Games Panel
Jason Booth
Senior Technical Desinger at Harmonix Music Systems
Jason Booth officially entered the game industry as a 3d Artist and Animator, but has since spent time as an Engineer, Designer, Musician, and Creative Director on projects ranging from Massively Multiplayer PC games, music based console games, iPhone games, and web based social games. He is currently employed by Harmonix Music Systems as Senior Technical Designer, working on new tools and technology.
Mark Hansen
SVP Business Operations at 38 Studios
Mark Hansen is the Senior Vice President of Business Operations for 38 Studios, an entertainment and IP creation company founded by Major League Baseball pitcher Curt Schillings. Mark has more than 12 years of experience in the games industry and led development on LEGO Universe, an MMO distributed globally by Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment. Previously, Mark spent 3 years researching mass customization and agile systems at Aalborg University and served twelve years in the United States Navy.
Nabeel Hyatt
General Manager at Zynga
Nabeel is head of Zynga Boston, creating a new generation of social games. Nabeel is a five-time entrepreneur, most recently as Founder and CEO of social gaming startup Conduit Labs. He is a mentor at the seed mentorship organization Techstars and advisor to Micro-VC Nextview Ventures. Nabeel was a 2004 nominee for the Top 100 Innovators Under 30 from MIT Technology Review. He has been quoted in Newsweek, The NY Times, Business 2.0, and has been a featured speaker at SXSW, CES, Game Developer’s Conference, and the Virtual Goods Summit.
Steve Kane
Cofounder & CEO of Lucky Labs
Steven Kane is the co-founder and CEO of LuckyLabs. Previously, Steve was co-founder and CEO of digital games and marketing platform developer GameLogic, acquired by Scientific Games [NASDAQ: SGMS] in 2010. Prior to that, Steve was co-founder and CEO of web tech, games and marketing pioneer Gamesville.com, acquired by Lycos in 1999. Before that, he was co-founder and CEO of InterLab, the global producer of laboratory liquid handling systems, acquired by CIT Group [NYSE: CIT] in 1994. Steve has been a Director and angel investor in various media, tech and consumer companies, including Conduit Labs (acquired by Zynga), Playhem, Pangea Media, Acres4.0 Gaming, Soundbite Communications (NASDAQ: SDBT), Rick’s Picks, Worcester Tornadoes, and Leader Bank. Steve graduated from Phillips Academy Andover and NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.
Dan Scherlis (Moderator)
Industry Consultant, Former CEO Turbine
Dan Scherlis is a consulting interactive-media executive with 15-years experience with social media and electronic entertainment. Dan was CEO of massively-multiplayer developer Turbine during its initial five years, serving as producer of the Microsoft-published Asherons Call. He was then founding Content Director of a new mobile-games venture within telecom giant Comverse. Before joining Turbine, Dan proposed and led a new game-publishing initiative for Papyrus Design Group, where he produced IndyCar Racing. He then deployed new online publications for Interchange Online Network from Ziff-Davis/ATT. Dan has been an advisor to Floodgate Entertainment and other online-content and online-community ventures. He has guest-lectured at local universities and presented at MIT Enterprise Forum, HBS Cyberposium, Game Development Conference (GDC), E3 Expo, CTIA, and other mobile- and game-industry conferences. Dan holds AB, AM (Linguistics), and MBA degrees from Harvard.