With degrees in Entrepreneurship and Education, Scott brings over 25 years of experience as a senior executive, entrepreneur, educator, presenter and yes, even corporate business banker, to full practical use in his authored series, The Start Me Up Guidebooks.

Scott is currently the Director of the Peter Thomson Centre for Venture Development at the British Columbia Institute of Technology located in Vancouver, British Columbia where his department helps over 100 businesses each year to be successful. Additionally, in 2009 Scott has pioneered a highly interactive telewebinar platform that is being sought after by many businesses for its useful content, engaging format and cost savings structure.

An animator who works with various media, Larry started his career in stop motion and Claymation with the Will Vinton Studios. At the studio Larry worked on stop motion projects such as the California Raisins, Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker, The Globeheads and numerous commercial projects before moving into CGI. While part of the Vinton CG commercial group, Larry animated characters for Chips Ahoy! Raid and  Fanta.

During his seven year tenure as Commercial Animation Director at PDI/Dreamworks, Larry directed commercials for many top clients including Coca-Cola, Sega, Intel, Kraft, Target, Circle K, and Saturn.

While with PDI/Dreamworks, Larry was also Sequence Lead Animator on several hit films including Antz, Batman & Robin, A Simple Wish, and was on the effects team for Mission Impossible II, Forces of Nature & The Peacemaker.  At Warner Brothers Larry served as Lead Animator for the Stop Motion Division on Tim Burton's feature Mars Attacks.

From 2003 through 2008 Larry was Department Head of Animation and Visual Effects at the Vancouver Film School.  In 2007 the program was ranked 5^th in the world by 3D World magazine.

 In 2002, Larry founded his own animation company,  Blam! Animation. As the company's Creative Director, Larry continues to develop commercials and short films with animated characters.

Brenda Bailey Gershkovitch is the CEO of Silicon Sisters Interactive and formerly the CEO of Deep Fried Entertainment. She was formerly COO of Deep Fried Entertainment, and Forbes was an executive producer at Radical Entertainment.

Jim is an experienced and widely respected educator. He has been a post-secondary media instructor in British Columbia since 1971, and has developed and delivered successful courses in narrative, new media theory, video production, interactive  video, game design, film production, photography, and computers in education.  Jim did his graduate studies in the Comparative Media Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and has successfully mentored a number of graduate students in the completion of their own degrees. He is a member of Simon Fraser University's School of Interactive Arts and Technology, and was a recent recipient of the University Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Jim has had a wide variety of educational leadership positions, both in instructional departments and in the broader educational community. He was chair of British Columbia's Standing Committee on Educational Technology, and Senior Program Manager for Educational Technology in the province's Centre for Curriculum, Transfer and Technology. In these roles he was responsible for educational technology policy and strategic implementation in BC's colleges, university-colleges and provincial institutes. He is a past chair of the Canadian Association for Distance Education, and has been called upon to advise the federal government on policy in the areas of educational technology and distance education. Jim has been honored by awards from the Pacific Instructional Media Association, the TeleLearning Research Network, the Canadian Association for Distance Education, the British Columbia Educational Technology Users Group and a fellowship from the Commonwealth of Learning.

Jim is also a practicing documentary filmmaker and video artist. His prize-winning works in the emergent genre of “Ambient Video” have been widely exhibited internationally. You can find out more about Jim's own work at his websites: www.dadaprocessing.com and www.ambientvideo.ca.

Steve Bocska is currently the founding President of Pug Pharm Productions Inc., a startup in Vancouver focusing purely on social networking online games. He has over 10 years of direct experience in the video game industry, having worked for Disney Interactive, Black Box (E.A.), and Radical Entertainment in roles as lead designer, producer, and executive producer. In 2006, he became the founding President and CEO of Hothead Games, winner of the Canadian New Media Association’s award for “Most Promising New Company of 2007.”

Steve has a B.A. (Honours), M.A. (Planning), and an M.B.A. (Entrepreneurship). He has spoken at a variety of video game industry events, including Game Developer’s Conference (San Jose, California), South by Southwest (Austin, Texas), Vancouver International Game Summit, VIDFEST, Banff New Media Festival, GameON Finance (Toronto, Ontario), Merging+Media, Game Developer’s Conference Canada, Canada Games Conference, and several others.

Dr. Tom Calvert is Emeritus Professor in the School of Interactive Arts and Technology at SFU Surrey. His research interests focus on e-learning systems, computer animation and computer based tools for user interaction with multimedia systems. His work on computer animation has resulted in the Life Forms system for dance choreography and the SFU spin-off company Credo Interactive Inc. that markets and develops this software. Tom has degrees in electrical engineering from University College London, Wayne State University (MSEE) and Carnegie-Mellon University (Ph.D.).

Dennis Chenard is the Director of Industry Relations at the Centre for Digital Media. Also known as a ‘Director of Hook-Ups´ he has a history of connecting creators, producers, and distributors of digital content with peers from around the world and works with a variety of stakeholders in industry, government and education in Canada and abroad. He produces events like Digital Kung Fu, is the former director of the Vancouver International Partnering Forum (a b2b speed-dating event), creator of OpportunityAlert.ca (a social networking site for digital media companies around the world), advisor/mentor to industry/students and speaker at a variety of digital media events. His international background includes teaching computer media analysis at the University of Copenhagen, working on an EU multimedia project in Germany, leading trade missions to the US and China, and overseeing a variety of digital media projects and international trade events.

Snjezana Cvoro-Begovic is Director of External Development at Electronic Arts (EA) with over 20 years of experience in the high-tech and entertainment industries. Snjezana joined EA in 2005 where she currently leads the external development function. She contributed to the success of some of the world’s most popular sports titles including EA SPORTS FIFA, NBA, NHL, MADDEN, and EA SPORTS Active, and directed delivery of the EA SPORTS Online Communities easportworld.com and eafootballworld.com.

Prior to joining Electronic Arts, Snjezana was a management consultant at IBM and PricewaterhouseCoopers. She has a track record in setting up successful new lines of business by empowering world-wide talent to deliver innovative business and technology solutions. Snjezana has also been a program manager for a number of complex system integration projects, and a trusted advisor to her clients on strategy and prioritization of competing business initiatives.

Steve DiPaola, both an active artist and scientist, delves into the concepts of the virtual and the social by creating virtual human and community systems both in his research and art work. An Associate Professor at Simon Fraser University, Steve is an expert on 3d facial and avatar based, and intelligent user interface systems. He directs the social based I-Viz Lab at SFU (ivizlab.sfu.ca) which strives to make computer systems bend more to the human experience. He came to SFU from Stanford University and before that spent 10 years as a senior researcher at NYIT Computer Graphics Lab, an early pioneering lab in high-end 3D techniques. He has held senior positions at leading edge companies including Electronic Arts and Saatchi & Saatchi Innovation and has consulted for HP, Kodak, Macromedia and the Institute for the Future. His art work has been exhibited international including the AIR and Tibor de Nagy galleries in NYC as well as the Whitney Museum of Art, and the IBM Gallery of Science and Art.

Craig Dixon is Vice President, Operations at Pug Pharm Productions, Inc., a
Vancouver-based startup. He has worked in the software industry for almost
20 years, and has held senior leadership positions with responsibility for
the design, delivery, and support of several highly successful products and
services at companies such as Talent Technology, Exponentia Communications,
and Schema Software.

Craig has been a speaker and conference presenter on software development
and testing methodologies. He has a BA and a Diploma of Engineering
Technology, and is doing graduate research into patterns and processes of
technology adoption.

A public policy entrepreneur, open government activist and negotiation expert David advises the Mayor of Vancouver on open government, works with two spin-offs of the Harvard Negotiation Project and serves as a fellow at the Centre for the Study of Democracy at Queen's University. As MDM faculty, David will share his extensive knowledge and act as an advisor on industry-facing and student-pitched projects. 

Read his blog at eaves.ca

Glenn is an Academy Award-winning animation pioneer and games industry veteran. The former CEO of Dreamworks Interactive, Glenn worked with Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg on a number of video games including the first title in the successful Medal of Honor series. In 2000, when Dreamworks was acquired by EA, Entis joined the gaming giant and went on to become their Chief Visual and Technology Officer. Prior to joining Dreamworks, Entis co-founded Pacific Data Images (PDI), where he co-wrote PDI's first animation system, earning him a Scientific and Technical Award from the Academy of Motion Pictures and Arts. Currently, Glenn is a General Partner with VanEdge Capital, a new venture capital fund focused on investments in interactive entertainment and digital media businesses. As a founding member of the MDM Advisory Board, Glenn has played a significant role in developing the MDM Program. As adjunct faculty, he will continue to provide guidance and leadership for the ongoing development of the collaborative design skills of MDM students.

Jon Festinger is a Vancouver, British Columbia based lawyer whose passion for teaching and law grew from his experiences as a lawyer and executive across the spectrum of media, communications, sports and entertainment. As a graduate of McGill University’s Faculty of Law, Jon began his legal career in private practice, in turn becoming General Counsel of WIC Western International Communication, Senior Vice President of the CTV Television Network and Executive Vice President, Business & General Counsel of the Vancouver Canucks and GM Place. Jon has returned to private practice with his own firm Festinger Law & Strategy LLP and is the author of the first edition of “Video Game Law” published by LexisNexis in 2005 (2nd Edition, Spring 2012). He has been an Adjunct Professor at the faculties of law at both UBC and the University of Victoria, was appointed Queens Counsel ("Q.C.") by the Province of British Columbia in 2009. Jon is a director of Ronald McDonald House British Columbia, City Opera Vancouver and the Simon Fraser University Foundation.

Jon is dedicated to computer simulations and can be found in his fully equipped virtual cockpit occupied by his favorite game, rFactor 2.

Throughout Tom's 40 plus years in business, from a consumer electronics sales and marketing executive, to founding several innovative companies in the gaming and digital media areas, and as a Senior VP and Division General Manager at Electronics Arts for the last 10 years, Tom has always been interested in motivating and mentoring young people. This special trait and his business acumen initially attracted him to us in 2007 as one of the founding faculty at the MDM. His Faculty role at both MDM and the USC School of Cinematic Arts has enabled him to have a profound impact on the lives of more than 200 students over the last four years. His Business and Management of Interactive Digital Media course attached to our Foundations of Digital Media Section is a Cohort favorite here at GNWC.

Chuck Hamilton is a Virtual Work and Social Media Leader at IBM’s Center for Advanced Learning and he has been an Associate Professor at the MDM Program for two years. Prior posts include: Virtual Learning and New Media Lead for IBM’s 3D Internet EBO and leader of a program called IBM@PLAY and vLearning Leader. Chuck has contributed to several books including:

• Learning in 3D – Adding a New Dimension to Enterprise Learning and Collaboration [Pfeiffer]
• Now You See It: How the Science of Attention Will Revolutionize our Classrooms, Our Workplace, and Everywhere Else [Viking Press]

The New Social Learning: A Guide to Transforming Organizations through Social Media [BK Press] Articles about Chuck’s work have appeared in Fast Company, Talent Management Magazine, Meetings and Incentive Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, Canadian Business and Globe & Mail. See:

• Wall Street Journal - Latest Game Theory: Mixing Work and Play
• Start-Ups And Corporations Alike Having Fun With Gamification, by Lizette Chapman, September 02, 2011
• Fast Company (How Video Games Are Infiltrating--and Improving--Every Part of Our Lives)

When he is not working, he spends his time at play in Vancouver, Canada.

Jean Hébert teaches new media and communications studies at SFU, Douglas College and the Centre for Digital Media. His writing has appeared in scholarly journals such as First Monday and the Canadian Journal of Communication. Building upon his program management experience (2007-2011) at Mobile MUSE, Jean's PhD research investigates the sociocultural dimensions of mobile phones, ubiquitous computing and the postindustrial city.

Jean's research and teaching interests are in critical theories of media, social and ubiquitous computing, popular music and technology, and sustainable cities. He is also a researcher with the Greenest City Conversations Project, an initiative at UBC's Centre for Sustainability.

Jean holds a BA (Honours) in Anthropology (UBC), and an MA in Communication (SFU). He blogs (now infrequently) at http://clicknoise.net and tweets (much more frequently) as @jeanh.

Before joining the MDM faculty, George Johnson began instructing at the Vancouver Film School, focusing on the production of documentary programs. In his career, George has worked in virtually every sector of the film industry. He was formerly a Producer for the National Film Board of Canada (NFBC), during which time he produced, directed or edited more than 120 productions. Prior to joining the NFBC, he had worked on a wide range of films in the private sector and established a successful production and editing company. A British Columbia native, George learned the basics of filmmaking during the early days of the Simon Fraser University Film Workshop in Vancouver, Canada.

Steve Mamber is a pioneer in developing digital media tools and software applications for film analysis. One of Steve's most recent projects includes the Center for Hidden Camera Research, a fascinating online archive containing a collection of surveillance video where viewers can explore examples of hidden camera activity using cool digital media analysis tools that Steve developed. A professor in the Department of Film, Television, and Digital Media, UCLA, Steve is also an award-winning critic and author. As an Adjunct Professor at the MDM, Steve is working in the area of visual narrative and other forms of interactive media emerging within the intersection of film and video games.

Originally from Vancouver, Ryan went to Yeshiva University in NYC where he studied Talmud and psychology. He has worked in real estate finance, as a journalist in the Middle East at The Jerusalem Post, and at NowPublic as the Assistant News Director. He is a writer of facts and fictions and a designer of things made of ones and zeroes.

Ryan is currently president of 8 Leaf Digital Productions, which he founded after graduating from the MDM Program. He also works on a contract-basis with the Vancouver-based social media company Zeros 2 Heroes. He's also an instructor at the Vancouver Film School where he teaches Alternate Reality Games and Transmedia Production.

Nuria Oliver is currently the Scientific Director for the Multimedia and Data Mining & User Modeling Research Teams in Telefonica Research (Barcelona, Spain). Her research interests  include mobile computing, multimedia data analysis, search and retrieval, smart environments, context awareness, statistical machine learning and data mining, artificial intelligence, health monitoring, social network analysis, computational social sciencies, and human computer interaction. She is currently working on the previous disciplines to build human-centric intelligent systems. in 1992 and 1994 respectively. She received her PhD degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, in 2000. Until 2007, she was a researcher at Microsoft Research in Redmond, WA. Nuria has received a number of awards, including MIT’s ‘TR100 Young Innovators Award’ (2004) and the First Spanish Award of EECS graduates (1994).

Patrick Pennefather (BFA, MFA, PHD Candidate) is a founding faculty member at the Masters of Digital Media Program in Vancouver, Canada where he teaches collaborative, creative and adaptive intelligence in his Interdisciplinary Improvisation course and in the industry-facing projects that he manages. His innovative/iterative approach as an educator is fueled by ongoing research into collaborative practices, and a relentless commitment to bridging the gap between what he teaches and what is demanded by a rapidly changing, team-based digital media industry. He facilitates a student-centered learning approach, empowering learners to transform into creative and effective collaborators on multi-disciplinary project teams with the end goal of becoming the designers of their own digital future. His iterative approach to teaching and managing is informed by improvisational techniques gathered from his experience as a professional comedian and clown on over a thousand large-scale events and performances, and as an award-winning composer on over fifteen hundred live and multi-media productions.

He has mentored and managed industry-funded projects with Ubisoft, Microsoft, Exploding Barrel Games, Roadhouse Games, Skybox Labs, Disruptive Media, Cultural Olympiad Digital Edition 2010, and more. He is currently working as a consultant for NGO’s in the area of serious gaming and ESL training. As a composer he has worked with numerous clients including Bard on the Beach, Push Festival, Electric Company Theatre, Touchstone, Arts Club Theatre, University of Florida, UCLA Long Beach, CBC Radio & Television, Bravo Television, Comedy Network, City of Vancouver, McDonald's Special Events, Cossette Communications, and DDB. To hear some of his music go to www.patrickpennefather.com!

Dr. Gerri Sinclair's cross-domain career includes more than 20 years' experience spanning the fields of internet and new media technology, entrepreneurial business, academic research, and government policy.

Sinclair is the former Executive Director of the Masters of Digital Media Program and CEO of the Centre for Digital Media - a high-tech facility that houses the MDM Program at Great Northern Way Campus (GNWC). In 2006, GNWC received a $40.5M government grant from the BC Government to establish a world-leading Graduate Degree Program in the field of Digital Media. This powerhouse Master's Program is already garnering awards and attracting the best and brightest students from around the world.

Prior to joining MDM and GNWC, Dr. Sinclair was the chair of The Telecom Policy Review, advising the Federal Government of Canada on the policy and regulatory environment required to support an advanced telecommunications framework. She was formerly the General Manager of MSN Canada, as well as the founder and CEO of NCompass Labs, an Internet web content management company spun out of Simon Fraser University in 1996 and acquired by Microsoft in 2001.

A former IBM Consulting Scholar as well as a Visiting Scientist at IBM Research in New York, Dr. Sinclair was also the first President of the British Columbia Government Premier’s Technology Council, and the founding director of the ExCITE lab at Simon Fraser University, the first new media technology R&D centre in Canada.

She has served on several government and corporate boards including Telus Corporation and BC Telecom, as well as Canada’s Information Highway Advisory Council and the National Broadband Taskforce. She is currently a director of the Toronto Stock Exchange, Ballard Power, Canadian Foundation for Innovation, Canadian Communications Research Council, and Genome BC. She recently was appointed to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

Dr. Gerri Sinclair is the recipient of the YWCA Woman of Distinction award, the Canadian Women in Communications Woman of the Year award, the Canadian Women in New Media Pioneer award, the Influential Woman in Business award, the Sarah Kirke award for the most outstanding Canadian woman in High Tech. In 2005 she was honoured with the Canadian Consumer Choice Award for Business Woman of the Year. Most recently, she was recognized by the Canadian Public Policy Forum as a Testimonial Award Winner for her outstanding contribution to the quality of public policy and public management in Canada. She holds a Ph.D. in Renaissance drama as well as an honorary Doctor of Science in Computing Science from the University of British Columbia.

Dr. Richard Smith has over two decades of academic and directorial experience at Simon Fraser University. A professor at the School of Communication at SFU for over fifteen years, he has also served as Director of SFU’s Centre for Policy Research on Science and Technology (CPROST) for the past ten years.

His active engagement with local, national and international media on issues related to his research into the contemporary world of technology, social media and public surveillance has also made him a recognized public commentator. His service to the university through public affairs and media relations earned Dr. Smith the 2009 SFU President’s Award.

In addition to research focused on social inclusion (and exclusion) brought on by the introduction of digital media, Dr. Smith keeps an ongoing interest in education technology, privacy and public surveillance, online communities, and the wireless information society. His diverse projects and creative works have explored such subjects as privacy issues in the use of mobile technology, electronic scholarly publishing, and the development of technologies for mobile media-rich, urban shared experiences.

With his graduate students, Richard Smith is also working on critical studies of "addictive" on-line games, new communication technology in the home, open source software and social activism, and information technology in support of first nations development and tele-health.

With academic training in communication and law, Dr. Smith has degrees from Carleton University (BA) and Simon Fraser University (MA and PhD). He is a member of the Canadian Communication Association, and the International Association for Management of Technology. He is also the publisher of the Canadian Journal of Communication.

Matt Toner is a successful and innovative game designer, digital media producer, and entrepreneur, and currently President of the Vancouver-based social media company Zeros 2 Heroes Media. Matt began work in the digital media industry as a co-founder of CanApple New Media, a founding executive of We Media Inc, and Managing Director of Oven Digital's Canadian office. More recently, he has worked on convergent television projects for Making the Cut 2 and the award-winning Bodog TV. As President of Zeros 2 Heroes, Matt has driven the company’s business vision and assembled a team whose skills range from database architecture to the intricacies of six-panel layout for mobile comics. Matt is also an experienced instructor, and has designed and led the initial Vancouver Film School Game Design stream, and has taught Game Design at SFU/SIAT and the Art Institute of Vancouver.

Tom Wujec is a Fellow at Autodesk, a leading innovator in 3D design software. As a recognized thought-leader and award-winning innovator, Tom works with leading-edge Fortune 500 companies to foster visualization practices from simple digital sketching tools to advanced visual collaboration systems.  Tom is a former creative director, writer, and animator for museums and cultural institutions. He has degrees in Astronomy and Psychology and is the author of three books on creative thinking, including Pumping Ions which has been translated into more than twenty languages. Tom will be joining fellow adjunct professor Glenn Entis in developing the collaborative design skills of the students of the MDM Program.