Shareholders
In November 2008, the founders of iThentic LLC and Barna-Alper Productions (now E1 Television) announced a restructuring of the company. Smiley Guy Studios is now iThentic’s new operating partner and shareholder with Jonas Diamond as CEO and Catherine Tait as Chair of the company.
iThentic was founded in New York City in 2006 by Catherine Tait, Liz Manne and Al Cattabiani. In 2007, Barna Alper Productions became a strategic investor and partner and iThentic moved its headquarters to Toronto, Canada.
Jonas Diamond – CEO
Jonas is the CEO of iThentic, joining the team in the fall of 2008. Jonas has been instrumental in growing the company’s distribution business as well as arranging financing for its original productions. Jonas’ producer credits includes Odd Job Jack, Hotbox and Bigfoot for The Comedy Network/CTV, Pillars of Freedom for TVO, Turbo Dogs for CBC/NBC, GeoFreakZ, The Dating Guy, skatoony and Sons of Butcher for Teletoon, The World of Bruce McCall, and the interactive storyteller Legends of Me as well as many other projects for various platforms.
Catherine Tait – Chair and Co-Founder
Catherine’s career in the film and television business spans two decades and includes leadership in the American independent film industry as well as in film and television financing and public company management. She is President of Duopoly, an independent production company that also provides business strategy services to the film and television industry. At Duopoly, she has executive produced a number of television programs including PURE PWNAGE (a comedy based on Internet phenomenon www.purepwnage.com for Showcase), CHILLY BEACH (65 episodes of comedy animation for CBC), YAM ROLL (39 episodes for CBC and Cartoon Network), as well as LUCKY, a Sundance documentary which sold to HBO. Prior to founding Duopoly, Catherine was President and Chief Operating Officer of Salter Street Films, a publicly-traded television production & distribution company which produced hit programming such as THIS HOUR HAS 22 MINUTES and Michael Moore’s BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE. Prior to Salter Street Films, Catherine was Executive Director of the Independent Feature Project in New York. She is a Founding Director of Hollywood Suite, a new broadcasting company and serves on the Boards of March Entertainment and Paperny Films; she is a past Director of eOne Entertainment’s Canadian Board, of Aliant, of CHUM Ltd, and was Chair of the Independent Feature Project in New York.
Catherine founded iThentic in 2006 with partners Liz Manne and Al Cattabiani.
Lisa Baylin – VP, Content & Production
Lisa Baylin is the VP, Content & Production for iThentic. Previously, Lisa was the Program Manager at three private funds supporting the Canadian television and new media industries: the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund which invests in Canadian television programs and their associated new media projects; the Independent Production Fund which invests in dramatic television series and webseries; and, the COGECO Program Development Fund for the development of dramatic series and MOW’s and the production of MOW’s. Before joining the Funds in 2007, Lisa was the Associate Conference Producer for the Banff World Television Festival. A graduate of Queen’s University, Lisa began her career as a theatre director in Toronto and New York, and moved into casting in 2004 where she had the opportunity to participate in casting such feature films as Get Rich or Die Tryin’(05), The Sentinel(06), Take the Lead (06), 16 Blocks (06), Cheaper by the Dozen 2(05), Four Brothers(05), and for television; Found Objects(07), Lost Things (07) and The Dark Years(07). Lisa has produced and directed short films and her current film Bagged (10) airs on CBC as part of Canadian Reflections.
Elyne Quan – Content Specialist
Elyne has been with iThentic since 2008. She has written for radio, television and film as well as award-winning plays for theatre. She contributes creative content for new media and interactive projects for iThentic and on a freelance basis. Past interactive projects include creative lead on the environmental interactive initiative site Green Minutes, project management for Re-Vamped Online, and broadcast story editing and writing quest-length interactive scripts for Pillars of Freedom for TVO. Elyne is a graduate of the CFC Prime Time TV Program and has an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU/Tisch School of the Arts.
Rachael Shapiro – Head of Acquisitions
Rachael has over twenty year’s of experience in entertainment programming, marketing, production and talent relations, most recently with the Producer’s Guild of America’s Produced By Conference in LA and the Just for Laughs Comedy Conference in Montreal. She also assists the Canadian Film Centre in building its LA presence by creating LA industry events and acts as industry liaison for Film Nova Scotia’s yearly trade mission to Los Angeles. Previously, Rachael served as Marketing chief for Glocal Media Networks, an international media company whose recent projects include the launch of four international channels on Dish Network, and served as a producer of on-air branding campaigns and interstitial programming for cable TV and celebrity talent booker (clients include ABC Family, IFC, VH1, MTV, Bravo.) Prior to this, Rachael headed up the marketing department and later, filmmaker relations division, of Reelplay.com, an internet marketplace for independent film and TV product and was instrumental in all aspects of the site’s B2B launch and management including the creation and maintenance of a distinct on-line Independent film and TV producers marketplace for projects in various stages of development and production. Before working as a consultant, Rachael was the Director of the Independent Feature Film Market (IFFM) produced by the Independent Feature Project (IFP), the nation’s premier 10,000 – member independent film community.
Ben Rayner – Director of Content
Ben Rayner is the acting Director of Content for iThentic. Prior to his transition to iThentic he worked as the Marketing Coordinator for the web thriller Guidestones. Previously, Ben worked as a Marketing Consultant with the consulting firm Dunne Group, and transitioned into short-form web advertising thereafter. Ben studied at the School of Business at the University of Prince Edward Island, and in the process received a top-off degree from the Parisian Business School, INSEEC, where he focused on marketing and international business. Throughout his career, Ben has been heavily involved with professional stage and film productions, which has led him to his field of work to date.