2011-2012 Board of Directors

Chair
Martin Katz
An internet pioneer, Martin Katz was employee number 3 at Microsoft's MSN Canada where, as executive producer, he created the first episodic "web-umentary." The web-based documentary entitled Splice examined the work of Marshall McLuhan in the context of a society in transition from an analogue to a digital world. He developed and produced innovative interactive programming in collaboration with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Carol Shields, celebrated director David Cronenberg and comedians Jean-Guy Moreau and Rick Mercer. He also created the first 3-D internet experience, a Halloween special based on the successful YTV kids' series, Freaky Stories.
Katz holds degrees in law from the Universities of Toronto and Paris and has served as professor of law at the University of Moncton and Special Lecturer in Intellectual Property Law at the University of Toronto.

Barry Avrich
President
Endeavour
Barry Avrich, Toronto, Ontario. Born in Montreal, Quebec. Barry Avrich has been a marketing executive and film and television director/producer for over 25 years. As President of Endeavour, Barry has been responsible for hundreds of cultural marketing campaigns including TIFF, Luminato, AGO and the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Barry is also the author of three marketing books including the best selling SELLING THE SIZZLE: The Magic and Logic of Entertainment Marketing. As a film director and producer Barry is known for such acclaimed films The Last Mogul, Unauthorized: Inside Harvey Weinstein and The Tempest and Caesar Cleopatra. Barry is also a director of The Toronto International Film Festival Group, and the Canadian Opera Company.

Jonas Diamond
Executive Producer
Smiley Guy Studios
Jonas Diamond is the Executive Producer of Smiley Guy Studios and CEO of iThentic. Jonas joined up with the Guys as a contractor in the fall of 1999 and successfully arranged financing for and managed the company’s development of Odd Job Jack. For more than a decade, Jonas has been instrumental in growing the company’s production business as well as arranging financing for its many original shows.
Jonas is producer of the award-winning animated series Odd Job Jack (52x30). The series received a Gemini, CFTPA Indie, Banff Rockie and Canada New Media Award for Best Cross Platform Project. Additional Accolades for Odd Job Jack include a nomination for Best Interactive Program and Best Animated Show at the Banff Rockie Awards, Best Convergent Project by the Banff Institute as well as multiple Gemini and Canadian Comedy Award nominations. Jonas' producer credits include Odd Job Jack, Hotbox and Bigfoot for The Comedy Network / CTV, Pillars of Freedom for TVO, Turbo Dogs for CBC / Qubo, The Dating Guy, skatoony, Sons of Butcher and the upcoming GeoFreakZ MMOG for Teletoon, The World of Bruce McCall for CBC, and the interactive storyteller Legends of Me as well as many other projects for various platforms.

Anne Fitzgerald
Chief Legal Officer
Cineplex Inc.
Anne oversees all legal and government relations issues for Cineplex Inc., having joined the company in 2004 in order to direct the acquisition of Famous Players, making Cineplex the largest theatre exhibition company in Canada. Since that time, she has directed multiple other acquisitions and divestitures, public offerings, credit arrangements and litigation matters. As a member of the Cineplex executive team, she is heavily involved in business matters, including the creation of the SCENE Loyalty Program, the development of the Metropolitan Opera alternative programming series, the development of the Cineplex Store and the development of captioning and descriptive technologies to make movies accessible to the hearing and visually impaired. She was also instrumental in the passage of Canada’s anti-camcording legislation.
Anne has been licensed to practice law since 1990 and has practiced in North Carolina, Illinois, New York and Ontario in areas of commercial and criminal litigation as well as corporate securities and entertainment. She has produced theatre both in the US and in Canada and has twice been a finalist for the National Post/ZSA General Counsel of the Year Awards. Anne holds her undergraduate degree as well as a Juris Doctorate from Duke University and attended the Harvard University Kennedy School of Business for leadership studies. She also has the ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors managed by the University of Toronto Rotman School of Business.

Bryan Gliserman
Co-President
Entertainment One Films Canada
A veteran of the Canadian film industry, Bryan Gliserman brings more than 25 years of distribution experience to the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. Bryan is currently Co-President of Entertainment One Films Canada where he oversees development, acquisitions, marketing and sales. Recent successes include BARNEY’S VERSION, INCENDIES, GNOMEO AND JULIET and THE TWILIGHT SAGA.
He previously served as president of Odeon Films, a division of Alliance Films, where he oversaw all aspects of distribution during a fourteen year tenure that included the release of BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, EASTERN PROMISES and ATONEMENT.
Bryan’s background in film in distribution also includes positions at Orion Pictures, Columbia Pictures, MGM/UA and Telefilm Canada. He is currently Co Chairman of CAFDE, the Canadian Association of Film Distributors and Exporters.

Robin Mirsky
Executive Director
Rogers Group of Funds
Robin Mirsky is Executive Director of the Rogers Group of Funds. Robin joined Rogers Communications in 1989 as the Project Coordinator for Rogers Telefund, the interim financing fund established by Rogers to assist in the production of high-quality Canadian programming.
Today Robin Mirsky is responsible for - the Rogers Telefund which has approximately $34 million available for bridge financing for Canadian programs. The Rogers Documentary Fund, with a budget of $2,000,000 per year, has given grants to more than 300 Canadian documentary films. The Rogers Cable Network Fund an equity investment fund for Canadian cable channels will infuse an estimated $8 - $10 million annually into Canadian independent production.
Robin also sits on a number of industry related Boards such as the Banff World Media Festival and the Canadian Film Centre. She is currently co-chair of the Board of Hot Docs Documentary Film Festival in Toronto.

Gabriel (Gabe) Nachman FCA, ICD.D
Retired Partner
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
Gabe is a retired partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) and one of its predecessor firms, Coopers & Lybrand (C&L). During his 38 years with PwC / C&L he served as the National Chair of the C&L Retail and Distribution Services Group from 1986 to 1998, The Partner-in-Charge of the C&L North York office from 1988 to 1998 and the National Leader of PwC’s Entertainment and Media Services Group from 1998 to 2002 and from 2005 to 2007.
He had partner responsibility for such well known public company clients in the Entertainment and Media sectors as Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc., Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., CanWest Global Communications Corp., DHX Entertainment Inc. and Cineplex Entertainment. Gabe is a Past National President of B’Nai Brith Canada and currently serves on its Board of Governors. He also serves on the Boards of Portage Program For Drug Dependencies (Ontario), Applied Inventions Management Inc., Danbell Industries Inc. and The Foundation Group Worldwide LLC.

Mary Powers
President
MPowers CommunicationsP
Mary Powers is President MPowers Communications, specializing in strategic communications and brand management for media companies, producers and content distributors in the domestic and international marketplace. Powers enjoyed a long and prominent career in broadcasting with CHUM Limited, where she directed all Communications as well as Investor Relations and Corporate Sponsorship for the publicly traded company. She then became SVP Corporate Communications for Canada's leading broadcaster CTVglobemedia (now Bell Media), prior to launching her own firm.

A marketing and communications veteran who has been recognized for her support of the media industry, Mary has been active on numerous industry boards, including serving as Chair of The Banff World Television Festival Foundation, Chair of the international marketing and promotion association PROMAX, as well as past board member of CWC and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. She also served as Chair of the Communications Committee for the Canadian Association of Broadcasters and was a member of the Toronto International Film Festival Marketing Committee. Mary is currently a board member of the Rogers Documentary and Cable Fund and the National Screen Institute (NSI).

Gary Slaight
President/CEO
Slaight Communications Inc.
Gary Slaight is President and Chief Executive Officer of Slaight Communications and President of Slaight Music. He is on the Board of Directors of ACCT, TIFF, GlassBOX, MapleMusic and Berklee College of Music.
Born in Edmonton, Alberta, Slaight has been a key player in Canadian media since he joined McLaren Advertising in 1973. He was Promotion Manager at both Quality Records and at WEA Records and finished his tenure at the Toronto radio station, Q107 (’77-’87) as VP and General Manager/Program Director.
Gary was CEO of Standard Radio and President/CEO Standard Broadcasting Corporation Limited from 1987 to 2007. In 2007, when all the assets of Standard Radio were sold to Astral Media, he formed Slaight Communications which now holds minority equity interest in Haliburton Broadcasting Group, MapleMusic, Sirius Canada, GlassBox Television, RockPeaks, The Fight Network, Social Game Universe, Virgin Gaming, and pop.com.
He also recently started Slaight Music which fosters Canadian Talent through a variety of strategic investments. As well, Gary oversees The Slaight Family Foundation.

Mark Slone
SVP
Alliance Films Inc.
Mark Slone is the Senior Vice President for Alliance Films. He is a graduate of McGill University with a background in community radio and arts. He specializes in acquisitions and communications for wide release, Canadian, genre and arthouse films. He has recently served as a Board Director for the Images Festival and the Toronto Jewish Film Society and provides marketing guidance and mentorship for a number of emerging filmmakers. He lives in Toronto with his wife and daughter.

Kevin Wright
Senior Vice President
Astral Television Networks
Kevin Wright is Senior Vice-President of Astral Television Networks, a division of Astral Media. In this role, Wright oversees the acquisition, commissioning and scheduling of programming for The Movie Network, HBO Canada, Mpix, Family Channel, Disney Junior and Disney XD. The original programming teams under Wright have created many hours of popular and award-winning programming including Life with Derek, Stella and Sam, Call Me Fitz and Durham County. Wright originally joined the Astral team in December 1995 as Vice President of Programming for Family Channel. Simultaneous to this responsibility, Wright was also Vice President of Programming for the animation specialty channel TELETOON(November 1996 to October 2001).
Prior to Astral Television Networks, Wright worked for more than six years at YTV. He was Paragon International’s Manager of Operations and once worked in Telefilm Canada’s Creative Affairs Department. Wright started his career as a camera assistant. Wright is on the Board of Directors for Astral Media The Harold Greenberg Fund. He received the Alliance for Children and Television “Outstanding Achievement Award” in 2005. Wright graduated from McGill University in 1981 with a B.A. in Psychology and holds a B.A.A. in Motion Picture Production from Ryerson.

John Young
Managing Director
Temple Street Productions
John Young was born and raised in Loch Lomond, Scotland and graduated from the University of Dundee with an LLB (honors). He also received a Diploma in Legal Practice from Glasgow University. Mr. Young is the Managing Director of Temple Street Productions, one of Canada’s leading television production companies; producing shows such as Being Erica, Wingin’ It, Canada’s Next Top Model and Recipe to Riches. In addition to running Temple Street’s day to day operations, John has spearheaded the company’s move into branded content and digital media, acting as the lead on deals with some of Canada’s largest brands, while forging new relationships with leading digital agencies.
Mr. Young previously served as Managing Director of OMERS Private Equity. Mr. Young is a graduate of the Directors Governance College at University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Business. He is Vice Chairman of the Toronto International Film Festival Group’s Steering Committee, and in 2005 was voted as one of Canada’s top 40 under 40 in-house counsel. He enjoys sports with his family especially golf and soccer. At University he represented his country at soccer going on to spend time as a professional soccer player prior to practicing law.