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Michele Schofield is Senior Vice President, Programming & Marketing for A+E Networks Asia, based in Singapore. 

Schofield oversees the content and brands – across program scheduling, acquisitions, original production commissions, on-air creative, as well as trade, affiliate and consumer marketing – for Lifetime®, HISTORY®, bio.®, H2™ and Crime & Investigation Network®, across a regional footprint of South East Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

When considering original production commissions or co-production opportunities, A+E Networks Asia requires a level of Asian content and relevance.   Looking at series that feature real-life characters, as well as series in the food, travel and lifestyle space.  Short-running series or specials featuring real crime stories from Asia are also commissioned.

Prior to joining A+E Networks Asia in 2007, Schofield worked in Hong Kong for Turner Entertainment Networks Asia, where she headed the program scheduling, commissioning and acquisitions for the company’s Asia Pacific networks, including Cartoon Network, Boomerang and Pogo.  She joined the company in 2002 as Program Manager for Cartoon Network Australia/New Zealand, based in Sydney, before her move to Hong Kong in 2004.  Prior to joining Turner, Schofield held positions with Paramount Pictures, Discovery Networks, and various film and television productions in Los Angeles. 

Schofield is a member of the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Film and Television Production from Queensland University of Technology. 

Tarni James is Executive Producer of Entertainment for ABC Television, based in Melbourne. She has worked in the television industry for the past 30 years for all the Australian FTA networks, several cable channels, numerous independent production companies and the BBC as a journalist, producer, writer and director.  Tarni has created programming for arts, sport, current affairs, children’s, news, comedy, variety and documentary genres and has produced extensively in the field in Britain, USA, Africa, The Pacific, Europe and remote Australia.  Tarni currently oversees production of The New Spicks and Specks, Shaun Micallef’s Mad as Hell; RAW Comedy; Comedy Up Late and Dirty Laundry Live.

Her documentary series credits include Family Footsteps, ABC; The Naked Lentil, SBS; Jail Birds ABC;  the environmental series Carbon Cops ABC; and Grand Designs Australia series 1 Foxtel Lifestyle Channel. 

Jo Chichester is an Executive Producer in ABC TV Arts working across a range of programs including At The Movies, The Book Club, Jennifer Byrne Presents,  Exhumed and Sunday Arts Up Late.  Her documentary slate includes Outback Choir, Brilliant Creatures: Germaine, Clive, Barry & Bob, The Sharp Edge: The Art of Martin Sharp, Polly Borland: Polymorphous, George Gittoes: War Paint &  Robyn Beeche: A Life Exposed. Jo was Series Producer of Kitchen Cabinet with Annabel Crabb and has worked on a range of TV shows in arts, comedy and entertainment including Judith Lucy’s Spiritual Journey, Artscape, Art Nation, Memphis Trousers with HG & Roy and Mondo Thingo. Jo has also worked as a presenter/producer at triple j, 702 Sydney and Radio National, and was a film critic for Vogue Australia.

Mandy Chang is ABC TV's Arts Commissioning Editor. Since joining Mandy has Exec Produced several programs including The Art of Australia, Comic Book Heroes and The Dream of Perfection/Autopsy on a Dream plus the upcoming Hannah Gadsby’s Oz and Art & Soul II.

Mandy is an award-winning producer/director, has worked with a number of high profile presenters including art critic Robert Hughes and has a successful track record in developing projects from scratch and making visually arresting, intelligent films. Her feature doc The Mona Lisa Curse (Channel 4) won a Rose D’Or, Grierson and Emmy Award and The Camera that Changed the World (BBC) screened, at festivals worldwide. Before leaving the UK Mandy made a 3-part factual series for the BBC about brain surgeons and a documentary about British admen for Ridley Scott. Mandy is a regular judge for the Grierson, Emmy and London Film Festival Awards.

Phil Craig is an accomplished producer and writer. He progressed via British current affairs series 'World in Action' and 'Panorama' to produce a range of films and series including complex international co-productions. Mainstream hits like 'The Flight That Fought Back', 'Live Aid Remembered', 'Ocean of Fear', 'Geldof in Africa' and 'Catherine the Great'; primetime history such as 'Finest Hour', 'Churchill?s Darkest Decision' and 'Diana, Story of a Princess'; and the quirky nostalgia of 'Jackie Magazine' and 'Phantom of the Opera: Behind the Mask'. In Australia Phil has exec produced and co-written 'Skippy, Australia?s First Superstar', 'Great Escape: The Reckoning', 'Surviving Mumbai', 'Bomb Bali', 'The Secret History of Eurovision', 'Chateau Chunder' and the ABC?s upcoming 'Desert War'. Phil recently worked at Nutopia producing factual series including 'How We Invented the World', 'The 80s, the Decade That Made Us' and making specials including '911 State of Emergency', 'Adrift' and 'Targeting Bin Laden'.

Matt Scully was series producer of ABC Science flagship series Catalyst. He worked as producer/director with Film Australia in Canberra and Sydney, and as series producer for Channel Seven’s Better Homes and Gardens.

Through several leading production companies, he has produced a wide variety of reality, entertainment, ob doc and art programs including the BBC format 'Honey, We’re Killing the Kids', 'Joker Poker', 'Stuart McGill Uncorked', 'Lock ‘n’ Load' with R. Lee Ermey, and HG Nelson’s 'Bush Slam' which Matt conceived and developed for the ABC.

Director Andrea Ulbrick is a science specialist who has been working in the media for twenty-four years. A series director, series producer and writer, she was series producer on the new William McInnes birdwatching series 'Hello Birdy' to be screened on the ABC. Previously, she worked on Australia’s highest-rating show 'Australia’s Got Talent'. In 2010, Andrea completed a two-part, long-running, award-winning observational science series investigating child development for the ABC: The Life Series.

Anita was a newspaper journalist in the UK before moving into television where she spent 11 years making documentaries, Factual Entertainment and reality programmes for ITV, Channel  4, Sky and Channel 5. She has been in Australia for 7 years producing shows for the commercial networks before moving to the ABC as Commissioning Editor for Factual Entertainment 20 months ago. Programmes include Race to London, Wild Life at the Zoo on ABC1 as well as yet untx?d shows such as Croc College, Boomtown and Vet School and a new series for ABC2 entitled Head First.

Sophia Zachariou is currently Acting Head of Entertainment with ABC.  She has developed, managed and launched a number of extremely successful ABC TV programs across all genres of Entertainment and Comedy from studio based panel shows, observational documentary series, sketch comedy and game shows.

Some of Sophia’s career  highlights include ratings smash hits such as  Gruen Nation/Planet, Kitchen Cabinet, Hamster Decides, The Check Out, The Chaser’s War on Everything, Judith Lucy’s Spiritual Journey, Agony Uncles/Aunts, Elegant Gentleman’s Guide to Knife fighting, The Agony Of Life, Good Game, The Roast, Hungry Beast, At the Movies, The Book Club and  Next Stop Hollywood.

In 2010 Dena joined the ABC taking up the role of Series Producer for Message Stick. in 2011 she commence her current role as a Commissioning Editor for the Indigenous Department. In 2002 she completed the AFTRS Television Editing course. Dena returned to CAAMA Productions, where some of her editing credits include Rosalie?s Journey, Lore of Love and Cheeky Dog, a documentary in which she also directed. In 2008 Dena wrote/directed Hush, a which won the audience award for Best Foreign Short Film at the 2008 Films de Femmes, Créteil France. In 2009 Dena premiered Jacob, which short won the Gold Shorts at the Adelaide Short Film Festival and Best Narrative Short at the Harlem Film Festival. Attending AIDC on behalf of the Indigenous Department, she is seeking film makers with potiential projects for development and commission.

Fiona has more than 15 years experience in factual television across the UK, Australia and Asia. She started her broadcast career at BBC London in long-form current affairs, magazine science and interactive productions. As an AFTRS graduate, she worked for SBS television in production, commissioning and acquisitions. Since 2008, she has worked in Singapore and Malaysia, overseeing productions for Al Jazeera English (AJE), ZDF, Discovery, History and Crime & Investigation Channels. Fiona was integral to the first Malaysian Australian co-production in 2012, The Coral Triangle (3 x 1 hrs). Currently, Fiona is based in Malaysia with AJE sourcing documentaries from the Asia Pacific region for the flagship documentary strand, Witness. In 2013, Fiona oversaw a special Al Jazeera series from China, Wukan: After the Uprising with the festival version premiering at IDFA. She also oversees Viewfinder Asia, an extraordinary project bringing stories from indies in Asia to AJE's global audience.

Patrick Connolly, vice president of programming, scheduling & creative services for AMC / Sundance Channel Global is responsible for the global strategy of all programming schedules, as well as on-air creative for all Sundance Channel and WE tv International channels. He also executive produces all film festival coverage for Sundance Channel Global. Prior to Sundance Channel Global, Mr. Connolly was a programming consultant with Showtime in the US and, previously, Sundance Channel US. Mr. Connolly began his career in programming at Fox Broadcasting where he served as vice president of children’s programming. He also worked as a documentary programming consultant at Sundance Film Festival and as a programmer at Outfest, and the International Documentary Association. Connolly serves as a Board Member of BAFTA New York. He is also a member of Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS). Mr. Connolly has a degree in English literature from UCLA.

Ewan Angus, Commissioning Editor Television at BBC Scotland has worked in broadcasting for more than 25 years, across a wide range of programmes for BBC Scotland and the BBC's UK network services. He is responsible for all television output produced for Scottish audiences. This amounts to over 1000 hours a year and an increasing proportion is co-commissioned with BBC network for a UK wide transmission. In the last ten years BBC Scotland has been involved in factual co-productions with ABC, SBS and the History Channel, working with a number of Australian independent production companies.

Greg Sanderson is the BBC's Commissioning Editor for Arts, Music and Events, responsible for hundreds of output across four BBC television channels every year. He works across both live events - including the BBC Proms and Glastonbury festival - and documentaries, whose subjects can range from Josiah Wedgwood to Tubular Bells. Greg joined the BBC in 2006 after a spell in the independent sector working for all the major UK broadcasters. He started as a Producer in the Music Department, subsequently becoming Executive Producer of the acclaimed Storyville strand where he commissioned the award-winning film the Marathon Boy, amongst others. He then moved to become Editor of the BBC's flagship topical arts programme The Review Show, before moving to his present role in 2011. Greg has served on many juries, including Royal Television Society, IDFA, ITVS and Sheffield DocFest. His films have won prizes including Prix Italia, FIPA, Grierson and Emmy's.

Lindsay Cowan Dotchison, as Director of Programming, is responsible for the acquisition of key content for Discovery's networks, along with the creation, development and execution of the broadcast schedules. Cowan Dotchison also oversees development and production related business and oversees and ensures regulatory compliance. She oversees the management of the programming budgets for the Discovery Networks allowing for strategic placement of content and inventory amortization. Cowan Dotchison joined the BellMedia family in 1989 at TSN Specialty and in 1996 moved to Discovery. Her vast broadcasting experience includes: live-event programming, graphic design, interactive, production, programming and acquisition (plus an early stint at the BBM). Cowan Dotchison has a creative vision, strategic leadership, proven experience and dedication to acquiring and monetizing strong programming.

As Executive Producer at Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific, Emile oversees production of original content that caters especially to the region. Based out of Discovery's Singapore office, he works closely with producers and production houses in the region to conceptualise new content, ensure creative editorial standards are met, and foster new and emerging production talent. Emile joined Discovery in 2011, but comes from an extensive production background in the UK. He formally trained in documentary editing in London, and then following six years as a documentary editor, he moved into directing and producing, most notably gaining several prime-time credits for History Channel and Crime and Investigation Network. Emile is originally from London, and holds an MA from the National Film & Television School in the UK. He has lived and worked in Manila, Ho Chi Minh City and now resides in Singapore.

Jonathan Rudd joined Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific (DNAP) in 2009 as Director of Programming. Jonathan oversees the programming strategy for 6 channels across Australia and New Zealand (Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, TLC, Discovery Turbo MAX, Discovery Home & Health, and Discovery Science). As part of the Discovery Ignite initiative, Jonathan has commissioned several projects across genres that include engineering, leadership, science, innovation and technology. Some of his latest credits include the Screen Australia supported Rocket Compulsion, Storm Surfers, John Eales Reveals, the Ultimate Fish series with Andrew Ettingshausen and the top-rating documentary series, Abalone Wars for Discovery Channel.

Born in Rome in 1970. He worked in RAISAT and, as cowriter, for STORIE MALEDETTE on RAI3. Since 2012, he work as Commissioning Editor for DOC3.

Head of Programming - Factual Channels

Channel Operations Manager Factual Channels