Management Team
John Diaz, Chief Executive Officer
From his start as a non-paid stage manager at the original Woodstock, John has enjoyed a nearly 40 year career in music & video production and distribution. With the advent of new distribution platforms for music in the early 1980’s, like the dawn of MTV and the explosion of music videos as a medium and art form, John established himself as one of the leading producers of music videos & events for broadcast throughout the 90’s. Mr. Diaz has produced domestic and international TV for some of the largest music events in history, including specials with Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Sting, The Rolling Stones and many others. Turning to the Internet as an emerging content distribution technology in the 90’s, he was part of the forefront of today’s digital media. John has focused his energies on bringing music and other digital content distribution to the Internet, first as a founding employee of mp3.com, then as EVP of Vivendi/Universal’s Internet arm, VUNET.
Eric Mitchell, Chief Financial Officer
Eric has over 20 years of financial, business development, and strategic planning experience in the motion picture industry. Mr. Mitchell’s acquisition and financial talents helped Sony Pictures’ Tri-Star division acquire theatrical distribution rights to such hits as Cliffhanger, Sniper, Threesome, and Weekend at Bernie’s 2. Mitchell assisted Tri-Star in acquiring multi-picture distribution rights with Carolco Pictures; the deal generated $250 million in profit for the studio and led to such hits as LA Story, Universal Soldier, The Doors, Total Recall, Basic Instinct and Terminator 2. As an advisor to Ascendant Pictures and VIP Media Fund, the largest German tax fund, Eric participated in placing over $500 million dollars in production financing into 46 feature films. Mr. Mitchell is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and received his M.S. in Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School.
Andy Morahan, Creative Director
Andy Morahan began his prolific career directing videos for the likes of Kim Wilde, Pet Shop Boys, Wham, George Michael amongst others. He then spent the next decade at various ’top end’ Production Co’s like Vivid, RSA/Black Dog, Propaganda etc directing even bigger videos and artists; these included: Guns’n Roses, Aerosmith, Michael Jackson, Van Halen, Bon Jovi, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Billy Joel, Tears for Fears and more George Michael. This phase of his career culminated in many MTV Awards including Best Director for ‘Father Figure’ and Best Video for ‘November Rain’.
After that he returned to London and teamed up with Producer Laura Gregory at Great Guns to direct his ground breaking GUESS? Jeans Ad featuring Juliette Lewis and Harry Dean Stanton; this won over 60 awards worldwide including 5 D&AD’s and 6 Clios and a Silver Lion at Cannes. This launched Andy’s Commercials career, which he’s been pursuing ever since; his client list includes Ford, Carling, Lynx, Bacardi, Barclays, Vodafone, VW, Canon, Toyota, Head & Shoulders, and Remington.
In 2002 after stints at Weiland’s and Harry Nash, Andy formed his own Commercials and Music Video Co with his Exec Producing partner Kate Elson called Bikini Films, which has already become on of the top companies in London in both fields. More recently Andy directed JLS: Eyes Wide Open 3D, the Bikini-produced concert documentary of JLS’s recent UK tour which exceeded all expectations by breaking into the UK cinema box office charts at number 5 following its opening weekend of release.
Bob Johnston, Executive Vice President
Bob Johnston's experiences in 3D production have included developing budgeting scenarios, scheduling and logistics plans and embracing post-production workflows for over 300 stereoscopic projects, as well as the technical development and consultation of several hardware appliances for capture and playback of stereoscopic media for public and private theaters. Produced 3D projects have included live action feature programming for IMAX, Disney, Lionsgate, Nu Image and Technicolor additionally he has consulted with 3D productions for Discovery, World Wrestling Federation (WWF), and dozens of other independent producers, studios and 3D acquisition and post production technology concerns. Bob has helped enable the 3D market in Korea with Skylife 3D and TV Globo in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and has participated on numerous 3D conference panels and 3D market awareness events in Los Angeles, Berlin, Seoul, Tokyo and London. Bob's live event experiences included Physical Production and Promotion of numerous Music Festivals, large scale Multi-Day events and over 1000 Concerts including large scale multi-day events, including Fleetwood Mac, The Police, Kansas, Styx, Journey, Kiss, Rush, Ozzy Ozbourne, Loverboy, Barry Manilow, among dozens of other top 40 Acts, as well as early tour development of the first solo tours of Michael Jackson and Lionel Ritchie. Additionally, he has garnered international Feature Film, Television , Music Video and Commercial project development and production experiences as a Producer, Associate Producer, Production Manager or Production Supervisor with projects for Disney, MTV, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Dreamworks, Imagine, Walden Media, Dektor and Associates and dozens of other independent production entities. Key projects have includes: “Alien Resurrection”, “Around the World in 80 Days”, the pilot for the international hit TV series “24”, the mini-series “Son Of The Morning Star” among others.
Wendy Haviland, Vice President of Operations