Is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where he majored in computer science but also managed a focus on theatre and film. After graduation, he became an intern at Microsoft on the first version of Windows Excel and went on to play a pivotal role in the development of Microsoft Office. In 2004, he left Microsoft to pursue his dream of screenwriting, and enrolled in the inaugural class of TheFilmSchool. He is married with three daughters and spends much of his time volunteering in children’s sports and public education. Andrew is a co-founder and Board member of Community & Parents for Public Schools of Seattle.
Ellen manages a portfolio of client relationships including banking, credit, investment management and trust, financial planning, estate planning, and business succession planning. Over 15 years in financial services including Series 7, 66, and insurance licenses as a portfolio manager with Ragen MacKenzie, and 10 years in Private Banking with Wells Fargo Private Bank before coming to Key Bank.Prior to Wealth Management, Ellen was founder and President of The Singer Group Inc., an Interior Planning Corporation. The company was a seven person, full-service commercial design firm, completing projects from the schematic design phase through construction, installation and final move-in. Having experienced a business succession and sale first hand, it has been invaluable in consulting business owners who are preparing to sell their businesses.
Community Service: Current member Board of Trustees, VP and Chair of Board Development and past Allocations Chair, PONCHO, for 16 years; Board of Trustees for Christmas in April, Chair of Procurement; Fundraising Chair, Junior League of Seattle; ODYSSEY, Board of Trustees, and Gala co-chair; President PTSA, won the Golden Acorn award for service. Member of the Ranier Club in Seattle.
John Jacobsen
John is the Executive Director of TheFilmSchool, which he co-founded and is the host and director of the national PBS show, The Artist Toolbox, which has an estimated viewing audience of 30 million people. He directed the feature film, Around the Fire, which won Italy’s Giffoni Film Festival and was nominated for The Best Independent Filmmaker’s Award at SIFF, and has produced several features, including the Columbia/Tri-Star picture Nervous Ticks starring Bill Pullman and Peter Boyle. His other major production credits include the HBO movie of the week, Danger of Love, John Frankenheimer’s 52 Pick Up with Roy Scheider and Ann Margaret, and The Assassin with Charles Bronson. Films he directed/produced, including the recent well-received short, Arthur, and newly released Spinning, have played at festivals around the world and won numerous awards including Best of Fest, Best Fiction Film at Action/Cut, Best Fantasy Short at MIFFF, Excellence in Short Film at Accolade, and gold, silver, and bronze awards at other festivals. He directed over thirty stage plays regionally and in New York, worked on Broadway under the legendary director, Hal Prince, directed and produced the Tribute to Katherine Dunham on CBS’s Emmy Award-winning Kennedy Center Honors, was a casting director with the great Ronnie Yeskel, and worked with the Academy Award-winning documentary maker, Charles Guggenheim. He managed the Motion Picture and Television Department at UCLA Extension, had an extensive career directing commercials, has sold numerous screenplays and was a Directing Fellow at the American Film Institute (AFI) in Los Angeles. He has been involved in the film, theatre and television industries for over 30 years and teaches master classes in acting, directing and writing all around the country. John formerly ran the Motion Picture and Television Department at UCLA Extension.
Max has more than 20 years of executive management and consulting experience, working primarily with start-ups and emerging businesses in a variety of industries. He is currently the CEO of MarketOrder and has served as president of Keystroke Technologies, president of the Thomas Kemper Soda Company and founder of CFI Incorporated and Ablor Associates. Max has served on the boards of a number of technology companies and has provided consulting services to numerous companiesincluding McCaw Cellular, Egghead Software and Microsoft. He received his BA from The College of William and Mary and attended the University of Washington Graduate School of Business–Management Program.
Patrice and her husband, Kevin, are strong supporters of Conservation International, a nonprofit global organization dedicated to preserving the world’s most environmentally diverse areas, especially in the Seattle region. Patrice is a board member at the Seattle Art Museum, the Seattle Symphony and the Pacific Northwest Ballet, and she also chairs the annual fund for Lakeside School. An ardent fundraiser for education, the arts, the environment and social services in the Seattle area, Patrice has chaired several successful local capital campaigns. She is currently creative director of Pascaulina, Inc. and is also a documentary filmmaker and producer whose most recent films include Expiration Date and Multiple Sarcasms.
Petra is the Managing Partner of Vault Capital and Vault Capital II. She co-founded the venture capital company in 1998 with Irwin Treiger and William Justen. Ms. Lahie is responsible for Vault Capital’s investments in Singingfish, Terabeam, HouseValues, Ramgen, eProject, the Clover and Seattle Biofuels. Prior to Vault Capital, Ms. Lahie worked with start-ups in a management or director capacity and came to that from a background in the arts, production, journalism and wireless communications that included positions with IBM, AT&T, MFS/UUNET and as Associate Producer for CBS in New York City. Ms. Lahie also worked closely with artist Dale Chihuly building his support organization for upwards of 11 years.
Ms. Lahie is on the board of the National Science Foundation’s Science Technology Center for Information Technology, TheFilmSchool, ACT Theatre, and WWFC. She is a member of the National Venture Capital Association, the Community Development Roundtable, the Alliance of Angels, The Washington Software Association, the Hilltop Group and WIT. She is a founding member of Innovation & Science, Agile, Alpha Arts, Seniors Making Art and the Women’s Bioethics Project. Ms. Franklin attended Harvard University and Bennington College, where she received her undergraduate degrees. She also attended Stanford University and the University of Washington. She lives in Seattle with her husband and two daughters.
Rick Stevenson
Rick Stevenson has produced or directed feature films starring actors such as Hugh Grant, Ned Beatty, Meg Ryan, Keifer Sutherland, Jennifer Connelly, Jennifer Jason-Leigh, Juliette Lewis and Christopher Plummer. Stevenson has also directed programs for television, including Ed for NBC, and his work as a director of television commercials has garnered many awards. In addition to his work in film and television, Stevenson is a scholar of 20th century history, author of The Rise and Fall of Détente, and holds a PhD from Oxford University.
Scilla Andreen | secretary
Scilla is the CEO and co-founder of IndieFlix Inc., a multi-platform film distribution company founded in 2004 to help independent filmmakers take advantage of new media and connect with their audience.
An award-winning producer, director. and Emmy-nominated costume designer, Scilla has deep roots in the entertainment industry and is a popular speaker, juror, and tireless champion of independent film.
In 2005, after a successful stint in Hollywood, this single mom of two kids packed her bags and moved back to her hometown of Seattle to embark on a new career. After connecting with long time friend and filmmaker Carlo Scandiuzzi, Scilla decided to turn the Hollywood movie industry upside down by changing the way short films are distributed and by allowing filmmakers not only to keep the rights to their movies but also receive a majority stake in all revenue streams.
Today with over 1,800 film titles from a growing number of countries in its ever-expanding film library, IndieFlix is launching Film Festival in a Box, a new interactive movie game just in time for holiday gift giving.
While in his last year at UCLA, Tom Skerritt debuted as a film actor in War Hunt, an independent 1962 anti-war film that also featured New York theater actors Robert Redford and Sydney Pollack. Since then, Skerritt has appeared in more than 35 feature films, including Robert Altman’s MASH, A River Runs Through It, Harold and Maude, The Turning Point, Alien, Top Gun, Steel Magnolias and Contact. He is a winner of an Emmy Award for Best Actor for his role in CBS’s Picket Fences and has directed many episodic and long-form television productions.