Entertainment Industry Forum
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Entertainment Industry Forum Keynote Speaker Vance Van Petten – National Executive Director, Producers Guild of America Vance Van Petten is the National Executive Director of the Producers Guild of America. Under the auspices of the PGA’s Board of Directors, he oversees the Guild’s strategic initiatives on behalf of producers, including its institution of the “Producers Mark” certification process for theatrical motion pictures, as well as directing the PGA’s member services, and acting as principal executive liaison to studios, networks, guilds and other entertainment industry organizations. Under Van Petten’s stewardship since January 2000, the Guild’s membership has grown from 350 to 5,800 members. Prior to joining the PGA, Van Petten was in charge of the business and legal affairs departments at Universal Television (1997-1999), Twentieth Television (1992-1997, launching the FX Cable Channel in 1994), and at Paramount Television (1983-1992). Prior to working at the studios, Van Petten was an associate at an entertainment law firm representing producers, writers and specializing in comics & comedy groups such as The Groundlings and Second City. In 1978, Van Petten received his J.D. and M.P.A. from the University of Southern California, and in 1975 he received his B.A. from UCLA. Moderator Steven Sills – Partner, Green Hasson Janks Steven Sills has over 30 years of entertainment accounting experience. His specialty involves audits of production and distribution of motion pictures and television programs on behalf of third party profit participants. As a consultant, he has given expert testimony in entertainment litigation, been a contract negotiator for profit and royalty participants and participated in settlement negotiations of audit claims. Steve spent 13 years at the CPA firm of Laventhol & Horwath, before founding Sills & Gentille in 1990. In 2007, Sills & Gentille merged with Green Hasson Janks. Steven is an attorney, CPA, Certified Fraud Examiner and Certified Financial Forensic. He has been a featured speaker at the California Society of Certified Public Accountants and New York CPA Foundation, as well as the UCLA and USC film schools. Steven's publications include the following: •Profit Participation in the Motion Picture Industry, Los Angeles Lawyer, April 1989 •Participants in the Motion Picture Industry, Entertainment, Publishing and the Arts Handbook, 1987 •Movie Money: Understanding Hollywood's Creative Accounting Practices, 1998 (2nd edition published in 2006) Green Hasson Janks Entertainment Industry Forum October 29, 2013 InterContinental Los Angeles Entertainment Industry Forum Panelist Bios Marco Cordova – Vice President, EP Financial Solutions, a subsidiary of Entertainment Partners Marco Cordova is the Vice President of EP Financial Solutions at Entertainment Partners, where he advises finance and studio executives on production incentives strategies in the U.S. and globally. Marco has a Master’s degree in Accounting/Business Taxation from the University of Southern California and is a Certified Public Accountant with more than 15 years of industry and tax experience. Prior to Entertainment Partners, Marco oversaw domestic and foreign film incentives and state and local taxes for Sony Pictures Entertainment and managed large tax consulting and outsourcing engagements for industry clients while working at Deloitte Tax LLP and Arthur Andersen. Marco is one of the leading film tax credit placement specialists in the industry, and has worked with mostly studio and large Indy production companies to close approximately $300 million in film tax credit placement deals with his Fortune 500 and high net worth individual clients since 2011. Marco was also instrumental in Entertainment Partners’ expansion to about a dozen states and most recently Puerto Rico, where he has setup EPPS Purchasing, Inc.’s operations and local offices. EPPS Purchasing, Inc. is the leader of procurement and point-of-sale services in the industry since 2008 and serves all six major studios and many large independent production companies. In addition to EPPS Purchasing and Tax Credit Placement services, Marco is also the business owner for EP’s Super Loan-Out services, which handles most of the payroll for non-resident talent loan-out companies in New Mexico. Lastly, Marco has assisted many state and foreign film commissions and taxing authorities with the drafting of film incentives laws, regulations, and guidelines. Marco is also co-creator and co-editor of Entertainment Partners’ The Essential Guide to U.S. & International Production Incentives (All Editions from 2008 to 2011), and The Guide: An Essential Resource for Global Production Incentives (2012 and 2013-2014 Editions) in addition to EP Financial Solutions’ monthly production incentives newsletter and website at www.productionincentives.com. David Shall – Chief Operating Officer & General Counsel, Vuguru David C. Shall has been a digital media and television executive for over twenty-five years. David is currently Chief Operating Officer & General Counsel of Beverly Hills-based Vuguru LLC. Vuguru is the groundbreaking digital media and television studio founded by Michael Eisner, former Chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company, and backed by Rogers Media of Canada. Vuguru develops and finances original scripted shows for digital and television worldwide. David previously served as Executive Vice President, Business Operations/General Counsel, FremantleMedia North America, Inc., in Burbank, California, one of America’s foremost producers of reality-based entertainment programming, including AMERICAN IDOL (FOX), THE PRICE IS RIGHT (CBS), AMERICA’S GOT TALENT (NBC) and FAMILY FEUD (syndication). Prior to joining FremantleMedia in 2003, David was Executive Vice President, Business & Legal Affairs and New Business Development, Twentieth Television, in Los Angeles, California. He oversaw all business and Green Hasson Janks Entertainment Industry Forum October 29, 2013 InterContinental Los Angeles legal affairs for such Fox classics as AMERICA’S MOST WANTED, COPS and DIVORCE COURT. During his ten-year tenure at Twentieth, David also was responsible for all legal matters relating to the off-network syndication sales of Twentieth Century Fox television hits including THE X-FILES, MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE, THE SIMPSONS, NYPD BLUE and M*A*S*H. David received his B.A. in English and History and J.D. from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Adrian Ward – Senior Vice President, Entertainment Industries Division at Pacific Mercantile Bank Adrian joined the pioneering entertainment lender The Lewis Horwitz Organization (LHO) in 1991, where he was involved in the development and structuring of some of the first bank production loans based on international sales contracts. In the following years he was instrumental in the risk analysis that led to the first ever gap finance transactions and rapidly became one of the leading lenders within the unit. In 1998 Adrian returned to his hometown of London, England as LHO’s European Representative, where he specialized in packaging multi-party co-production transactions involving many of the available European tax incentives. Returning to Los Angeles in 2005 as the Portfolio Manager for ICB Entertainment Finance, he was responsible for oversight of production loans with an aggregate value of approx. $200,000,000. Titles funded at LHO/ICBEF included, “Big Fat Greek Wedding”, “Tristan & Isolde”, “Monster”, “The Illusionist”, and “The Tudors”. In April 2008, he became Senior Vice President of National Bank of California’s Entertainment, Sports & Media Department and provided financing for over 60 films, representing over $175,000,000 in production budgets, in over four years including “The Tempest”, “Red Dog” and “The Ward”. In January, 2013, Adrian joined Pacific Mercantile Bank (PMB) where he is tasked with building upon the bank’s existing entertainment portfolio to take advantage of the numerous relationships he has built over 21 years in the business. Adrian’s breadth of knowledge, amassed over approximately 700 film and TV transactions, gives PMB the ideal platform to become an industry-leading institution in the increasingly complex world of entertainment finance. Adrian, a UK native, is a permanent resident in Los Angeles and outside of work enjoys time with his family and on the golf course. Green Hasson Janks Entertainment Industry Forum October 29, 2013 InterContinental Los Angeles .