Board Directors with deep experience in corporate media and tech
Our Team
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Rick Senat
Non-Executive Chairman
Rick Senat joined Warner Bros in 1977, becoming Senior Vice President for Business Affairs in EMEA. Working on key projects including “Harry Potter” films, “Batman” & “Superman”. He managed the negotiations for the acquisition of rights for Stanley Kubrick films and the film and associated rights in the Harry Potter books - he was instrumental in setting up Warner’s new European operations, including Warner Bros. Consumer Products and Warner Bros. International Theatres. He retired from Warner after 25 years.
He was a Director and owner of the legendary and recently revived film Classic British company Hammer Film Productions (selling the company in 2007), and has served as Vice Chair of the British Film Institute. He has produced films and plays: recent credits include The Casual Vacancy, Fantastic Beasts and where to Find them (Warner Bros), Fantastic Beasts, The Crimes of Grindlewald (Warner Bros).
He was one of the owners of a number of Harry Potter shops, which were sold to a major international media company in 2018.
He was previously a Non-Executive Director of Bank Leumi (UK) plc. For 14 years.
Non-Executive Director of Cineworld Plc. 2010-2021
Current appointment:
Non-Executive Chairman of Mad Dog/2020 Casting
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John Mahtani
CEO
John is a Chartered Accountant, he joined the media industry in 1993 working for Universal & Paramount Pictures as a Marketing Accountant. He then joined Warner Bros in 1995 till 2013 where he was Vice President for EMEA, he worked on all 8 Harry Potter films, Superman, The Matrix, Batman & Dark Knight Rises. He was involved in the negotiations of vendor contracts across EMEA, managing a distribution budget of £200m, delivering content to WB Theatrical, Home Video, TV & Consumer Products. In 1997 he was instrumental in representing WB in the sale of Metrocolor to Technicolor.
In 2013 he co-founded Cinelab London creating Europe’s number one film lab, working on major productions such as Star Wars 8, Mission Impossible 6, Wonder Woman 2 and James Bond. He was key in creating a strong performing business with his extensive network and knowledge. He successfully raised multi millions pounds in a private equity fund raise in 2017
Frank McDonnell
Frank is a chartered accountant and an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.
Frank is a modern language graduate from the University of Hull who joined the media industry in 1993.
Initially working for Filmbank Distributors Ltd, he moved to Warner Bros Entertainment in 1997 where he was, Executive Director of Finance, Operations and Strategy until late 2019.
While at Warner Bros. Frank worked on all the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts films, as well as films from the DC universe, including Aquaman, Wonder Woman and the Dark Knight trilogy.
Frank led theatrical film distribution negotiations throughout the EMEA region and was instrumental in drafting the strategy which led to the conversion of cinema distribution worldwide to non-physical electronic digital distribution.
Frank was a Trustee Director on the board of the two Warner Bros. pension schemes. He was instrumental in helping set the investment strategy and dealing with all aspects of the schemes’ funding.
From 2020 until 2021 Frank was Finance Director of The Catholic Herald. He led the financial consolidation and organisational change to ensure the survival of a brand that has been published since 1888.
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Celia Li
Chief Marketing Officer
Ms. Li an international media executive and renowned TV presenter for the world’s largest independent Chinese TV broadcaster Phoenix Satellite Television Holdings Ltd. Prior to Phoenix Ms Li worked as a producer at the BBC World Service. Ms Li set up Phoenix TV’s European news division in 2004 where she heads the news team. During her broadcast career, she has conducted numerous interviews with high profile individuals from Royal Families, global business and political domains, including one on one interviews with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, HRH Prince of Wales, HRH Duke of York, Sir Richard Branson, Rupert Murdoch.
Ms Li also has extensive experience in marketing and investor relations. She has built up during the past 15 years substantial relationships with both corporates and investors across Asia, Europe and North America.
Our Partners
Brian Kinane
Executive Chairman
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Riverfort Global Capital
Brian Kinane is a venture capitalist, investment manager, entrepreneur and computer scientist. Mr Kinane has extensive venture capital and venture debt fund management experience including managing/advising funds and investment vehicles that invest in high-growth software start-ups in artificial intelligence, cyber security, IOT, immersive technologies and crypto. In addition, Mr Kinane has long term experience of special situations investment into publicly traded companies via a variety of equity and debt instruments including sectors such as technology, electric battery, natural resource and environmental technologies. From a corporate perspective, Mr Kinane has worked as both an industry executive and entrepreneur in the technology sector, including roles at global telecoms companies such as Ericsson and Telenor and cofounder roles at technology companies in the mobile data sector. Mr Kinane’s academic background includes a computer science degree from Trinity College Dublin and MBAs from London Business School and Columbia Business
Barry Downes
Barry Downes is a technologist, entrepreneur and venture capitalist. Mr Downes is the Managing Partner at Sure Valley Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in high-growth software start-ups in the UK and Ireland. SVV is an equity investor in early stage companies in the Security, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Immersive Technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR) and also Blockchain sectors. Previously, Mr Downes founded the software start-up, FeedHenry, before selling it to Red Hat Inc (now part of IBM) for $82 million in 2014, producing a return for investors of 25 times their initial investment. Mr Downes was also previously the CEO of leading European academic software research and development centre, TSSG, which worked with many of the top Silicon Valley and European global software companies. Mr Downes has extensive domain experience in distributed systems, cryptography and blockchain and is an advisor to the European Commission’s European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator, which has an allocated budget of c. €1 billion.
Gytis Martinkus
CEO
Riverfort Global Opportunities PCC
Gytis Martinkus is chartered certified accountant (ACCA) and has a degree in BSC in Accounting and Finance from University of East Anglia (UK). Gytis has over 10 years as an experienced financial professional with extensive experience in top Executive roles. Having qualified with KPMG in the Gibraltar, Gytis spent the early part of his career with KPMG focusing on high profile banking and funds sector client audit and advisory services. Gytis has a very strong understanding of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), structured finance and regulatory compliance. Gytis is contracted CEO/CFO of the Riverfort Global Capital Ltd and Executive Director of regulated Investment fund.