GameON Finance 2009 Speakers

John Albright  Dante Anderson  Joel Auge  Jennifer Blitz  Dan Connors  Warren Currell  Alec Dafferner  Jason Della Rocca  Scott Dodson  John Elton  Robert Ferrari  Brad Giblin  Nathon  Justin Hall  Ian Kelso  Jim Laird  Paul Lee  Ping Li  Jon Mak  Yannis Mallat  Sandra Pupatello  Erik Robertson  Greg Short  John Sutyak  Karen Thorne-Stone  Wade Tinney  Hong-Yee Wong  Agnes Zak

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John Albright

John Albright
Founder & Managing Partner / Co-Managing Partner
JLA Ventures / Blackberry Partners Fund

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John Albright

Mr. Albright is the Founder and Managing Partner of JLA Ventures and the Co-Managing Partner of the Blackberry Partners Fund. Prior to the founding of JLA Ventures in 1996 and the BlackBerry Partners Fund in 2008, Mr. Albright held senior positions with several private equity and venture capital firms. During his tenure in the private equity and venture capital business Mr. Albright gained extensive experience assisting entrepreneurs and managers to shape their vision and capital plans into successful long term growth programs which typically involve an aggressive financing strategy.

Mr. Albright has a history of assisting entrepreneurial companies through significant growth and eventually to the public markets. His ability to work with and advise senior management of investee companies as well as his skills in filling supporting roles where existing management lack the experience or skill set, has been vital to the success of past investments. Mr. Albright is a Chartered Financial Analyst and received his Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the Schulich School of Business at York University. Mr. Albright serves as a director of several private and public companies, and the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (CVCA) and is an advisory board member of the North American Venture Capital Association.

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Dante Anderson

Dante Anderson
VP of Product Development
Kuma Reality Games

LinkedIN

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Dante Anderson

Dante is a veteran of the video games industry with nearly 15 years of product development and technical project management experience. As a Senior Producer for GT Interactive, Dante oversaw the development of such best-selling titles as the one million plus seller Duke Nukem: A Time to Kill, Nam/Napalm and WWII GI. Previously, Dante was a member of the Saturn Launch Team at Sega of America where he produced showcase titles Panzer Dragoon and Clockwork Knight. At KUMA, Dante directs all production-related activities for the  growing episodic game network, leading a mix of creative and technical talent to deliver free, high-quality video games and machinima in regular episodes. The games are primarily next-gen PC titles built on Valve's Source engine but Kuma also makes lighter Flash games and award-winning machinima. The front-line titles include original products Kuma\War and The DinoHunters plus licensed titles ShootOut! and Dogfights from the History Channel and The Kill Point from Spike TV. Animal Planet is creating a TV series based on original Kuma game IP -- both the game and show be released in January 2010.

Dante currently consults and speaks on a regular basis on iphone development and game/new media product integration and strategy. Dante has a Bachelor of Commerce degree with a Major in Computer Science from McGill University.
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Joel

Joel Auge
Owner/Partner
HitGrab

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Joel Auge

Joel Auge is the co-owner and co-founder of HitGrab Inc, a leader in social gaming. In March of 2008, HitGrab created MouseHunt, which is now one of the most successful and engaging games on Facebook. In December of 2008, HitGrab's efforts on MouseHunt were rewarded with funding by Facebook and it's investment partners.

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Jennifer Blitz

Jennifer Blitz
Director
Tax Credits and Financing - OMDC

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Jennifer Blitz

Jennifer Blitz has served as the Director of Tax Credits at the Ontario Media Development Corporation since October 2006.  She began her tenure with the OMDC as a Team Leader in the Tax Credits Department in 2004 managing a team of analysts. Before joining the OMDC, Jennifer was a policy advisor for the former Minister of Culture, David Tsubouchi, conducting consultations with stakeholders and briefing the Minister on policy proposals.  Jennifer is a lawyer by training, having worked at the law firm of McCarthy Tétrault.  She received her LL.B. from Osgoode Hall Law School.

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Dan Connor

Dan Connors
Chief Executive Officer, Director, Founder
Telltale Games

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Dan Connors

Dan Connors co-founded Telltale, Inc. in 2004. As Chief Executive Officer, Dan has overseen Telltale's growth, establishing the company as a leader in digital publishing and episodic production. During this time, Telltale has launched more than twenty products, working with high-quality licenses such as CSI, Sam & Max, Aardman Animations' Wallace & Gromit and Strong Bad from HomestarRunner.com. Telltale's episodic Sam & Max and Strong Bad games are recognized as the first regularly-scheduled episodic series in gaming history.

Dan has worked in the video game industry since 1993, in roles including producer, director, and executive. His credits include Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, X-Wing: Alliance, and Sam & Max Hit the Road. In 2008, he was recognized by Develop magazine as one of the top 25 people reshaping the games business. 

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Warren Currell

Warren Currell
President
Sherpa Games

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Warren Currell

Warren Currell is a respected game agent and president of Sherpa Games Inc., a company that represents dozens of developers and studios in their efforts to license games to publishers. He has brokered deals with most of the major publishers including Microsoft, Atari, Sega, Take-Two, and EA. Warren has broad connectionsin the publishing and development community and possesses a background on the technical side of game development providing him an understanding of how games are actually made.

Warren is a member of the International Game Developers Association, authoring the white paper for the IGDA on how to pitch games to publishers. He has appeared on numerous television news segments as a subject matter expert on the games industry and has conducted presentations and moderated dozens of panel discussions about the games industry. He has been involved twice with the sale of game development studios and the establishment of a next-gen, multi platform development studio in NewYork City.

Warren has also worked on behalf of film and television companies, pitching their properties for licensing of interactive content. He has also successfully pitched two Microsoft Xbox LIVE! Arcade titles. Other notable comments: He has been actively involved with the Serious Games side of the business, successfully delivering two projects over the past 3 years; one for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and one for DARPA.

 
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Alec Dafferner

Alec Dafferner

Partner / Head
GP Bullhound
Technology Investment Banking
San Francisco

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Alec Dafferner

Alec is a Partner and Head of GP Bullhound's San Francisco office. With over 11 years of technology investment banking experience, Alec has executed over 40 transactions for emerging growth companies in the U.S. and abroad, raising over $10 billion in capital and advising on over $2.5 billion in mergers and acquisitions.  Prior to joining GP Bullhound in 2008, Alec was an Executive Director at UBS in the Global Technology Investment Banking group where he focused primarily on the Digital Media sector. With an extensive background in financing and advising clients in the interactive entertainment sector, Alec has worked with some of the leading companies in the industry, including Activision, Midway, Infogrames/Atari, Jamdat, Eidos, Turbine, IGN Entertainment and iFone.

Prior to joining UBS in 2001, Alec worked at Volpe Brown Whelan & Company in San Francisco where he focused on Internet, Communications and Software-related technology companies. Alec is a graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

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Jason Della Rocca

Jason Della Rocca
Senior Consultant
Perimeter Partners

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Jason Della Rocca

Jason is the founder of Perimeter Partners, a consultancy focused on helping organizations successfully navigate the game industry ecosystem and maximize their efforts in the interactive digital entertainment sector. For nearly nine years, he served as the executive director of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), a professional society committed to advancing the game industry and the careers of  developers. Jason was honored for his industry building efforts with the inaugural Ambassador Award at the 8th annual Game Developers Choice Awards. He continues to be an advocate for the expressive power of games and their capacity to change the world. 

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Dodson

Scott Dodson
COO
Divide by Zero Games

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Scott Dodson

A serial entrepreneur, Scott founded and funded Flying Rhino Studios in 1994 and ran the company until its sale in 2005. Flying Rhino produced award winning work for clients including: T-Mobile, Microsoft, Costco, and Wizards of the Coast. He served as president of the Seattle Advertising Federation (2001-2002). In 2004 he became President and CEO of Tenacious Games, bootstrapping for two years and funding it with over $2M of Angel Money in 2006 & 2007. Tenacious Games developed and published the internationally acclaimed trading card game, The Spoils™, launching to a top ten position in ten countries, before selling to Arcane Tinmen (Denmark). In May 2008, Scott joined the founding team of Divide by Zero Games and led its first two tranches of VC funding before taking on operations as COO. He has a passion for entrepreneurism, deal structure, and the capitalization of companies.

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John Elton

John P. Elton
Partner
iNovia Capital

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John Elton

John Elton is a venture capitalist at iNovia Capital. He focuses on digital media and software investments in Canada and the US.  He also heads iNovia’s US initiatives. Prior to joining iNovia, John spent several years as a venture capitalist and advisor to startup companies including dMarc Broadcasting (acquired by Google for up to $1.2 billion), for whom he helped raise $10 million and close an acquisition while at Turnstone Capital.  Prior to this, John co-managed a venture capital fund for Gulf International Bank which invested in eMotion (acquired by Corbis), Revenue Sciences, and Anystream. John also worked as a consultant for McGill University’s technology transfer unit, a partner institution of iNovia’s. John’s additional experience includes having worked in strategic planning for 24/7 Media (acquired by WPP for $649 million) and as an investment banker at Veronis Suhler Stevenson a merchant banking firm focused on the media and communications industries with capital committed exceeding $2.8 billion.  John is currently a member of, or an observer on the board of directors of Collective Media, Standout Jobs and LegiTime Technologies. John received an M.B.A. in Finance and Marketing from New York University and holds a B.A. Degree in Economics from Lehigh University. 

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Robert Ferrari

Robert Ferrari
VP Publishing & Business Development
Sanrio Digital & Typhoon Games


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Robert Ferrari

Based in Boston, MA, Robert Ferrari manages a network of partnerships and initiatives in the Americas and Europe to promote and publish Sanrio Digital projects, including Hello Kitty Online, SanrioTown, and other initiatives in virtual worlds, gaming, and social networks on PC, console and handheld platforms. Ferrari brings a wealth of global business experience to Sanrio Digital. A highly respected veteran and executive in the online games industry, he was previously vice president of Business Development at Turbine Inc., a leading publisher and developer of massively multiplayer online games.

Having joined Turbine in 2004, Ferrari was instrumental to the company's strong growth and global expansion. He was responsible for strategic partnerships, the company's transition to self-publishing, licensing, digital distribution, and traditional retail channel initiatives. His efforts contributed to the success of Turbine's award-winning online games, including The Lord of the Rings Online™, Dungeons & Dragons Online™: Stormreach™, and Asheron's Call®. Prior to his tenure at Turbine, Ferrari held senior executive roles at interactive media and consumer product companies, including the positions of vice president of Sales and Business Development at Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG), vice president of Business Development at Websurfer Inc, and executive vice president of Sales and Marketing at Merinta Inc. Ferrari serves on the executive committees of the MIT Games SIG, and the Mass Tech Leadership Counsel Gaming Cluster. He is a high profile industry speaker and very active in the speaking circuit.

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Brad Giblin

Brad Giblin

Digital Media Manager
Film Victoria (AU)

Twitter  LinkedIN

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Brad Giblin

Brad is currently the Digital Media Manager at Film Victoria, a state based government funding body in Australia. Film Victoria has directly supported the video games industry in Victoria for over 10 years, investing in the development of local original titles. Melbourne-based game developers enjoy a reputation for innovation and excellence - from our earliest games company Beam Software, who developed The Hobbit in 1982, to the highly successful original IP development in the Puzzle Quest franchise by Infinite Interactive.

While not sitting in front of a console, Brad sits on the board of the Victorian Mobile Industry body (Mobility Vic) and the board of the Interactive Media industry body (AIMIA Victoria). In previous lives Brad produced radio, built a motion capture studio, developed websites, video blogged music festivals, designed a graphic design course, made an animation studio and a bunch of other things you’d expect from someone who grew up with an unhealthy attraction towards his Macintosh Classic.

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Nathon Gunn

Nathon Gunn
CEO
Social Game Universe

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Nathon Gunn

Nathon co-founded Bitcasters, Citytv Interactive and Miramax New Media. Has a degree in film and new media from Ryerson University. Innovations: 1994 backstage Grammys Webcast, first e-CDs for BMG, first major-label secure digital music format for Universal and early user-generated content initiative Bitcast.com. He’s won awards for games played 300+ million times, films and music videos and has spoken at Harvard, the BBC Labs and the Banff Centre. He ran ‘Net strategy for the former Canadian Prime Minister and is a fellow at Queen’s University’s Centre for the Study of Democracy and a Director of the Ontario Media Development Corporation. His latest venture, Social Game Universe (backed by visionaries like Michael Cohl and Moses Znaimer) is launching some of the most innovative ways to play with friends on social networks.

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JustinHall

Justin Hall
CEO
GameLayers

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Justin Hall

As CEO of GameLayers, Justin Hall leads a crack team rapidly innovating on social games. Their first Facebook game Dictator Wars augments the social potential of casual RPGs with an outsized, aggressive scale. Their earlier game PMOG / The Nethernet was an MMO in a Firefox toolbar offering players a chance to play nice or make mischief on any web site. Hall's professional experience includes work with HotWired, electric minds, ZDTV, Gamers.com, Nokia’s TheFeature.com and the Creative Artists Agency. Hall created one of the early extensive home pages, “Justin’s Links from the Underground” in January 1994. In 2004, the New York Times Magazine referred to him as “the founding father of personal bloggers.” In May 2007, Hall graduated with an MFA from the Interactive Media Division at the University of Southern California, School of Cinematic Arts.

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Jim Laird

Ian Kelso
President & CEO
Interactive Ontario

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Ian Kelso

Ian is the President & CEO and was a founding Director of Interactive Ontario (IO), the member-based industry trade association representing interactive digital media companies in Ontario, Canada. At IO Ian is responsible for the long-term strategy and has grown the organization over 500% in the past two years. Ian also created and is the Executive Producer of IN: the Interactive Exchange, Canada’s largest annual cross-platform event dedicated to the business of interactive media, as well as GameON: Finance, the world’s only annual conference dedicated to video game financing.

In 2007 Ian was elected President of the Canadian Interactive Alliance / L’alliance interactive canadienne (CIAIC), the united voice of Canada’s Interactive Media associations from coast to coast. He is also a founding Director of this organization.

As a strong advocate for the Interactive Media industry both provincially and nationally, Ian is a member of Ontario Game Strategy Steering Committee, CONCERT (Consortium on New Media, Creative and Entertainment R&D in the Toronto Region) Steering Committee, Trade Team Canada - Cultural Goods & Services, the Cultural Human Resources Council New Media Steering Committee and the Co-Chair of the Ontario Media Development Corporation’s Digital Media Advisory Committee.

Throughout the past 13 years Ian has worked as an executive and creative producer with a number of Interactive and television production companies including Primitive Entertainment, MediaLinx Interactive LLP / Sympatico, and TotalNet Inc.

He began his career in interactive in 1994 as Director of Media Services at Magic Online, one of Canada's first commercial online services.

Ian has a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) from York University where he
completed an individualized study programme concentrating in film,
screenwriting, photography and creative writing. He is also the Founding
President of the Creative Arts Students’ Association (CASA), the official student government for the Faculty of Fine Arts at York.

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Jim Laird

Jim Laird
Managing Director & CFO
Bedlam Games

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Jim Laird

Jim Laird is the Chief Financial Officer of Bedlam Games Inc. Jim is a veteran finance executive with ten years of finance experience, including seven years of experience in venture capital making investments in high tech companies.  He has made investments in the gaming industry in companies like Groove Media and Transgaming Inc. Jim was previously Vice President, Investments with Covington Capital, which he joined in November 2002. Prior to Covington, Jim was a managing partner with New Millennium Venture Partners, a high-tech focused labour-sponsored venture fund and an institutional equity analyst with HSBC Securities and Gordon Capital. Jim holds a BBA and LLB degrees. Jim also serves on the Board of Directors of MITACS, an National Centre of Excellence for the Mathematical Sciences.

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Paul Lee

V. Paul Lee

Co-Founder / General Partner
VanEdge Capital

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Paul Lee

V. Paul Lee is the Managing General Partner of Vanedge Capital Partners Ltd., a venture capital fund established to focus on opportunities in the interactive digital media space. The market for interactive and digital entertainment and media is massive, growing, and changing at an extremely rapid pace. It affects the ways companies use the Internet to attract and engage target audiences and conduct commerce electronically.
Lee is the former President of Electronic Arts, Inc., the global leader in interactive software, and was responsible for its Worldwide Studio group. Electronic Arts had fiscal 2008 revenues of US $3.67 billion. He managed more than 6,000 employees and US$1 billion in annual capital and operating expenses in the development studios making it the largest entertainment studio in the world.
In 1987 Lee graduated from the University of British Columbia with a Bachelor of Commerce with Honours Degree and was one of six students selected to enter the prestigious Portfolio Management Fund program at the UBC Sauder School of Business. Lee is a Leslie Wong Fellow and is also a designated Chartered Financial Analyst. From 1987 – 1989 Lee worked at Chrysler Canada as an Investment Manager for the pension fund and health and welfare benefit plans.

Lee invested in and joined Distinctive Software as a Principal in 1989, having been a member of its board for several years prior. Distinctive Software became a leading independent videogame developer and was acquired by Electronic Arts in 1991. Lee has been a member of the executive management team since, holding a variety of positions.

1994 saw Lee recognized as one of the “40 Under 40” business leaders by Business in Vancouver. In 1996 he was awarded the Outstanding Young Alumnus Award from the University of British Columbia. In 2002 Lee was awarded the BC Technology Industries Association Person of the Year Award for his outstanding leadership in the high technology industry. Lee has also received numerous awards for his community service including the Commemorative Medal for the Golden Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for significant contribution in the form of public service in 2003. In 2005 he was recognized as an Honorary Fellow of the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business. Lee has served as Chair of the BC Technology Industries Association from 1998 to 2001. Lee was an investor and member of the Board of Directors of A.L.I. Technologies until its landmark sale to McKesson Corporation in 2002. Lee was Co-Chair, along with the Premier of British Columbia, of the Premier’s Technology Council from its inception in 2001 until 2005 and remains a member of the Council.

Lee currently serves as a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council for the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia, is a member of the Minister’s Steering Committee for the Vancouver International Financial Institutions Sector, and currently sits on the Board of Directors for the Vancouver Board of Trade and New Media B.C. He is Chair of the Board of Directors at D-Wave Systems, a company working to build the world’s first commercial quantum computer.

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Ping Li

Ping Li

Accel Partners

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Ping Li

Ping joined Accel in 2004 and focuses primarily on Information Technology infrastructure (computing, networking, security and storage) and digital media platforms. His areas of interest also include datacenter virtualization, cloud computing (see below), distributed data management and internet datacenter scalability. He currently is an investor/Board Member of BitTorrent, Cloudera, Ludic Labs, Mochi Media, Mu Dynamics, Raptr, Verivue and YuMe; and he is actively involved in Imperva. Ping was also responsible for Accel’s investment in Reactivity (acquired by Cisco).

Prior to Accel, Ping was a Senior Product Line Manager and Director of Corporate Development at Juniper Networks. He managed Juniper's flagship M-series router product portfolio. In addition, Ping worked on Juniper's acquisition of Netscreen Technologies ($3.5 billion transaction) and led all subsequent security and routing product and R&D integration activities. He also worked as a strategy consultant for Mckinsey & Company, advising technology clients in their growth strategies.

Ping has extensive international experience as well. At Singapore Telecom, he served directly for the executive management team in assessing and investing in Asian growth opportunities. Prior to SingTel, Ping worked at Goldman Sachs Asia, transacting large PTT privatizations and advising technology clients on growth strategy and operations. Ping continues to be active in China by working closely with Oak Pacific Interactive (Xiaonei) and IDG-Accel China Fund.

Ping holds an A.B. from Harvard University, with honors, and an M.B.A. from Stanford University.

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Jon Mak

Jon Mak
Queasy Games

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Jon Mak

A couple years ago, Jonathan Mak made a game called Everyday Shooter for PS3 and PC.  Prior to that, he worked on a lesser known, multiplayer, action-rts game called Gate 88.  He also contributed to TOJam #1 and TOJam #3 with the games Flowers of Error and TOJam Thing.  Currently he's collaborating on his next game with Toronto musician, I Am Robot And Proud.

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Yannis Mallat

Yannis Mallat
Chief Executive Officer
Ubisoft Montreal & Toronto

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KEYNOTE SPEAKER - Yannis Mallat

Graduating with honours from the French High School of Abidjan (Ivory Coast), Yannis Mallat worked in humanitarian aid in West Africa for three years before pursuing his graduate studies in Paris, where he earned a Master’s Degree in International Agronomy and Economic Development.  He then returned to Africa where he worked for an NGO on a variety of rural development projects. 

Upon his arrival in Canada, Yannis Mallat achieved an MBA at the Montreal HEC before joining Ubisoft in January 2000 where he successively held the positions of Third Party Producer, Producer, and Executive Producer – New IP’s, all paving the way for his current position.

Yannis Mallat has been CEO of Ubisoft Montreal since March 2006, and is still very much involved in the production of every game developed at the studio.

For Yannis, the key to success stems from the creation of passionate teams and in the capacity to capture the energy and magic that surrounds game development. His driving goal is to deliver emotionally engaging gaming experiences that exploit the interactive nature of the medium to its fullest.

In July 2006, the Official PlayStation Magazine (US edition) named Yannis Mallat as one of the 20 most influential personalities of the international video game industry. Ubisoft Montréal is currently ranked third best game development studio in the world as per the Top 50 Developers ranking published by Game Developers Magazine (no. 1 gaming publication).

Yannis Mallat has worked on an extensive list of titles, including Assassins’ Creed, the multi-million selling trilogy of the Sands of Time (Prince of Persia The Two Thrones, Prince of Persia Warrior Within, Prince of Persia The Sands of Time) as well as Rayman Advance.

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Sandra Pupatello

The Hon. Sandra Pupatello
Minister of Economic Development & Trade

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The Hon. Sandra Pupatello

Known for her distinguished record of community service and her dedication to improving the lives of all Ontarians, Sandra Pupatello’s career in the Ontario legislature dates back to 1995 when she was first elected to the Windsor West riding.

Pupatello was appointed Minister of Economic Development and Trade in June 2009. The new ministry combines three previous ministries: Small Business, International Trade and Investment, and Economic Development.

As part of her expanded portfolio, Pupatello is dedicated to sustaining and enhancing the economic competitiveness and growth of Ontario businesses, and creating high-value jobs for Ontario families by both attracting international investment and helping domestic businesses transition to more innovative industries. Working to improve the relationship between business and government, Pupatello remains committed to developing new opportunities for the next generation of Ontario’s highly skilled workers

Pupatello was appointed the Minister of International Trade and Investment in 2008. She previously served as Minister of Economic Development and Trade, Minister of Education, Minister of Community and Social Services and Minister Responsible for Women’s Issues.

Pupatello has deep roots in the Windsor community. She was named honorary member of the Rotary Club of Windsor and a Paul Harris Fellow. In 2001, the University of Windsor honoured her with the prestigious Charlie Clark Award for Outstanding Service. In March 2003, Pupatello was named “Windsor Woman of the Year”. In 2007, she received the prestigious Athena Award for the Windsor area, which recognizes men and women who provide a positive role model to encourage women to achieve their leadership potential in business. In January 2009, Pupatello was presented with the Award of Excellence in Community Service by The Canadian-Italian Business and Professional Association in Windsor.

 

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Erik Robertson

Erik Robertson
Managing Director
Nordic Game Program 

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Erik Robertson

Erik Robertson is the Managing Director of the Nordic Game Program. Its mission is to ensure access to quality Nordic computer games for children and young people.

Erik Robertson has never had a proper job. Instead he has, with varying success, run his own businesses, mostly where the IT and marketing fields meet. He has started a dozen or so companies, and has developed computer games since 1997. After preparatory work in 2004-05, he has lead the Nordic Game Program since January 2006. The program is a part of the official Nordic cultural co-operation, between Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, and is fully financed by the Nordic Council of Ministers. Erik also founded the Malmö NyföretagarCenter enterprise agency, and the trade organizations Spelplan-ASGD and European Games Developer Federation. He has Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Business Administration degrees from Lund University and has also published internationally in the field of entrepreneurship research.
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Greg Short

Greg Short
Executive Director
EEDAR

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Greg Short

With over ten years experience in developing community integrated data services for some of the largest massively multiplayer games available, Greg Short is one of the world’s leading experts in maximizing the acquisition, retention and monetization of gaming communities. As Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of Electronic Entertainment Design and Research (EEDAR), Greg provides experiential guidance to the executive team for overall business management and product development of their world leading analytic services for the videogame industry.

Prior to working with EEDAR, Greg served as Director of Product Management for Sony Online Entertainment and was the driving force behind SOE's industry leading data driven web sites and Station Players services. Australian-born, now based in Southern California, Greg is a graduate in law from the University of Queensland and is an avid wine collector.

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John Sutyak

John Sutyak
DDM

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KEYNOTE SPEAKER - John Sutyak

John Sutyak has been an executive in the game industry for more than 15 years. As one of the founding members of Hasbro Interactive (HI), the interactive gaming arm of Hasbro Corporation, he served as Chief Creative Officer. John was responsible for companywide acquisition and managing relationships with major licensors in the entertainment industry. He led HI in the acquisition of Atari and was involved in the purchase of Microprose, as well as other publishers, brands, and development studios. Following Atari’s purchase by Infogrames, John continued his role as Chief Creative Officer with the new Atari. Establishing vision and new product direction, he sourced and created relationships with exceptional talent and brands in the game and entertainment industry.

Following Atari, John consulted in the game and interactive media space working with entrepreneurs and start ups, as well as established companies. Presently, John is focusing on business development and alternative funding with Digital Development Management (DDM). One of the largest representation agencies in the world, DDM serves some of the top independent video game studios.
John has served on the board of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS) and collaborated in the creation of the D.I.C.E. conference, a preeminent gaming conference for executives.

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Karen Thorne-Stone

Karen Thorne-Stone
President & CEO
Ontario Media Development Corporation

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Karen Thorne-Stone

Karen Thorne-Stone was appointment President and CEO of the Ontario Media Development Corporation in July 2007.

The OMDC is a provincial agency which supports economic development in Ontario’s cultural media industries.  In this capacity, Karen is responsible to promote growth and investment in the province’s entertainment and creative industries including:  film and television, interactive digital media, music, book and magazine publishing.

Previously Karen was with the city of Toronto, where, for over 18 years, she served in a variety of roles, including film commissioner and executive director of economic development.  As film commissioner, Thorne-Stone supported successful negotiations for a new state-of-the-art film studio complex on Toronto’s waterfront, developed an innovative economic development strategy for the screen-based sector and workedwith the OMDC on the development of a new brand positioning and marketing materials to promote film and television production.

 
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Wade Tinney

Wade Tinney
Partner, Game Designer, Producer
Large Animal

Twitter

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Wade Tinney

Wade has been designing and developing games since 1996. He founded Large Animal Games with Josh Welber in January of 2001. He was the founding editor of the Casual Games Quarterly and has led the New York City Chapter of the International Game Developers Association since 2006.

After spending five years in the casual downloadable games market, Large Animal is now focused entirely on publishing games that connect friends, on networks like Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, and Twitter, as well as on mobile devices such as the iPhone. Their Toga platform enables the deployment of games and the management of a virtual goods economy across all of these distribution channels. Recent titles include Bumper Stars, Bananagrams, Lucky Strike Lanes, Twivial, and What to Wear. For more information about Large Animal, please visit www.largeanimal.com or connect with Wade on Twitter.

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Hong Yee

Hong-Yee Wong
CEO
IUGO Mobile Entertainment

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Hong-Yee Wong

Dr. Wong has more than ten years of passionate leadership experience in computer graphics, visualization, and digital entertainment. Most recently, he founded IUGO Mobile Entertainment – an energetic game studio based in Vancouver. In just a few short years, IUGO has become a leading independent game studio developing and publishing premium games on all mobile platforms, including the iPhone. Before leading the charge as a technopreneur, he excelled in his previous career as a Research Scientist, directing multi-disciplinary research in Immersive Visualization and Rich Media Entertainment.  Dr. Wong earned his Doctorate in Computer Science from the University of Western Ontario. He is well published and has supervised research at several universities. 
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Agnes Zak

Agnes Zak
Regional Director, Business Development – Ontario & Nunavut Regions, Telefilm Canada.

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Agnes Zak

Agnes Zak is the Regional Director, Business Development – Ontario & Nunavut Regions, Telefilm Canada.

Ms. Zak possesses impressive experience in both the high-tech and start-up sectors. She honed her digital media expertise at ExtendMedia Inc., a software and media services company. Her hands on experience of technical and creative aspects of digital media created a perfect match for Telefilm’s Canada New Media Fund, which she joined as an Analyst in2001.

Since then Agnes has held the positions of Analyst,Television and New Media, and Analyst, Feature Film before being appointed to lead and manage New Media Unit. In her role of Regional Director, Business Development Agnes is responsible for making financing decisions for English-language new media concepts from the Ontario region.

As the Regional Director, Business Development Ms. Zak’s plays a key role in helping to achieve Telefilm’s vision: “Canadian talent, creating Canadian content that engages Canadians and the world.” Her focus is on regional business development, which includes building and strengthening relations with stakeholders and contributors, identifying special programs, events and initiatives to stimulate the project pipeline, build local talent and improve client capacity to succeed in a multiplatform environment.


 

View the line-up from the Ontario Game Summit 2008 and GameON: Finance 2.0 here.
 

Powering up the Ontario Games Industry