“Decency is avoiding disrespect, not avoiding disagreement. Integrity is trying to get it right, not being right.” – Adam Grant

I went looking for a quote that would help sum up a bit about how the work that I present here has all been the product of working within a team. Even work I did alone, on my own, ultimately either needed to fit in with the work of others or was made better through feedback from the people I worked with (right down to this website). When you look at the work I present here, please know that I worked with many people to produce what you see, and without their effort, all I would have to show are a bunch of ideas, and those are relatively easy enough to come by.

As a leader and a manager for most of the last twenty years, my success has been directly related to my team’s success. As an individual contributor, my job is to be an exemplary part of the team. It took time and experience to learn this, but I also benefited from amazing training that is now at your disposal. While I will happily talk about this for hours, I’ve taken my extensive training at Microsoft to heart when it comes to leadership and management, and while the takeaways below sound deceptively simple, they are ultimately the keys to success, and take conscious effort and intentionality. But basically, this is what you get when we work together:

As a general introduction, I am Creative Director who has produced multiple award-winning experiences as part of Microsoft in one way or another for well over twenty years. I spent the first half of my career as the Studio Art Director for the ACES Games Studio, the group responsible for multiple PC and Xbox titles including the venerable Flight Simulator franchise.

In the second half of my career, I focused on the innovation and incubation of emerging technologies mostly around human presence, ranging from live puppeteering of avatars to volumetric capture, and most recently Holoportation. I have been part of the Mixed Reality group at Microsoft since the development of HoloLens 1.0.

Along the way I took two different (short-term) breaks from Microsoft to try my hand at oil painting professionally, even owning a small gallery in the tiny island village of Langley, Washington. I kept my professional relationships at Microsoft intact, and each time was enticed to return to work on deeply intriguing creative problems.

Management Principles

  • Model

  • Coach

  • Care

Leadership Principles

  • Generate Energy

  • Create Clarity

  • Deliver Success

Although I’m an introvert, there are a few topics where it’s hard to get me to shut up. I’ve become a passionate advocate for volumetric content as the evolution of film and photography that began in 1824 with the work of Joseph Nicéphore Niépce. Stacking still images, adding sound, and then color all led to what we experience today in movie theaters, on your couch, and even in the phone in the palm of your hand. Volumetric technologies add depth to film and video, ultimately extending the language of filmmaking into brand new territory (albeit with a healthy dose of the language of theater, which predates film by a good few thousand years or so).

I’ve spoken about volumetric technology as it relates to art and creation at SIGGRAPH, CES, AWE, VRARA, the Volumetric Filmmakers NYC, SXSW, VIFF, and more venues multiple years running over the last half decade. As I noted, there are a few topics it’s hard to get me to shut up about, and volumetric is one of them. :)

I love solving problems and building delightful experiences for customers. No task too trivial, no issue too big. The logo soup below is a subset of the entities I’ve worked with over the last ten years or so as part of establishing volumetric capture a viable medium. The list includes clients, technology partners and licensees. I’ve shared the stage with many of these people, as a director, as an advisor, and even just as an observer.

For the super boring play-by-play of my career, you’ll find my resume/CV below. For expediency’s sake, I left off my years working retail, comic book shops (and comic book publishers), and a yearlong stint as a Subway Sandwich Artist on the Oregon Coast.

If you’d like a PDF version of what’s below, shoot me a mail via the contact page.

Qualifications

Creative professional with over twenty years of experience leading teams to deliver superb award-winning experiences under tight deadlines. Proven ability to delight customers, while keeping production on budget and on schedule. I help establish the conceptual direction of a project; recruit, lead, and mentor a strong creative team; and build the product from ideation, through production, to release. For the last fifteen years I have been focused on turning cutting edge technology into amazing human centered experiences.

Experience

Principal Creative Director 2/18 – 3/23

Microsoft

Mixed Reality Capture Studio • Holoportation

Creative direction for the human hologram capture team.

  • Worked on business strategy as part of core leadership team.

  • Worked directly with clients on bidding and sales.

  • Worked with clients to develop, interpret, and implement their creative vision.

  • Helped build and support our licensee ecosystem of volumetric capture stages around the world.

  • Built and managed the creative team, with a diverse set of skills to meet client and market needs.

  • Key member of development team on forward looking telepresence technologies (Holoportation).

 

Creative Director 6/16 – 1/18

Run Studios LLC

Mixed Reality Capture Studio

Creative direction for the human hologram capture team.

  • Partner and vendor management.

  • Provided on-set technical supervision and performance direction for mixed reality capture sessions.

  • Worked closely with clients to develop, interpret, and implement their creative vision.

  • Helped design and implement experiential prototypes that demonstrate best-in-class visual results.

  • Built and led the creative team, with a diverse set of skills to meet client and market needs.

 

Creative Break 11/15 – 6/16

I took time off to pursue oil painting professionally.

 

Principal Creative Director 4/09 – 11/15

Microsoft

Avatar Kinect • Holograms • Mixed Reality Capture Studio

Creative direction for various black box incubation efforts for Microsoft’s now defunct SBG group, which was ultimately merged with the Mixed Reality team lead by Alex Kipman, focused on HoloLens V.1 development.

  • Managed balance between emerging/shifting technologies (e.g., HoloLens) and compelling customer experiences.

  • Cross organization support and development of human hologram use for multiple internal Microsoft teams.

  • Partner, vendor, and outsource management.

  • On set direction and management of captures for next generation mixed reality experiences.

  • Managed 4-6 team members on multiple, concurrent projects in different stages.

 

Art Director 6/08– 3/09

Aquent LLC

Consulted on a variety of issues for Microsoft’s ACES games studio.

 

Creative Break 1/08 – 6/08

I took time off to pursue oil painting professionally.

 

Studio Art Director 12/04 – 12/07

Microsoft

ESP 1 • Train Simulator 2 • Flight Simulator X Acceleration • Flight Simulator X

Defined the artistic direction, creative team management, and visual identity for ACES games studio.

  • Grew art group from eight full-time employees to a fully staffed department of 30, including building a character animation department, and an interaction design team.

  • Managed multiple, concurrent projects in different stages.

  • Trained, supervised, and provided art direction for contingent and full-time staff, managing teams ranging from 8-30 people, with more than $2.5 million in outsource budget over this time period.

  • Created cost effective novel content creation pathways, including an internship program and repurposing of other MGS first party content assets.

  • Helped drive the creation of a forward-looking community relations team.

 

Art Director 5/01 – 12/04

Microsoft

Flight Simulator 2004 • Combat Flight Simulator 3 • Flight Simulator 2002

Led the artistic direction, creative team management, and visual identity for the Flight Simulator franchise.

  • Maintained production schedules and delivered on time and on budget for each title.

  • Trained, supervised, and provided art direction for contingent and full-time staff, managing teams from 4‑12 people, and over $1 million in outsource budget over this time period.

  • Recruited and hired creative talent, building a stable team of high-producing artists.

  • Was studio point person for marketing collateral and visual direction.

  • Managed the introduction of a set of increasingly complex visual advancements in special effects, weather systems, automatic scenery object creation, lighting, and terrain tiling systems.

 

Art Lead 8/98 – 5/01

Microsoft

Combat Flight Simulator 2 • Flight Simulator 2000

Led the environment teams for two award-winning titles, from preproduction to RTM. 

  • Collaborated with development team to invent a new terrain system for a planet scale sandbox game title.

  • Trained, supervised, and provided art direction for contingent and full-time staff, managing teams from 4‑12 people.

  • Created an outsource vendor production pipeline for first party content, the first MGS studio to do so.

Education

1990- 1992 B.F.A., Bachelor of Fine Arts (with distinction), University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM

1988- 1990 Illustration Program, Parsons School of Design, New York City, NY

Recognition

Patents

Served on the Arts advisory board for the Art Institute of Seattle, and as an instructor for 2 years.

Selected for Microsoft’s Senior Leader Hi Potential program 3 years in a row (for Principal Level FTEs)

Selected speaking and panel engagements:

GDC, SIGGRAPH B of F, AWE, VRARA, SXSW, VIFF, and Volumetric Filmmakers NYC