Assistant Chief & Chief Operations Officer, National Audio-Visual Conservation Center–Packard Campus
Library of Congress
February 2017 – Present
Manage budget planning and execution, workforce planning and management, policy administration, technology analysis, and operational and contracting processes; evaluate current and proposed programs and operations; set priorities and directs the work of the NAVCC staff; manage the technical, human, and financial resources allocated to the Center to achieve its goals; work frequently with other high-level Library managers.
Implement strategic and tactical programs and activities of the NAVCC at operational and service levels. Ensure appropriate long-term preservation and life cycle management of the collections and promotes their access in both traditional and non-traditional formats; work to ensure execution of private/public partnerships related to acquisition, preservation, and use of moving image and recorded sound collections on a national and international level.
Serve as liaison and spokesperson for the Library on matters related to its moving image and recorded sound preservation, technologies and operations at the NAVCC, including preservation policies and practices, digital preservation planning, and features of the NAVCC campus.
Media History Digital Library
Founder
2009 – July 2017
Conceived and led a conservation and access project for historical printed materials related to cinema, television, radio and recorded sound.
Sunrise Entertainment, Inc.
President
1992 – February 2017
Licensed rights and produced 1999/2000 theatrical, video and DVD release of Peter Pan (1924) through Kino International, including a new orchestral score, and new 35mm prints from a restored negative.
Produced DVD releases of Chang (1927) with new audio commentary by historian Rudy Behlmer. For Grass (1925) and The Silent Enemy (1930), edited audio interviews with directors from 1963 and 1972 respectively for DVD release.
Purchased rights and producing theatrical, video and DVD release of pre-holocaust drama Pastor Hall (1940) including new 35mm negative. Conducted a professionally recorded interview with director Roy Boulting in England. Supervising short documentary on the production of the film.
Purchased rights and produced 1999 video release of Michael Powell’s Contraband (1940) through Kino on Video.
Purchased rights and produced 1999 video and DVD release of Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1927) through Kino on Video. DVD extras include article originally published in Film History, recreation of missing scenes, and complete publicity kit.
Discovered, licensed and co-produced 1993 U.S. release of Bon Voyage and Aventure Malgache, two short films directed by Alfred Hitchcock during World War II for the British government.
Co-produced The Age of Exploration, a series of eight silent feature films of adventure and exploration for theatrical, video and laserdisc release. Selected by Video Magazine as one of the top ten video programs of 1992.
Produced 1992 laserdisc edition of Fire Over England (1937) for George Eastman House release through Lumivision. Selected the film, supervised the film-to-tape transfer, wrote liner notes and press release.
British Film Institute
Curator, National Film and Television Archive
May 2002 – February 2005
Fifth curator (head) of the archive since its founding in 1935. Managed 175 cultural, technical and administrative staff in the acquisition, cataloguing, preservation, storage and preparation for access of the British national moving image collection and a library of sound recordings.
Project Manager for “An Archive for the 21st Century,” a seven year £18.5 million/$27.7 million film and television project supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund to identify and catalogue the archive’s backlog of acquired material. Managed annual budget of £3.5 million/$5.2 million (not including Lottery funding) for staff and operations at four sites.
Member of British Film Institute (BFI) Senior Leadership Team. Represented the archive and the BFI to the film, television and media industries, academic and museum communities and international film festivals. Developed strategies for the BFI’s commercial distribution arm to provide wide availability of selected archival material through theatrical, video and DVD release and promote use of excerpts in documentaries.
Developed partnerships with rights-holders, foundations and other archives to share costs and expertise: Academy Film Archive and Twentieth Century-Fox for F.W. Murnau’s Sunrise (1927) premiered at 2003 Berlin Film Festival and released on DVD; David Lean Foundation for Summer Madness (1955), premiered at 2003 Venice Film Festival; UCLA Film and Television Archive for Tillie’s Punctured Romance (1914) with Charlie Chaplin, premiered at 2003 London Film Festival; Cineteca Bologna for a joint restoration project of all of Charlie Chaplin’s films for Keystone.
Raised £550,000 in project funds, including the David Lean Foundation and Paramount Pictures to support staff positions, and Twentieth Century-Fox, the Anker Petersen Charity and the Lean Foundation to support restorations.
Head of Preservation, National Film and Television Archive
August 2001 – May 2002
Supervised 90 technical and administrative staff with responsibility for preservation, storage and availability of the British national collection of motion pictures and television. Manage staff and facilities at the J. Paul Getty Jr. Conservation Centre in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, and film and video storage in Gaydon, Warwickshire. Functions include archival black and white film laboratory, off-air recording of programming broadcast on five terrestrial television channels and storage of film collection (on nitrate, acetate and polyester base), video, paper and museum collections.
Led the first review of Conservation Centre working practices since the 1987 opening of the site. Process reengineering, the first stage of completely revising working practices throughout the Conservation Centre, introduced multi-skilling and multi-discipline teams. Negotiated changes in working practices with union. Created video preservation function and initiated audio preservation laboratory. Increased volume of film duplication by 50% with no increase in staff.
Motion Picture Copyright Consultant
Copyright Services
1985 – 2001
Advise motion picture producers, distributors and exhibitors on copyright status and current ownership of motion pictures, using records of the U.S. Copyright Office and other resources. Prepare contracts, documentation and forms for copyright registration, assignments and GATT notices for filing with the Copyright Office. Advise in the sale and purchase of motion picture copyrights and materials. Clients include Timeline Films, The Mary Pickford Foundation, Gaumont, Inc., Janus Films, Cappa Productions, Kino International, Milestone Film & Video, Brentwood Communications, New Yorker Films, Kit Parker Films, Roan Group, Space.com.