Ellsworth is a veteran at running multi-million dollar corporations, an experienced publisher, and a business and software developer. Ellsworth was Chairman of Premier Publishing, which was acquired in 2013 by Open Road Integrated Media. Ellsworth is President and COO of PHP Agency, a financial services marketing organization. Previously, Ellsworth was CEO of GoTV Networks, a developer and publisher of enterprise-grade rich media applications, whose clients included the NFL, NASCAR, and the Oprah Winfrey Network. Ellsworth led the company through a financial and strategic turnaround followed by an acquisition in 2011. Before joining GoTV, Ellsworth served as Executive Vice President, Marketing and Corporate Development at JAMDAT Mobile, the largest wireless games publisher in the world. He was a core member of the team that drove the start-up to its successful IPO (acquired by Electronic Arts). Prior to JAMDAT, he was Vice President of Incubator Development (corporate venture capital) at Sprint. Ellsworth managed the fund that invested in companies that forged new paths including JAMDAT, Helio, and Boingo.

Ellsworth holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration; Marketing from California State University, Northridge and an MBA from Pepperdine University.

Jim Thomas is a former Editorial Director at Random House. During his twenty years there, Jim acquired and edited New York Times bestsellers like Jeanne DuPrau's City of Ember series and Rachel Hartman's Seraphina.

Jim is a published author and a graduate of Duke University.

Christine Converse has over 20 years’ experience in entertainment and publishing, and is Supervisor, Asset Program Management for SONY. She has worked for both Prima and Brady Publishing, owned by Penguin Random House, and served as Project Manager and Production Manager for Capcom Entertainment, Inc. Christine has worked as a senior copywriter, managed marketing strategy teams, wrote and edited copy for marketing departments, including print ads, manuals, video text, and web site copy. She has interfaced with all corporate levels worldwide to ensure creative approval and legal accuracy in packaging, print, and online content and is seasoned in communication across multiple countries and cultures.

Christine has written over 40 strategy guides based on popular horror and sci-fi games and movies: Bladerunner, Resident Evil, Star Wars: Shadow of the Empire, Aliens, etc. She has also written comedy, action, adventure, sci-fi, and horror for Dreamworks, Lucas Arts, Disney, Westwood Studios, Nintendo, Sega, Sony, Cartoon Network, and many more, during her time inside publishing powerhouses Sega, Capcom, and Sony.

Christine is a member of the Horror Writer’s Association.

A twenty-five-year veteran in International Business, Griffie works with Hong Kong development teams to determine what front line business needs will not be met by the enterprise solutions. Bridging those gaps and driving overall company success through streamlining, standardization, and automation, her solutions have provided substantial savings in excess of 7 figures per year.

The daughter of a rocket scientist and an artist, Griffie is an award-winning author and volunteers with EXP, who unites business people and educators to prepare students for a meaningful place in the world of tomorrow.

Lindy Ryan is an entrepreneur, award-winning professor, and an experienced publishing professional. In 2011, Ryan was part of the executive leadership team that founded Radiant Advisors, a data and business intelligence research and advisory firm, where Ryan developed and launched the company's editorial and research divisions, and later its data visualization practice, for clients that included household names in entertainment and media (21st Century Fox Films, Fox Networks, Warner Bros., Disney).

In 2016, Ryan took her industry experience into academia, where she served as an active member of the New Jersey Big Data Alliance. She was previously an active researcher at the Rutgers Discovery Informatics Institute where she leads a team studying digital literacy. Ryan is an award-winning professor of data analysis and business communication at Rutgers University. She is a prolific speaker at conferences worldwide and the author of numerous papers and two textbooks, “The Visual Imperative: Creating a Culture of Visual Discovery" (Elsevier) and "Visual Data Storytelling with Tableau" (Pearson).

Ryan launched Black Spot Books in 2017. The award-winning press is fueled by traditional, wide distribution and strategic publicity partnerships. Ryan currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA). She was recognized as a 2020 Star Watch Honoree by Publishers Weekly.

Ryan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration: Entrepreneurship and Strategy, and a Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership and a Doctorate in Education, Organizational Leadership.

Michael spent the last twenty years working in various media which includes Top 50 US magazines, major film studios, and several publishing companies. Along the way, Michael has been right-hand man/technical advisor to an ex-Surgeon General, busted hackers for chat/messaging software innovators in the early days of the internet, and created online community policy that is in use to this day. Michael also created the first online comic book writing workshop for America Online.

As a writer, Michael has over thirty national and international awards for his work in major writing competitions. Aside from his Disney Fellowship (Features), Michael was also a finalist in the prestigious Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting. His screenplay “Ghost Lights” was voted into THE HIT LIST 2010, the annual industry list of the best original screenplays of the year. Two of his screenplays were in active development at Sony with Sprocketdyne Entertainment (Rob Minkoff, THE LION KING) and Out of the Blue (Academy president Sid Ganis). He's developed a television project with thrice-nominated Eisner writer Joshua Dysart (HARBINGER) for Showtime, works frequently with iconic horror creator Kim Henkel (THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE), and was pivotal in the development of a musical that opened on Broadway in 2015. Aside from his work as a graphic designer for publishers, production companies and best-selling authors, Michael also works film acquisition for the MCTV Network.

Mister Sam Shearon, also known as ‘Mister-Sam’ is a British, Liverpool born, dark-artist specializing in horror and science-fiction. Sam’s work often includes elements inspired by vintage tales of monsters and madmen, dark futures, post-apocalyptic genres, and classic literature. His artwork can be found on a variety of books and comic covers, including illustrations for the Angel series, 30 Days of Night, The X-Files, KISS, Mars Attacks, Judge Dredd, Aleister Arcane, Richard Matheson: Master of Horror and the fully illustrated H.P. Lovecraft‘s The Call of Cthulhu, Oscar Wilde‘s The Picture of Dorian Gray, and Clive Barker’s Hellraiser and the Books of Blood series. Sam has also created cover artworks concerning cryptozoology and the unexplained, with clients including David Weatherly, Lyle Blackburn, Small Town Monsters, Chase Kloetzke, Whitley Strieber, and the podcast Into The Fray for which he also co-hosts.