Richard Gordon Richard is CFO & Managing Director. He heads up the JAM Media production studio in Belfast. Richard joined JAM in 2013 upon the expansion into the UK. JAM Belfast facilitates animation production processes for JAM’s own productions and provides co-production and service facilities to third party partners. His position in Belfast makes him responsible for overseeing the production processes in the studio, ensuring targets are achieved on schedule and in budget whilst maintaining the world class quality JAM is known for. Having a background in finance, he also oversees the running of financial and budgeting processes for JAM. He is involved in financial and contracting operations for new and existing productions and developments. Since joining JAM he has been part of the production management team on CBBC commissioned shows ‘Roy’ Series 3 and 4, ‘Zig and Zag’ Series 1, ‘The Roy Files’ and ‘Little Roy’ Series 1 and 2. He is currently engaged as a producer on the Nickelodeon commissioned show Becca’s Bunch. William Barr William is the founder of local videogame development studio BillyGoat Entertainment. Having previously worked in TV animation Will founded ‘BillyGoat’ in 2010. BillyGoat specialises in crafting jovial, light-hearted, comedic experiences for consoles and PC. BillyGoat’s most recent title, Her Majesty’s SPIFFING, is a comedy adventure game which sees the Queen of England attempt to establish a Galactic British Empire. Satire is placed front and centre alongside Britain’s questionable colonial past, Brexit and the French as players assume the role of astronaut (and a gentleman) Cpt Frank Lee English. Her Majesty’s SPIFFING was awarded the prestigious TIGA Culture and Heritage Award 2017 and is available now on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, iOS and PC.“ Gráinne McGuinness Gráinne is the creator of ‘Pablo’ for CBeebies and RTÉJr, which launched in October 2017 to a storm of media praise for its timely portrayal of a smart little autistic character. Gráinne was creator of preschool cookery series ‘Bia Linn’ for TG4 and Na Dulradóirí, a wildlife series for 8 - 12 year olds. Gráinne holds a BA, Media Studies and an MA, Marketing from Ulster University, a PG Cert in Teaching Adult Learners and PG Cert in Computer Based Learning from QUB. She is kept well informed about kids’ content by her two small children. Olivia O’Kane Olivia is a Media Lawyer in Northern Ireland in the firm of Carson McDowell LLP. She graduated with a 1st class honours degree from Queens University Belfast and qualified as a Solicitor from the IPLS QUB. She later qualified as a Solicitor Advocate and she regularly represents media organisations providing both non- contentious and contentious legal advice on copyright, advertising, defamation, privacy, contract, contempt, reporting restrictions, commercial litigation and a wide variety of media related legal issues. She contributes to debates on issues of media responsibility, lectures at QUB and provides in house legal training to media organisations throughout NI. Her steady, creative and strategic advice often provides calm to her clients’ especially when faced with the urgent and short deadlines. She is a founding member of the NIELG, which has been instrumental in changing court reporting in Northern Ireland.
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Richard Gordon
Richard is CFO & Managing Director. He heads up the JAM Media production studio in Belfast. Richard joined JAM in 2013 upon the expansion into the UK.
JAM Belfast facilitates animation production processes for JAM’s own productions and provides co-production and service facilities to third party partners. His position in Belfast makes him responsible for overseeing the production processes in the studio, ensuring targets are achieved on schedule and in budget whilst maintaining the world class quality JAM is known for.
Having a background in finance, he also oversees the running of financial and budgeting processes for JAM. He is involved in financial and contracting operations for new and existing productions and developments.
Since joining JAM he has been part of the production management team on CBBC commissioned shows ‘Roy’ Series 3 and 4, ‘Zig and Zag’ Series 1, ‘The Roy Files’ and ‘Little Roy’ Series 1 and 2. He is currently engaged as a producer on the Nickelodeon commissioned show Becca’s Bunch.
William Barr
William is the founder of local videogame development studio BillyGoat Entertainment. Having previously worked in TV animation Will founded ‘BillyGoat’ in 2010. BillyGoat specialises in crafting jovial, light-hearted, comedic experiences for consoles and PC.
BillyGoat’s most recent title, Her Majesty’s SPIFFING, is a comedy adventure game which sees the Queen of England attempt to establish a Galactic British Empire. Satire is placed front and centre alongside Britain’s questionable colonial past, Brexit and the French as players assume the role of astronaut (and a gentleman) Cpt Frank Lee English.
Her Majesty’s SPIFFING was awarded the prestigious TIGA Culture and Heritage Award 2017 and is available now on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, iOS and PC.“
Gráinne McGuinness
Gráinne is the creator of ‘Pablo’ for CBeebies and RTÉJr, which launched in October 2017 to a storm of media praise for its timely portrayal of a smart little autistic character. Gráinne was creator of preschool cookery series ‘Bia Linn’ for TG4 and Na Dulradóirí, a wildlife series for 8 - 12 year olds. Gráinne holds a BA, Media Studies and an MA, Marketing from Ulster University, a PG Cert in Teaching Adult Learners and PG Cert in Computer Based Learning from QUB. She is kept well informed about kids’ content by her two small children.
Olivia O’Kane
Olivia is a Media Lawyer in Northern Ireland in the firm of Carson McDowell LLP. She graduated with a 1st class honours degree from Queens University Belfast and qualified as a Solicitor from the IPLS QUB.
She later qualified as a Solicitor Advocate and she regularly represents media organisations providing both non-contentious and contentious legal advice on copyright, advertising, defamation, privacy, contract, contempt, reporting restrictions, commercial litigation and a wide variety of media related legal issues.
She contributes to debates on issues of media responsibility, lectures at QUB and provides in house legal training to media organisations throughout NI. Her steady, creative and strategic advice often provides calm to her clients’ especially when faced with the urgent and short deadlines.
She is a founding member of the NIELG, which has been instrumental in changing court reporting in Northern Ireland.
Richard Williams
Richard is the Chief Executive of Northern Ireland Screen which has, in the last 10 years, taken the lead role in developing the screen industry in Northern Ireland.
Under Richard’s leadership, Northern Ireland Screen developed the Paint Hall at Titanic Quarter as a film studio and developed what is now collectively known as Titanic Studios. The full facility is currently let out to HBO’s GAME OF THRONES which has returned to Northern Ireland for its eighth season. He partnered with Belfast Harbour Commission in the development of Belfast Harbour Studios, a new purpose built studio complex.
During his time, Northern Ireland Screen has expanded its support to cover large-scale production, TV drama, independent film, factual/entertainment, animation and interactive content.Richard previously worked for Waddell Media, during that time representing Northern Ireland on PACT, the Producers Alliance for Cinema & Television. He also previously worked in newspaper management and was a commercial solicitor.
Victor Perez
Victor is a Spanish film director, producer, screenwriter and visual effects artist with more than 20 year of combined experience, and has worked on a number of Hollywood films, including ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’, ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’, plus many more.
Considered a visual effects compositing guru, Victor started his career in the film industry as a photographer and digital compositing artist. He then worked on collaborations as 2D technical director and consultant where he developed a combination of both artistic and technical understanding of film postproduction and visual effects from a photorealistic point of view. Today he designs and oversees the process creation of feature film visual effects as VFX Supervisor.
In 2015, Victor delved into the world of film directing, and has written and directed two short films, receiving more than 27 awards and nominations for his debut Another Love (2015). His latest short film ECHO (2017) uses pioneering, never-seen-before motion control technology and was shot in just five long takes. Victor’s passion for story telling combined with his award-winning directing and visual effects artistry has positioned him as an up-and-coming film director and a one-to-watch in the industry.
Catherine Mullan
Catherine is currently an Animation Supervisor at MPC in London. Originally from Northern Ireland Catherine moved to the UK to study computer animation at Bournemouth University, where she graduated with a first class honours degree in 2001.
Over the last 16 years Catherine has worked with Framestore, Animal Logic and MPC and has accumulated over 20 credits in Film. These credits include Harry Potter, Narnia, X-Men, Golden Compass (Oscar Winner, Best Visual Effects), Happy Feet (Oscar Winner, Best Animated Feature), Maleficent, Spectre and Pirates of the Caribbean.
Catherine has also been nominated for a Prime Time Emmy and a VES Award. Her experience and passion for Animation has led her to her most recent role as Animation Supervisor on Tim Burton’s remake of the classic Disney movie, Dumbo.
Greg Maguire
Greg’s credits include “Star Wars: The Clone Wars”, “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”, “Happy Feet” and “Avatar”. He is a Visual Effects Society member and sits on the board of Northern Ireland Screen. He is Professor of Animation at Ulster University through which he founded Toody Threedy and 3D Dojo.
Through his career, Greg has been instrumental in the launch and development of numerous heavy-hitters of animation including Walt Disney Feature Animation, Industrial Light & Magic, Lucasfilm Animation, and now Belfast-based Humain. Humain aim to make it easier to create 3D digital characters for emerging technologies such as personal digital assistants, social avatars and mixed reality environments.
