Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute today announced five new members of the Institute’s Board of Trustees: Fred Dust, Philipp Engelhorn, Caterina Fake, Gigi Pritzker and Alejandro Ramírez Magaña. Under the guidance of President & Founder Robert Redford and in close collaboration with Executive Director Keri Putnam and Board Chair Pat Mitchell, the new trustees bring an invaluable depth of experience in marketing and creative design, social innovation, technology and film production and exhibition to the Institute’s governance.
The other business, cultural and philanthropic leaders on the Institute’s Board are: Robert Redford, President & Founder; Pat Mitchell, Board Chair; Jeanne Donovan Fisher and Geoffrey K. Sands, Vice Chairs; Bob Frankenberg, Treasurer; Sean Bailey; Kenneth Cole; Ava Duvernay; Rob Epstein; Cindy Harrell Horn; Christine Lahti; Lyn Davis Lear; Tom Rothman; Nadine Schiff-Rosen; Jim Swartz; Liesl Tommy; John E. Warnock and Jacki Zehner. In addition, Emeritus Trustees are: Walter L. Weisman, Chair Emeritus; Glenn Close; Sally Field; Steven Haft; Mellody Hobson and George White.
Robert Redford, President & Founder of Sundance Institute, said, “We add five new trustees to the Board to bring their perspectives and insight to the table.”
Pat Mitchell, Sundance Institute Board of Trustees Chair, said, “As Sundance Institute’s programs continue to respond to the evolving needs of independent artists, we are grateful to these five new Trustees for joining us. Together, the Board is poised to identify new and strengthened ways to champion independent storytellers.”
NEW TRUSTEES
Fred Dust works with leaders and change agents to unlock the creative potential of business, government, educational and philanthropic organizations. A partner at IDEO, the acclaimed international design firm, and a senior leader of IDEO’s New York office, he is a leading voice and practitioner of human-centered design and networked innovation. He advises a range of new and old media companies on confronting massive shifts in the competitive landscape. He collaborates closely with nonprofit and philanthropic foundations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Knight Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, and Bloomberg Philanthropies to create new frameworks for engaging with stakeholders to improve the impact of their programs. Fred holds a bachelor’s degree in art history from Reed College and a master’s in architecture from the School of Environmental Design at UC Berkeley. He spent eight years working in the art world with major organizations and independent artists.
Philipp Engelhorn founded and currently directs the film foundation and not-for-profit production company, Cinereach, which offers adaptive financial and creative support for independent filmmakers, with supported projects including Citizen Four, Cutie and the Boxer, Pariah and Beasts of the Southern Wild. Philipp additionally serves as CEO of Cinereach Films, a private film financing and investment firm. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Synergos, a non-profit dedicated to eliminating global poverty and social injustice by changing the systems that keep people in poverty. He also serves on the Founders Board of the Patrons of the Pinakothek in Munich, as well as on the boards of the Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) and Artists Public Domain. Originally from Germany, Philipp graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and is currently based in New York City.
Caterina Fake is an American entrepreneur and social media innovator. Ms. Fake was cofounder of Flickr, the seminal social photo sharing site; and Hunch, which created the ‘taste graph of the internet’. They were acquired by Yahoo and eBay respectively. She is founder and CEO of Findery, a mobile app about places for social and local sharing. For eight years she served as Director and Chairman of the Board of Etsy, the marketplace of unique goods. She was named to the Time 100, Time Magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people, and received the Aenne Burda Award for Creative Leadership. Ms. Fake is a Founder Partner at Founder Collective, advises startups and new businesses, and has served on the Boards of Directors of many non-profits and startups, including Creative Commons and Creative Live, as well as on the Advisory Board of the UC Berkeley School of Information. She attended Smith College, and graduated from Vassar College in 1991. She is the cofounder of Sesat School, and serves on the advisory board of Rarecancer.org. Ms. Fake has received Honorary Doctorates from the Rhode Island School of Design (2009) and The New School (2013).
Gigi Pritzker is a film and stage producer. As CEO of film production and financing company OddLot Entertainment, Pritzker produced Academy Award-nominated Rabbit Hole starring Nicole Kidman, as well as The Way, Way Back and Jon Stewart’s directorial debut, Rosewater. Pritzker has expanded OLE’s footprint in the global motion picture business to create the foreign sales company Sierra/Affinity and is part of a consortium that recently launched the next generation film studio STX. Pritzker also develops and produces live stage productions through her company Relevant Theatricals. Recent productions include the Broadway hit, Million Dollar Quartet. Pritzker’s active philanthropic roles include Founder & Vice Chair of Project& and member of the Board of the Goodman Theatre of Chicago. Pritzker studied anthropology at Stanford University. Living in Nepal as an undergraduate student led her to produce her first documentary feature in Bhutan, when the BBC kick-started her long career in film.
Alejandro Ramírez Magaña is Chief Executive Officer of Cinépolis, the largest film exhibition company in Latin America, with presence in Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Central America, India and the United States. He served as Mexico’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and as Technical Secretary of the Social Cabinet of the Government of Mexico. He has worked for the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme in the areas of poverty and human development. He co-authored “Poverty, Human Development and Indigenous People in Latin America”, is Chairman of the Morelia International Film Festival and co-founded “Ambulante”, a documentary film festival in Mexico. He holds a BA in Economics from Harvard University, an MSc in Development Economics from the University of Oxford and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Sundance Institute
Founded in 1981 by Robert Redford, Sundance Institute is a nonprofit organization that provides and preserves the space for artists in film, theatre, and new media to create and thrive. The Institute’s signature Labs, granting, and mentorship programs, dedicated to developing new work, take place throughout the year in the U.S. and internationally. The Sundance Film Festival and other public programs connect audiences to artists in igniting new ideas, discovering original voices, and building a community dedicated to independent storytelling. Sundance Institute has supported such projects as Beasts of the Southern Wild, Fruitvale Station, Sin Nombre, The Invisible War, The Square, Dirty Wars, Spring Awakening, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder and Fun Home. Join Sundance Institute on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.
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