Bristol Media

Bristol Media

The Board of Directors & Advisers

MIKE BENNETT (Bristol Media Chair) Joint Managing Director, E3

Mike is the co-founder, and joint managing director of E3 – recently ranked 5th in Design Week’s league table of the UK’s top digital communications agencies. It employs more than 60 people at offices in Bristol and London. Clients include the BBC, Sony, Triumph Motorcyles, Orange, Kia Cars, Peugeot, FirstPlus and several Government agencies. Mike is also a Visiting Lecturer at the universities of Bristol (where he was once a student) and the West of England, on business-related subjects, including entrepreneurship, risk management and start- up. He became chair of Bristol Media in September 2006. In November 2006, he was named Bristol Business Person of the Year.

PETE LEVY (Vice Chair) Managing Director, Green Lit Media

Pete began his career in broadcasting by providing ‘live’ television graphics for the pioneering breakfast television company, TV AM, and later becoming the company’s head of graphics design department. He has also worked outside the broadcast industry in a senior management role responsible for multi million pound service accounts. He is now the Managing Director of Green Lit Media, a newly-established broadcast and corporate production facility. Previously Pete was the Operations Director for the Bristol-based motion graphics specialists, 422 South. He is a founder member of Bristol Media and served on the Board since 2005.

PAUL APPLEBY Series Producer, BBC NHU

First arriving in Bristol as a student in 1974, Paul Appleby is a BAFTA award-winning producer with 25 years of experience in the BBC’s Natural History Unit. His current role is as series producer of Saving Planet Earth – a project spanning BBC One, BBC Two, bbc online, YouTube, public events, a book and the formation of a new charity, the BBC Wildlife Fund.

Paul’s work also takes in audience involvement, new technologies and innovative working practices, including the mentoring of young people making their first films, and new composers writing for the screen. He is a member of the BBC Creative Facilitation team; serves on the Board of the Encounters Festival, and on the Council of Management of Watershed. In his spare time (!), he plays football and badminton.

JESSICA BENT (Board Adviser) Head of Technology & Media, Withy King

Jessica is an intellectual property, technology and media lawyer at Withy King. Her experience includes advising national and international businesses on managing, protecting, exploiting and enforcing their intellectual property assets which includes carrying out copyright clearance and audits, and advising on matters such as publishing and licensing arrangements, marketing and design contracts and website contracts and e-commerce terms. Jessica regularly writes for specialist and industry publications as well as delivering presentations to businesses and universities on intellectual property matters. She was previously at TLT in Bristol. Before becoming a lawyer, she worked in France and Switzerland and did voluntary work in Africa.

STEVEN COOMBE (Board Financial Adviser) Smith & Williamson Solomon Hare, Accountants

Steven is a partner at Smith & Williamson Solomon Hare, Chartered Accountants, whose core business is advising owner-managed businesses from start-up through to exit, either by trade sale, flotation or management buy-out. Steven assists clients across many industry sectors but also heads up the firm’s Media Group in Bristol, having experience of working with companies in both the film and music industries. In his leisure time, Steven is a keen fan of football and speedway, and a former cycle speedway participant (now retired!).

NEIL HIGGINSON (Company Secretary)

Neil has a wealth of general management and business experience. Following a successful career in banking, he moved to Business West as an adviser and then adviser manager . More recently he was Head of Business Development at PES. He has experience of many business disciplines including business development, finance, marketing & sales, HR and employee retention & motivation. Neil is also a mentor and coach for a number of start-up businesses, as a non-executive director.

CHRIS JONES Partner – Oakwood Media Group

Chris began his media career in advertising, with the Trinity Newspaper Group, Liverpool. He moved to Bristol in 1987 to be Group Account Director at Euro RSCG’s regional head office and later headed an agency in Bath. In 1995 he formed oakwood dc design consultants with two partners. The consultancy has now has offices in Bristol, London and Birmingham and is recognised as one of the UK’s top 30 design groups, specialising in Strategic Design, Multi Media and 3D design. The oakwood media group also operates film and photographic studios and includes an IT support company. Chris joined the Board of Bristol Media in November 2006. He is also on the regional board for the design industry’s national body – the DBA (Design Business Association).

LAURA MARSHALL Joint Managing Director, Icon Films

Icon Films is an award-winning documentary production company making ground-breaking films in the fields of natural history, travel, anthropology, science and adventure. Icon specialises in bringing commissioners together and have worked with many North American broadcasters as well as the BBC, Channel 4, Five, National Geographic, Animal Planet, Discovery and WNET and distributors Granada International, BBC Worldwide, Channel 4 International and RDF International. Productions include TIGER KILL, THE RIDDLE OF EINSTEIN’S BRAIN, HOLY COW and THE BAREFOOT ANTHROPOLOGIST. Icon’s documentaries have won Emmy, Grierson and Chris Awards together with numerous prizes and nominations at film festivals from Banff to Jackson Hole to Wildscreen. As Managing Director of Icon Films, Laura is responsible for the financial management and overall strategy of the company. Laura is also a Trustee of The British Empire and Commonwealth Museum and sits on the Management Committee of Wildscreen, the world’s largest festival of moving images from the natural world, and a recent appointee to the new Board of the Bristol Old Vic.

NORRIS MYERS (Board Business Adviser) Senior International Trade Adviser – Creative Industries UK Trade & Investment

Through his work for UKTI, and in association with SWRDA, South West Screen and many other Government and Non-Government Creative Agencies, Norris helps and advises South West based creative companies to develop their international business strategies. He also has a strong personal interest in creativity, including as a theatre and film-goer, and by trying his hand at scriptwriting.

DAVID SHEPHEARD (Adviser) Head of Inward Investment/Locations, South West Screen

David has worked in many areas of the creative industries, including theatre, venue management, screen business development and as a producer in film and tv. He moved to Bristol from the east of England in 2003 to launch and run the Bristol Film Office – the Bristol City Council unit that helps film and tv companies to find, and use, locations in the city. He joined the region’s public screen agency, South West Screen, at the end of last year, with a remit to encourage more screen-based companies to invest in the regional economy. His role includes representing South West interests at key international markets.

CAROLINE MARSHALL Co-ordinator

Caroline spent 15 years as an Assistant Producer in live radio and television production at the BBC specialising in music programming before moving to Bristol to become the event co-ordinator for BBC Millennium Music Live. She then became the Project Co-ordinator for the broadbandshow managed by BRIC and from there joined Node as Project Manager in New Business Development. Caroline now produces location based media experiences, her most recent project being a GPS guided tour of the Gardens at Stourhead for the National Trust. She also writes, produces and narrates podcasts and audio guides for whoever wants them. Caroline became Bristol Media’s part time co-ordinator in October 2007.

Bristol Media is the trading name for the Bristol Media Group Community Interest Company (CIC), registered at Companies House as company number 6124865. It is managed by a voluntary board of directors, with the help of a part-time, paid, co-ordinator and unpaid expert advisers.

Bristol Media is grant-aided by the South West Regional Development Agency and South West Screen. It generates revenues of its own through events, fund-raising opportunities and through corporate sponsorship.