and digital media software R&D development services in Northern America. Ville has worked on numerous projects with mobile operators, mobile device manufacturers, network equipment providers, media companies and advertising agencies. He holds a master's degree in economics from the Vaasa University of Finland and is finalizing his doctoral dissertation about mobile as an advertising media. He has contributed to over 10 academic publications and co-authored two books about digital marketing and mobile advertising.

Digital Media Wire, Inc. owns and produce 11 annual conferences, publishes 7 newsletters, including Digital Media Wire Daily, and runs the DMWMedia news and community portal. For more information, visit: www.dmwmedia.com