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Creative Economy- Investing in Computer Games
January 30
Over 2,200 creative economy enterprises are located on the North Shore and conservatively contribute over $3 billion in annual sales. The creative economy represents 10%-12% of the North Shore's total private sector employment and employs between 17,000-20,000 people. Hear about this dynamic growing sector full of new companies and investment opportunities. In this session we will concentrate on the computer games industry with an outstanding panel of experts who will discuss what investors look for when investing in creative companies. The panel covers what the current investment climate is like and how our experts see 2009 unfolding.
Co- sponsored by The Creative Economy Association of the North Shore.
Tom Dusenberry "The original games guy" Tom Dusenberry has overseen the successful publishing of games for virtually every game platform in the marketplace for the past 30 years. Tom pioneered the PC CD-ROM Family and Children's Games market with Monopoly, Scrabble, Tonka, Candyland and many other classic casual games. Tom also pioneered the smart toy category with the Star Wars CD-ROM Playsets.
He is currently the founder of Dusenberry Entertainment, a consulting and licensing firm dedicated to helping companies build shareholder value. He was the founder and CEO of Hasbro Interactive, Inc. and Games.com., subsidiaries of Hasbro, Inc Tom acquired games companies such as Atari, Microprose, Wizards of the Coast and others for Hasbro. Tom is most closely associated with Monopoly, Frogger, Roller Coaster Tycoon and NASCAR HEAT. He was also an executive at Parker Brothers Games and Milton Bradley Games for 22 years.
Tom Dusenberry has been a driving force behind four mobile games publishers (Call-it Entertainment, Chasma, Kayak Interactive and Hook Mobile) that have been acquired. He has licensed popular games such as SLINGO, Whack-A-Mole, Slinky, Poker Superstars for mobile game publishing.
During his career he has worked with nearly all American mobile operators and is a well known expert in the US wireless industry. More recently, Dominic has been Vice President of Adventis and Leader of its Boston based Global Practice. Dominic is a member of the Board of Directors for Catalytic Software, Inc (portfolio company). He received his MBA from the Sloan School at MIT and holds a Bachelor of Science (Economics) from the London School of Economics. He has published articles in journals such as Wireless Week and Telephony.
Frank E. Ferguson Born in 1926, in Ames, Iowa, a graduate of the Ames public schools and a 1950 graduate from the Greenlee School of Journalism, Iowa State University. Minors: Education and Psychology. Science Masters, 1959, M.I.T. Sloan School of Management. At various times in his career, he has been:
*an infantry soldier (13 months in post-war Japan, with a smattering of Japanese),
a professional cinematographer, (6+ years in Turkey and Iran; still speaking a bit of Farsi and loving Persian cuisine),
*National sales manager (Ealing Corp, 1960s)
*President of several corporations, including Bose Corp. (1969-1976)
*Curriculum Associates, Inc., President and founder (since 1969), a publisher of instructional materials for elementary and middle schools. (See: http://CAinc.com)
*Angel investor and member of the board of directors of EdTech Networks, Inc. (dba EdNets), ZS Genetics, Inc., board advisor to Way Systems, Inc., Net Clarity, Inc., and DigitalBrix, Inc., a founder and board member of SBIC Hamilton Capital Corp., now defunct.
Listen to this discussion now
Tom Dusenberry "The original games guy" Tom Dusenberry has overseen the successful publishing of games for virtually every game platform in the marketplace for the past 30 years. Tom pioneered the PC CD-ROM Family and Children's Games market with Monopoly, Scrabble, Tonka, Candyland and many other classic casual games. Tom also pioneered the smart toy category with the Star Wars CD-ROM Playsets.