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Part of the HOOT MEDIA GROUP
MEET THE TEAM
Karen Johnson
President and Founder of HOOT MEDIA GROUP and HOOT.tv, Karen is a successful and seasoned investment professional and operator with a wide range of experience across the media, entertainment, sports, brokerage, finance, intellectual property, data management, and real estate sectors.
She worked in New York City at various investment firms including Salomon Brothers where she excelled in both international bond economics and trading.
Karen previously has been an investor and co-founder of several successful businesses in the lifestyle, media, sports, and entertainment sector, most recently an award-winning entertainment rights management company and team sports organizations.
Having been mentored by some of the most successful people in the finance world, Karen is keen to give back and offer that same opportunity to others, and that in part is the drive behind her founding HOOT MEDIA GROUP, developing AI and disruptive business models, changing industries for the good, and making HOOT.tv available to the world.
Gary Grose
Gary is a US based leader with over 30+ years executive experience in financial services leading marketing, communications, public relations, and sales.
He is a contemporary, data driven B2B and B2C complex financial services individual, who is proven in results and coordinating entire enterprises and leading through transformation and innovation.
With his extensive experience in sports sponsorship from the client side, having managed sponsorships for financial services firms of the Olympics, College Football, America’s Cup, Volvo Around the World Race, and in motorsports; NASCAR, and Formula E, Gary leads HOOTtv SPORTS, the Companies Sports Division that manages the production and broadcasting of various sports championships, events and promotions.
Gary’s last role was Head of Commercial Specialty at Argo Group, prior to Argo being sold to Brookfield, the global investment firm.
Kirk Reynolds
A seasoned communications and business development professional, who has been a trusted strategic advisor to companies of all sizes and stages. His honesty, accessibility and easy-going nature has allowed him to develop lasting relationships and human connections. Extensive experience working with sports teams and leagues, professional athletes, media companies, start-ups and early-stage companies, gives Kirk a unique understanding of the intersection of sports and entertainment, business and technology
With an extensive background in sports communications with experience in INDYCAR, the NFL, NBA, MLB, MLS, and NCAA, Kirk has organized and executed activations with celebrity athletes including Shaquille O'Neal, Joe Montana, Ronnie Lott, Laila Ali, Wayne Gretzky, Serena and Venus Williams, Steph and Ayesha Curry, Klay Thompson, Ken Griffey, Jr., Mark Schlereth, Trey Wingo, Aly Raisman, Kristi Yamaguchi, Julian Edelman, James Harrison, Andre Iguodala and Rajon Rondo and many more.
Jim Jorden
A 16-time Emmy Award winner as a producer, director and cinematographer, Jim is one of the most prolific storytellers and accomplished leaders in the sports media industry. He has built and led highly productive teams and created acclaimed programming for many networks and platforms, including ESPN, ABC, NBC, Peacock, Amazon Prime and HBO.
As Vice President of Production at NFL Films (1989-2004), Jim managed and inspired a team of 70 producers to create some of the most dynamic and compelling content in the industry. He helped launch Hard Knocks, television’s most celebrated sports documentary franchise, and helped plan the NFL Network for a 2003 debut. He joined NASCAR in 2004 as their executive producer and created 25 new weekly series on 20 different networks. Jim led production on seven different feature-length documentaries including “Dale,” the highest selling sports film of all time.
Jim has served as the showrunner for ESPN’s SEC Inside, Inside the College Football Playoff on ESPN+, The NFL Network’s Most Interesting Jobs, Joe Montana: Cool Under Pressure for Peacock, 24/7: College Football for HBO Max and Amazon’s All or Nothing: Michigan Wolverines.
Nick Knowles
UK based global broadcaster in factual, factual entertainment, entertainment and live broadcasting with BBC, ITV, Discovery plus and Ch5 Writer of Royal Television Society award winning factual drama series Histrionics for BBC1. Writer and Producer of worldwide theatrically released award winning Movie Golden Years.
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Broadcast events coverage with members of the Royal Family, visiting dignitaries and Heads of State. 12 years anchor and host of several Saturday night formats on BBC1 including UK’s joint longest running Saturday night format Who Dares Wins, Break the Safe and many more weekly factual and factual entertainment series. Director and format creator of shows like Holidaymaker, UK’s worst, RidgeRiders, the 25 year running DIY SOS on BBC1 and many more in many genres including sports.
Member and judging panel of BAFTA Patron and Ambassador and creator of multiple charitable events and organizations.
Austin Chapman
Profoundly deaf Writer, Actor and Fim Maker, Austin heard music for the first time at twenty two years old, wandered two lost days without water in Ojai, built and flew one of the first large payload drones in the world.
He wrote/directed/acted/produced/edited Lacrimosa, a semi-autobiographical feature film loosely based on his life which has been nominated for best actor and best screenplay at Signlight, and was winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Deaf Film Festival in Austin TX.
Along with other narrative projects such as creating the mini-series Lost Boyz, Austin has shot several documentaries in Haiti, India and Vietnam.
Filmmaking isn’t Austin's only passion, he embraced novels and gaming as another storytelling platform. Austin wrote Jester in 2022 as the first entry in the Last Archangel series and now is working on the prequel as a computer game using motion capture to showcase the beauty of sign language.
Brendan Harty
With more than two decades in the action sports industry, Brendan Harty has carved out a distinguished career as a television producer and creative director. Brendan has mastered the art of storytelling in the high-octane world of action sports with work spanning from the icy slopes of FIS World Cup skiing and snowboarding to the high stakes tables of ESPN’s World Series of Poker and the adrenaline-fueled arenas of the X Games. Brendan’s dynamic approach has been an important influence on how these sports are broadcast, celebrated, and remembered.
Brendan’s experience in non-scripted content has led him to travel the world creating features and documentary content for NBC, CBS, ESPN, Amazon Prime and many other networks and streaming platforms.
Philip Slavin
Philip brings extensive experience in financial strategy, having worked both in the UK and the USA, with significant experience in the Middle East.
Most recently, he held the position of Chief Financial Officer US for Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield. He joined Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield in 2008 as Head of Strategic Planning (UK), was subsequently appointed Finance Director (UK & Ireland) in 2011 and then moved to Los Angeles to take the role of CFO US in 2015.
Prior to this Philip was a Director at Deloitte in London and New York, specialising in the real estate, hospitality and marketing sectors.Prior was Director, Audit for Deloitte.
Richard Hilleman
Richard is an American computer game and video game producer best known for his work creating the original Madden Football game.
He was Executive Producer for other EA Sports titles including NHL Hockey, NHLPA Hockey, PGA Tour Golf and Tiger Woods Golf.
Richard serves on the Board of Directors of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.
When Amazon acquired Twitch, Richard was hired to oversee the transition and he is considered to be the “Godfather of Gaming”.
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He is currently involved in one of the world's largest green-energy inititiatives that strives to make the gaming industry carbon neutral.
Sebastian Saavedra
Sebastian began his career driving go-karts in Colombia at the age of 7, before moving into open-wheel racing in 2006. He secured “Rookie of the Year” and top championship contentions in various development series such as World Go-Karting Championship, Formula BMW, European F3 Championship, Firestone Indy Lights Series, and IndyCar. In addition to open wheel racing, he actively competed in sports cars in the prototype divisions, winning the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona with Soliq/Dragonspeed Racing in 2019.
A firm believer that everyone is an integral part of success, as a test driver he helps in chassis, aero and suspension developer, and as a consultant he assists teams in building strong, efficient, and successful motorsports organizations.
Sebastian also identifies, mentors, manages and develops emerging talent. As an integral part of HOOTSPORTS, he is advising a new global professional motorsport’s series whose mission is to make the sport accessible and affordable for anyone with the potential of becoming a professional driver or a member of a racing team. In this role he is currently working with a broad spectrum of athletes, mechanics, and engineers, at all levels and in all disciplines, including karting, open wheel, prototypes, simulation, and GT racing across the globe.
Arturo Duran
Arturo Duran’s global career has crafted him into a seasoned professional with an impressive track record. As Digital First Media’s Chief Innovation Officer, his strategic vision played a crucial role in steering the company towards new frontiers of digital journalism. He then took the helm of impreMedia Digital as its Chief Executive Officer, positioning it as the leading Hispanic news-and-information powerhouse in the United States. Previous roles included Vice President of Multicultural at AOL Media Networks, VP of Marketing and Interactive Content at AOL Canada, and Director of Business Development at AOL Mexico, among others.
His focus is on nurturing innovations in Blockchain, Automation, Artificial Intelligence, and Deep Machine Learning, shaping the future of technology and its application across various sectors including sports, media and entertainment.