ImpactGames
Advisory Board >>
- Sean Ammirati VP Business Development, M-Spoke
- Alan Gershenfeld Former Senior VP of Activision
- Bing Gordon Co-Founder and CCO, Electronic Arts
- Timothy Hanlon Executive VP, Publicis-Denuo
- Dr. Don Marinelli Global Director, Carnegie Mellon, Entertainment Technology Center
- Ross Martin Senior VP, MTV-u
- Bill Recker Former CEO of Gretag, Angel Investor
Eric Brown Co-Founder, CEO
Eric Brown co-founded ImpactGames to influence society and promote change through interactive media and was listed among "100 Social Entrepreneurs Changing the World" in Newsweek Japan. Prior to that, Eric helped found Issue Design Build, creating custom commercial spaces from music stores to beauty salons from Seattle to Los Angeles. In addition he has extensive management experience ranging from Project Management to Special Event Production. Eric holds a Masters of Entertainment Technology from Carnegie Mellon and received a BFA in Painting with focused studies in education and computer graphics from Washington University in St. Louis.
Asi Burak Co-Founder, Chief Product Officer
Asi Burak has initiated and produced the PeaceMaker game which achieved international acclaim and sales in over 60 countries. Prior to that, he was VP of Marketing at Axis Mobile LTD., where he helped introduce LBS mobile games and community applications to a world-wide market (US, Asia, Europe). As a former Art Director at Saatchi & Saatchi, Asi was first introduced to advanced systems for communication and analysis as a Captain in the Israeli Intelligence Corps. He holds a Masters of Entertainment Technology from Carnegie Mellon and a BA in Design from the Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem.
Patrick Bannan Artist
Patrick joined the team shortly before graduating from The Art Institute of Pittsburgh in 2006. Prior to graduation, Patrick stayed involved with many freelance projects through the Art Institute and Carnegie Mellon University, including the student phase of ImpactGames' first title, PeaceMaker. In 2005 he started a small sales business where he trained and managed a team of 10 and has spent several weeks each year volunteering as a Team Leader for Eagle “U”, a nationwide success and leadership program for secondary, post-secondary students. He graduated with his BS in Media Arts and Animation, High Honors, Best in Show.
Tim Tournay Lead Software Engineer
Tim Tournay graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a BA in Computer Engineering in 2002. Previously he worked in Johnstown, PA as a contractor creating military simulation software on projects involving training. One project, for example, was software for the Nation Training Center in Fort Irwin that taught soldiers how to deal with social and political implications when securing civilian towns and cities. Recently he has spent a year working for NATO at their programming center in The Hague, Netherlands helping to enhance software for NATO activities.
Bill Ulrich Software Engineer
Bill Ulrich graduated from Susquehanna University with a BA in Computer Science in 1998. He started his career as a programmer at Health Care Software; a leading provider of software solutions for hospitals and long-term care facilities. In 2001, he worked at Electronic Arts on the XBOX version of Madden 2002. Before joining the team at ImpactGames, Bill developed web applications for Brodart Co; a leading provider of library services and supplies. Bill Ulrich has been with ImpactGames since 2006 and was involved with the development of their award-winning PeaceMaker video game.
Bill can fix any piece of software by replacing a 0 with a 1. Unfortunately, he is too busy fragging some noob in Halo3 to do it right now. He's a fan of the Flyers, so we don't let him work in the office.
James McGirk Writer
James McGirk received his BA in Literature-Writing from Columbia University. He recently completed his first novel and has held editorial positions at Broadcast Interactive Media, The National Law Journal, Yale University and internships at TIME Asia and The Encyclopedia of Modern Asia. His writing has been published in The L Magazine, Foreign Policy Magazine, The Columbia Daily Spectator, the Columbia Journal of Literary Criticism, TIME Asia and many other publications.
Geno Maslonek IT Manager
Geno has a diverse background in many IT disciplines. He previously worked as a consultant in a plethora of vertical markets including municipalities, police departments, automobile dealerships, country clubs, medical offices, and travel agencies. Self-taught since he got his first IBM XT computer, Geno currently holds the MCSE 2000/2003 and CCNA certifications. While most of his professional experience has revolved around commercial information systems, he believes that simple is best and feels most at home in an open source unix-like environment. As a steadfast security advocate (read: paranoid), he also is a devoted attendee of the Defcon security conference.
Sean Ammirati VP Business Development, M-Spoke
Currently, Sean is the VP of Business Development & Product Management at mSpoke, Inc. Sean also regularly contributes to the influential Read/WriteWeb blog and hosts the weekly podcast Read/WriteTalk. Once an aspiring programmer, Sean has found his niche as a new technology evangelist. Currently, this manifests itself in his passion for helping publishers revitalize their online content with mSpoke's adaptive personalization solutions. Prior to co-founding mSpoke, Sean was a research fellow at Carnegie Mellon University's Software Industry Center and served on the Editorial Advisory Board and as a columnist for Information Week. He holds a B. S. in Computer Information Systems from Grove City College.
Alan Gershenfeld Former Senior VP of Activision
Alan Gershenfeld has spent the last twenty years at the intersection of entertainment, technology and social entrepreneurship. He is currently Co-Founder and Managing Partner of E-Line Ventures, a ‘double bottom line' early-stage venture fund focused on empowering individuals, small businesses and disenfranchised communities through innovative uses of personal fabrication, digital media and on-demand business services. Prior to E-Line, Alan spent seven years as CEO and Co-Founder of Netomat, a leader in mobile-web community solutions. Netomat was recently named a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum at Davos. Before co-founding netomat, Alan spent six years at Activision, an entertainment software leader. He was part of the management team that helped rebuild the company from a fledgling business, recently emerged from bankruptcy, into an industry powerhouse with revenues over a billion dollars. As Senior Vice President, Alan oversaw all product development at the company's Los Angeles studios as well as product development, technology, quality assurance and customer support. Titles released under Alan's leadership include Civilization: Call to Power, Asteroids, Spycraft, Muppet Treasure Island, Pitfall, Zork and Tony Hawk Skateboarding.
Bing Gordon Co-Founder and CCO, Electronic Arts
Bing Gordon has served as Executive Vice President and Chief Creative Officer of Electronic Arts since March 1998. Prior to this, he served as Executive Vice President, Marketing since October 1995. From August 1993 to October 1995, he served as Executive Vice President of EA Studios and as Senior Vice President of Entertainment Production since February 1992. He also served as Senior Vice President of Marketing, as General Manager of EA Studios, as Vice President of Marketing, as Director of Advertising and as Vice President of the former entertainment division while employed by the company.
Gordon holds a BA from Yale University and an MBA from Stanford University. He is a trustee at the Urban School of San Francisco and is a board member for the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team. He launched and co-taught Videogame Prototype Design at Stanford University.
Timothy Hanlon Executive VP, Publicis-Denuo
Tim Hanlon brings unparalleled expertise in media ventures and emerging technologies to his new role as the head of Denuo's new ventures and partnerships practice. Named as one of MEDIA Magazine's “100 People to Know”, Hanlon's talent in identifying and leveraging evolutionary television platforms led to his previous appointment as the head of Publicis Groupe Media's important Ventures practice. Prior to Ventures, Hanlon established Starcom MediaVest Group's TV 2.0 – a practice leading SMG initiatives in such fields as interactive/enhanced television, on-demand video, digital video recording, interactive program guide navigation, addressable advertising, and digital broadcasting/datacasting as means to execute effective brand communications plans.
With more than a decade of traditional and interactive agency media experience, Hanlon is also an active advocate for the industry, serving as Chairman of the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) Advanced Television Committee, a member of the Steering Committee of the Innovation in Digital Advertising (IDiA) Consortium, and on the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) Advanced Media Committee.
Hanlon holds a B.A. from Georgetown University and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago.
Dr. Don Marinelli Global Director, Carnegie Mellon, Entertainment Technology Center
Donald Marinelli is a tenured Professor of Drama and Arts Management at Carnegie Mellon University and is also the Executive Producer of the Entertainment Technology Center.
Professor Marinelli has been at Carnegie Mellon for twenty-six years where he served as the Assistant Head of the Drama Dept. (1980-86) and later the Associate Department Head (1986-95). Dr. Marinelli was integral in creation of the Master of Arts Management (MAM) program, the Master of Fine Arts in Acting degree program with the Moscow Art Theatre School in Russia, and, with colleague Randy Pausch, he co-founded the Master of Entertainment Technology (MET) degree program and the ETC.
Ross Martin Senior VP, MTV-u
Ross Martin is Senior Vice President and Head of Programming for mtvU, MTV's 24-hour college network, overseeing the development and production of mtvU's Emmy Award winning programming, featuring the best new music, pro-social campaigns, original series, branded entertainment and student-produced content on-air, online, on mobile and on campuses nationwide. Martin is a former principal of Plant Film, where he developed and produced feature film and television projects for VH1, FOX, Kevin Spacey's Trigger Street Productions, Nissan, Details Magazine and more. Prior to Plant Film, he was Vice President of Film & Television at Nerve.com, where he launched Nerve's feature film and television projects for Sony Pictures, Miramax and HBO. Martin began his career as a development executive for Spike Lee's 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, where he developed the feature films Summer of Sam, Get On the Bus, He Got Game, The Best Man and 3 A.M.
Bill Recker Former CEO of Gretag, Angel Investor
Bill Recker was Chairman of the Board of Gretag Imaging Holding AG from 1998 to 2000 and was President and CEO of Gretag Imaging Group, Inc., a publicly traded Swiss company serving the photofinishing and imaging industry, from 1990 to 1998. He also served on the Board of Amazys Holding AG, a Swiss public company producing products for color control and confirmation in the graphic arts, textile and coatings industry. Mr. Recker currently serves on various boards of small, private high technology start-ups.
Prior to joining Gretag Imaging, Mr. Recker served as Chairman and President of Mettler/Toledo USA from 1989 until 1990. He also founded Science Group International, a general management, strategic planning and product development consulting firm, serving as President and CEO from 1988 until 1989. Mr. Recker served in various positions with Fisher Scientific Company from 1968 through 1987 and was appointed President and CEO in 1986.
Mr. Recker earned his B.S. in Chemistry from Duquesne University in 1965. In addition, he completed graduate studies and research in virology from University of Pittsburgh Children's Hospital and completed the Advanced Management Program, business studies, from Harvard University in 1985.