Ars Nova's team brings decades of experience in business launches and startups; media project financing, including setup and execution of film, television, video game, and Internet portal projects; M&A opportunity acquisition and execution; and turn-around and restructuring assignments for technology and media companies and projects alike.
The Ars Nova team also leverages Ars Nova's own powerful extended team, including technology + media investment banking and media debt financing expertise, and a broad extended network with deep roots in technology-driven media, networks, infrastructure, and the fundamental technologies that continue to change the world.
Sutherland Ellwood, UK (& New York/Asia). Founder & Managing Partner. Past senior production and technology executive and writer-producer at DreamWorks, Fox, and Disney, as well as a number of other film, TV, and new media ventures and projects. Founding Inventor for four media-related technology companies (hardware and software), and inventor and developer of advanced flat screen display, digital projection, digital production hardware and software systems, and ERP and international supply chain management software.
Ian Spenceley, UK (& Asia) International Partner. A media and technology entrepreneur for over twenty years and a fifteen-year expert in raising venture and media finance in Asia, Europe and the US, and co-founder of two hardware technology companies with Sutherland Ellwood, including Photonica, Inc. Co-founder of the diversified entertainment media company & IP library licensor, Pure Hubris.
Frank Stirling, Los Angeles. Partner, Digital Media Networks and Media Technologies. Formerly the Executive Director of Boeing Digital Cinema (and prior to that, Hughes Space and Communications), deploying the first systems utilizing satellite delivery to theatres, including the direct-by-satellite distribution of Star Wars: Episode II. Currently a board director of and formerly President of Digital Cinema and 3D Network Industries at Photonica, Inc. Formerly the director of multiple major programs in the national reconnaissance infrastructure (National Reconnaissance Office) and in the US Air Force, including the multi-billion dollar Titan IV Space Launch System Program, the second-largest program in the Air Force at the time.
Ann Cummings Ellwood, UK and France.Ann is a Co-founder of Ars Nova Capital, where she is a Senior Partner, focusing on business development, and as an Executive Producer, overseeing media projects.She draws on over three decades in the media and media-technology sectors as a business development executive and board director, writer-producer, and artist in animation and fx, starting with her early work as an assistant publicist in New York and Los Angeles, branching out from there, leveraging her professional experience as a fine artist, to work in digital VFX on major projects such as Total Recall with veterans of ILM. From those roots she then progressed into production work at Warner Brothers as an animation artist, where she worked with animation pioneer Chuck Jones, and at New Line.Resuming her writing career from her publicity days, she segued from animation and VFX into her work as a writer producer, and she had projects in development, both live-action and animation, with Sutherland Ellwood as a writing partner in feature films and television at DreamWorks SKG and then independently, with multiple projects since and currently attracting major talent attachments. Spanning as she has the technical and creative sides of the media-tech universe, she was also a co-founder and remains a board director of Photonica, a technology company in the Ars Nova family which supplies video display hardware to a major consumer brand, to the US DOD and UK MOD, and soon in Pro AV. Her primary focus in recent years has been in role role at Ars Nova, where she oversees multiple projects and is a leader on the biz dev team.
Katie Arons, Los Angeles/Europe. Partner, Film, TV & Social Media Sectors. Over 15 years of experience in business development and marketing of Internet media, traditional media, and media-technology. Along with Ellwood and Spenceley, a founding member of the Photonica team. Formerly founder and CEO of Extra Hip, a successful media company that pioneered a new market in fashion, Junior Plus, and previous work in traditional entertainment media included working at Warner brothers with Garth Ancier, CEO and founder of the WB Network.
Nick Kambayashi Director, International was Senior Vice President of Cosmo Communications, the consulting and investment banking service firm founded by fellow former senior Pioneer Electronics executive and Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame member Ken Kai, for more than fifteen years. Its major deals included fund raising for independent production companies, such as Carolco Pictures and Indie Productions, etc., and intermediating joint ventures, such as MTV Japan and Warner MYCAL, the first US style multi-complex theater which became the largest theater chain in Japan. Prior to Cosmo he was a nine-year veteran of Pioneer Electronics, rising to senior management in international business, having started there as mechanical engineer.
Pioneer Electronics was one of the major Japanese Audio/Video equipment manufacturers at the time, a leader in the introduction of the laser video disc and other optical disc technology and later in plasma flat-screen televisions. From his roots in engineering, he expanded his portfolio at Pioneer in marketing, product planning, business planning and international business. Since the retirement of his former business partner Ken Kai, Kambayashi continued in the business they developed as Cosmo and has worked on projects with the Ars Nova team for over ten years.
Steffi Harant, UK and Europe Steffi is a senior business development executive for Ars Nova, focusing on studio soundstage and digital production facility development and projects, especially in the UK and EU. She had a lengthy earlier career as a senior marketing executive in Germany's health sector, leading a marketing team in deals with private hospitals and clinics and maintains strong business relationships from those years across Europe.She later moved to the UK where she joined a UK flow battery company on their international team and over the years developed a range of strong business relationships of strategic value to the media-tech crossover space. She joined the Ars Nova team during COVID, working on business development for over two years and now for over a year she has been working on studio production facility developments and related projects, working closely with other developers, fund managers, architects, government officials and media companies.
Taylor Ash Taylor works for Ars Nova as a senior production and project coordinator, having joined the team over a year ago. She divides her time between the offices in London and Cannes, working on the firm's media projects, tech-media projects, and studio production facilities, working closely with and for the firm’s co-founders.
Winona Pattinson Winona Pattinson joined the Ars Nova team in mid-2022 and is engaged in project coordinator and production duties. Winona works closely with the senior team members and supports them in their roles, dividing her time between London and Cannes, working on the company's media projects, tech-media projects and studio production facilities.
Shania Pattinson Shania Pattinson was recruited to the Ars Nova team in 2022, working out of the London and Cannes offices. With a strong creative background she completed her Screen and Media studies in Australia and now works closely with the senior team, supporting the firm's studio production and tech-media projects as a development and pre-production coordinator.
Our additional team members, including former senior studio executives and veterans from private equity, computer graphics, camera and production hardware, digital visual fx and computer animation, video games and mobile/online, satellite/telecom and space launch, and theme park development, will be announced over the coming months.