Governing Board

He holds BS and MS degees from Rochester Institute of Technology. Alex has played a key role in developing and implementing the ACES color management system and the Spectral Sensitivity Index, earning him and his teams several awards, including a Primetime Engineering Emmy in 2012 and the SMPTE Workflow Systems Medal in 2022. Alex is a member of SMPTE and the United States delegation to ISO TC-36 where he has authored numerous SMPTE standards. Prior to his time at the Academy, Alex worked in the New Business Initiatives division of Intel, and the Eastman Kodak Research and Development Labs.

Brady is Director of Global Outreach and Engagement for Microsoft Azure’s Gaming and Media vertical. In this role she leads industry engagement on the opportunities for cloud technologies to empower and support all content creators, studios, game creators, advertisers, broadcasters and distributors.

Buzz Hays is the Global Lead for Entertainment Industry Solutions at Google Cloud. He is a certified Google Cloud Professional Solutions Architect who is an expert in technology solutions for media and entertainment. His expertise extends into advanced imaging production and technology in visual effects (VFX), immersive technologies (AR/VR), high frame rate, high dynamic range, and stereoscopic platforms for film, television, and gaming. Before joining Google, Buzz served as Head of Product at Lytro, Inc, where he led the team in developing light field imaging camera systems for motion pictures, television, and immersive media. Buzz is a leader in the entertainment industry and is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS),  and currently serves as a member of the Science and Technology Council for AMPAS. As an entertainment industry leader, he spearheaded Sony Corporation’s worldwide 3D effort in research & development for film, television, and gaming, and he created Sony’s 3D Technology Center. While at Sony, he produced and consulted on numerous VFX / 3D live-action and animated productions with major film and music artists including, Baz Luhrmann, Martin Scorsese, Ang Lee, Ridley Scott, Barry Sonnenfeld, Will Smith, Taylor Swift, and Kenny Chesney. He produced VFX and stereoscopic 3D films for Disney, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. and The Weinstein Company. He managed 3D software development for Imageworks’ pipelines while at Sony. Buzz began his career at Lucasfilm as Director of Engineering where he led the research and development efforts under George Lucas at the THX Division. He continues to consult on developing next-generation image and sound technologies. Buzz has lectured on the subjects of advanced imaging, visual effects, and 3D, has trained over 3,000 cinematographers, directors, and producers in new entertainment technologies. Buzz has also spoken at influential media and entertainment conferences around the world. He is the Chairman of the Advanced Imaging Society and is a member of industry professional organizations including, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), Sports Video Broadcasting Group (SVG), and the Hollywood Professional Association (HPA).

Chris Hall is Director Of Software Development at AMD

Colette is a Member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, Science and Technology Council and is a Senior R&D Engineer at Industrial Light & Magic.

Darin joined Animal Logic in 2018 as the Group Chief Technology Officer. Darin is responsible for the company’s technology strategy, with a focus on content management, production pipelines and workflows across Animal Logic’s multiple locations. Darin has over 25 years of experience in the industry, holding a variety of senior positions as a technologist across both Visual Effects and Animation.

Prior to Animal Logic, Darin was the Global CTO at Method Studios and Digital Domain where he drove innovation and operational excellence across engineering and operations. He has also spent considerable time consulting both in and outside of the industry for companies such as Autodesk, Foundry, Solid Angle, Chaos Group, Google, and TouchCast.

Darin also worked for six years as DreamWorks Animation’s Head of Production Technology. During this time, Darin was responsible for providing guidance to key departments to maintain and enhance the unified pipeline across multiple projects during the various stages of production.

Darin is a member of the Visual Effects Society as well as serving on its Technology Committee. He has been a frequent contributor and organizer of SIGGRAPH, currently as the Electronic Theater Director for SIGGRAPH 2022. He also serves as Co-Chair of the Digital Imaging Technology Sub-Committee of the Scientific and Technical Awards Committee for the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

Darin’s credits include The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, Kung Fu Panda, How To Train Your Dragon, What Dreams May Come, and Fight Club.

Dr. Eric Bourque is VP of Content Creation products for Media & Entertainment at Autodesk.

Paul has over 25 years of senior management experience in technology leadership positions and a deep
understanding of the importance of the role of technology in creative storytelling.
Paul’s career includes 15 years as CTO at SideFX, where he oversaw the development of industry-
standard visual effects and animation software tool Houdini from beta onwards. He then served as CTO
of audiovisual technology firm Christie Digital, where he was a key member of the global executive
team, providing strategic and technical direction to the company’s 1,500 employees across 18 countries.
Most recently, Paul was CEO of the Accelerator Centre, a not-for-profit business accelerator that
provides mentorship and support to over 120 high-growth technology start-up companies.
Paul holds a BMath in computer science from the University of Waterloo, MASc and PhD degrees in
engineering from the University of Toronto, and an MBA from the Rotman School of Management.

Golriz has spent more than two decades in the CG and Animation Industry, starting her career as a software engineer at Dreamworks Animation before moving into production as a character technical artist for several Films before moving into Technical Leadership roles at Dreamworks Animation, Walt Disney Animation Studios, and currently at AWS as a Principal Product and Technology Leader. Equal parts artist and engineer, Golriz was drawn to the animation industry for its combination of the two disciplines. In her first few years with DreamWorks Animation, she leveraged her chops as a developer and a technical artist, using animation and pipeline tools that she’d written herself in production as a character rigger. These experiences helped shape her understanding of creative pain points and the tough questions to ask in managing and delivering new solutions from the ground up, such as DreamWorks’ Premo animation platform, which was recognized with a Sci-Tech Academy Award in 2018. At Walt Disney Animation Studios, Golriz was the Director of Production Technology, leading the technical direction, talent development, and short- to long- term software portfolio for a large team of diverse engineers designing, developing, and delivering a full stack of Tool suites from Story to Rendering for the film pipeline process. In late 2020, Golriz joined AWS, and is focused on innovating and scaling a new portfolio of products aimed at optimizing AWS solutions for visual effects and animation workflows with real-world production needs in mind for digital content creators.

Golriz has been the Conference Co-Chair for the DigiPro Symposium in 2020 and 2021.

Guido is Senior Director of Engineering, 3D & Immersive at Adobe Inc.

Guy Martin leads open source and standards efforts for the NVIDIA Omniverse simulation and 3D collaboration platform. He was an original founding board member of the ASWF during his tenure at Autodesk where he led open source efforts within the Media & Entertainment team. Martin has also led open source program efforts at Red Hat, CollabNet, Samsung and the US Department of Defense. Most recently, he served as the Executive Director for OASIS Open where he helped the organization combine the best of open source and standards practices to drive collaboration between these two communities. His experience also spans 15+ years as a software engineer in embedded, enterprise and financial services.

As the VP Technology & Development of Rodeo FX, Jordan oversees all technological aspects of the company, from IT infrastructure decisions, to software and pipeline design, through production management. With a degree in Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science from the University of Toronto, Jordan brings a creative and innovative approach to solving technological problems.

Kimball Thurston is a senior researcher at Weta Digital Ltd. in New Zealand, focused on rendering and related imaging areas. For more than 20 years, he has provided software for the visual effects and general film industry. In 2012, he and his colleagues were awarded a scientific and engineering award by the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences for image processing software used for film restoration and image reparation.

Laura is a Ray Tracing Kernels Engineering Manager at Intel Corporation

Mark is a Senior Director of Production Software at DreamWorks, where he oversees the development of key applications such as the MoonRay renderer and Premo animation package. Additionally, Mark also leads the technology department’s initiatives in Machine Learning and Data Science, exploring how these technologies can improve animation and rendering processes and workflows.

Michael Ford is VP, Head of Software Development at Sony Pictures Imageworks where he oversees the technology and software development of the award winning studio. Throughout his 20+ year career, Ford has fostered a close connection of the creative process to innovative technology in feature animation and VFX production. Ford was the VFX supervisor on the animated feature film Hotel Transylvania 3 and Smurfs: The Lost Village for Sony Pictures Animation. While at Imageworks, Ford also served as a supervisor on Concussion, Storks, Hotel Transylvania, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 1 & 2 and the Academy Award® nominated film Surf’s Up.

Natalya Tatarchuk (@mirror2mask) is a graphics engineer and a rendering enthusiast at heart, currently focusing on driving the state-of-the-art rendering technology, graphics performance and content creation in her role as a Distinguished Technical Fellow and Chief Architect, VP, Professional Artistry & Graphics Innovation at Unity. Prior to that, led the Graphics team at Unity, as VP of Graphics for the Unity Editor and Engine. Before that she was a AAA games developer, working on innovative cross-platform rendering engine and game graphics for Bungie’s Destiny franchise, as well the Halo series, such as Halo: ODST and Halo: Reach, and AMD Graphics Products Group where she pushed parallel computing boundaries investigating advanced real-time graphics techniques, and graphics hardware design and APIs. Natalya has been encouraging sharing in the games graphics community for several decades, largely by organizing a popular series of courses such as Advances in Real-time Rendering, Open Problems in Real-Time Rendering and Rendering Engine Architecture at SIGGRAPH, and convincing people to speak there. It seems to be working.

Rob Bredow runs Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) with a particular focus on the creative strategy for the storied visual effects company. He brings an innovative focus to the role, with a background in technology and hands-on experience both as a visual effects supervisor, technology executive, and production partner. As SVP, Executive Creative Director and Head of ILM, Bredow is responsible for the company’s overall creative strategy and global operations. Bredow recently served as the Visual Effects Supervisor and Co-Producer on Solo: A Star Wars Story. He served as a creative partner to the filmmakers throughout the production, from the earliest story meetings to the final frames of visual effects. He leveraged his background in innovative technology to help tell the story of the film, creating grounded images with a unique shooting style designed for the movie. Bredow joined Lucasfilm in 2014 as Vice President of New Media and Head of Lucasfilm’s Advanced Development Group. He helped launch ILMxLAB in 2015 and co-wrote and directed Trials on Tatooine, a story-based virtual reality experiment created in collaboration with Lucasfilm’s Story Group, ILMxLAB and Skywalker Sound. In his former role as Lucasfilm Chief Technology Officer, Bredow oversaw all technology development for Lucasfilm and ILM. Previously, Bredow was CTO and Visual Effects Supervisor at Sony Pictures Imageworks. He has contributed as a supervisor on films such as Independence Day, Godzilla, Stuart Little, Cast Away, Surf’s Up, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, and others. Bredow is a member of the VFX Branch of Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences and the AMPAS Science and Technology Council.

Sebastian is Director of R&D, Production Technologies at Netflix. Attended at Università degli Studi di Milano.

Senior Director, Product Management Unreal Engine
Epic Games, Inc