Steve Jackson joined Smashing Ideas in February 2005 having been active in the new media industry for over 12 years. Prior to joining Smashing Ideas, was President and CEO of Applied Semantics, a Santa Monica, CA-based producer of software applications (AdSense) for the online advertising, domain name and enterprise information management markets. The company realized a half billion unique impressions a month across its domain-name network, with a click-through rate of 50 percent on many of the listings. Applied Semantics was acquired by Google in 2003.

Before joining Applied Semantics, Jackson served as senior vice president and general manager of iXL, Inc. during which time he created the global Media & Entertainment division, which produced innovative consumer-focused Internet sites and revenue-generating business-to-business online initiatives. Under Jackson’s direction, the division grew annual revenues from $2.5M to over $15M in under 18 months. iXL went public in 1999 and reached a market capitalization of $3.5 billion with 38 offices globally. An entrepreneur and early Internet provider, Jackson was founder and CEO of Spin Cycle Entertainment which he sold to iXL. While overseeing the implementation of numerous Web sites for Spin Cycle clients, Jackson directed and produced six TV shows for Universal Studios as well as the Microsoft television special on the launch of Windows ’95. Jackson’s company (a Smashing Ideas client in 1998) was credited with creating Universal’s first Java-enabled online game with Jurassic Park, as well as the first utilization of streaming audio for a Waterworld online game over nine years ago.

Brian Burke joined Smashing in 2005 and currently serves as President. Burke and his team focus on design, development, interactive strategy and content distribution for mobile phones including Smartphones, iPhones as well as tablet devices including the iPad. Burke has also been instrumental in business development for the company and is currently building out the ePublishing division.

Prior to Smashing Ideas, he held leadership positions at several pioneering digital companies, including Zango Inc, where he served as Senior Director, creating the company’s online content business. Additionally, Burke was with Atom Entertainment (now an MTV Networks company) as Vice President of Syndication, where he built the company’s multi-screen, content syndication business. Burke also held senior roles at Vendaria Media Inc, and Imation Publishing Software (formerly a division of Adobe). He received his M.A. in European Studies from K.U. Leuven, Belgium and earned his Bachelor of Arts in Communications Studies at Seattle University.

Barbara Pritchard has more than eleven years experience in the interactive space and as Director of Production she oversees some of the studio’s largest and most complicated projects, from large-scale downloadable games and real-time multiplayer games to portal websites. Pritchard leads a team of fourteen producers, managing all studio-wide resources and process while ensuring that each project results in a quality interactive product that’s delivered on time, on brand and on budget. Pritchard joined Smashing Ideas in 2003 and is incredibly knowledgeable in the youth marketing space, having received numerous industry awards for a variety of projects. Pritchard recently lent her expertise and insight in the youth market and spoke about “Developing for the Digital Kid.”

Prior to her work at Smashing Ideas, Pritchard spent the dotcom heyday at AtomFilms.com (now an MTV Networks company) where she was responsible for oversight of the production team. Additionally, Pritchard worked on the first ever Xbox Live! titles for Microsoft. In addition to her experience in the interactive space, Pritchard spent more than ten years in marketing and public relations for the music and beverage industries. Pritchard holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from the University of Washington and currently resides in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood.

As a founding member of Smashing Ideas, Evan Clarrissimeaux comes with over 14 years experience in digital production managing major brand and entertainment property companies such as Disney, Nickelodeon, Ford, and Kraft among others. Having been involved with Macromedia Flash since its inception, he has built fun, interactive rich media for the web, TV and mobile devices working on such projects as Postopia.com and the Madonna “Music” video for Shockwave.com. Clarrissimeaux began as an educator at the Ethical Culture Schools in New York and later at the University Child Development School in Seattle focused on teaching art and technology to children. He has spoken at numerous conferences both in the US and abroad.

Chad Otis serves as Smashing Ideas’ executive creative director and brings more than fifteen years experience in the Internet and CD-Rom industry to the company. Having been an art director, designer, illustrator, animator and game designer Otis brings his extensive knowledge of graphic design, animation, illustration, interface design and character design to the company and manages a team of sixteen people. Prior to joining Smashing Ideas in 2005, Otis was art director for Cricket Moon Media. Otis played an instrumental role in building out an interactive story designed to showcase the company’s ability to create engaging online content for the nascent Internet. The result eventually became some of the first games and stories for Disney Online. Prior to that Otis served as lead designer and art director for Edmark. Otis lead a group of more than thirty artists and illustrators during a time when the company shifted its focus from producing printed educational material to creating educational CD-Rom edutainment for pre-readers and early learners.

Otis has won numerous awards including Communication Arts Illustration Annual- Outstanding Illustration Award; MacWorld Magazine’s Annual Editor’s Choice Award; Newsweek’s Editor’s Choice Award; and PC Magazine’s Top 100 CD-ROM for his designs. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Communications from the University of Washington. He lives in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood.

Andreas Heim is Director of Technology at Smashing Ideas and a Adobe Advisory Board member. He specializes in projects that challenge his Flash expertise and prefers projects that include Flash-server interaction or lead to building reusable components. His insights and expertise in this area have led to numerous contributions to books as well as earned him invitations to speak at several Flashforward conferences. In his time off, Heim enjoys playing soccer, which he has enjoyed since he left his hometown of Hattenhofen in Germany.

Ben Roberts has more than a decade of experience in development for a host of different screens and operating systems in a wide range of languages. Roberts brings deep experience of client and server-side development, team management, mobile platform technologies and functional UI/UX. At Smashing Ideas Ben heads up the effort into producing enhanced books for mobile platforms as Director of ePublishing. In this new role Roberts has built on the success of of the hit app 'Alice for the iPad’, created at his previous company – Atomic Antelope, bringing several new applications to market, two of which have been #1 titles. Prior to joining Smashing Ideas Roberts ran his own company, freelanced, volunteered at an African medical aid charity (AMREF) and worked for companies large and small from dotcom startups to large media organizations (AMV) and banks (UBS).

Roberts holds a BSc (hons) in Computer Science degree from Exeter University in the U.K. and currently resides in the Green Lake area of Seattle. In his time off he enjoys snowboarding day-trips and distance cycling.