Peter Freese
Conference Director

Peter Freese is an entrepreneur, programmer, and visionary/co-creator of the LOGIN Conference. Peter has been making games professionally for nearly 20 years and has founded several games studios. Peter is an advocate for shared technology, and was previously Core Technology Director for NCsoft. His experience with online games ranges from first-person shooters to MMORPGS. Titles Peter has contributed to include Blood, Gabriel Knight 3, Ultima Online 2, Tabula Rasa, Auto Assault, and Counter-Strike: Source.

Cynthia Freese
Executive Director, LOGIN Conference
Co-founder, Evergreen Events

Prior to her founding of Evergreen Events, Cynthia was the Event Director at The Game Initiative, where she grew the Game Initiative’s conferences to include small, focused events with a unique focus. Cynthia was the creator and manager of the 2005 Casual Games Conference in Seattle. This successful conference allowed the game industry to focus on a new perspective in the industry. She was also the Conference Director of the 2005 Austin Game Conference, Women’s Game Conference and Writers Game Conference in Austin, Texas, all of which had record attendance in 2005 and were well-covered in the media. In addition to her work on innovative conferences, Cynthia also focused on the Breaking In To the Game Industry events as well as helping to organize and attain industry speakers for middle school Career Days around the country.

Cynthia likes to be thought of as a bridge between groups and believes that by working together we will all be better off in the long run.

Ellen Kwor
Event Sales

Ellen has always been an early adopter; since developing her IT skills in high school she never looked back. After she received her bachelor's degree in communications, the university hired her as a full time employee in the university IT department. Ellen later moved to the Seattle area in order to seek out the best opportunity to match her IT tech support skills with her passion for all technological innovations. Ellen has continued her career in IT, working with Parametrix and Microsoft. She is also active in several nonprofit organizations. She's the VP of Operations at BEAN, which was created to foster lasting personal and professional connections between people of diverse backgrounds, while contributing to the greater community through social work and volunteering. She is also the Managing Director of Girls in Tech, a social network enterprise focused on the engagement, education and empowerment of like-minded, professional, intelligent, and influential women in technology. In her free time, Ellen can often be found at Seattle-area professional events, making connections and sharing new ideas.

Linda “Brasse” Carlson
Senior Global Community Relations Manager, Sony Online Entertainment

Linda has been involved in gaming since her very first, photocopied D&D manual arrived in the mail some decades ago. Over the years, she made the transition from tabletop to online to media to industry… and now currently serves as the Senior Global Community Relations Manager for Sony Online Entertainment. “That’s just a very long way of saying that I head up the 15-person community team,” she says. SOE offers over a dozen online titles, including EverQuest, EverQuest II, Star Wars Galaxies, Free Realms, Clone Wars Adventures, and the upcoming DC Universe Online. Whether delivering lectures at conventions as “Brasse,” her garrulous Dwarf alter ego, working on SOE projects or developing new web comics, Linda is constantly inspired by the passion of the people who create and play games. “In no other field of endeavor do we see such rapid evolution of society, technology and communication,” she explains, “The gaming world is one incredible, organic social experiment, and I can hardly wait to see what’s next!”

Mona Ibrahim
Trademark & Entertainment Attorney, Of Counsel, Imua legal Advisors

Mona Ibrahim is an Entertainment lawyer in Seattle, WA. She is the principal attorney of the Law Offices of Mona A. Ibrahim, where her practice emphasizes video game, music, trademark, copyright, trade secret, unfair competition, name and likeness, general entertainment and employment law. She is also Of Counsel at Imua Legal Advisors.

Mona has worked with prominent players in the entertainment industry including Lionsgate Films and The Firm, a talent management company in Los Angeles. While in LA she was a frequent guest lecturer at the Musicians’ Institute in Hollywood, CA. She received her J.D. from West Virginia University College of Law and her LL.M. in Entertainment and Media Law from Southwestern College of Law in Los Angeles, CA. She received a B.A. in Sociology and Social Psychology from Marlboro College in Marlboro, Vermont, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude.

In addition to her practice Mona writes informative articles for the game and music communities. You can find her writings at Under Development, Sound Operations, and in the Course Technology publication “Business and Production for Games: A Gamedev.net Collection”. She is also a frequently featured writer on Gamasutra.

Steve Klebe
Vice President of Business Development and Strategy, BilltoMobile

As the Vice President of Business Development and Strategy for BilltoMobile, an e-commerce payments solution at the forefront of a global evolution in the mobile payments space and the first direct mobile billing company with a connection to carriers in the U.S, Steve is responsible for the overall strategy and execution of developing and managing partnerships with merchants and channel partners. Passionate about evolving the options available to both consumers and merchants in the e-commerce payment industry, Steve continues to explore innovative solutions for the rapidly growing realm of digital content and online services communities and beyond.

Steve returns to BilltoMobile after a stint as senior vice president of business development for Vindicia, an on-demand billing company. While at Vindicia, he was responsible for building and managing the relationships with reseller and complimentary infrastructure partners.

Steve is a proven industry veteran with more than 30 years of experience in sales, business development, strategic alliances and product marketing in electronic payments, authentication and fraud prevention. He has worked in a variety of senior management roles at companies including VeriFone, CyberSource and RSA, and has driven numerous innovative payment solutions from infancy through their mainstream stage, including Visa's equity investment in CyberSource and the co-branded product - the CyberSource Advanced Fraud Screen enhanced by Visa.

A trusted advisor in the industry, Steve has taught classes at the NACHA Payments Instituteand served on the board of directors of the Electronic Transactions Association, as well as the advisory boards of the Direct Response Forum (DRF), the Electronic Funds Transfer Association (EFTA) and LOGIN conference.

Steve graduated from Northeastern University, Boston with a Bachelor of Science with honors in Business Administration.

Rick Lambright
CTO and Founder, Motiga

Rick Lambright is CTO and co-founder of Motiga, a mobile game publisher/developer startup in the Seattle area.  Prior to Motiga Rick was Chief Architect at Gazillion Entertainment, developer of a variety of MMOs, including Marvel Super Hero Squad, LEGO Universe, and Jumpgate Evolution.

Rick’s game industry experience began at Starwave in 1995 as server architect and lead server programmer on the pioneering MMO Castle Infinity, the first fully released MMOdesigned for children. Subsequently Rick was Director of Online Technology at Humongous and Cavedog Entertainment where he wrote the networking for Total Annihilation and led the team that created the Boneyards online gaming system for GT Interactive. Rick was subsequently VP of Internet Engineering at LithTech and Director of Online Technology at Monolith, where he was also the lead engineer on The Matrix Online. In 2005 he joined Secret Lair Studios, which was acquired by Vivendi in 2006 and became Sierra Online Seattle. Rick was Technical Director at Sierra Online, during which time the studio shipped Carcassonne for XBLA.

Joe Ludwig
Programmer, Valve Software

Joe Ludwig is a 10-year veteran of the game industry. Before joining Divide by Zero in summer of 2008, Joe worked on the PC MMO Pirates of the Burning Sea at Flying Lab Software from the project's inception past its launch. He served as Lead Programmer, then Director of Development, and finally as Producer on Pirates. Prior to Flying Lab, Joe spent a year working on the Middle-Earth Online project at Sierra.

Joe is a frequent speaker and occasional writer on MMOs and their challenges. He has spoken at the Online Game Development Conference, the Austin Game Development Conference, and the ION Game Conference. You can find his writing on MMOs and technology in general at http://programmerjoe.com.

Paul Philleo
Writer/Consultant

Paul Philleo has taken root in the interactive entertainment world since 2001. As Marketing Manager for almost three and a half years at the North American outpost for Korean online game developer giant Nexon Corp., he guided the marketing and PR programs for three MMO game titles. Most notably, he played a key role in guiding its flagship MMO PC game Shattered Galaxy toward critical acclaim, with awards from Computer Games magazine, GamePen, FiringSquad, GameSpot and other editorial venues.

Since departing the Nexon fold in 2004, Paul has written for MPOGD.com, a respected and veteran online multiplayer gaming-focused website, particularly in covering numerous game industry events across the United States. Additionally, Paul had co-founded and independently worked with the mar-com agency Levelup Communications in crafting press releases and marketing strategies for independent studios and Korean-originated game titles.

Currently, he is involved in a new website editorial project and pursuing other business ventures.

Scott Warner
Owner, Garvey Schubert Barer

Scott has worked with game companies for more than 12 years, covering all aspects of game development and distribution for game companies in the PC, console, casual, downloadable, and MMOG space. During this period he has worked on deals to develop and distribute games domestically and internationally, including in Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, Australia, Russia, and France with companies ranging from EA, Sony, Disney, Real, Microsoft, Fox, Valve, Big Fish, Warner, T-Mobile, Sprint, Motorola, Qualcomm, Simon, Schuster, Scholastic, and many many others. Scott has been recognized as a “Super Lawyer” in Washington and as one of Washington’s Most Amazing Lawyers by Washington CEO Magazine in 2006. You can view Scott’s resume (click on narrative bio) at http://www.gsblaw.com/people/bio.asp?EmployeeID=W617305935

Dave Weinstein
Senior Security Development Engineer, Microsoft

After turning pro in the 1994 season as part of the White Wolf Productions' Empire II: The Art of War team, Dave moved to Kesmai Studios. In 1997 he donned the red and white stripes of Red Storm Entertainment (later part of Ubisoft), working as a networking specialist on Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six. After 11 years, three companies, and six platforms, he retired from professional game development during the 2005 season, and moved to the foothills of the Cascade Mountains to write and research security tools as part of the Microsoft Security Engineering Center. He also freely admits to having written this biography under the influence of OLN Tour De France coverage.

Sarah Woody
Executive Assistant

Sarah Woody is a copy editor who lives and works from home in Indiana and travels often. Sarah has a keen eye for detail and prides herself in her resourcefulness, knowledge of the English language and ability to manage projects from start to finish, maintaining consistency and style throughout. She has a passion for juggling multiple projects and keeping everything in order.

Sarah has been involved primarily as a member of a production team (as a copy editor, designer or proofreader), but she also has experience managing multiple projects with varying team members. She has worked with both print and online publications and with a variety of content material, ranging from the military to the games industry. Most important, Sarah loves her work.

Sarah joined LOGIN in 2009 as LOGIN Volunteer Coordinator for LOGIN 2010. She is looking forward to the challenges of her new executive assistant position.

Jason Wonacott
Founder & CEO, Wonacott Communications, LLC

Jason created Wonacott Communications, an award-winning PR agency, in 2007 with one mission: Provide the benchmark public relations and new media results of a major agency while being affordable, adaptable and approachable.  By adhering to this mantra and leveraging his experience and enthusiasm for online/social entertainment, he quickly established the company as a respected strategic PR partner for a number of online interactive entertainment and digital media companies. Wonacott Communications’ clients have included Atlus Online, NHN USA (ijji.com), Gamania Digital Entertainment, GamePot (USA), Cookie Jar Entertainment, WEBZEN, Realtime Worlds, Gala-Net (gpotato.com), Clear Ink, Moblyng Games, and many others.

Prior to Wonacott Communications, Jason was director of corporate communications for MMO developer and publisher Turbine Inc., and then the head of corporate communications for Korean MMO developer Webzen’s North American subsidiary. He was also a senior member of two independent Los Angeles-based public relations firms, providing strategic counsel and program tactical execution for a number of clients in the consumer electronics, digital entertainment, luxury lifestyle, technology and alternative energy industries.

Before his successful transition to public relations, Jason was a TV reporter and also served four years in the U.S. Navy. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and Communication from the University of Oregon.

Geoffrey Zatkin
President and COO, Electronic Entertainment Design and Research

Geoffrey Zatkin serves as President and COO of Electronic Entertainment Design and Research (EEDAR), a business intelligence company that empowers investors, publishers and developers to make informed decisions about the games they are creating and the capital being spent to produce them. Co-founding the company in 2006, Geoffrey directs the development of EEDAR’s product line (GamePulse and DesignMetrics) and oversees the data collected for use in EEDAR’s commercial and custom research products. 

With more than a decade’s worth of video game industry experience, Geoffrey has performed in lead and senior design roles for both international corporate entertainment conglomerates and independent development studios. Geoffrey specializes in the evolution of game design and emerging technology trends for the computer and video game industry, with a particular emphasis on MMOGs, feature identification/categorization, and feature trending.