Visual Effects Society Announces its 06 Board of Directors Officers

Today, the Visual Effects Society (VES), the industry's global professional honorary society, announced its 2016 Board of Directors officers. The officers, who comprise the VES Board Executive Committee, were elected at the January 2016 Board meeting. The officers include Mike Chambers, who was re-elected as Board Chair.

We are fortunate to have such esteemed leadership represented on the Executive Committee, said Eric Roth, VES Executive Director. Collectively, these talented professionals bring passion, diverse experience and enormous commitment to our organization. We look forward to Mike Chambers' continued leadership in taking the organization and our global membership to new heights.

The 2016 Officers of the VES Board of Directors are:

Chair: Mike Chambers

1st Vice Chair: Jeffrey A. Okun, VES

2nd Vice Chair: Nancy St. John

Treasurer: Susan Thurmond O'Neal

Secretary: Rita Cahill

Mike Chambers, Chair

Mike Chambers is an independent Visual Effects Producer and freelance VFX Consultant, specializing in large-scale feature film productions. He is currently in post-production on Alice in Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass For Walt Disney. He most recently completed work on Transcendence, the directorial debut of award winning cinematographer, Wally Pfister, following their collaborations on both The Dark Knight Rises and Inception for esteemed director Christopher Nolan & Warner Bros. Studios. Mike has contributed to the visual effects efforts on many Academy & BAFTA award-winning films, and he has personally won 2 VES Awards for Best Visual Effects, for The Day After Tomorrow and Inception, and has been nominated for his work on I Am Legend.

As a VFX Producer, Chambers has worked with many A-list producers and directors on numerous VFX-heavy feature films. His production credits include I Am Legend, Surrogates, 10,000BC, The Day After Tomorrow, Babe: Pig In The City, Strange Days and True Lies. His consulting service clients include Paramount, Warner Bros, Disney/Touchstone, DreamWorks, Alcon Entertainment and Summit Entertainment. Earlier in his career, Chambers gained invaluable traditional filmmaking experience working for many seminal Hollywood figures and production companies. Roger Cormans New World Pictures, Doug Trumbulls Showscan and Richard Edlunds Boss Films were among his first training grounds. He then moved on to freelance visual effects coordination, most notably on James Camerons The Abyss. While working for Apogee Productions, Chambers began producing effects for feature films and special venue projects. Later, while serving as VFX Producer on True Lies, he was also a member of the team that created the then-new start-up VFX studio, Digital Domain. Some of his other early credits include Die Hard, Big Top Pee Wee, Heart & Souls, Broken Arrow, Galaxy of Terror and Slumber Party Massacre.

Chambers has been a member of the VES for almost 20 years, serving multiple terms on the Board of Directors, and is a former Vice Chair of the organization. He is also a member of the Producers Guild of America.

Jeffrey A.Okun, VES, 1st Vice Chair

Jeffrey A. Okun, VES, is currently working on Albert Hughes' The Solutrean for Studio 8 and Sony Pictures. He is known for creating organic' and invisible effects, as well as spectacular tent-pole' visual effects that blend seamlessly into the storytelling aspect of the project, and has won the VES Award for Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects for his work on The Last Samurai. Okun has also delivered wide-ranging effects in award winning films such as Blood Diamond, Stargate, Sphere, Red Planet, Deep Blue Sea, Lolita and The Last Starfighter. Additionally, he oversaw the rush 3D conversion of Clash of the Titans.

Okun was recently named a Fellow of the VES, as well as the recipient of the Founder's Award. He also created and co-edited, the VES HANDBOOK OF VISUAL EFFECTS, an award-winning reference book covering all aspects of creating visual effects, techniques and practices. As VES Board Chair for seven years, Okun fostered a global community and focused attention on bringing business and creative education to artists, facilities and studios. Under Okun's leadership the VES was a key player in the creation of a worldwide software anti-pirating alliance with the US Government to insure that all facilities have a fair and level playing field from which to bid.

Okun created the visual effects tracking and bidding software that is in wide use within the industry today, as well as the revolutionary visual effects techniques dubbed the PeriWinkle Effect (an underwater blue screen technique) and the Pencil Effect (which accurately predicts the final visual effects count and budget).

Okun is a member of the Visual Effects Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), the Academy of Television Arts and Science, and an associate member of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC).

Nancy St. John, 2nd Vice Chair

Nancy St. John has help build VFX Facilities around the world over the last 30+ years and has Produced, Executive Produced and Consulted with a Who's Who of renowned VFX and Computer Animation facilities. The list includes Robert Abel & Associates, Digital Productions, Pacific Data Images (PDI), Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), Rhythm & Hues, MillFilm London and Prime Focus Vancouver.

As a VFX Producer and Consultant she has worked with many Studios including Disney, DreamWorks, Fox, HBO, Paramount, Walden Media, Warner Bros., Relativity Media, Oddlot Entertainment and Lionsgate. Most recently as Studio side VFX Producer she completed onset work for the highly anticipated new Ghostbusters, directed by Paul Feig with a cast of very funny Actresses that releases July 2016. St John was the Production side VFX Produ

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