Chuck D
As a Multi-Platinum Artist, Internet Entrepreneur and Co-Founder of Public Enemy, Chuck D has been called one of the “Top 50 Rock Geniuses of All Time” by The New Yorker magazine and Upside magazine placed him on its "Elite 100" list of Internet leaders, alongside the likes of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.  His vision for digital music has been profiled by many leading publications including Forbes and USA Today.  Chuck D, who is also a best-selling author, has hosted his own segment on the Fox News Channel, been a guest contributor to Time magazine and a guest editor of Red Herring magazine. 

After producing three multi-platinum and three gold albums, Public Enemy remains one of the most critically acclaimed and highly influential groups in the music industry.  Rolling Stone magazine called Chuck D one of the “50 Greatest Artists of All Time” and Spin magazine ranked Public Enemy albums as the 2nd and 21st “Greatest Albums of All Time.”  While the Boston Globe has called Chuck D “the most powerful voice in hip hop history,” he has also collaborated with many artists across genres, including Isaac Hayes, John Mellencamp, and U2. 

Chuck D has served as a national spokesperson for Rock The Vote, the National Urban League, and the National Alliance of African American Athletes.  He has also appeared in public service announcements for HBO's campaign for national peace and the Partnership for a Drug-Free America.

Chuck created an online, offline, and midline artist distribution channel through record label SLAMjamz.  He went on to launch a radio station on the Internet.  This landmark move made Public Enemy the first multi-platinum-selling act to release their album via the Web before it was available in retail stores.

Stratton Leopold
Stratton Leopold produces major motion pictures and has worked in the media business for over three decades, with more than 50 film credits to his name for roles ranging from Executive Producer to actor. Leopold’s work has included critically acclaimed and commercially successful blockbusters such as Mission Impossible 3 (MI:3), Sum of All Fears, Paycheck, The General’s Daughter, Tango and Cash, as well as film classics like The Big Chill, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, John Huston's Wise Blood, and John Carpenter's They Live! and Born Yesterday.

Leopold previously held the title of Executive Vice President at Paramount Studios. He has worked with many award-winning directors and actors across multiple movie genres.

In addition to his successful motion picture career, Leopold owns Leopold’s Ice Cream, a legendary business founded in 1919.

In 2007, Stratton’s accomplishments were featured in the book titled “Adventurous Dreams, Adventurous Lives” along with Explorer’s Club members such as famous climber Edmund Hillary – first on Everest, astronauts such as Buzz Aldrin, and undersea adventurers such as Bob Ballard, who discovered the wreck of the Titanic.

Peter Weishar
Peter Weishar is Dean of the School of Film and Digital Media at the Savannah College of Art and Design. The prestigious School of Film and Digital Media has 2,200 students in BFA, MA, and MFA programs in Animation, Broadcast Design and Motion Graphics, Film and Television, Interactive and Game Design, Sound Design, and Visual Effects. Weishar is a renowned expert in the field of computer art and digital media with over 20 years of experience. His work has appeared in the pages of Newsweek and US News and World Report, in Disney's EPCOT, the Siggraph Electronic Theater, and The Museum of Native American Culture.

Prior to joining SCAD he was professor at New York University, Tisch School of the Arts. At NYU, he served as Director of their New Media Program as well as the Director of the Computer Animation. Professor Weishar is the author and on-screen talent for the Strata 3D Pro Video Series. He is the author of three books on computer art and animation; "Digital Space: Designing Virtual Environments" (McGraw-Hill, 1998), "Blue Sky: The Art of Computer Animation" (Harry N. Abrams, 2001), and "CGI: The Art of the 3D Computer Generated Image" (Abrams, 2004).



Gerd Leonhard
Gerd Leonhard: Media Futurist, Author, Speaker, Entrepreneur, CEO Sonific.com

The Wall Street Journal calls Gerd one of the leading media futurists in the world. He is the co-author of the influential book The Future of Music (2005, Berklee Press), as well as the author of Music2.0 (January 2008, self-published), and of "Open is King" (Fall 2008). Gerd's background is in music (he won the Quincy Jones Award in 1986 and is a graduate of Boston's Berkee College of Music) as well in technology and the Internet (former CEO of LicenseMusic Inc, and currently as CEO of Sonific.com). Gerd's work focuses on the convergent sectors of music & content, technology, communications and culture, and he is considered an expert on topics such as Web/Media 2.0, social networking, copyright vs. technology, online content commerce models, media convergence, mobile entertainment, the future of advertising and branding, and future scenarios for digital content, and next generation business models.

Gerd's keynotes, speeches, and think-tanks are renowned for his hard-hitting, provocative yet inspiring and motivational style. With over 50 engagements in the past two years Gerd has addressed global audiences in the sectors of recorded music & music publishing, radio, TV, film/video and broadcasting, online gaming and virtual worlds, telecom & wireless, and advertising and branding. His clients include SonyBMG, RTL, ITV, the BBC, France Telekom, German Telekom, Orange, LebWeb3, Financial Times, TribalDDB, the European Commission, Nokia-Siemens, and many others. Gerd is a fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts (London), and resides in Basel, Switzerland. www.mediafuturist.com To view Gerd's videos: go to Future Talks: http://mediaconversations.blip.tv/ or go to www.gerdtube.com

Jeffrey Weber
Jeffrey Weber is a twenty-eight year music industry professional. He has produced over 150 CDs with releases on just about every major label as well as a host of independent labels. Along the way, his projects have yielded two Grammys, seven Grammy nominations, at least seventeen top ten albums, two number one albums and an assortment of other honors.

Weber is a former member of the Board of Governors of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) as well as a former National Trustee and Chapter Vice President.

His productions have also appeared on every major label including MCA, Warner Bros., Atlantic, BMG, Columbia, A&M, Elektra as well as such labels as GRP, Hip-O, Sheffield, Concord, Bainbridge, Silver Eagle, Zebra, among countless others. He co-founded and programmed Studio M, a nationwide broadcast television network that utilized their growing 28,000 music video library to broadcast multiple genre based music video shows. It was on the air seven days a week, for five hours a day to an estimated audience of thirty million homes.

William A. Nazaret
William Nazaret has been the CEO of two successful GSM operators in Latin America: DIGITEL AND DIGICEL. He holds a Ph.D. degree from the University of California, Berkeley. After a successful early professional career at AT&T Bell Labs, he turned his efforts to the development of new products and businesses in the areas of telecommunications, Internet and digital media. He participated in his first successful IPO in 1993 and from there he went on to become partner of several successful new ventures.

Currently Nazaret is the founder of Carijazz Productions, a company dedicated to the discovery, production and launching of alternative Latin artists. He has been the producer of Latin artists like: SAXOMANIA – Salsa Jazz Band, GOYO and La Timba Loca.

Antoni Trias
Antoni Trias is a founding partner of Grupo AIA. Under his direction, the Innovation division has produced a series of algorithms suited to solve a broad variety of technical problems of great complexity. Trias is the creator of much of the core technology that drives Music Intelligence Solution's music analysis technology. Trias has a Degree in Physics from the Universidad de Barcelona and also a Ph.D. in Physics from the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona where he graduated Cum Laude.

As an academic, he worked at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory of the University of California. Additionally, he directed Theoretical Physics at the Universidad Simón Bolívar, Caracas; the Theoretical Physics Department of the Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona; and held a tenured position in the Applied Mathematics Department of the Telecommunications Engineering School in the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. He is the author of more than thirty research papers published in international journals and has directed several Ph.D., Master and Graduating Thesis.