Board Executives

Jeffrey Elliott
CEO, TableRock Media
Board Chair
Jeffrey Elliott has over thirty years of strategic and creative experience in broadcasting, production, and digital media – and always at the forefront of emerging technologies in broadcasting and new-media and is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of TableRock Media. Jeffrey was also the founder and CEO of GlassBOX Television. Glassbox Television became one of Canada’s leading multiplatform media companies. One of GlassBOX channels; Bite TV, the world’s first Interactive and multiplatform television channel, was awarded an International Emmy for Interactive Broadcasting and won the best in Cross Platform Broadcasting at the DIGIS (Canadian New Media Awards).

Lydia Sani
Partner, Redwood Performance Group
Vice-Chair
Lydia Sani has spent over 20 years in the corporate communications industry since graduating from Concordia University’s Communications Faculty. Her early career featured positions at Du Pont in their internal training group and later at Ogilvy & Mather in their communications division. In 1988 Lydia founded Invisions Productions. Since that time she has guided the company to its current position as one of the pre-eminent players in the Canadian communications industry.

Jamie Barron
Partner, Technology & Life Sciences, BDO Canada
Treasurer

Max Rothschild
Associate with Stohn Hay Cafazzo Dembroski Richmond LLP
Secretary
Max practises in the areas of entertainment, music, digital media and intellectual property law. Before joining Stohn Hay Cafazzo Dembroski Richmond LLP, Max worked as in-house counsel for the Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency Ltd. (CMRRA) and as an associate at Bereskin & Parr LLP. With experience both as in-house counsel and in private practice, Max brings a practical and business-oriented perspective to legal matters.
Board Directors

Ryan Andal
President & Co-Founder, Secret Location
Ryan Andal has focussed his career on the convergence of technology and entertainment. First, as an entrepreneur in the immersive entertainment industry, and now as the Co-founder and President of Secret Location which was acquired in 2016 and now owned by Hasbro. Throughout his career he has been honored by hundreds of awards including 2 Emmys, 11 Canadian Screen awards, and a Peabody. Having led the company through 2 acquisitions, he has continued to adapt the business not only with the rapid changes in the entertainment industry, but also considering the opportunities and interests with its parent organizations eOne and Hasbro.

Joel Burgess
Studio Director, Capybara Games
Joel Burgess is the Studio Director of Capybara Games in Toronto. He is an 18-year veteran of the video game industry, with credits on games such as Watch Dogs Legion, Skyrim, Oblivion, the Fallout franchise, Aeon Flux, and Bloodrayne 2. Joel is also a co-founder and annual organizer of the Level Design Summit at GDC in San Francisco and Shanghai, and has presented lectures on game design at campuses, conferences (and zoom calls) across the globe.

Denise Cooper
Principal, Denise Cooper Legal
Denise Cooper is a lawyer and strategic advisor for media, entertainment and technology clients, with expertise in the areas of corporate/commercial, mergers and acquisitions, film and television production and distribution, employment, broadcast, telecom, e-commerce, privacy and intellectual property law. Prior to entering private practice, Denise was Vice President and General Counsel for Virgin Mobile Canada. Prior to that, she spent 14 years at CHUM Limited, where she served as Vice President, Business & Legal Affairs, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary.

George Geczy
Co-Founder and Technical Lead, BattleGoat Studios
George Geczy is Co-Founder and Technical Lead of BattleGoat Studios, an independent interactive digital media/video game development studio established in February 2000. BattleGoat’s releases include a number of successful PC-based strategy games within the “Supreme Ruler” game franchise, sold worldwide through publishers such as Paradox Interactive and independently through Steam.

Mojdeh Gharbi
Co-Owner/VP of Marketing and Operations, Certain Affinity

Vikas Gupta
CEO, AVARA Media
Vikas Gupta is a charismatic leader who defines himself as a seasoned executive with an entrepreneurial DNA. He has an insatiable passion for start-ups and emerging growth tech companies. Vikas is the co-founder & CEO of AVARA Media, a company focused on the creation of an immersive Augmented Reality technology platform that experientially connects people to the biggest environmental and ecological issues our planet is facing.
Jonathan Stanton-Humphreys
Chief Strategy Officer – North America, Qvistorp, Founder/Senior Advisor, BizBoost.ca
Jonathan is the Chief Strategy Officer – North America for Qvistorp. He oversees the company’s development and expansion into the North American region, with a particular focus on helping large-sized gaming studios make better strategic decisions. He is also the founder of a passion project, BizBoost.ca, which helps small-to-medium-sized companies solve their scaling problems. He has over 20 years of experience activating new ventures and creating winning strategies and solutions for companies ranging from 10 to 14,000 employees. His previous work experience includes being the CEO of HitGrab Game Labs, a Toronto-based Indie Studio.

Mark Laframboise
Co-Founder & President, Lightning Rod Games
With over a decade of design and project management experience, Mark Laframboise provides business and creative direction for the team at Lightning Rod Games, an award-winning studio that has been operating remotely throughout Ontario since 2013. The studio’s first commercial project, A Fold Apart, drew inspiration from Mark’s own personal experience with a long-distance relationship and earned him an invitation to speak at the Experimental Gameplay Workshop at GDC in 2017.

Jim Lamoureaux
Sr. Director, Public Policy & Govt. Affairs, Electronic Arts
Jim is Sr. Director, Public Policy & Govt. Affairs at Electronic Arts. He develops, manages, and advocates EA’s public policy positions with policymakers and within the industry in North America, LatAm, and APAC.
Jim has been a regulatory and public policy professional focusing on tech, telecom, internet, and media issues for nearly 25 years.

Julien Lavoie
Director of Corporate Affairs, Ubisoft in Canada
Julien is Director of Corporate Affairs at Ubisoft in Canada. Julien has a long association with the video game industry having worked as Vice-President, Public Affairs for the Entertainment Software Association of Canada (ESAC) where he advocated on behalf of the sector in Canada. He successfully positioned the industry with decision-makers at the federal and provincial levels and aided member companies with regulatory challenges on the intellectual property, immigration, and skills development fronts.

Ramona Pringle
Professor, Ryerson RTA School of Media; Director, The Creative Innovation Studio
Ramona Pringle is an Associate Professor in the RTA School of Media at X University (formerly Ryerson University,) and Director of The Creative School’s Innovation Studio, a creative network comprised of multiple incubators, including the Transmedia Zone, Design Fabrication Zone, and Fashion Zone, as well as the Global Campus Studio, a unique digital studio devoted to fostering international co-productions through the use of contemporary collaboration tools.
Sean Skelton
MTS Software Development Engineer, AMD

Mary Sorrenti
Vice President, Game Pill & VRGEN

Jean-Sylvain Sormany
Studio Head, Snowed In Studios Inc.
Rémi Weiss
Senior Legal Counsel, Gameloft
As a Senior Legal Counsel at Gameloft, Remi manages a team of in-house lawyers in Montreal and is responsible for the smooth running of all legal operations for Gameloft studios in North, Central, and South America, from the development of video games to labour and employment matters, as well as marketing and advertising issues.
Joining the industry in 2017 was a lifelong goal and dream for Remi and, since then, he has tried to be as active as possible in the industry.