Film Panel
Micheal Flaherty
President & Co-Founder Walden Media
Micheal Flaherty is the president and co-founder of Walden Media. Walden’s mission is to rekindle curiosity and recapture imagination through the development and production of family films and literature. Walden has financed and produced a number of films, such as The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, Charlotte’s Web, Bridge to Terabithia, Holes, Because of Winn-Dixie, and Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D. Through its publishing division, Walden has also co-published a number of award-winning books, including Mike Lupica’s Comeback Kids series and the New York Times bestseller and Newbery honor winner Savvy by first-time author Ingrid Law. As part of its mission, Walden creates innovative educational programs, lesson plans and events. Several hundred thousand students have participated in these events, including an international effort to read Charlotte’s Web aloud and to collect toys for Toys for Tots, both of which resulted in the breaking of world records. Walden has also hosted an interactive writing workshop with Louis Sachar and a national robotics competition with James Cameron. Flaherty is also on the board of Rachel’s Challenge, a program created in memory of Rachel Scott, the first victim of the Columbine shootings. He is also a member of the Global Advisory Council of Vision360, an organization dedicated to supporting and founding churches across the country. Flaherty is a graduate of Tufts University.
Robin Russell
Former SEVP Worldwide Operations, Marketing & Distribution at Sony Pictures Entertainment
Robin Russell is currently a Harvard University Advanced Leadership Fellow. An attorney by training, Ms. Russell spent over 30 years working in the "Movie Business" in Los Angeles. After 5 years of practicing entertainment law, she oversaw Business Affairs departments at Walt Disney Pictures and Columbia Pictures. She then transitioned to a business role where she served as the Executive Vice President and General Manager of Worldwide Operations for Sony Pictures Entertainment. During her 10 years in this division, Ms. Russell was instrumental in developing the business model that migrated the VHS to the DVD format and thereafter the development of the electronic delivery distribution model. Prior to coming to Harvard, Ms. Russell spent her last 4 years at Sony as the Senior Executive Vice President Worldwide Operations Marketing and Distribution. She focused on digital delivery in the theatrical exhibition sector and had business oversight for the Division's traditional and on-line media spend and optimization.
Mark Gill
President Millennium Films
Mark Gill has 25 years of film business experience and a production track record of more than $1 billion at the box office. Before joining Millennium, Gill was the CEO and co-founder of The Film Department, an independent movie production and finance company, which was best known for “Law-Abiding Citizen.” In the three prior years, Gill served as the founding president of Warner Independent Pictures. In his tenure, the company produced 15 films and earned 11 Oscar nominations, notably for “March of the Penguins” and “Good Night, and Good Luck.” Gill joined Warner Independent from Stratus Film Co. where he helped put together four films. Prior to Stratus, Gill spent eight years at Miramax Films, where he was President of Miramax/L.A. He was involved in the production or acquisition of more than two dozen films, among them “The Talented Mr. Ripley” and “Apocalypse Now Redux.” He joined Miramax in 1994 and served for three years as the company’s marketing chief, based in New York. Prior to joining Miramax, Gill worked for six years at Columbia and TriStar Pictures, culminating in a three-year tenure as Senior Vice President in the marketing department.
Mathew Cullen
Chief Creative Officer & Cofounder, Mirada Studios
Mathew Cullen has directed and produced over 100 commercials and music videos, including global campaigns for IBM, Nike, HP, Honda, Tanqueray and EA Sports, and music videos for Beck, Adele, Modest Mouse, R.E.M. and Green Day. Most recently, he won two consecutive Grammy Awards for directing Weezer’s “Pork and Beans,” the most blogged-about YouTube video of 2008, and Black Eyed Peas’ “Boom Boom Pow,” which has exceeded 100 million internet views. At age 23, Mathew founded Motion Theory, and has overseen the production of over 300 projects over the past decade, building the studio into an international leader in visual storytelling, design and production. Motion Theory was profiled in Fast Company as being one of the most innovative companies in the industry. Mathew is attached to direct a feature film based on one of Motion Theory’s original ideas, a supernatural thriller which Motion Theory is producing with Kurtzman/Orci at DreamWorks. Rolling Stone named Mathew to its annual “Hot List” for his work as a music video director, and Wired named him one of six directors who are making music videos cool again. Mathew has been honored with over 100 industry awards, and his work has been inducted into the Museum of Modern Art on a dozen occasions. In December 2010, Mathew teamed up with director Guillermo del Toro, cinematographer Guillermo Navarro, and executive producer Javier Jimenez to launch Mirada, a studio designed for storytellers.
Robert Cain
Founder Pacific Bridge Pictures
Robert Cain is a partner in film production company Pacific Bridge Pictures. He has worked for more than 20 years in Hollywood and the global entertainment industry, primarily as a production, finance, strategy and creative development expert. He has been doing business in China since 1987, where his experiences include producing and executive producing duties on feature films and television programs that include the A&E special Three Tenors in the Forbidden City, and the feature films Mongol andShanghai Kiss. He has also served in consulting roles in China to Shanghai Media Group, CCTV, China Lion Films, and to several Hollywood studios. Rob’s film experience extends from finance and distribution management to creative duties on more than a dozen successful films, including such critical and commercial successes as The Usual Suspects, Breakdown, Bound, Blade 2, and Cabin Fever. He is Executive Producer of Laura Smiles, which premiered in the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival, of The Amateurs, a comedy starring Jeff Bridges, and he set up the film Mongol, an action epic about the early life of Genghis Khan that was nominated for a 2008 Academy Award for best foreign language film. Rob has worked for or consulted to most of Hollywood’s major studios and talent guilds, and served as a senior executive at talent-based companies such as Danny DeVito’s Jersey Films and Aaron Spelling’s Spelling Entertainment in formulating and executing business plans to expand their operations. His corporate clients have included Universal Studios, MGM, Sony Pictures Entertainment, DirecTV, NBC, the BBC, ICM, the Screen Actors Guild, the Writers Guild of America, Kodak, New Line Cinema, Mattel and many others. Rob has partnered with a prominent, Oscar winning screenwriter to develop and produce motion picture co-productions for the Chinese and international markets. An award-winning screenwriter, Rob holds a bachelor’s degree with honors from Harvard University and an MBA degree with honors from the Wharton School of Business. His regular columns on China's film industry can be found at chinafilmbiz.wordpress.com.
Professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee (Moderator)
Andreas Andresen Professor of Business Administration; Chair, MBA Global
Felix Oberholzer-Gee is the Andreas Andresen Professor of Business Administration in the Strategy Unit at Harvard Business School. A member of the faculty since 2003, Professor Oberholzer-Gee received his Masters degree, summa cum laude, and his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Zurich. His first faculty position was at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He currently teaches competitive strategy in executive education programs such as the Program for Leadership Development, the Senior Executive Program for China, and in a program for media executives titled Effective Strategies for Media Companies. His course Strategies Beyond the Market is a popular elective class for second-year MBA students. Professor Oberholzer-Gee won numerous awards for excellence in teaching, including the Harvard Business School Class of 2006 Faculty Teaching Award for best teacher in the core curriculum, and the 2002 Helen Kardon Moss Anvil Award for best teacher in the Wharton MBA program. Prior to his academic career, Professor Oberholzer-Gee served as managing director of Symo Electronics, a Swiss-based process control company.