BEHIND THE SCENES
We’ve brought together the brightest minds in the business with an amalgam of production, development, finance, technical, creative, communication and entrepreneurial skills. Our team is working across departments and platforms to execute ideas in a new way.
VIN DI BONA
Chairman
Vin Di Bona is a four-time Emmy award-winning producer and recipient of the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award for his work in documentary programming. A pioneer in comedic reality television, producer/director Vin Di Bona is best known for “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” which launched in 1989 and is the longest-running primetime entertainment show on ABC. In addition to producing numerous reality-based series (“America’s Funniest People,” “Show Me the Funny,” “Extraordinary World of Animals,” “Meet the Marks,” “Chicken Soup for the Soul”) and specials (“I Survived A Disaster,” “Big Moment”), he has also ventured into scripted entertainment with movies for television (“Trump Unauthorized,” “For the Love of Nancy,” “Touched By Evil” and “Voices From Within”) and a sitcom (“Sherman Oaks”). Prior to opening his own shingle, Di Bona produced “Entertainment Tonight,” “MacGyver” and “Papal Spacebridge ’87.” A 40-year entertainment industry veteran, Di Bona received a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2007. After a four-year stint as Chairman for the Caucus for Television Producers, Writers & Directors, Di Bona was honored with the organization’s Chair’s Award in 2008. To commemorate “America’s Funniest Home Videos” contribution to the American culture, the show became part of history in 2009 when The Smithsonian Institution selected the show for inclusion into their permanent entertainment collections.
BRUCE GERSH
President & Chief Executive Officer
Bruce Gersh was previously Senior Vice President, Strategy and Operations, Intellectual Property at the William Morris Agency where he worked with clients to help develop new and innovative business opportunities. His efforts included developing a branded cable channel with Hasbro in partnership with Discovery to creating new business opportunities for some of WMA’s high profile clients including J.J. Abrams (“Star Trek,” “Lost”), Steve Oedekerk (“Jimmy Neutron”) and Jon Chu (“Step Up”). Before WMA, Gersh spent eight years at Disney-ABC, most recently as SVP Business Development, Disney-ABC Television Group. There he was responsible for all traditional and digital media business development programs across ABC Daytime, ABC Primetime, ABC Studios, ABC News, Soapnet and ABC Family. In 2006 Gersh and the ABC.com team received an Interactive Television Emmy for “Outstanding Achievement for Enhanced or Interactive Programming: New Delivery Platforms” for the website’s Full Episode Streaming Broadband Player. Before joining ABC, Gersh was a business development consultant for NBC Enterprises. He began his career at Arthur Anderson.
SUSAN LEVISON
Executive Vice President, Creative Affairs
Susan Levison was previously Senior Vice President, Comedy Development for Fox Broadcasting Company, where she oversaw the development of the hit animated series “The Cleveland Show,” a spin-off of “Family Guy.” As Vice President, Drama Development at Fox, she was involved in the creation of hit shows such as “House,” “Prison Break,” and “Bones,” and worked with filmmakers including Bryan Singer, Todd Holland, and Brett Ratner. Levison also designed and launched Fox Inkubation Studios, a program that works with animators and writers to develop short form animated content. While at Fox as Director of Alternative Programming under Mike Darnell, Levison was responsible for the development of hit Fox series “American Idol,” “Temptation Island” and “The Simple Life.” Prior to joining FishBowl, Susan was a consultant for DRG (Digital Rights Group) and Go Go Luckey Entertainment. In 2004, Ms. Levison was named to The Hollywood Reporter’s list of “Next Generation” leaders, and in 2006 she was named as one of “Twelve Women to Watch” by Broadcasting & Cable Magazine. She began her career at CAA.
PAUL LAPOINTE
Chief Financial Officer
Paul Lapointe has been CFO with the Vin Di Bona group of companies over eight years. During his time at the company, he helped oversee production of over 600 episodes of programming for network, cable and syndication clients. Recently, before rejoining Di Bona, Lapointe was CEO, America of Videojug.com, the world’s most comprehensive library of free factual video content online. During his two years at Videojug Corporation, the company produced and monetized over 45,000 high definition videos. Prior in his career, Lapointe was Group Controller for a publicly traded cellular phone company based in New York and also spent five years working for Hoyts Television in Australia. He began his career with Deloitte Touche.
SUSAN BROOKS
General Counsel & Executive Vice President, Business Affairs
Susan Brooks joins FishBowl Worldwide Media from the William Morris Agency where she served as Worldwide Head of Television Business Affairs. While at the William Morris Agency, Brooks’ acumen spanned from network negotiation and packaging to syndication, cable, international, interactive/new media, children’s programming, animation and other new and emerging areas of the television industry. A principal strategist and advisor on many different business models, she negotiated innovative, multi-platform deals for the agency’s top talent. Among her many accomplishments, Brooks was recognized by The Hollywood Reporter as one of the “Top 100 Women in Entertainment” for four consecutive years beginning in 2003. Prior to joining the William Morris Agency, Brooks was one of the founders of Wilshire Court Productions, an independent production company formed and owned by Viacom. She has also held key positions with MGM/UA Television Productions, Writers and Artists Agency, and International Creative Management.
BETH GREENWALD
Senior Vice President, Unscripted Development
Prior to joining FishBowl, Greenwald served as Vice President, Original Programming and Series Development for E! Entertainment. While at E!, she oversaw the development of the Mike Fleiss-produced “Leave It to Lamas” and numerous specials. Before E!, Greenwald worked at New Line TV as a Senior Development Executive. She also worked at RDF USA where she developed original ideas, foreign formats, as well as partnered with producers on existing projects for both network, cable, and the internet. Her work there included producing “The Two Coreys,” a 9 episode series for A&E, developing “How to Look Good Naked” for Lifetime, and securing the rights to “Addicted to Beauty” on Oxygen. At MTV Networks, she developed and served as Executive in Charge of Production on several series including “Pimp My Ride” and “Next.”
SHALEEN DESAI
Senior Vice President, Comedy Development
Prior to joining FishBowl, Desai served as Vice President of Programming for BBC Worldwide Productions, where he developed unscripted programs for the US Broadcast and Cable Market. Prior to BBC, Desai served as Vice President of Development for fox21, where he was integral in developing comedy, drama and reality programs for the studio. During that time, he became very active in digital media, launching cross-platform initiatives for the studio, focusing on Web series, mobile platforms and alternative development. Desai began his career in development, working in the comedy department at FOX Broadcasting Company. He later served as manager of development for David Letterman’s Worldwide Pants and as a producer for the The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn.
DAVID BEEBE
Vice President & General Manager, Digital Studio
Prior to joining FishBowl to start the Digital Studio, Beebe was Vice President, Disney/ABC Television Group Digital Studio, a group he founded. There he was responsible for the general management, creative development and physical production of digital programming, including derivative webisodes, original series and live shows for the Disney-ABC Television Group’s broadcast and cable networks, including ABC Entertainment, ABC Daytime, ABC Family and SOAPnet. In this role, he strengthened relationships with advertisers to develop and produce branded entertainment and oversaw production of webisodes for Grey’s Anatomy, Cougar Town, Scrubs and Ugly Betty as well as the production of over 100 original digital series, including Life With Confidence for Extreme Makeover Home Edition, Stars Go Green and the Emmy-nominated Mysteries of the Universe: The Dharma Initiative for Lost. Beebe led the digital video production team that produced the Emmy-winning 2011 Oscar Live Experience. Prior to Disney/ABC, Beebe spent seven years at DIRECTV in a variety of key broadcast operations, production, and digital positions, and was part of the launch team at the Marina Del Rey broadcast center. He also developed and produced programming for DIRECTV.com and DIRECTV’s promotional on air channels. Beebe also executive produced six bonus features for Showtime’s Queer as Folk series. He started his career as a Communications Specialist in the United States Coast Guard.
