As a VFX Producer, he has worked with many A-list producers & directors on numerous VFX-heavy feature films. Some of his production credits include I Am Legend, Surrogates, 10,000 BC, The Day After Tomorrow, Babe: Pig In The City, Strange Days and True Lies. When available between productions, his consulting services are utilized by major studios and production companies. Clients include Paramount, Warner Bros, Disney/Touchstone, DreamWorks, Alcon Entertainment and Summit Entertainment.

Early in his career, Mike gained invaluable traditional filmmaking experience working for many seminal Hollywood figures and production companies. Roger Corman's New World Pictures, Doug Trumbull's Showscan and Richard Edlund's Boss Films were among his first training grounds. He then moved on to freelance visual effects coordination, most notably on James Cameron's The Abyss. While working for Apogee Productions, Mike began producing effects for feature films and special venue projects. Later, while serving as VFX Producer on True Lies, he was also a member of the team that built the then-new start-up VFX studio Digital Domain. Some of his other early credits include Die Hard, Big Top Pee Wee, Heart & Souls, Broken Arrow and Galaxy of Terror.

Mike studied filmmaking at the University of California, and earned his degree in Fine Arts from the prestigious San Francisco Art Institute.

While Mike has contributed to the visual effects efforts on several Academy and BAFTA award-winning films, he has personally won 2 VES Awards for Best Visual Effects, for The Day After Tomorrow and Inception, and was nominated for his work on I Am Legend. Mike is a member of the Producers Guild of America (PGA), and sits on the Board of Directors for the Visual Effects Society (VES), also serving as the Chair of their Membership Committee.

Treasurer: Gene Rizzardi - Model Supervisor

Gene is an Emmy Award-winning Model Supervisor with 33 years of successful experience in the Motion Picture, Theme Park and Architectural Industries, providing Miniatures, Special Effects and Props and Sets.

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences – Visual Effects Branch
• Visual Effects Society – Board of Directors/ Awards Committee, Membership committee, Archive committee/Special Effects Mentor
• VES Handbook of Visual Effects Author
• Association of Professional Modelmakers – Mentor/Special Effects
• IATSE Local 44 – Special Effects / Propshop

Secretary: Kim Lavery, VFX Producer

Kim has experience from both the Production & Post Production sides of filmmaking and visual effects producing for a total of over two decades, having worked for Universal Studios on film production, before shifting to visual effects in 1994.

Since then, she has been instrumental in building out specialized visual effects boutique studios, working on films such as Frida, Minority Report, Cats and Dogs, Charlie’s Angels, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Terminator 3, Last Samurai and others.

Aligning herself with the global marketplace, she worked at Weta Digital in various producing roles on King Kong, X-Men 3, Bridge to Terabithia, 30 Days of Night, Enchanted, The Water Horse, etc. Currently, Kim is continuing to bridge the gap between New Zealand and the U.S. film and post-production markets.

She has served on the VES Awards Committee since its inception in 2002 and has also served as a VES Board Member and Secretary for several terms from 2004 to the present.

Source: Visual Effects Society