Jordan Bayne is the visionary founder of The Squad, the pioneering Next-Gen IP studio that originated Film3™ and redefined how stories are created, owned, and distributed in the age of Web3 and GenAI.
Her Academy Award–contender short film THE SEA IS ALL LI KNOW, starring Oscar winner Melissa Leo, was an official selection at prestigious festivals including Cannes, Hamptons, Dubai, and Palm Springs.
Since founding The Squad in February 2021, Bayne has transformed Film3™ from a disruptive idea into a revolutionary business model and brand, one that’s rapidly being recognized as the future of entertainment.
A true innovator and early adopter, Bayne made history by minting her short film RED FLAGS on Zora, which was later collected by iconic AI artist Claire Silver.
In 2025, she took on a leadership role as Head of GenAI and Web3 at Goldfinch, a leading financier in the traditional entertainment industry, furthering her mission to reshape the creative economy through technology, access, and decentralization.
A global speaker and cultural architect, Bayne has appeared at over 1,000 events worldwide, including the Cannes Film Festival, Italy’s Ministry of Culture’s AVP Summit, MergeMadrid, and NFC Summit. She continues to champion the next wave of cinema through her podcast the Film3™ OG, now in its third season.
She is also the founder of the MetaCannes Film3 Festival, the world’s only on-chain, on-demand virtual film festival and the first traditional festival to curate AI cinema. Most recently, Bayne co-founded enGEN3, proprietary technology she developed to power the creator economy.
Her debut AI-generated short film, ᏌᎪᏂᎨ, earned multiple nominations and awards globally, as well as creative partnerships with top GenAI platforms including Kling, Hailuo, and Pika.
Phil McKenzie is an award-winning producer, investor and prolific founder within the entertainment & media sectors.
A Co-Founder of leading UK indie production and finance company Goldfinch, that has raised and deployed more than $250m into 300 projects in 10 years. His strength lies in negotiating and constructing partnerships at a corporate level and deals at a production level being personally credited on 60+ titles.
Also, a Co-Founder of Watch&Earn web3 streaming platform myco, in 3 years Phil has helped to oversee the growth of the business to 20m+ users primarily across the S Asia & MENA region and expanded the content slate to include 100+ originals, 1000+ licensed titles and 200+ live sporting events including the EPL, ICC Cricket World Cup and PSL.
Phil is also a Co-Founder of First Flights the OSCAR & BAFTA winning Short Film Fund, Dream Town Entertainment a genre IP production company that completed 8 feature films in 2024/25 and Selectors a long form IP incubator working with best-in-class production companies.
Selected as a mentor to the acclaimed Outlier Ventures Base Camp programme in Riyadh and a winning finalist on Meet The Drapers, Phil is a passionate and active supporter of other Founders and startups.
Prior to his involvement in the entertainment sector Phil worked across marketing, strategy and operations in a variety of sectors including F&B and professional services and received an MA in Politics from Edinburgh University.
Doug Thompson is a multi-exit founder, technologist, and creative strategist with 30+ years at the intersection of storytelling, product design, and emerging technologies.
As founder and CEO of Remedy, one of Canada’s leading independent digital agencies in its vertical, Doug led over 1,000 technology and education projects for global clients including Pfizer, GSK, Johns Hopkins, and the U.S. military.
A self-taught coder and prolific product architect, he launched the world’s leading platform for creating place-based experiences and stories using BLE and proximity technology—deployed by clients such as Kroger, Sony Music, Lynx Deodorant, Kew Gardens, and People Magazine. He launched dozens of mobile apps across iOS and Android that leveraged this platform.
He went on to found Narraio, a world-building toolkit acquired in 2023, and the Bureau of Bright Ideas, a strategic incubator and agency for experimental storytelling and metaverse innovation.
A frequent collaborator with frontier startups, Doug most recently led product strategy and marketing for Open Meta, where he developed a community-based questing engine and designed the UX/UI for a decentralized gaming marketplace.
Doug created Dusan Writer’s Metaverse, a widely cited blog that explored virtual worlds, identity, and immersive storytelling—publishing over 800,000 words on the future of culture and media.
His blog, BEEKn, established Doug as a global expert on proximity technologies, leading to speaking engagements around the world.
Murray has spent the majority of his life in the entertainment industry, which has placed him in the midst of multiple transformative moments.
At just nineteen years old, during what become known as the “Indie Music Revolution” Murray was signed as a staff songwriter in Nashville, TN. Within a couple of years, Murray’s band signed a major label recording contract, made multiple records and toured extensively. But his passion for disrupting old systems, Murray joined with some friends to start a small indie record company with the vision of developing a new “talent to fan, fan to friend” marketing and distribution approach.
Later, during the “Digital Music Revolution,” Murray pioneered innovative ways for musicians to harness the digital discovery and consumption of music, in order to give them complete control of the marketing and sales of their music.
This coincided with the explosion of the “Social Media Revolution,” when Murray co-founded a NYC-based digital agency called Amplifier to test and develop new tools and methods empowering clients to not only market and sell their projects directly to their followers on social media, but to empower and incentivize fans to actively amplify the project to their friends online. Clients included superstars like Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, Kevin Hart and others; as well as multiple major brands like Dr. Pepper/Snapple Group, Converse, Guitar Center and others; and major media companies like MTV, VH1, Cartoon Network, Universal, Sony, Paramount Global and others.
The success of these campaigns, and the advent of the “Streaming Revolution” ultimately led Murray to develop Bingeable: an affiliate platform for movies and television, where the affiliates are the stars, soundtrack artists, influencers, brands and even fans. In 2024, Bingeable received its first Academy Award® nomination for their multi-festival winning short film, “The Last Ranger.” Murray continues to passionately advocate for a better, fairer and more inclusive entertainment industry by speaking at panels around the world and with his weekly newsletter, “Entertaining the Future.”
Kirsty Bell, founder & CEO of Goldfinch and co-founder of DREAMTOWN, initially qualified in law, then became a chartered tax adviser and strategic tax partner for a top ten firm before the age of 30. Now recognized as one of the UK’s leading filmmakers, Producers and Executive Producers of well over 100 feature films, including the 2023 Best Short Film Oscar and BAFTA winner ‘An Irish Goodbye’.
As the founder of Goldfinch in 2014, Bell demonstrates the viability of private investment in the independent film sector, pioneering new avenues for creative visionaries. She has facilitated the financing of over 300 film and TV projects, guiding more than 20 first-time directors in bringing their cinematic visions to life and is co-founder of Goldfinch’s First Flights programme. Her directorial debut feature film “A Bird Flew In,” starring Jeff Fahey and Sir Derek Jacobi, was selected for over 30 festivals, accumulating an impressive tally of 28 award wins and 30 nominations to date.
Two-time Emmy® Award winner Seth Shapiro is a global leader in media and technology. His clients and partners have included AT&T, Betfair, Comcast, DIRECTV, Disney, Goldman Sachs, IBM, Intel, IPG, McCann NBC, Neo Cricket Mumbai, New Zealand Trade & Enterprise, News Corp, Nokia, Showtime, Telstra, Turner, Universal, and a range of new ventures. His began his career in Hollywood as a Producer at Disney Interactive. At DIRECTV, he launched over 25 services, including TiVo, the world’s first major DVR platform.
Mr. Shapiro was previously an Adjunct Professor at USC and a Governor of the Television Academy, the home of the Emmys. His book, TELEVISION Vol. 1 is an Amazon bestseller covering the evolution of media 1890-1980.
A trained equity options trader, he was an early advocate of blockchain in media and has been active in the space since 2016. He was previously a Senior Advisor to Shiba Inu, Partner at Alpha Transform Holdings, Head of BD at Alphabit Fund, Head of Strategy at Videocoin, CEO of Alpha Networks founder of Artaku NFT, and Chair of the Web3 Advisory Council at the National Association of Broadcasters.
In the public sphere, Mr. Shapiro has served as an Expert before both the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission.
Kelly is a content strategist and consumer platform expert with over 20 years of experience in content partnerships, production, licensing, acquisitions, and technical integrations to drive growth using emerging entertainment technology. She's led business development for the creation, distribution, and monetization of cutting-edge apps, games, programming, and platform features across film, television, digital video, augmented and virtual reality, web3, and AI, forging deals for iconic companies including Disney, Fox, Intel, IPG, Polygon Labs, Verizon, Warner Bros, and YouTube.
Emma Smith FCCA is a disruptive force fusing financial precision and analytical rigour with creative vision in entertainment. Known for tax-efficient structuring and her sharp strategic intuition, she empowers creatives, investors, and businesses alike to navigate with clarity and confidence. Her positioning expertise and natural talents in establishing impactful partnerships future-proof ventures in a fast-evolving, high-stakes landscape, turning vision into sustainable investment success.
Sian is a strategist, curator, and community builder at the intersection of Web3, digital art, and cultural equity. As the founder of TheBlkChain, a platform amplifying the work of BIPOC, women, and LGBTQ artists and collectors, Sian has been at the forefront of using blockchain as a tool for innovation and as a medium for liberation. With a background spanning tech, media, and the arts, Sian has built and led initiatives that merge marketing, community, and storytelling to drive impact. From architecting multi-city blockchain ambassador programs to curating digital art shows that center underrepresented voices.
Through work on the Proof of Culture podcast, Sian continues to document and define what cultural preservation looks like on-chain. She has partnered with leading projects, advised DAOs, mentored emerging artists, and brought major brands into meaningful community partnerships.
A collector of over 1,000 works of digital art and a founding member of HerstoryDAO, Sian’s curatorial practice is deeply rooted in legacy-building.
If culture is being coded into the blockchain, Sian is making sure the syntax is right.
Over 30 years video games experience with a career spanning Sega, Microsoft, THQ and Epic Games, enabling developers to navigate across technology, creativity and business. Most recent roles have been Head of Unreal Engine licensing for EMEA at Epic and Head of Global Biz Dev for Epic Online Services. Now splitting time between enGEN3 and Bastion G2M along with jumping his horse.
HaZ Dulull began his career in video games working on games such Motocross Mania (Sierra), Colin Mcrae Rally (Codemasters) and Battalion wars (NIntendo) before transitioning to visual effects, contributing to acclaimed projects like The Dark Knight and Hellboy 2, earning multiple VES award nominations.
He made his directorial debut with the indie sci-fi feature films - The Beyond and 2036 Origin Unknown, the former achieving critical and commercial success including being licensed on Netflix, and the latter receiving a theatrical release. This led to HaZ directing Disney’s action-comedy series Fast Layne, the animated prequel 47 Ronin: The Samurai Spirit for Universal, and the short film - ‘Under the sea - A Descendants story ‘ for Disney+ as well as a segment in the sci-fi anthology feature -Portals.
In 2024, HaZ released MAX BEYOND, a groundbreaking animated sci-fi feature created using Unreal Engine 4, further cementing his status as a pioneer in real-time filmmaking. He was later hired by Funcom as the cinematics director for the in game cinematic's for Dune: Awakening
HaZ is the Founder of Beyond The Pixels (BTP) - a game development company that is also a fast-growing tech and lifestyle creator brand at the intersection of film, gaming, and virtual production.
Before launching BTP, HaZ made waves in UGC game development, creating Moontopia, one of the first original IPs built in Fortnite by a third-party creator. The game was spotlighted as an Epic Pick, featured on Fortnite’s front page, and covered by outlets like VentureBeat and EDGE Magazine.
Most recently, HaZ led the gamification of Fremantle & BBC’s The Rap Battle into Fortnite—which was nominated for the Webby Awards 2025 and the Digital Broadcast 2025 Awards.
BTP is in development on a slate of original IP games with the first title - ASTRO BURN to be released early 2026 via Steam (PC) and Mobile. In July 2025, Hollywood press Deadline announced Astro Burn is also getting developed into a TV Series.
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