
Visual Effects Society Announces its 2021 Board of Directors Officers
data-src=https://creativecow.net/wp-content/uploads/avatars/263018/5fa08c562aaf4-bpthumb.jpg data-srcset=https://creativecow.net/wp-content/uploads/avatars/263018/5fa08c561c0e7-bpfull.jpg 2x class=lazyload avatar avatar-80 photo height=80 width=80 />
Brie Clayton January 21, 2021
0 Comments
Lisa Cooke has been elected Board Chair, and is the first woman to lead the global organization.
data-src=https://gcs.creativecow.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/21225547/Lisa-Cooke600.jpg alt= class=lazyload wp-image-2401617/>Today, the Visual Effects Society (VES), the industry's global professional honorary society, announced its 2021 Board of Directors officers. The officers, who comprise the VES Board Executive Committee, were elected at the January 2021 Board meeting. The officers include Lisa Cooke, who was elected Board Chair, and is the first woman to hold this role in the Society's history. The five officers embody the global makeup up the Society, coming from Sections in the United States, New Zealand and London.
The Society is proud to have exceptional leadership represented on our Executive Committee, said Eric Roth, VES Executive Director. This is a group of impassioned and venerated professionals with a vision for the Society's future, especially amidst this time of dynamic change. We appreciate their commitment to serve our organization and our members worldwide.
It is my great honor and privilege to Chair this society of exceptional artists and innovators, said Lisa Cooke, VES Chair. I'm proud to be the first woman in this role, and I'm committed to lifting up our future leaders, so that I'm not the last. I look forward to working with the Executive Committee and Board of Directors to support our members during these challenging times and advance the work to propel the Society and the industry forward.
The 2021 Officers of the VES Board of Directors are:
Chair: Lisa Cooke
1st Vice Chair: Emma Clifton Perry
2nd Vice Chair: David H. Tanaka
Treasurer: Jeffrey A. Okun, VES
Secretary: Gavin Graham
Lisa Cooke, Chair
Lisa Cooke has spent several decades in the entertainment industry as an animation/FX industry producer, story consultant, screenwriter and actor. Firmly believing that effective science communication is vital to our world, she founded Green Ray Media, and for the last ten-plus years, has been producing animation and VFX to create scientific, medical and environmental media for a broad audience.
Cooke has worked for entertainment clients including Lucasfilm, Fox, Nickelodeon Films, ABC, CBS, Paramount and Universal and in the VFX and animation industry for companies including Pixar, Glasgow-based Digital Animations Group and Tippett Studio. As Senior Producer at Reardon Studios, she helped bring MOVA Contour Reality Capture to the film industry.
Cooke has also taught story structure at the SF Academy of Art, JFK University and Ex'pression College, and is a member of the Screen Actors Guild. She served six years on the VES Bay Area Board of Managers Executive Committee and as Chair, before joining the VES Board of Directors, where she serves as Chair of the Archive Committee. In 2019 she held the position of 2nd Vice Chair and served as 1st Vice Chair in 2020. She is honored to Chair the Visual Effects Society in 2021.
Emma Clifton Perry, 1st Vice Chair
Emma Clifton Perry has more than 15 years experience across feature films, longform/TV series, commercials and advertising.
Clifton Perry offers a truly global perspective, having lived everywhere from Saudi Arabia to Canada. She has worked both in-house with FOX and at VFX facilities worldwide including WETA Digital, Framestore, MPC, Rising Sun Pictures, DrD, Method Studios and The Mill, amongst others, working both as an artist and in leadership roles. She is currently based in Wellington, New Zealand, providing remote compositing and VFX consulting/lecturing services worldwide. She studied at the NCCA, Bournemouth University, UK.
This is Clifton Perry's second consecutive term on the Executive Committee, serving as 2nd Vice Chair in 2020. Clifton Perry has served for four consecutive years on the Board of Directors and eight cumulative years on the New Zealand Board of Managers. She was the 2nd ever New Zealand Section Chair, serving as Chair for three years and a year as secretary/treasurer.
David H. Tanaka, 2nd Vice Chair
David H. Tanaka has worked in visual effects and animation for over 25 years. For 15 years he served at Industrial Light & Magic in VFX Editorial on such films as Jurassic Park, Forrest Gump, and Star Wars. He went on to work on Cars, Ratatouille, WALL E, UP, and Toy Story 3 as a Special Projects Editor at Pixar Animation Studios over the next 10 years.
In 2015, in addition to his freelance editing for studios, corporations and private clientele, Tanaka served as Editor, VFX Supervisor, Post-Production Supervisor and Co-Executive Producer on the independent feature film Guitar Man (currently in festival run and garnering awards for Best Editing and Best Picture). Tanaka is also an Adjunct Professor for the Academy of Art University, San Francisco, specializing in Editing, Producing and Cinema History.
David H. Tanaka has been a proud member of the Visual Effects Society for close to two decades. He served three terms as the VES Bay Area Section Chair, and one term as Co-Chair. Now in his third term on the VES Board of Directors, he has collaborated on projects ranging from educational outreach and VFX workplace code of conduct standards, to special VFX artist tributes and establishing best editorial practices for the VES Archives Committee.
Jeffrey A. Okun, VES Treasurer
Jeffrey A. Okun, VES, is known for creating organic' and invisible effects, as well as spect
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
09/10/2026
September 10 2026, 06:00 (PDT) Dolby Expands Dolby OptiView Platform with New Capabilities at IBC 2026
New Sports Intelligence helps providers better unders...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
18/09/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
18/09/2026
Qvest has appointed Jens Miedek as Senior Vice President Sales, Media and Entertainment. Before joining Qvest, Miedek spent 16 years at Riedel Communications an...
18/09/2026
Fonn Group has acquired full ownership of everviz, a cloud-native platform for interactive charts, maps, and data-driven graphics, and will rebrand it as Teikna...
18/09/2026
Other World Computing (OWC) has announced the acquisition of OpenDrives, a provider of software-defined video and rich media storage management solutions. The a...
18/09/2026
Kaltura and Verimatrix have announced a partnership integrating Verimatrix's Digital Rights Management and security capabilities into Kaltura's Cloud TV...
18/09/2026
The sixth edition of the World Nomad Games combined traditional sports, large-scale cultural performances, and some decidedly modern broadcast technology. Held ...
18/09/2026
DAZN and Super League Basketball (SLB) have extended their partnership for the 2026-27 season. Every Championship, Cup, and Play-Off fixture will be available l...
18/09/2026
Nielsen has announced that its Streaming Content Ratings (SCR) product will move from weekly to daily data delivery, with clients now receiving viewership data ...
18/09/2026
ESPN will present LALIGA's ElCl sico on ABC for the first time, with FC Barcelona vs. Real Madrid airing Sunday, October 25 at 4 p.m. ET. A one-hour pre-mat...
18/09/2026
The University of Pennsylvania's Division of Recreation and Intercollegiate ...
18/09/2026
The Charlotte Hornets have announced DAZN as their exclusive direct-to-consumer streaming partner for the 2026-27 NBA season. The service launches immediately, ...
18/09/2026
Broadcast sports' original medium will let drivers keep on hearing the plays thanks to a new bill set to pass the Senate....
18/09/2026
Fourteen iPhone 18 Pro devices - eight connected over a T-Mobile Private 5G Netw...
18/09/2026
The Minnesota Lynx have announced that their final local broadcast of the 2026 regular season will air free on FOX 9 following the shutdown of Victory . The Ly...
18/09/2026
Monumental Sports Network (MNMT) has announced that its Monumental+ streaming service is now available as a subscription through Prime Video, giving Capitals an...
18/09/2026
WTGL, the women's team golf league created by TMRW Sports in partnership with the LPGA, has announced its inaugural season schedule. The season premieres Su...
18/09/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent ratings news and is derived from press re...
18/09/2026
Studio Network Solutions (SNS) has won Best Journal Article at the 2026 IAMT Impact Awards for What Video Editors Need When Everything Is Changing Around Them, ...
18/09/2026
10 new voice models join line-up
The latest expansion for IK Multimedia's AI-powered vocal-modelling software has arrived, delivering a set of 10 new vo...
18/09/2026
A day of hands-on synthesis, sound design & performance
On Saturday 26 September 2026, The Museum of Synthesisers will be hosting a full day of hands-on syn...
18/09/2026
HPA is supporting Fix It or Risk It, a non-commercial, industry-wide public-service campaign helping organizations across the media and entertainment supply cha...
18/09/2026
AgileTV has successfully wrapped up its participation at IBC 2026 in Amsterdam, following four days of conversations with customers, partners and industry profe...
18/09/2026
aconnic AG (ISIN: DE000A0LBKW6), Munich, invites its shareholders and investors to a Virtual Investor Conference on Tuesday, September 29th, 2026, at 11.00 am.
...
18/09/2026
DHD reports a high level of interest in its range of audio production equipment on all four days of the September 11-14 International Broadcasting Convention in...
18/09/2026
Sonnet Announces Thunderbolt 5 eGPU With 850-Watt Power Supply and Integrated Do...
18/09/2026
DeckBridge adds live Resolve playback and Fairlight controls to Stream Deck
Brie Clayton September 17, 2026
0 Comments
DeckBridge starting profiles ac...
18/09/2026
Learn to arrange tracks using Color With Live's Free Stencil Pack
Brie Clayton September 17, 2026
0 Comments
Stencils are Color With Live's or...
18/09/2026
Berklee Establishes Susan Tedeschi Scholarship in Honor of Grammy-Winning Alumna The scholarship is announced as Tedeschi returns to headline the Berklee Bloc...
18/09/2026
The inside scoop on attention-grabbing market assets from those in the know 17 September 2026
(L-R): Sophie Green, Todd Brown and Edwina Waddy
Find this episo...
18/09/2026
Friday 18 September 2026
The new iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, Apple Watch ...
18/09/2026
Senior Colorist Siggy Ferstl of Company 3 has been grading The Boys since the sh...
17/09/2026
Lions vs. Bills will also be the first regular-season game at new Highmark Stadi...
17/09/2026
Teradek has announced Bolt 7, a wireless video and data system that adds an integrated 900MHz radio to the Bolt's zero-delay video pipeline. The 900MHz chan...
17/09/2026
DAZN has announced three appointments to its executive leadership team, all reporting to CEO Shay Segev effective immediately.
Patrick Delany has been appointe...
17/09/2026
Monumental Sports and Entertainment (MSE) has announced a leadership restructuring. Zach Leonsis has been named President and Vice Chairman, a newly created pos...
17/09/2026
CP Communications has been named Best of Florida for Audio-Visual Services, and its subsidiary Red House Streaming has been named Best Movie and Recording Studi...
17/09/2026
Scripps Sports and ION have announced a broadcast partnership for the Shriners Children's East-West Bowl, the nation's oldest college all-star football ...
17/09/2026
The 17th annual espnW: Women + Sports Summit, presented by Toyota, will take place October 14-16 at the Ojai Valley Inn in Ojai, California, with virtual attend...
17/09/2026
The Professional Audio Manufacturers Alliance (PAMA) and Shure Incorporated have...
17/09/2026
Lithuanian broadcaster LNK Group has completed a migration of playout and media management for its five national television networks - LNK, BTV, TV1, InfoTV, an...
17/09/2026
Net Insight has announced a pan-Asian live media network created with its regional partners, giving broadcasters, production companies, and media service provid...
17/09/2026
After a high school football injury, the Orlando native found a new path in video production, gaining experience on ESPN college football broadcasts, Tampa Bay ...
17/09/2026
Popular DAW gains free pitch-correction tool
Image-Line have teamed up with Antares to kit their popular DAW software out with a built-in pitch-correction p...
17/09/2026
Promises unprecedented realism, dynamic nuance and clarity
Gibson have teamed up with acoustic pickup experts Baggs, creating a next-generation' pickup...
17/09/2026
Two new libraries join percussion line-up
VSL (Vienna Symphonic Library) have just launched two new libraries that bring some intriguing new instruments int...
17/09/2026
Hardware & plug-in versions gain new features
Arturia have just released a free update that brings some significant new features to their MiniFreak synthesi...
17/09/2026
Respected journalist Catalina Fl rez to succeed Anton Enus as SBS World News pre...