EXECUTIVE PROGRAM ADVISORY BOARD

Terry Botwick
Terry has had an outstanding career in television and now motion pictures.   As Senior Vice-President at CBS Entertainment, he helped the network rise from third to first place, and oversaw all primetime series programming (developing three successful series) and special events (Grammy Awards, Tony Awards, Emmy Awards, etc.).  His eclectic resume of broad-ranging successes includes: President of worldwide television distribution and production for Hearst Corporation, Founder/CEO of eLearning company Spongelab, President/COO of Big Idea Productions (VeggieTales), and Co-Founder/CEO of Thunderpoint Studios, a new feature film and finance production company.

Phil Cooke
Phil Cooke is President and Creative Director of Cooke Pictures, a television production and media consulting company for some of the largest non-profit and faith-based organizations in America.  He has produced programming in more than 35 countries, and is a popular speaker at media workshops, seminars and conferences worldwide.  An award-winning director, Cooke is also a founding partner with Ralph Winter (producer of X-Men and X2) of Thomas-Winter-Cooke, a commercial production company.  One of the few working producers and directors in Hollywood with an earned Ph.D., his work has been profiled in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Los Angeles Times, and is in the permanent archive of the History of Broadcasting at Newhouse School of Communication, Syracuse University.

Craig Detweiler
Craig Detweiler is Professor of Theology and Culture at Fuller Seminary. He is also a screenwriter and the author of the book A Matrix of Meanings: Finding God in Pop Culture. He wrote the films The Duke for Buena Vista and Extreme Days for Providence Entertainment. His documentary Williams Syndrome:  A Highly Musical Species won a Cine Golden Eagle and the Crystal Heart Award at the Heartland Film Festival. Craig serves as executive producer of the City of the Angels Film Festival and on the advisory boards for Reel Spirituality and the Heartland Film Festival. Craig has an M.F.A. from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinema/TV and an MDiv from Fuller Theological Seminary. He is a contributing editor for The Mars Hill Review. A Matrix of Meanings, co-written with Barry Taylor, was honored by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association as one of five finalists for the 2004 Gold Medallion Book Award in theology/doctrine.

Dick Lyles
Dick Lyles, Ph.D., is President & CEO of Leadership Legacies, a company that focuses on developing a new generation of leaders. Dick has been an active speaker and management consultant with an international clientele for more than thirty years. His client base has included numerous cities and countries, various departments of the U.S. government, and Fortune 500 companies, including Exxon and Hughes Aircraft.  Dick has published many books including the best seller Winning Habits:  4 Secrets that Will Change the Rest of Your Life and the upcoming 2-volume set, Achieving Leadership Genius.  He hosts the weekly Relevant Radio program “LifeWorks.”

Travis Mann
Travis Mann is the Senior Vice President in charge of Business Affairs at Inferno Distribution. Prior to joining Inferno, Travis was head of business affairs for Crystal Sky Pictures where he negotiated and drafted a wide variety of motion picture production, finance and distribution agreements. Earlier in his career, Travis practiced entertainment law with Rosenfeld, Meyer & Susman, LLP and the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group. Over the course of his career, he has served as production attorney on numerous films including City of Angels, A Time to Kill, The Negotiator and U.S. work on The Matrix. Travis received a B.B.A. in Finance from Southern Methodist University and a J.D. from the UCLA School of Law where he was an editor of the UCLA Law Review.

John Shepherd
John Shepherd is a founding partner and the President of Production for Mpower, a new production company headed by Executive Producer Steve McEveety. Mr. Shepherd has served as executive for Dreamworks, Dean River Productions, and other studios, with several award-winning feature films and children’s animation properties to his credit. His has produced some 17 motion pictures including The Ultimate Gift, and the ESPY nominated Bobby Jones-Stroke of Genius starring Jim Caviezel. He is coordinating production for the current slate of Mpower films. John has a BA from UCLA.

Melissa d'Arabian
After obtaining her MBA from Georgetown University, Melissa d’Arabian worked in Finance and Planning for The Walt Disney Company in Burbank, and for Eurodisney in Paris.  An alumna of Act One’s Writing Program in Los Angeles, Melissa d’Arabian is the former Director of Act One | Executive Program.  Currently, Melissa is working part time as a research and writing associate at the Kellogg School of Business, which was just ranked the number one MBA program in the US by Businessweek.  The rest of her time is more than filled by taking care of her brand-new daughter, Valentine Reese.

Charles B. Slocum
Chuck has worked in the entertainment industry for almost 20 years in a variety of financial and strategy positions, most recently as Assistant Executive Director for Strategy and Research for the Writer’s Guild of America West.  Prior to the Guild, Chuck worked for Paramount Pictures in television finance, for NBC as a game show judge, and for ABC in audience research.  He has an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BA in Television/Radio from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University.  He is pursuing a Masters in Theology and the Arts from Fuller Theological Seminary.  Slocum serves as chair of Act One.

Terence Berry
An alumnus of the 2005 Act One Executive Program, Terence Berry currently working as an independent producer. He began his entertainment career working in New York covering the Media & Entertainment industry for Citigroup, where he worked on film-financings for several of the major studios. He left banking in early 2001 to work under the tutelage of independent film producer, Marshall Persinger (Twin Falls Idaho, Wild Iris) – reading scripts, writing coverage and working on the sets of her films. Subsequently, Terence moved to Los Angeles to work as an associate producer on the Discovery Channel’s hit show, “Monster Garage.” In 2005, Terence served as the Executive Director of the Damah Film Festival.

Cassandra Johnson
An Alumna of the 2006 Act One Executive Program, Cassandra is currently the assistant to the Head of Current Comedy at ABC Television. After graduating from Harvard University, Cassandra began her career working in the entertainment and media practice of Booz, Allen & Hamilton – developing new business ideas for Comedy Central, MTV, PBS and other TV networks.  Pursuing her interest in TV Cassandra moved into free-lancing for Latin Television Network and BET – where she created a sponsorship program for biography franchise Journeys in Black. Cassandra then moved to LA to fully pursue her passion for TV series development – working at Creative Artists Agency, UPN and Paramount Domestic Television.