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W. Johan Sturm
President of Animated Family Films
Johan offers Animated Family Films leadership and experience built up over four successful decades in various international businesses. He trained as an accountant, but his entrepreneurial instincts led him into his own business endeavors following his training. To date, these have included, a national fastfood franchise chain and extensive property development in South Africa, amongst others.
Johan launched his first film company, Eternal Productions, in 1997, and has subsequently built distribution companies in the United States, South Africa, Australia and England with an international network of preferred partners. Johan has also produced a number of documentary films, including The Lazarus Phenomenon, which has been seen by literally millions of viewers across the world. Furthermore, he was the Executive Producer of The Silent Fall, a live-action feature film completed in June, 2006 and due to be released over the next year.
Since 2004, Johan has focused his attention on the animation genre almost exclusively. This is partly because of the close working relationships that he has developed with Sunrise Productions and other international studios, and partly due to the realization that CG animation features enjoy significant commercial
advantage over live-action film. Thus, Animated Family Films and Sunrise Productions share a common vision, and our first feature, The Lion of Judah, has progressed from concept to reality.
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Phil Cunningham
Vice President & Chief Operations Officer
In his mid-twenties, Phil owned and managed a highly successful international trading company, supplying a wide range of products into 8 countries. However, his passion since childhood was storytelling, and his conviction was that film is the world’s favorite media for stories. In 1999 he produced Africa’s first animated feature film, The Legend of the Sky Kingdom. In 2001 he produced the CG short, Always Take the Weather with You, which has won awards at several of the world’s leading animation festivals, including Zagreb and Brazil. This became the pilot for the acclaimed series – Jungle Beat, which has been distributed in 170 countries to date.
Phil has also produced Once Upon a Stable, a 22-minute Christmas special and The Silent Fall, a live action feature film.
Currently he is producing the full length feature CGI animation THE LION OF JUDAH scheduled for release 2008 worldwide.
He is also a gifted writer, having written the screenplays for The Legend of the Sky Kingdom and The Silent Fall, and has also written two novels. Phil has built a team of outstanding artists, animators and writers in Cape Town, South Africa.
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Ron Logan
Chief Creative Officer ce President
Ron Logan is the former Executive Vice President, Executive Producer, for Walt Disney Entertainment. (Now Walt Disney Creative Entertainment) He was responsible for creating, casting, and producing all live entertainment products for The Walt Disney Company, including the Disneyland Resort, the Walt Disney World Resort, Tokyo Disney Resort, Disneyland Resort Paris, The Disney Institute, Disney Business Productions, Disney Cruise Line, Disney Entertainment Productions, and Walt Disney Entertainment Worldwide. He was also Executive Vice President of the Walt Disney Special Events Group, Executive Vice President of Disney Special Programs, Incorporated and the first President & Founder of Disney Theatrical Productions, which produced Disney's "Beauty and the Beast - A New Musical" on Broadway and around the world.
Ron holds both BA and MA degrees in Music and Music Education from UCLA. Ron was a founding member of the International Foundation for Jazz institution of clasical music, a corporate advisory council established in support of the International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE). He is a board member of the Orlando Repertory Theatre (UCF), serves on the Board of Directors (USA) for the Famous People Players (Canada) and the International Theatre in Long Beach, California. He is an Associate Professor at The University of Central Florida, Rosen College of Hospitality Management and Vice President of Special Events for the University of Central Florida. He has been a performer, a high school and college teacher, a conductor, and a music industry professional. Growing up in Leavenworth, Kansas, he studied trumpet, violin, piano, and dance. He began performing professionally in the U.S. when he was in the ninth grade, has played in bands and orchestras nationwide. He has also performed as a trumpet player and singer on recordings, television, motion pictures, and with name bands and lounge acts throughout the United States.
Ron has authored "Walt Disney Entertainment- A Retrospective Look", a written resource documenting the evolution of Walt Disney Entertainment from 1955 through 2000.
On October 10, 2007, Ron Logan was honored at The Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California, with the Disney Legends Award for Parks and Resorts. This prestigious award is presented to individuals who have made a significant impact on The Walt Disney Company over the years. |
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Robert Kohn
Chief Financial Officer & Board Advisor
Robert Kohn has founded, co-founded and led three start-up public
companies – National Market NASDAQ and NYSE; to combined
market capitalizations of over $1.5 billion. He has developed and
negotiated more than 25 acquisitions and over 100 strategic
alliances, licenses and joint ventures, facilitated equity raises
exceeding $250 million, and negotiated debt facilities totaling over
$200 million.
Kohn co-founded the private company AssetTrade in January 2000
and served as chairman and CEO, raising over $50 million in equity.
AssetTrade merged into GoIndustry.com in 2002.
At Exelon
Electric & Gas (1996-1999), rated the No. 1 electric utility by Forbes
in March 2006, he founded and was named president of the Exelon
subsidiary Energy Trading (Entrade.com). Kohn merged Entrade.
com into the Artra Group, a NYSE company, and built it from a $27
million market cap valuation to over $800 million within one year. |
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Lester A (Les) Wilson
Chief Marketing Officer
Mr. Wilson is the founding member of Licensed 2 Thrill, LLC., the
Atlanta based Licensing agency that is responsible for implementing
the international licensing program for Animated Family Films.
From the mid 1970s until the late 1990s, Wilson served as President
of Wilson Marketing, a promotional marketing agency in Atlanta
Georgia.
The agencies’ clients consisted of The Coca-Cola
Company, The Kellogg Company, Valvoline Motor Oil and Shell
Oil, USA. During his tenure he was instrumental in the development
of the national roll out program for the introduction of Diet Coke,
The Coca-Cola Olympic Pin Trading Program and the development
of the Kellogg’s NASCAR Team. In 1994 the agency was
award the prestigious “REGGIE” award for producing one of the 10
Best Promotions of the Year.
The award winning promotion was a
cross promotion between NBC and The Kellogg Company.
It was featured by “Ad Age Magazine” as arguably the largest
promotion in history.
Mr. Wilson will complete his MBA from Southern Polytechnic
University in Marietta Georgia in 2008 and holds a Bachelor of
Science Degree from Jacksonville State University in Jacksonville,
Alabama. He has served in the US Army as a Military Policeman
during the Vietnam conflict.
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Andre Marais
Assistant Financial Officer
Andre has been the C.E.O. of Sandton Management Services
for the last 10 years. Andre has a long experience in accounting
and has been the Financial Advisor for various U.S. and international
companies. Aside from Sandton Management Services,
Andre also holds the position of A.F.O. for Animated Family
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