KEY-NOTE, FACULTY, AND GUEST SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

A crucial component of every NHC is the opportunity for participants to learn from and interact with leading professionals.  Here is a sampling of NHC guest speakers and faculty.

For a complete biography of each speaker, please scroll down the page or click on the individuals name.

Faculty and Guest Speakers

KEY-NOTE SPEAKERS

Claes Nobel

Mr. Nobel, a renowned champion of environmental stewardship, earth ethics, and youth leadership, has continued his family's legacy of recognizing and rewarding outstanding achievement. Mr. Nobel is a native of Sweden and member of the Nobel Prize family. A passionate proponent of humanitarian and environmental causes, he has worked tirelessly in his mission to help save the planet and its people. In 1974 he drafted The Nobel Laureates Declaration on the Survival of Mankind, signed by 78 Nobel Laureates advocating support for environmental protection and humanitarian leadership. He advises spiritual, political, and economic leaders on preserving the earth and preserving peace, as well as working to help instill these ideals in youth through education and example. Mr. Nobel has received a number of honors and awards, including the Clifford Messinger Memorial Award granted by the Nature Conservancy for outstanding and continued commitment to environmental stewardship. This commitment to life and to the earth exemplifies his faith that one person can and must make a difference.

Celia Sandys
Ms. Sandys is the grandaughter of Sir Winston Churchill and author of "We Shall Not Fail; The Inspiring Leadership of Winston Churchill" and the founder of Churchill Leadership. Ms. Sandys formed Churchill leadership in recognition of the fact that even sixty years after his death, Churchill continues to be an inspiration to us all. The principles Churchill employed to resolve the many and varied challenges he faced remain very relevant today and provide a strategic and effective behavioral based learning tool for leaders to be able to overcome any adversity and to succeed. Celia Sandys' vision in founding Churchill Leadership was to provide the opportunity for anyone who “aspires to lead,” to learn from Churchill's leadership principles.

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ACADEMIC DIRECTORS

Geoffrey K. Ahlholm, M.F.A. in Producing, UCLA
Executive Producer/Writer/Financial Analyst
After graduating with Distinction from the top ranked McIntire School of Commerce at The University of Virginia, Mr. Ahlholm began his professional career in New York as a financial analyst in Smith Barney’s mergers & acquisitions group, working on such high profile transactions as the bankruptcy restructuring of Federated & Allied Department Stores (Bloomingdale’s, Burdines, etc.).

In 1993, Mr. Ahlholm left the investment banking community to obtain an MFA in Producing from the prestigious UCLA Graduate School of Film, Theater and Television in Los Angeles. Among Mr. Ahlholm’s early screenwriting credits are the Lion King III assignment for Disney as well as the spec comedy script sale of Dickey Slaughter, Truant Officer to Wolfgang Peterson (Troy, A Perfect Storm). Mr. Ahlholm brought together all of his experiences when he co-founded the highly profitable, licensed merchandise companies, Living Toyz LLC and Stronghold Group, where Mr. Ahlholm has sold over $50 million in licensed merchandise worldwide, with products ranging from toys to apparel to promotional compact discs, on film & music licenses. Mr. Ahlholm currently focuses exclusively on one project – writing & producing The Ornaments’ Tale - a CGI animated film and anticipates a worldwide release of the film with all of its ancillary brand products in November 2007.

Jennifer A. Daskevich, J.D.
Ever since winning the High School Mock Trial State Championship in Utah, Ms. Daskevich has ardently pursued her love of advocacy. She graduated cum laude from Boston University School of Law and received the Book Award (Top Grade) in Trial Advocacy. Her team received Best Brief and advanced to the Semi-Final Round of the Albers National Moot Court Competition. She began her legal career in the Bronx District Attorney’s office where she argued before state and federal appellate court and conducted every phase of a criminal trial, from taking the initial complaint to interviewing witnesses, to making final presentations to the jury. She was a commercial litigator for the Ross Hardy firm in New York City including the areas of banking, lender liability, and fraud. She has taught trial advocacy, litigation procedure, and civil procedure at the law school level and has coached hundreds of students in Mock Trial. She is a judge for the Yale Mock Trial Invitational Tournament which hosts hundreds of college Mock Trial competitiors.  She is licensed in New York and California and is a member of the American Bar Association and the California Bar Association.

Houman Hemmati, M.D., PhD. (May 2006)
Houman Hemmati received his degree in Biological Sciences from Stanford University where he worked on bone marrow stem cells. He is an MD-PhD student at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the California Institute of Technology. He is researching the role of stem cells in human brain tumors. Mr. Hemmati is a former student member of a medical school admissions committee. He is a reviewing editor of the medical school admissions guidebook entitled Get Into Medical School: A Strategic Approach. His honors include: 2005 Ophthalmology Letter of Distinction; 2005 Second Place Prize Winner, Stanford Biotechnology Competition; 2005 National Academic Excellence Award, APSIH; 2004 Everhard Distinguished Lecturer, California Institute of Technology; 2004 Inaugural National Brain Tumor Research Award, Baldoceda Memorial Foundation; 1999 McCallum Fund Fellowship, California Institute of Technology; 1999 Developmental Biology Research Award, WSMRF; 1998 Medical Scientist Training Program Fellowship.

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FACULTY AND GUEST SPEAKERS

Michael Beller – Marketing and Brand Management
Co-Founder and Partner – Beacon Networks
Mr. Bellar received his B.A. with academic honors from the University of Virginia. Mr. Beller began his career at NBC Television where he became the Manager of Network Marketing and Promotion. His projects included managing the Toyota promotion for the Jerry Seinfeld comedy tour. Next, he worked for America Online as the Manager of Interactive Marketing where he built marketing and promotion strategies increasing awareness and revenue, managing high-level brand partnerships including JC Penney, Ford, and other Fortune 500 brands. He then moved onto Citysearch where he was National Advertising and Sponsorship Director and managed account teams and client relationships with Hallmark, Ford and other major brands. At ABC Television he was Senior Director of Marketing and Promotion where he focused on execution of brand strategy and promotions to increase show awareness and advertising revenue from ABC Sponsors. Among other projects, he executed the season launch of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire by integrating on-air spots, print advertising, and a comprehensive email campaign.

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Colin Goldman – Management Consultant/Writer
Mr. Goldman holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Yale University and a Masters in Business Administration from The Anderson School at UCLA, where he was both a Business Communications Teaching Assistant and honored as the graduate school’s Sanford Sigiloff Scholar (Top Student in Class). Mr. Goldman has also completed extensive coursework in Screenwriting and Film Production through the UCLA Graduate School of Theater, Film, and Television, UCLA Extension Programs, and Georgetown University Professional Extension Programs.

Mr. Goldman began his career as a management consultant and business advisor for both mature and emerging business ventures in the entertainment, digital media, telecommunication, and government sectors with clients that included film production companies, music labels, Litton Industries/R&D, Bell South, and AGT (Alberta Government Telephone). Mr. Goldman has broad experience in business areas such as Business Planning and Development, Operations Management and Process Reengineering, Intellectual Property Licensing, Product Development, and Retail and Commercial Market Planning. Mr. Goldman also spent three years as a contractor for the U.S. Department of Defense in areas of organizational and operations improvement during the initial transition of the post-Cold War.

Mr. Goldman is also a veteran screenwriter with extensive experience in the creation of family audience action-comedy features. Directly out of UCLA Graduate School, Mr. Goldman was granted representation by leading literary agents at William Morris Agency, and with his writing partner, Jeffrey Ahlholm, subsequently sold the screenplay Dickey Slaughter, Truant Officer to Deep River Productions (Big Momma’s House, The Honeymooners) with Academy-Award nominated Wolfgang Peterson (Air Force One, The Perfect Storm, Troy) attached to produce. Mr. Goldman has also been retained by Disney Animation to script and provide comedic polish scripts for numerous major direct-to-video titles including The Lion King III, Return to Neverland, 102 Dalmatians, Mickey’s Twice Upon a Christmas, and Disney’s Three Musketeers.

Gregory Jbara - Actor
Mr. Jbara transferred from the University of Michigan School of Music musical theatre program to complete his BFA in acting at the Juilliard School.

His credits include various Broadway, film, television and commercial appearances. He is currently starring as 'Andre' in the Broadway musical comedy Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, also starring John Lithgow, Norbert Leo Butz, Sherie Rene Scott, Joanna Gleason, and Sara Gettelfinger.

Mr. Jbara starred on Broadway as 'Billy Flynn' in the Tony Award winning revival of Chicago, originated the role of 'Squash Bernstein' in the Broadway musical Victor/Victoria, starring Julie Andrews and originated the role of the dimwitted catcher,'Sohovik' in the Broadway revival of Damn Yankees! starring Bebe Neuwirth, Victor Garber and Jerry Lewis.

Some of Mr. Jbara's many film and television credits include: The Out of Towners, Michael Hoffman’s film adaptation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Nights Dream with Michelle Pfeiffer, Kevin Cline and Rupert Evert, The First 20 Million is Always the Hardest, Friends, Without a Trace, The West Wing, Touched by an Angel, Crossing Jordan, Providence, Grounded for Life, Ally McBeal, Malcolm in the Middle, Yes Dear, Frasier, The Drew Carey Show, and Newhart.

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Jim Keegan, CFO Lions Gate Entertainment
Mr. Keegan plays an expanded role in financial management, planning and forecasting, liaison with banks and other institutions within the financial community and continued implementation of streamlined and centralized state-of-the-art accounting systems.

From September 1998 to April 2002, Mr. Keegan was the Chief Financial Officer of Artisan Entertainment. From April 1989 to March 1990, he was Controller of Trimark Pictures and from March 1990 to August 1998, he was the Chief Financial Officer of Trimark Pictures.

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Cynthia A. Lock, J.D.
Cynthia A. Lock is a partner in the law firm of McDermott Will & Emery LLP, based in the Los Angeles office. She is a member of the Intellectual Property, Media & Technology Department, where her practice focuses on intellectual property litigation and complex commercial and business litigation.

Ms. Lock has worked on a variety of cases with issues involving trademark and trade dress infringement, patent infringement, right of publicity, false advertising, antitrust and unfair competition, civil RICO, lender liability, conversion and bank fraud. Ms. Lock’s experience includes extensive work at all stages of litigation.

Ms. Lock is a co-author of "Protecting Your Corporate Client’s Most Valuable Intangible Asset: Its Name," 67 Defense Counsel Journal 285 (July 2000), “Computer Technology in Litigation,” International Legal Strategy, July 2001, Vol. X-7 and “Patent Litigation in the United States After China's Admission to the World Trade Organization,” International Legal Strategy, February 2002, Vol. XI-2. She is admitted to practice before the state courts of California, Maryland and the District of Columbia, all federal district courts in California, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court. She is also a member of the American Bar Association, the California State Bar Association, the Maryland State Bar Association, the District of Columbia Bar Association, the Los Angeles Intellectual Property Law Association and the Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles.

Keith DeWayne Lupton, CPA

Keith DeWayne Lupton is a partner in the major accounting firm of Ernst and Young.  He received his B.A. in Business Economics from University of California, Santa Barbara and began his accounting career at Arthur Anderson.  In 2002 he joined Ernst and Young and provides AABS assurance services to banking, asset management, and insurance company clients. 

Olu K. Orange, J.D.
Mr. Orange attended civil rights mecca Howard University in Washington D.C. for both his undergraduate and law degrees. Orange amassed an impressive array of accolades including recognition as an American Mock Trial Association All-American Attorney, the Huver I. Brown Medal for Excellence in Trial Advocacy, the Earl Davis Award for Excellence in Public Interest Advocacy and two consecutive Lewis F. Powell Medals for Excellence in Trial Advocacy from the American College of Trial Lawyers and the American Bar Association. Mr. Orange also served as an Adjunct Coach of Howard University's Mock Trial Team. His students captured two AMTA National Championship Titles and consistently ranked in the top-ten during his three year tenure.

Mr. Orange co-founded the USC Mock Trial Team and serves as it’s Head Coach. The Team is ranked among the top five programs in the United States. As an educator, Mr. Orange is committed to spreading the availability of instructional trial advocacy nationwide. To that end, he serves as a member of the National Board of Directors of the American Mock Trial Association.

As a practitioner, Mr. Orange handles criminal and civil litigation out of his Santa Monica law office and serves as a Grade I Felony Attorney with the Los Angeles County Indigent Criminal Defense Appointments Panel. Recently, Mr. Orange was elected to serve as a member of the Executive Board of the Los Angeles Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, one of America's most progressive human rights legal organizations.

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Don Spielvogel – Corporate Executive/Animation Producer
Inspired by Walt Disney’s “last dream” for a prototype city of the future, Mr. Spielvogel became part of Disney’s super-secretive and highly creative subsidiary, Walt Disney Imagineering, where he spent eleven years in financial and production management capacities, working on such projects as EPCOT Center, TokyoDisneyland, Star Tours, The Disney-MGM Studio Tour, and EuroDisneyland. In 1995, Mr. Spielvogel joined computer graphics animation pioneer company USAnimation as its Chief Financial Officer. With USAnimation, Mr. Spielvogel was instrumental in bringing to market today’s top choice software tools among digital animators. Following the sale of USAnimation’s products division to ToonBoom Technologies, Mr. Spielvogel became the Vice President and General Manager of the remaining animation services company and was subsequently promoted to President.

During his tenure, the Company completed production on over 700 projects, ranging from animated commercials and promotional media, to CD Interactive, television series episodes, and feature motion pictures.  Clients included Disney, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Warner Bros., DreamWorks, Columbia Tri-Star, and 20th Century Fox.  Mr. Spielvogel served as President of VirtualMagic Animation from 1998 to 2003. In 1999 Mr. Spielvogel launched VirtualMagic Asia in order to take on the DreamWorks sequel to Prince of Egypt called Joseph, King of Dreams. Other projects under his management included The PowerPuff Girls Movie, Jerry Seinfeld’s appearance with “Superman” for American Express, and Michael Jordan with "Bugs Bunny" for MCI.

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Kieran Turner, M.F.A. in Film, NYU
Kieran Turner was born in Hollywood, Florida, and moved to New York City at the age of sixteen to attend the Undergraduate Drama Program at Playwrights Horizons through New York University. After two years, he switched to the film program, where he was Executive Producer and Head Writer for the weekly radio drama show Headphone Theatre, broadcast on WNYU FM 89.9.  He also produced the short film Against the Wind, starring members of the MTV comedy troupe,The State, and two PSAs for The American Cancer Society, both of which ran on national television in the summer of 1992.

After graduating with a BFA in film from NYU, he signed up for a second tour of duty, attending the Graduate Film Program at NYU and received his MFA in Film in 1999.  While there, he wrote, produced and directed the short films Momentary Lapses and Romeo’s Flavor. Both shorts went on to play the festival circuit throughout 1995 and 1996. During this time, Kieran also worked with indie film producers Christine Vachon, Ira Deutchmann and James Schamus & Ted Hope through NYU’s mentoring and intern program. He also took on various line producing and production management positions on shorts and student films, earning a 1999 NYU Wasserman Craft Award for Excellence in Production Management for the short film Penned.

For his graduate thesis, Kieran wrote, produced and directed his first feature film, 24 Nights, starring Aida Turturro, Kevin Isola, Stephen Mailer, David Burtka and Mary Louise Wilson. The film went on to be an instant festival hit, playing over fifty festivals worldwide and garnering 8 festival audience awards. The script also won the Final Draft Screenplay Award at the Rhode Island International Film Festival and took first runner-up in the NYU Wasserman Awards for Best Screenplay 1996. The film was picked up for distribution by TLA Releasing in early 2001 and is now available on video and DVD, with broadcast negotiations in the works.

Since moving to Los Angeles, Kieran has studied television writing at UCLA and one of his spec scripts for the show Gilmore Girls was a top three finalist in the Austin Heart of Film Screenwriter’s Competition for best dramatic teleplay.  From the ages of 6-16 Kieran was a professional actor appearing in countless commercials and many ‘70s and ‘80s television shows.

Greg Vogel – Brand Marketing Professional
Mr. Vogel has extensive experience in branding. His background includes creating product brand identities for corporate clients in technology, biomedicine, entertainment and consumer goods. Mr. Vogel’s television experience includes work as a writer-research for Discovery Communications International, where he handled projects for both Discovery Channel and The Learning Channel. He developed new television projects as a consulting producer for ABC/Kane, a documentary division of ABC Television, and worked in various capacities for production companies under contract to Fox, TLC and United Television, including the daily syndicated series Strange Universe.

** NHC strives to ensure all the activities and faculty described here are available. However, local scheduling conflicts, weather, or other circumstances beyond our control, may require similar substitutions in some instances.

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