Ned Sherman · CEO & Publisher
Digital Media Wire, Inc.

Ned Sherman is CEO and Publisher of Digital Media Wire, Inc., where he works at the center of the rapidly growing digital media industry. Under his leadership, Digital Media Wire has grown from a small newsletter publisher into a well-respected B-to-B brand that owns and produces five annual conferences - Digital Music Forum, Games & Mobile Forum, Digital Media Conference, Future of Television Forum, Digital Commerce Summit and The Billboard Digital Entertainment Conference & Awards (now DEMXPO) - and provides daily news, information and community to 30,000+ executives and professionals at entertainment, media and technology companies throughout the world.

As digital media community-builder, Ned has established partnerships with the leading B-to-B media companies and educational institutions, including VNU Business Media, Billboard Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, Reed Business Information, Multichannel News, Business 2.0, Business Week, CableFax/CableWorld, VIBE/SPIN, MidemNet, NYU’s Stern School of Business, USC’s Center for Telecom Management and UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, and hundreds of the leading digital media companies, including Microsoft, Real Networks, Sony Corporation of America, AOL Time Warner, Napster, Yahoo! and many more.

An expert on legal issues and business methods, Ned provides value to his clients and partners by offering timely news and research, producing executive forum on cutting-edge topics, and leveraging his extensive network of media assets and strategic relationships across games, music, film, television and mobile industries.

Ned’s background is in law. Before joining Digital Media Wire, Ned spent 7+ years as a corporate and entertainment attorney practicing at several of the leading law firms in the world with an international client base across industries including technology, Internet, media and entertainment.

As a founding member of the iLaw Group in the Entertainment Department at Loeb & Loeb LLP in Century City, he handled complex licensing transactions and financings for media and entertainment clients including Universal Studios and MGM and launched dozens of Internet and new media start-ups. He has counseled company founders from initiation of a business plan to seed, angel, venture capital and later-stage private financings and managed all legal aspects of Internet clients from corporate organization, stockholder relationships, board compositions and dynamics, stock option plans, capital raising and security regulatory matters, Internet law issues, trademark, copyright, content and technology licensing, advertising and privacy issues.

From 1997 to 1999, he practiced in the Los Angeles office of Mayer, Brown & Platt where his practice centered on representation of U.S. and foreign banks in complex lending transactions.

From 1995 to 1997, he was a foreign lawyer at Nishimura & Partners in Tokyo, Japan, where his practice involved international mergers and acquisitions and the formation of technology and entertainment joint venture companies. He also served as President of the Roppongi Bar Association in Tokyo.

In 2000, he was an Adjunct Lecturer of Law at Tulane University Law School where he taught an entertainment law seminar. Ned is a graduate of Brown University (AB, with honors, 1990) and the University of Texas School of Law (JD, 1994) where he was Chief Articles & Notes Editor of the Texas International Law Journal.

Ned is a frequent speaker at media and entertainment industry events, including MidemNet (moderator at 2004 and 2005 conferences), Digital Music Forum (host and moderator, 2001-2005), Billboard Digital Entertainment Awards (co-chair and host, 2004) and the O2 Digital Media Awards (judge 2004), and has been quoted in publications including American Lawyer, The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard and Crain’s Mermigas on Media, and interviewed on National Public Radio (NPR), NY1 Evening News and nationally syndicated radio shows, Inside Digital Media, WebTalk and Online Tonight with David Lawrence.

He sits on the Board of Directors of Wild Way, a non-profit dedicated to cultivating environmental awareness and developing educational programs for inner-city and “at risk” kids and has traveled extensively from Europe to Asia to South America to Northern Africa. Ned is married and lives with his wife and son in Hollywood Hills, California.

Tinzar Than Sherman · VP, Marketing & Events
Digital Media Wire, Inc.

Prior to joining Digital Media Wire as Marketing Director in 2002, Tinzar was Communications Manager at the Beverly Hills Hotel. During her term, she was in charge of installing and managing DSL lines and the management of the hotel’s Communications staff. She handled the hotel’s relationships with mobile service providers and implemented a new communications system by switching pagers to cell phones for the entire hotel management and staff. She managed the Department’s budget and payroll, and phone equipment and office supply inventories.

From 1997 - 2000, Tinzar held various management positions at the Four Seasons Hotel at Beverly Hills. From 1992 - 1997, she held Concierge positions at the famous Chateau Marmont in Hollywood as well as the world-renowned Halekulani Hotel in Waikiki, Honolulu.

Tinzar holds a Bachelor of Science degree from University of Massachusetts at Amherst with a major in Hotel & Restaurant Management and a minor in Japanese. She is a fluent Burmese, Thai, and English speaker and speaks conversational Japanese.

Mark Hefflinger · Editor, Digital Media Wire Daily
Digital Media Wire, Inc.

Mark Hefflinger has served as Editor of the Digital Media Wire daily e-mailnewsletter since September 2000. He also contributes to related publicationsincluding Potomac Tech Wire, Bay Area Tech Wire and the Digital Media Law Report, in addition to freelance work. Before joining Digital Media Wire, Mark worked for several technology and entertainment public relations firms in Los Angeles. Mark holds a Bachelors degree in English and Communicationsfrom Boston College.

Robert Spears · VP, Publishing & Online GM
Digital Media Wire, Inc.

Robert Spears is VP of Publishing & Online GM for Digital Media Wire. He is co-chair of the Digital Commerce Summit (successor to the Micropayments Conference) and oversees the company’s Digital Entertainment & Media Directory, websites, and daily email newsletter.

Prior to joining Digital Media Wire, Robert was a digital media consultant specializing in: business development & strategy; interactive marketing; content development & design; advertising sales; and analytics. Past clients of Robert’s include: MIT’s Technology Review; Stanford Social Innovation Review; Council on Foreign Relations (parent of Foreign Affairs); the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation; Kid Scoop; and ContentNext (parent of PaidContent.org & MocoNews). He has been an active industry speaker, having participated at conferences such as Stanford Professional Publishing Courses, Jupiter Media, and Seybold.

Prior to his consulting work, Robert was Online GM and Chief Strategist for Business 2.0 until its acquisition by Time Warner. Under his direction, Business2.com was selected by IDC, a leading technology research firm, as a best-practice ROI case-study. Before B2.0, he was Online Product Manager at Red Herring, where he was responsible for launching several successful online features, most notably their IPO Calendar. Before his migration to digital media, Mr. Spears worked for several high-tech startups over a ten-year period in roles ranging from software engineer to product manager. He has an MBA from the Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley and a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Maryland.

Joakim “Jay” Baage · Director Content & Business Development
Digital Media Wire, Inc.

Joakim "Jay" Baage is Director of Content and Business Development at Digital Media Wire as well as Senior Writer for DMW Online. He has over 10 years of experience in the media industry serving in a wide range of areas such as Journalism, TV Production and Original Programming. Joakim has a Masters Degree in Media, Entertainment and Technology Management from New York University and a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration from Goteborg University in Sweden. He is a recipient of the Wallenberg Scholarship 2004 and 2006 (Academic Scholarship), The Sweden-America Foundation Fellowship 2005 (Academic Scholarship) as well as awarded a scholarship for being “A Promising New Media Manager” by Swedish Newspaper Publishers’ Association 2005 and 2001. Joakim has a keen personal interest in Music and Pop-Culture. On his desk, you will find a video iPod, the latest issue of US Weekly and a pair of Cutler and Gross shades. He claims to listen to music by Paris Hilton only because he "has to be familiar with mainstream music" while heavily promoting new bands from his native Scandinavia, no matter how weird sounding they might be.

Dustin Hamano · Marketing & Events Coordinator
Digital Media Wire, Inc.

As Marketing & Events Coordinator, Dustin handles the day-to-day issues pertaining to Digital Media Wire’s various marketing programs, event registrations, and ad campaign management for our daily email newsletter. He also performs design work for our multi-channel marketing programs, including our web & conference properties.

Dustin holds a Bachelors of Art with an Emphasis in Graphic Design from Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA. As part of his undergraduate education, Dustin studied for one year at the Beijing Institute of Technology, in Beijing, China, where he focused on the culture of China and its language.

Paul Sherman · Co-Founder & Board Member
Digital Media Wire, Inc.

In 1999, Paul Sherman co-founded Potomac Tech Wire and is currently Editor-in-Chief for all of the Tech Wire newsletters and related publications. Once Potomac Tech Wire was profitable, Paul and his colleagues introduced New England Tech Wire, and then Southeast Tech Wire, Bay Area Tech Wire, Tri State Tech Wire, European Tech Wire, and most recently Thames Tech Wire. In addition to his editorial duties, Paul has moderated more than forty Tech Wire business panels on subjects ranging from venture capital to telecommunications to homeland security.

Prior to starting Tech Wire, he worked for three years as the news assistant at The New York Times bureau in Mexico City, and wrote for the Economist Intelligence Unit, Latin Finance and Time magazine for two years. Paul received an MBA from The Wharton School in 1999 and a B.A. in political science from Brown University in 1992.