Past Chair: Claudia Sumner
Past Chair: Alan Botvinick
Past Chair: Genny Yee
Past Chair: Aliza Chameides
Electronic Services Committee Chair: Howard Neely
Publicity Chair: Diana Lee
SIG Tech Chair: Howard Neely
SIG Art Chair: Sheri Burnham
SIG Art Vice Chair: Jen Grey

At-Large Committee Member: Pamela Thompson

From the Hollywood Freeway (101), take the Hollywood Boulevard exit, go east to 4800 Hollywood Blvd. The entrance to Barnsdall Art Park is between Edgemont and Vermont on Hollywood Boulevard (one block west of Vermont).

Enter through a fence in what appears to be a deserted area. Drive up the hill and park around the circular road. Parking is free on site.. There is also parking below the park in the lot.

Pamela Thompson,
Career Coach
Ideas To Go

Having held almost every job in the entertainment industry, Pamela Kleibrink Thompson is uniquely qualified as a career coach, independent recruiter, and management consultant. Her monthly column "The Career Coach" is on Animation World Network http://mag.awn.com/. She has written and produced training films for AT&T and IBM, and her articles on careers and management have appeared in over 40 publications. Thompson has spoken on careers at numerous conferences, seminars and colleges.

A career coach since 1999, Thompson helps clients achieve career goals by developing strategic plans and marketing materials. Thompson is an expert on career transitions, resumes, cover letters and marketing materials. She guides her career coaching clients through the complete job search process.

Her recruiting clients include Toybox, Framestore, Digital Domain, Walt Disney Feature Animation, Twentieth Century Fox, the Los Angeles Times, Macromedia, World of Tomorrow, Simex Digital Studios, Click 3X, Lucas Learning, and Hollywood On Line. She was officially recognized as a top recruiter by Animation Magazine.

In 1998, Thompson created, organized and moderated LA/SIGGRAPH'S Career Boot Camp, the world-famous seminar to prepare artists for careers in computer animation. With over 40 executive panelists from top studios and over 800 attendees, the program was a tremendous success. Thompson co-produced the event in 1999.

Thompson has worked in television and feature films as well as commercials and video games. Her production credits include The Simpsons, Family Dog and Bebe's Kids. She teaches courses on animation, new media and the internet, and advises colleges and universities on preparing students for the working world. Thompson is an active member of L.A. SIGGRAPH, Women in Animation, and ASIFA.

Shannon Blake Gans
CEO
New Deal Studios

As co-founder and CEO of New Deal Studios, Shannon Blake Gans is the organizational spine of the most dynamic young company in motion picture visual effects. Raised in a family of entrepreneurs, Gans entered the work force at an early age and dreamed of helming her own company. In 1992, she moved from Florida to Los Angeles to earn a degree from the prestigious entrepreneur program at the University of Southern California. A love for the arts -- and an eye for opportunity in the burgeoning field of visual effects -- brought Gans into partnership with Ian Hunter and Matthew Gratzner in 1995. She combined her business experience and education with Gratzner and Hunter's wealth of artistic talent and effects production experience. The result was Hunter/Gratzner Industries, Inc. (HGI), a miniatures and mechanical effects house that exceeded client expectations by offering preproduction design and on-set support services that fell outside the usual range of a model shop. Gans' business intuition and managerial skills stimulated HGI's carefully timed growth in its beginning months, and maintained the survival of the company through slow periods in the film industry. In 2001, Gans oversaw the acquisition of a neighboring production company's assets. As a result, HGI more than doubled in size and became New Deal Studios, a full-service visual effects production facility. New Deal's growth has progressed steadily since then, quadrupling in gross income and moving toward expansion into digital effects and film development and production. Meanwhile, Gans continues to rise to the challenges that never seem to disappear in such a cyclical industry: she has managed a staff that fluctuates between 10 and 115 employees, while ensuring that New Deal maintains its unique corporate culture and high level of operations efficiency.

Her savvy, no-nonsense professionalism has played no small part in building an impressive HGI/New Deal credit list, which includes HBO's critically acclaimed series From The Earth To The Moon and such feature films as Alien Resurrection, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and this year's much anticipated film The Aviator by Martin Scorcese. The company is also known for its work on numerous commercials for such well-known clients as AT&T, Coca-Cola, Chrysler/Dodge, United Parcel Service and BMW.

Gans, who has been featured in Working Woman Magazine as well as the Christian Science Monitor, is a member of Women in Film and an active member of the Visual Effects Society. She was elected to the VES Board of Directors in 2002, and served both as Treasurer and member of the Executive Committee in 2004. In addition to her professional associations, she also remains active with her alma mater, who honored her with the Lloyd Greif Center Alumni Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2000. Gans joined the USC Advisory Council in 2004, and takes time each year to speak to student groups in the hope of inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs. A firm believer that there is always room for improvement, Gans places importance on personal and professional growth for all employees, and hopes that New Deal Studios will set a new standard in the entertainment industry with regard to a responsible working environment, socially conscious business practices, and quality product.

Jessie Nagel
Co-Founder/Special Agnet
Hype

Jessie Nagel is Co-Founder/Special Agent of Hype and Festival Co-Director of the short subject film festival HypeFest. Jessie enjoys highlighting her clients' creativity, loves to write, and is steps away from having her headset surgically attached to her cranium. In 1997, after working as a publicist and creative director in the commercial industry for six years, Jessie developed a master plan to create Hype -- a sassy boutique communications agency. As the Festival Co-Director of HypeFest she is responsible for producing the annual event, which includes two days of screenings, networking parties and mentor sessions. Jessie's appreciation for the entertainment industry extends to her "spare" time. Known to her patient friends and family for her detailed film critiques, Jessie attends as many screenings as possible and was overjoyed when her home cable company added IFC and the Sundance channel....and furious when they subsequently took them away. Born in New York and raised in Vancouver, Canada, Jessie attended San Francisco State University and earned an honors degree in Film Theory and Fine Arts. Jessie's studies emphasized documentary film and feminist film theory, and her thesis film was a humorous exploration of her family's love of gambling. She is a founding member of the professional organization Women In Animation and is the Editor of WIA's newsletter "Work In Progress."

Marty Shindler,
CEO
The Shindler Perspective

Providing a business perspective to creative, technology and emerging companies has been Marty Shindler's hallmark for more than twenty five years, including over thirteen years in the professional service industry, eight of which have been with The Shindler Perspective.

Marty's association with many high profile companies has made him an avid follower of many aspects of entertainment, technology and the business practices of a myriad of companies. His unique combination of roles in professional service firms and in hands-on executive management positions has allowed him to offer a valued perspective to his clients. Marty is equally effective in both large corporate settings and in small privately held organizations.

Since early 1996, Marty Shindler, through The Shindler Perspective, has provided management and business expertise to a wide range of creative and technology companies in various industry segments, from larger multi-national corporations and large and small privately held organizations to small entrepreneurial businesses and start-up operations. Industries have included visual effects, high end computer graphics software, production equipment, production services, specialty theaters, digital imaging, e-learning, storage technologies, Internet content and content development for wireless technology. In late 1987 drawing upon his many years in various financial and administrative roles with two major studios and a smaller production/distribution company, Marty joined the entertainment division of global CPA/consulting firm Coopers & Lybrand (now PriceWaterhouseCoopers). Assigned clients were involved in film & TV production, studio operations, sophisticated visual effects, post production, video game development and database software, among others. In addition to servicing the entertainment clients, Marty was also active in the office practice development efforts, involved in developing a training course for staff members working in the entertainment practice and fielding industry specific questions from other C&L offices with entertainment industry clients. In mid-1989, Marty joined Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and served this fast growing company as Director of Finance. Responsibilities included the customary financial functions as well as information and technology systems, purchasing, business affairs and for most of the last year at ILM, the camera engineering department. During this time, he represented the Company as a Trustee to IATSE Local 16 Pension Health & Welfare Funds. In early 1993, Marty, initially having consulted in establishing its business operations, was hired by Eastman Kodak as VP Sales & Marketing for its start-up digital studio, Cinesite. Within three years, the Company had achieved profitability and wide recognition for its work.

Richard Sigler
Entertainment Attorney

RICHARD SIGLER is an entertainment attorney practicing for over 30 years in Los Angeles. Two of his specialties are animation and licensing, which have been specialties for over 20 years. He has written a column for Animation Magazine called Legal Briefs on the legal and business affairs of the animation industry, and is quoted in the press. In addition, he speaks before various trade groups and teaches the subject.

Production companies and/or distributors he has worked for or has represented include N.B.C., Warner Bros., Twentieth Century-Fox, Hanna-Barbera, Marvel Productions, New World Animation, Scholastic, Ruby-Spears Productions, Carsey-Werner Animation, Mattel, Fisher-Price, LeapFrog, Playhut, MTM, HBO Animation, PorchLight Entertainment, Mike Young Productions, 3DO Interactive, Zoki-Afanti (People's Republic of China), Ultracom (Japan), Matinee Productions (Malaysia), Dave Edwards Productions (Wales), and Petersen Publishing Company (now Primedia).

Individual talent represented by Mr. Sigler now or in the past include director Robert Altman, Bill Hanna (Hanna-Barbera), Paul Demeyer (director of the Rugrats sequel feature), John Eng (director of the Wild Thornberries/Rugrats feature), Jim Beihold (director of the Clifford, the Big Red Dog feature for Scholastic), Dick Sebast (the director of an MGM direct to video feature), Albert Ash (the creator of the Paramount live action feature film Fairy Tale: a True Story), graphic designer Shepard Fairey (Obey Giant), and several animation writers, artists, production executives, and corporate executives. Properties represented by him include the Marvel Comics characters (Spider-Man, Incredible Hulk, Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer, etc.), Hanna-Barbera characters (Scooby Doo, Yogi Bear, Flintstones, Smurfs, etc.), Veggie Tales, Kewpie, the rock group KISS, and Biker Mice From Mars.

Mr. Sigler has been involved in all the types of transactions one would expect of a full service entertainment transactional law and business affairs practice, including rights acquisitions and sales, distribution agreements, financing agreements, foreign and domestic co-production agreements, talent contracts, overseas subcontracting, CGI animation, exhibition licenses, network and syndication licenses, etc. He has represented properties in licensing almost every area, including video games, internet sites, stage plays and operas, publications, music, sound recordings, race cars, clothing, food, restaurants, motion pictures and television, master toy licenses, and concerts.

Mr. Sigler graduated fifth in his class from the University of Southern California Law Center where he was Comment Editor of the Law Review and elected to the Order of the Coif. He has taught Entertainment Law there and lectured to professional organizations. He has worked at entertainment law firms Mitchell, Silberberg, & Knupp and Pacht, Ross, Warne, Bernhard & Sears. He is a member of the Animation Branch of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, on the Board of Directors of Women in Animation, and a member of ASIFA and SIGGRAPH.

Richard Sigler
Attorney at Law
433 N. Camden Dr., Suite 400
Beverly Hills, California 90210

Telephone (310) 547-3660
Telecopier (310) 547-3816
SiglerLaw@aol.com

Jon Slusser
Co-Founder and CEO
Hornet

Jon Slusser, 33, founded Hornet Inc. seven years ago with graduate art student Greg Harvey. Started with 2 computers in a one room office, Hornet now has studios in Los Angeles, New York and an affiliated partner in New Zealand. The company is a full service commercial, film and design company that works with a roster of leading artists and directors to create computer animation, motion graphics, and live-action film. Recent clients include J. Walter Thompson, CBS Sports, Warner Brothers, BMW and VH1.

After graduating from USC in marketing and finance, Slusser worked in the N.B.A. for five years in public relations, finance and business projects. He is also an instructor at Cal State Fullerton's Digital Art Program and a member of the school's Advisory Board. He lives in Manhattan Beach with his wife Jessica.