Meet the Teams

Florida Film Ventures, LLC Advisory Board

Movies are a major industry….Unfortunately, no longer in Florida. That is why a talented and diverse group

of entrepreneurs, business owners and movie veterans combined their strengths to establish a funding source for various film subjects, the first of which will be on Florida ground. This creates jobs, benefits local businesses, features our State’s unique landscape, the people and our heritage. We match opportunity with commercial success. The fund-ing targets are selected by strict criteria including highest Return-on-Investment potential and commercially viable scripts. The company owns or controls the rights to several high-potential, ready-to-be produced screenplays (“Film Library”). Its mission is to create commercial films that attract the largest worldwide audience by utilizing proven commercial concepts.

George P. Ahearn, Ph.D. Management Consultant/ Naples

George P. Ahearn was the co-founder and President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman of GEO Specialty Chem-icals, Inc. from its inception in 1993 until he left in 2005. Prior to that time, he was President and Chief Operating Officer of the Hall Chemical Company, a maker of special-ty metal-based chemicals from 1988-1992. Mr. Ahearn was employed for 28 years by Exxon Corporation and Exxon Chemical from 1960-1988, holding various executive posi-tions in research and the business.

Mr. Ahearn was also a founder, owner and Director of Pharmaceutical Fine Chemicals, S.A., a Luxembourg fine chemicals company. Mr. Ahearn was formerly a Director of Chemtech Industries of St. Louis, Missouri, President of SSC Industries of Atlanta, Georgia, and a Director of The

Flood Company of Hudson, Ohio, a privately held compa-ny in the coatings business.

In 2001 he was selected Entrepreneur of the Year of North-east Ohio, in a competition sponsored by Ernst & Young, CNN, USA Today, and the Kaufmann Institute, and was rec-ognized by Governor Taft of Ohio for his accomplishments.

Mr. Ahearn received his B.A. in chemistry from the City University of New York and M.S. and Ph.D. in chemistry from Rutgers University.

Mr. Ahearn currently resides in Naples, FL and is Presi-dent of GeoGroup Holdings, LLC a consulting company that is focused on the chemical and energy industries. He is also a business counselor and mentor for the Service Corp of Retired Executives (SCORE). Robert Abramoff Corporate Counsel | Los Angeles

Bob Abramoff began his career as a film producer with his first feature, Red Scorpion in 1987. Prior to this he worked in the Business Affairs department at Warner Bros. Television, and attended Boston University and law school at the Univer-sity of Southern California.

In 1989, Bob was admitted to practice law in California and has specialized in entertainment law with a focus on motion picture and television production. Bob has been instru-mental in the business and legal affairs of many feature and television productions including Lone Survivor, Escape Plan, 2 Guns, The Best of Enemies, Terminal, Three Christs, Above Suspicion, Gotti, The Kid, Broken City, The Voices, Frozen Ground, Reprisal, Bus 657, Last Knights, Get Low, and Every-thing Must Go. Stars in these films included some of the biggest names in Hollywood.

In addition to his law practice, Bob continues to periodi-cally produce feature films and television programming. As an Executive Producer, Bob’s most recent production is the “battle rap” film Bodied. Bob has also produced the

$20 Million animated children’s adventure film, Dino Time, Dear Eleanor and Detention, another film directed by Joseph Kahn, and starring Josh Hutcherson (Hunger Games) & Dane Cook. Bob is also is one of the producers of Naomi & Eli’s No Kiss List based on a novel by the writer of Nick & Nora’s Infinite Play List.

Other films Bob has produced include Spy School, a family feature starring, Crossroads starring; Good Luck; Hometown Legend; High Voltage; Midnight Clear, Red Scorpion 2, Moving Too Fast, and Heartless. In addition to films, Bob has been executive producer of 27 Showtime Network comedy spe-cials and one standup comedy series.

Martin Raab, CAIA International Relations/Zurich/Naples

Martin will serve as a member of the management team of Florida Film Ventures. He is an internationally recog-nized financial products expert and Senior Investment Manager of a Zurich-based Family Office. Also, he serves as the Co-Founder of Sugarwood Financial Partners LLC, a transatlantic leader in cross-border corporate finance advisory and pension Plan investment management for Middle Market (“Mittelstand”) companies. Martin has successfully administered over $1 billion in complex client assets – mostly structured credit and derivatives – for the Kuwait Investment Office and the Pension Scheme of the Netherlands while working for a joint-venture between State Street Bank & Trust and PIMCO. Also, he man-aged over five years BayernLB’s (Germany’s largest state bank) New Products/New Markets process for equity- and commodity-linked investment products and realized from scratch a EUR 1 billion issuance platform.

He is frequently quoted by leading publications like Bloomberg Brief, Politico or Finanz und Wirtschaft, Han-delszeitung and is recognized as leading entrepreneur in Finance under 40. In May 2017, Wiley & Sons published his co-authored book “Beyond Smart Beta”, one of the year’s milestone publication in finance. He served as exter-

nal consultant to the New York Stock Exchange’s Indexing department. Martin publicly testified as independent expert to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on the market mechanism and potential improvements of ETF trading in 2015. Martin was named «ETF Star» by jobsinetf.com. He holds his Bachelor in Business Admin-istration from the Business School faculty of Technische Universität Munich and is Chartered Alternative Invest-ment Analyst (CAIA). Also, he holds the FINRA/North American Securities Administrators Association Invest-ment Advisor Law Exam (Series 65). Martin is married to his wife Kathrin and proud father of Nicholas Martin. The whole family frequently commutes between Europe and the U.S.

John E. Oxendine Vice President/Boca Raton

Mr. Oxendine has been an entrepreneur, operator, investor and lender in the communications industry for over 30 years.

In these positions, Mr. Oxendine has been responsible for selecting, investigating, performing due diligence, ana-lyzing, structuring, negotiating and closing on potential investments for the companies he has owned, operated and served.

Mr. Oxendine is currently Chairman, President and CEO of Blackstar, LLC and Blackstar LP, both management companies which provide consulting and management services to the communications industry.

Mr. Oxendine served as interim CEO and a member of the Board of Directors of Equity Media Holdings Corporation (“EM”) from June 2008 through January 2009.

Mr. Oxendine served as Chairman, President and CEO of Blackstar Communications, Inc. (“BCI”), a company he formed in 1987 that acquired, owned and successfully operated commercial television stations in the U.S. The company eventually bought 5 television stations at a cost

of nearly $30 million. When the sale of all the stations was completed to USA Broadcasting, Inc., in 1998, the total sale value was $96 million, yielding a significant return on investment of over $35 million to Mr. Oxendine and his investors, which included Fox Television Stations Inc. (“FOX”), and Home Shopping Network, Inc. (“HSN”).From 1981-1995, Mr. Oxendine served as President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Broadcap Capital, Inc. (“Broadcap”) and it’s then parent company, Broad-cast Capital Fund, Inc. (“BCFI”). Under Mr. Oxendine’s leadership, Broadcap and BCFI committed approximately $17 million to over 47 companies to acquire or construct broadcast properties, leveraging total capitalization in these companies to an amount of nearly $80 million.

Mr. Oxendine was also a member of the board of directors of Paxson Communications Corporation, a large publicly held media company, and Lockhart Companies Incorpo-rated, primarily a real estate company.

Mr. Oxendine served in the U.S. Marine Corps on active duty from July 1967 to December 1968 and in the active reserve from December 1968 to July 1973. Mr. Oxendine earned an M.B.A. from Harvard University, Graduate School of Business in 1971. He received a B.A. in Political Science and Sociology from Hunter College in 1965. Mr. Oxendine has written several articles on venture capital and media in-vesting that have been published in the Bar Association Law Journal, Duke University Law Review, Journal of Minority Business Finance, and Sound Management.

Mr. Oxendine currently resides in Boca Raton, Florida Catherine C. Haworth, MBA Operations Manager/Naples

Education: University of Dayton – BA, Lake Erie College – MBA, Capital University – Certified Business Analyst

In 1971 Catherine started a banking career, from which she retired as a Vice President and corporate lender at Bank One. In 1993 she became the Executive Director of the Lake

County Economic Development Center in Lake County, Ohio. This position became the catalyst for retention and expansion projects for federal, state and local initiatives. She influenced economic development policy as a mem-ber of the State of Ohio Economic Development Board. In 2007 the Lake County Economic Development Center merged into the newly created Lake County Port Authority and Catherine became the first Director of the Port Authority.

In 2007 Catherine retired from the Economic Develop-ment Center/Port Authority and retired to Florida and started a consulting company, Haworth Administrative Services. She worked on various strategic planning proj-ects before joining the team at Florida’s Small Business Development Center at Florida Gulf Coast University. Stephen R. Wheeler Strategic Relations / Naples

Steve’s experience in both the non-profit and for-profit business worlds have prepared him to lead an organiza-tion through lean and prosperous times. He prefers to be recognized for his team building, motivational and organizational skills while developing a fun and healthy work environment.

Steve is currently Vice President of Development for Healthcare Network of Southwest Florida and has resided as Chief Development Officer for David Lawrence Center.

As Senior Development Officer for Lee Health Founda-tion, Steve secured a $20 million naming gift to build America’s Newest Children’s Hospital, six-figure gifts to establish music therapy program, “healthy brain initia-tive,” and “Mind Spa” programs, numerous six-figure naming gifts for treatment rooms in the new Children’s Hospital, and more than $1,200,000 from Naples Children & Education Foundation via the Naples Winter Wine Fes-tival, and laid the foundation for a multi-million gift for capital campaign. As Executive Director of Cancer

Alliance of Naples, Inc. he founded the new 501 (c) 3 organization Including development of Articles of Incor-poration, IRS 1023 tax exempt application, by laws, Board governance manual, volunteer applications, job descrip-tions and orientation.

As Executive Director for Collier County/ Marco Island offices American Cancer Society, Florida Division Steve managed $1.4 million budget raised via special events, donor cultivation and annual giving programs. Steve has also resided as Vice President of Business and Member Services Naples Area Chamber of Commerce and Director of Tourism Naples Area Chamber of Commerce.

5th Avenue Film, LLC Production Team Executives

Curry WallsPresident | Naples/Los Angeles

Curry, a well-known Hollywood expat (“a pioneer of celeb-rity infomercials“), has spent over 40 years in the enter-tainment industry, from his beginnings as a rock concert promoter, moving on to the creative side of the business as an actor (“Fraternity Row”, “General Hospital”), producer with Herbert Ros and Rick McCallum, and then moving on again, becoming a talent agent/manager, celebrity broker (best known for being the personal agent of Leslie Nielsen) and writer, producer and packager of motion pictures. During the ‘90s and the new millennium, Walls represented Hank Williams Jr., The Judds, Steven Seagal, Wolfman Jack, Eva Gabor, Eddie Albert to name a few. He brokered deals for Raquel Welch and Faye Dunaway, Bob Vila, Alex Trebek, Jack Nicklaus and Fred Couples among

others. He is the creative driving force behind 5th Avenue Films and Florida Film Ventures.

Mel MaronHead of Distribution | Boca Raton

Mel Maron, a graduate of The City College of New York, is currently the President and Owner of JGM Enterprises Inc., which represents independent producers in film and televi-sion. Mr. Maron started his career as an office boy at MGM before rising to become the Road Show Sales Manager, where he was responsible for the distribution of the follow-ing films: Ben-Hur (1959), ; King of Kings (1961); How the West Was Won (1962, Cinerama, Grand Prix Cinerama); The Won-derful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962, Cinerama); Mutiny on the Bounty (1962); Doctor Zhivago (1965); Ice Station Zebra (1968, Cinerama); and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).

After leaving MGM, Mr. Maron became the Senior Vice President in charge of theatrical distribution for Common-wealth United, where he distributed: The Magic Christian (1969); That Cold Day in the Park (1969); and Julius Caesar (1970). Mr. Maron left Commonwealth to become Head of Distribution for World Northal, overseeing the release of Bread and Chocolate (1974), The Last Wave (1977), and Quadrophenia (1979). After that, he introduced TV to the Black Belt Theatre with a package of Kung Fu films. Mr. Maron also represented Hank Saperstein, where he dis-tributed 10 Godzilla films.

Mr. Maron joined Castle Hill Productions, Inc. in 1984 and on July 1, 1987, he was named President of Marketing & Distribution. In 1996, Mr. Maron was elected to the Execu-tive Branch of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). Since moving to South Florida, Mr. Maron has been active in the Ft. Lauderdale Film Festival, and has served on the Committee for Young Filmmakers with the Palm Beach TV and Film Commission. He has also been named to the Advisory Board of the South Florida Motion Picture & Television Film Society.

Mr. Maron is currently working on television shows to be placed into distribution within the next six months. One of the shows is Journey Into Wellbeing, a series of thirteen half-hour episodes. In addition, Mr. Maron is working with Monte Young (director and producer) on a slate of motion picture features and television series to be made in China and the United States. Mr. Maron is also represent-ing Dr. Beach’s new upcoming reality show A Shore Thing with Dr. Beach. Mr. Maron has recently joined 5th Avenue Films as Head of Distribution where they have already put together a slate of eight films.

Richard Rothschild Unit Production Manager/Producer | Los Angeles

Richard Luke Rothschild (Co-Producer) has worked in several production capacities with such directors as Bruce Beresford (Tender Mercies, Crimes Of The Heart), Chris-topher Guest (The Big Picture), Peter Weir (The Truman Show) Joe Johnston (Hidalgo), and Robert Zemeckis (Used Cars), among others. Born in New York City, he was edu-cated at Rollins College in Florida, at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia, and graduated from Vas-sar College before taking a job in commercial production at N. Lee Lacy & Associates in New York City. From there he moved into film and television in Los Angeles. His television credits include producing Hawaiian Honeymoon, Hitler’s Daughter, Fire And Rain, and co-producing the pilot for Brothers And Sisters, as well as the controversial minise-ries Path To 9/11. Aside from launching the successful NBC Series “Good Girls” in 2017, other recent work includes Premium Cable series and limited series projects (Direc-tors Guild nominated Five, Snowfall for FX, Future Man for Hulu) and he is currently working on an original series for APPLE’s soon-to-be-announced new digital platform. His film work includes co-producing Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion, The Truman Show, Double Jeopardy, The Scorpion King and The Game Plan, producing Urban Legends: Final Cut with Producer Neal Moritz, as well as the Sony Classics release, Get Low.

Charles Sununu Advisor

Charles Sununu was born in Brooklyn, New York. He attended and received a B.A. degree from St. Michael’s College in Burlington, Vermont, and worked on a Masters in Communications at Catholic University in Washington, D.C.

For twelve years he worked as an Actor, Writer, Direc-tor, and Producer in dozens of Off-Broadway, Regional, National Tours, Summer Stock, and Educational Theatre Productions. During this time he also performed in several low-budget, independent films, as well as serving as the U.S. Representative and Buyer for International Telefilms, the largest Film Distribution Company in Latin America. In 1982 and 1984, he worked on two successful, state-wide Gubernatorial Campaigns for his brother John Sununu.

From 1982 through 1991, he was a Senior Vice-President of Investments for Merrill lynch and Prudential Securities, and in 1990, he opened and ran his own Independent Financial Advisory Service and did so for 14 years. Since 2006 to the present, he has been a Vice-President of Invest-ments for Newbridge Securities in Boca Raton, Florida. Steve Page Speedboat Consultant/Producer Fort Myers

Steve, the owner of Page Motorsports, is a hands on con-sultant on the ins and outs of Offshore Powerboat racing. Page Motorsports has earned a place in history in the sport of Offshore Powerboat Racing. As a former driver Steve has taken his team to win 9 National Champion-ships, 3 World Championships and combined has a record of over 60 wins. Among a number of awards; in1996 Steve was inducted into the American Power Boat Association hall of champions, but is most proud to have received The Randy Linebach Award for Outstanding Sportsmanship.

As an “industry” directed toward businesses interested in reaching a worldwide audience with their “brand”, Offshore race boats offer the largest signage area of any motorsport. integrating your “name” into the heart of the race. It is full throttle speed and nerve jangling adrenaline ride-strapping powerboat racing, providing fans a wild ride viewing that is known as “one of the most dangerous sports known to man”. Cockpit and exterior cameras, as well as multiple overhead shots from trailing helicopters, etc. provide maximum exposure to these traveling bill-boards. The boats race at up to 150 miles per hour battling rough seas, risking collisions and multiple flips often winding upside down and being forced to eject. The races are breathtaking from the shore and onscreen, reaching the ears and eyes of millions worldwide.

Further, Steve is a hands on consultant in creating a Virtual Reality Offshore racing Game that straps players into the hot seat taking on the challenges of an actual race traveling at exorbitant speeds while navigating the ever changing weather conditions, water and opponents and excessively challenging race courses. Video games con-tinue to become more social with multiplayer and online capability.Today, video games can be seen in social media, politics, television, film, music and YouTube. Steve sees this as an opportunity to bring an even larger audience to the sport of Offshore racing while giving businesses a tremendous opportunity to feature their logo in an exhil-arating capacity.

In 5th Avenue Films’, Love at 150MPH, the sponsoring companies logos will be featured in the premier version of the game, as part of FFV’s concept of multi-media franchising/cross promotion. Steve is passionate about bringing his love for Offshore racing to a whole new audience, giving those millions of us who experience the exhilaration on screen the chance to strap in to the drivers seat, experiencing first hand the challenge and adrenaline rush of this incredible sport to thrill seekers worldwide.

Lance Julian Marine Coordinator/Producer | Naples

Lance Julian was born into a maritime family in Auckland New Zealand. He grew up working the front lines of the family business of Tugs & Barges, Marine Salvage, Passen-ger Ferries and High Speed Tour Boats. In his early 20’s Lance attended Chaminade Business University in Hawaii, adding to his practical business background by majoring in Business Administration. While managing operations at Hawaii Inter-Island Tug & Barge, Lance took a position with King Kona Productions / Universal Pictures as the Atoll Master for the film Waterworld. It was on the set of Waterworld that Lance was enthralled with the challenge of film making and decided to pursue the business side of Nautical Films.

After working as Atoll Master on Waterworld and being responsible for the seminal set piece of the film, Lance went on to work as Marine Coordinator for the film “Cut-throat Island”. His success on Cutthroat Island paved the way for future Marine Coordinating work on films such as “The Phantom”, “Amistad”, “Titanic”, “13 Days”, “Below”, “6 Days 7 Nights”, “City of Angels”, “The Thomas Crown Affair”, “U-571”, “The Beach”, “The Thin Red Line”, “K-19 The Widowmaker”, “Fool’s Gold”, “Sahara”, “Beyond Borders”, “The Guardian”, “HBO’s The Pacific”, “RED”, “Quantum of Solace”, “The Hangover Part II”, six seasons of CBS’ “Survivor Series” and many more projects which can be found on his CV and at IMDB.com. Lance has worked with the biggest directors and stars that Hollywood has to offer.

Lance is sought after for any logistically challenging project due to his experience and capacity to see a project through all stages of development from analysis, budget-ing, location scouting, crew and equipment assembly, film-ing operations and correct wrapping procedures. Lance is also highly praised within the film insurance and under-writers industry due to his commitment to safe operations and attention to detail.

Lance co-founded and is partner in the Adventure Naples business group including Cruise Naples, Jet Ski Naples, Fish Naples and the upcoming Jet Boat Naples operations located in historic Tin City in Naples FL. With his many years of experience in the maritime and film production worlds, Lance has now begun to Produce Film and TV projects and looks forward to the new challenges and successes this will bring.

Amber McCandlessProducer/ Los Angeles/San Francisco

Amber Graduated from the University of British Columbia, with a BA (Fine Art/Film). She pursued further education in Journalism at UCLA. She also has a back-ground in performing arts and is a member of the Screen Actors Guild. After working in various rolls in the arts and entertainment industry she founded her own show on national television in 2005. She was president and CEO of Art Showcase LLC (a home shopping style art, enter-tainment and educational show), Los Angeles. She raised 100 percent of the funding on her own to launch the shoe string budget production which rapidly became a multi million dollar operation. Art Showcase was launched with a 200k budget and generated in excess of 17 million dollars over a 3 year period.

Amber also hosted and produced small segments on other networks such as HSN, where she brought artist and film stars as on air guests. She was also co founder and presi-dent of the Silver Echo Gallery, Los Angeles.

Additionally she helped start up companies such as a well known Hong Kong based wine bar, Cellar Masters, launch in Shanghai, China. She has proved to have a great deal of suc-cess working with very little to produce successful outcomes.

Amber currently lives between Los Angeles and San Francisco working as an art dealer and as part of the west coast production team for 5th Avenue films and Florida Film Funding.

Sienna McCandlessWriter/Artistic Consultant I Los Angeles

Sienna graduated from the University of British Columbia, with a BA (Fine Art/Film). In Los Angeles she furthered her education studying journalism at UCLA.

As a member of the Screen Actors’ Guild featured in a number of films, most recently (2017) she played the lead in Director Mark Lewis’ Purple Sand. Sienna has done extensive theatre with Tim Robbins, The Actors’ Gang including Little, Happy Birthday Wanda June, Blood, Love Madness and Break The Whip. In New York she performed in the off Broadway show Ben. Sienna also co-hosted the live on air show, Art Showcase.

Sienna writes poetry and lyrics for musicians as well as her own band, Charles, in which she is the lead singer, touring across the US. She is in the initial creation phase of an innovative Social Media app Secret Admirer™. This is an app that allows anonymous individuals to send “secret” gifts and messages to others in the network. Also, she co-creating another avant-garde Social Media app S’up?!™ which creates an environment designed by peo-ple for people interested in getting off their phones and engaging face to face. She was engaged to co-launch the successful Hong Kong based wine bar, Cellar Masters, in Shanghai, China.

Sienna has written a number of screenplays including Nebraska, Pretty Dirty World, I’m Not Game, Parallel and Three Times A Nightmare. She is currently in develop-ment of the episodic series Tonopah. Sienna’s collection of short films include: View From A Cathedral Ceiling, Le Nez, Portland, Oregon, The Flower Shop, Secrets In Prague (for Swarovski), My Boss Is A Sociopath & Other Disasters and Mr. Smith & The Everyman Fiasco. Sienna teamed up with AFI alum writer and Director, Harrison James, writing films for Disney, Heather Graham, and Director Robert Logevall, All God’s Children Can Dance.

Sienna also consulted with AFI Director Julian Goldberg-er, on a film adapted from the Harry Crews novel The Hawk Is Dying (Paul Giamatti/Michelle Williams).

Sienna is currently part of the 5th Avenue Films team in the writing and development of Daytona Blues, Love at 150 MPH, and Fly compiling an American action trilogy with worldwide appeal.

.

Florida Film Ventures,LLC. c/o Sugarwood Financial

5455 Jaeger Rd.Naples, FL 34109

FloridaFilmVentures.com