The SXSW ScreenBurn Advisory Board is a team of highly qualified individuals who lend their credibility and innovations to help us develop greater social foresight for our conference's development.

See below for the 2012 SXSW ScreenBurn Advisory Board Members.

Michael John
Creative Director at Electronic Arts
ea.com
Since 2008, Michael has served as the Creative Director at Electronic Arts. Michael first worked as a designer for Universal Interactive Studios in 1994. He went on to found Method Games and served as a designer for Ready at Dawn Studios. A few of the games Michael played a role in creating include Spyro the Dragon, The Simpsons Game, God of War: Chains of Olympus, and Spore Hero.

Mary Beth Haggerty
Vice President of Production Development at THQ
thq.com
Mary Beth is currently VP of Product Development at THQ for Lifestyle, Kids, Family, and Casual titles. She has worked for a spectrum of game, software, and film companies such as Autodesk, Electronic Arts, and Industrial Light and Magic. Mary Beth brings a passion for the future and business of games and entertainment to the board.

Ryan Schneider
Director of Marketing Communications at Insomniac Games
insomniacgames.com
During his near decade-long career in the video games industry, Ryan Schneider has helped launch dozens of titles both on the agency and development side. Since 2004, Ryan has served as the brand development director for independent developer Insomniac Games, where he's responsible for all studio marketing, public relations, and community initiatives. As part of that role, Ryan collaborates with publishers Sony Computer Entertainment and Electronic Arts on many aspects of domestic and international marketing, PR, community building, and product development for each Insomniac-developed game.

Kellee Santiago
President at thatgamecompany
thatgamecompany.com
kelleesantiago.com
Kellee Santiago is President and Co-Founder of thatgamecompany. thatgamecompany’s goal is to make video games that communicate different emotional experiences, and expand the communicative possibilities of games. Upon founding the studio with Jenova Chen, TGC landed a three game deal with Sony Computer Entertainment America, Inc. to develop downloadable games for Playstation Network. Their first two commercial releases, “flOw”, and “Flower,” went on to become award-winning and two of the top downloaded games on PSN. They are eagerly anticipating the upcoming release of their first PSN online title, "Journey." Kellee is also a partner in IndieFund, which aims to support the growth of games as a medium by helping unique indie developers get, and stay, financially independent. In 2010 she became a TEDFellow, and was recognized as one of The Ten Most Influential Women in Games of the Decade.

Robin Hunicke
Executive Producer at thatgamecompany
thatgamecompany.com
Robin Hunicke is a video game designer and producer currently working at thatgamecompany as their Executive Producer. Hunicke began her career at Electronic Arts, where she worked on multiple games, including Sims 2 and MySims as a designer, and Boom Blox and Boom Blox: Bash Party as a producer. She is currently leading the production of Journey, an upcoming online cooperative game for the PlayStation 3. Robin was chosen for Gamasutra's Gamasutra 20, which honored the Top 20 women working in the video game industry. In 2009, Microsoft awarded Hunicke the Women in Gaming Award for Design. She also earned a spot on the Hot 100 Game Developers of 2009 list by Edge magazine.

Sean Flinn
Director of Marketing at GameSpy Technology
poweredbygamespy.com
Sean Flinn is Marketing Director for GameSpy Technology, a division of IGN Entertainment and the leading provider of online services to video game developers. A 12-year veteran of the games industry, Sean oversees marketing and product management for GameSpy Technology, which provides multiplayer matchmaking, player metrics & rankings, and cloud storage services for video games of every size and on every platform. During his tenure, GameSpy Technology has integrated its services into landmark AAA titles like Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption and Firaxis's Civilization V, as well as innovative independently developed games like Trendy Entertainment's Dungeon Defenders and Halfbrick's Fruit Ninja.

Jenna Seiden
Director of Business Development at Microsoft Studios
microsoft.com
Jenna Seiden is the head of original programming and entertainment partnerships for Microsoft Studios. In this role, Jenna handles the business development needs for all first party product teams across what was once Microsoft Game Studios, which includes Core Gaming, Kinect, Family & Lifestyle, Health & Wellness, Sports, XBLA, and Mobile. Partnerships involve identifying and negotiating deals with entertainment companies, consumer packaged goods firms, and other content creators/IP holders in the pursuit of interactive entertainment. She also oversees the development and production of original linear and interactive content for the LIVE platform on behalf of Microsoft Studios. Prior to joining Microsoft, Jenna was a video games agent at Creative Artists Agency representing independent game developers. Jenna began her career with the NBA in marketing partnerships and also worked in TV and digital content development at NBC and Icebox.com.

Jeff Nachbaur
Producer at Warner Brothers Interactive
wbie.com
twitter.com/nockeyworld
After studying writing at Emerson College and the University of Florida, Jeff Nachbaur began his career in video games in 1999 as a QA Tester at Activision. Since 2004, he has been a producer with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment where he has seen the company grow from its roots as an IP holder\licensor to a full-fledged games publisher. He's produced games for nearly every platform, in nearly every genre, and for brands as diverse as Speed Racer and Happy Feet to Mortal Kombat and FEAR. While games continue to be his driving passion, in his free time, he focuses on creative writing and illustration - two personal aspirations that continue to shape his personal approach to game development and production.

Harvey Smith
Co-Creative Director at Arkane Studios
arkane-studios.com
twitter.com/harvey1966
Harvey Smith is a game designer and writer who has been making video games professionally since 1993. Currently, he is Co-Creative Director at Arkane Studios, working on Dishonored, published by Bethesda Softworks. From 2004 to 2007, he served as Studio Creative Director for Midway Austin, managing the design department, starting three projects, and shipping Blacksite during that time. He worked at Ion Storm's Austin office from 1998 to 2004, acting as creative director of Deus Ex: Invisible War and lead designer on the award-winning Deus Ex, winning the 2000 BAFTA and many other awards. He has spoken at the Game Developers' Conference, MiGS, SXSW, E3, QuakeCon, and other conferences. In 2005, he won the Game Design Challenge at GDC for his entry, Peacebomb! Smith has served on Advisory Boards for the SXSW ScreenBurn Festival and the Game Developers' Choice Awards.

Jeff Rubenstein
Senior Social Media Manager at Sony Computer Entertainment
blog.us.playstation.com
twitter.com/jeffrubenstein
Since 2007, Jeff has worked as Social Media Manger for Sony Computer Entertainment America, Inc. Jeff was promoted to Senior Social Media Manager this year and currently runs the North American PlayStation Blog website, where he keeps readers up-to-date on PlayStation news and information.

Brandon Boyer
Contributing Editor at Boing Boing
offworld.com
brandonnn.com
Brandon's wild, pure, simple life has seen him at various times acting as artist, programmer, and indie record label head, as well as writer, columnist, and editor for web and print publications like Edge magazine and Gamasutra. He has also served numerous times as a judge for Think Services' Independent Games Festival, and as both an advisory board member and speaker at the Austin Game Developers Conference's inaugural Indie Games Summit. Brandon currently oversees Offworld.com, an offshoot of Boing Boing, covering the intersection of the best in independent, mainstream, and iPhone gaming, as well as the best in art, music, and related video game culture.

James Clarendon
Lead Programmer at Red Fly Studio
redflygames.com
James Clarendon got his start in the late 90s, hacking the Pac-Man arcade game for Two-Bit Score. Since then, he has filled roles as both programmer and designer, shipping titles such as John Madden NFL Football 2002, Deus Ex: Invisible War, and Thief: Deadly Shadows. For Red Fly Studio, he took on leadership roles for Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars and Ghostbusters: The Video Game, as well as Creative Lead on Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II for the Wii. In his spare time he enjoys collecting (and hacking) retro game consoles.

Sean Reardon
Senior Producer at Gearbox Software
gearboxsoftware.com
Sean started life as a tinkerer. Legos, Erector Sets, batteries, and wires. Then he discovered programming. Though exploration of programming he stumbled upon graphics, and with his friend Steve Jones, created a series of graphics demos. One thing led to another and both Sean and Steve found themselves working in the video game industry at Gearbox Software in summer of 1999. At Gearbox Sean has helped to build new technology, shape the programming culture, and create new organizations within the company as it grew from a tiny shop to a significant player in the game development ecosystem. Sean has been directly involved in the shipping of nearly every title Gearbox has released. Once, Sean ate a Taco Bueno product every day for 90 consecutive days.

Todd Keller
Art Director and Visual Development at Armature Studio
armaturestudio.com
Todd Keller co-founded Armature Studio in 2008 and is their Art Director and Director of Visual Development. He had previously been with Retro Studios, Inc. as the art director for Metroid Prime, Metroid Prime 2, Metroid Prime 3, and Metroid Hunters.

Leigh Alexander
Editor at Large at Gamasutra
gamasutra.com
sexyvideogameland.blogspot.com
Leigh Alexander is editor-at-large at leading game industry trade site Gamasutra. Her monthly column at Kotaku deals with cultural issues surrounding games and gamers, while her monthly column in Edge magazine provides perspective on issues of greatest concern to the games industry. She is editor of NYLON Guys' game section, and her work has regularly appeared in publications including Variety, GamePro, Slate, The Los Angeles Times, and The Onion's AV Club, among others.

Wagner James Au
Virtual Worlds/Goods Analyst for Social Times
nwn.blogs.com
James publishes the virtual world blog New World Notes (nwn.blogs.com), launched during his stint as an "embedded journalist" with Linden Lab, documented in his HarperCollins book The Making of Second Life. He was recently a writer/designer for next-gen social game company ohai and a contributing editor with GigaOM, and is currently a virtual worlds/goods analyst for Social Times.

Leah Smith
Animation and Video Game Liaison for the Texas Film Commission
texasfilmcommission.com

Leah Smith is the Animation and Video Game Industries Liaison at the Texas Film Commission, working to increase the visibility of Texas media industries and supporting the professional and educational communities. She brings an industry perspective having previously worked at Arkane Studios.

SXSW ScreenBurn is sponsored by Alienware.