Meet the Officers and Board of Directors of the Center for Media Change, Inc.

• Hal Plotkin
• Yoav Potash
• Andy Hertzfeld
• Jason Zelin
• Susan E. Hoffman
• Richard Alexander
• Loren Stein
• Luther Jackson
• Diana Hembree
• Brenna Bolger
• David Tenzer

Hal Plotkin

Hal Plotkin is a veteran Silicon Valley journalist, commentator and business analyst. Plotkin was a founding editor of the public radio network’s daily “Marketplace” program, Silicon Valley Correspondent for CNBC.com, TechBEAT columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle’s SFGate.com and a contributing writer for both the Harvard Management Communications Update and the Harvard Management Update. Plotkin’s other publishers include Inc. magazine, Inc. International, International Business magazine, Forbes ASAP, Barron’s Online, California magazine, California Business magazine, Family Business magazine, Securities Industry Daily, Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year magazine, France’s Courrier International newspaper, Biotechnology magazine, Biotechnology In Japan Newsservice, The Peninsula Times Tribune, Investools.com and Arthur Andersen’s Knowledgespace.com. Plotkin also serves as a member of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District Governing Board of Trustees. Plotkin earned his Bachelor of Arts in Behavioral Science from San Jose State University and his Associate of Arts, History, from Foothill Community College. Plotkin is the founder and CEO of the Center for Media Change, Inc. and the Editor of ReelChanges.org. Go to Top

Yoav Potash

Yoav Potash is a filmmaker, writer, and film instructor. For over ten years, he has produced award-winning narrative and documentary films that have aired on PBS and screened at film festivals worldwide. His work has earned the San Francisco Film Society’s Golden Gate Award, the Berkeley Film and Video Festival’s Grand Festival Award, and UC Berkeley’s highest honor in creative writing, the Eisner Prize. In addition to directing independent films, Potash also produces work for hire, and his commercial production clients include Apple Computer and Neutrogena, as well as nonprofit organizations such as Jewish Family and Children’s Services and The Koret Foundation. An Apple-certified instructor, Potash regularly teaches professional seminars for institutions such as Bay Area Video Coalition, the University of San Francisco, Film Arts Foundation, the National Black Programming Consortium, Stanford University, and the Academy of Art University. Potash has been involved in crafting ReelChanges since its inception and currently serves as Director of Film Community Outreach. Go to Top

Andy Hertzfeld

Andy Hertzfeld was a key member of the original Apple Macintosh development team, writing a big chunk of the original system software for the original Macintosh while he worked at Apple from 1979 until 1984. After leaving Apple in 1984, he co-founded three innovative companies: Radius in 1986, General Magic in 1990 and Eazel in 1999. He has been working as a software engineer at Google since August 2005. In August 2003, he developed a web-based system for collective storytelling, and used it to publish numerous anecdotes about the development of the original Macintosh on the web at http://folklore.org. The stories have been collected in an O’Reilly book, “Revolution in the Valley”, published in December 2004. He graduated from Brown University with a Computer Science degree in 1975 and obtained a master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley in 1979. Hertzfeld serves on the ReelChanges Board of Directors. Go to Top

Jason Zelin

Jason Zelin is a veteran Los Angeles-area entertainment industry lawyer and film producer. Mr. Zelin is the former president of Miracle Entertainment, a publicly-traded film company, and the former senior vice-president, acquisitions, at Miramax. Zelin has also served as the Director of Legal and Business Affairs at Warner Brothers Television, Vice President of Acquisitions at Lorimar Home Video, and Vice President of the Completion Bond Company, where he was responsible for the bonding of more than $100 million in new film productions by CBC, a subsidiary of the Transamerica Corporation. Mr. Zelin holds a Juris Doctor degree from the UCLA School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts, Cum Laude, from Tufts University. Zelin serves on the ReelChanges Board of Directors. Go to Top

Richard Alexander

Richard Alexander is the senior partner at Alexander Hawes, LLP, a San Jose law firm with a national practice. Alexander has served as a member of the Board of Governors of The State Bar of California, President of the Santa Clara County Bar Association and the Board of Governors of Consumer Attorneys of California. Mr. Alexander’s firm holds Martindale-Hubbell’s highest rating and is recognized in the List of Preeminent Law Firms in the U. S. Alexander was the first recipient of the “Man of the Year Award” from The Women’s Fund, the recipient of a Pro Bono Award for advocacy and service on behalf of persons injured in the work place by the Santa Clara Center for Occupational Safety and Health and the first winner of the Santa Clara County Youth Commission Medal in recognition of his special service to young people. Mr. Alexander is also founding member of the National Association of Consumer Advocates and the publisher of the largest collection of free legal articles on the Internet and is recognized by Wikipedia.  Mr. Alexander holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Ohio Wesleyan University and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Chicago. Alexander serves on the ReelChanges Board of Directors.. Go to Top

Susan E. Hoffman

Susan E. Hoffman is currently the director of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of California, Berkeley. Previously, Ms. Hoffman directed the program in Art, Culture and Civic Education and the New Media Institute at San Francisco State University. During the previous decade, Ms. Hoffman served as the Executive Director of the California Confederation of the Arts, a California-based non-profit organization with 1200 art organization members, with offices in Sacramento and Los Angeles. Ms. Hoffman also served as an arts and humanities consultant to the California State University System and to the University of Florence, Italy. She was the Founding Executive Director of the People’s Theater Coalition from 1979 to 1985, which supported twelve theater groups at the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco. Ms. Hoffman holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Miami University. Hoffman serves on the ReelChanges Board of Directors. Go to Top

Loren Stein

Loren Stein is an award-winning Bay Area journalist whose work has appeared in numerous newspapers and magazines. Ms. Stein was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize by the Boston Herald in 1989 and won first place for investigative reporting for large circulation weeklies from the California Newspaper Publishers Association in 2002 and has also shared in broadcast awards. Her publishers include Health magazine, Christian Science Monitor, LA Weekly, California Lawyer, Hippocrates, San Francisco Chronicle, Sacramento Bee, Columbia Journalism Review, The National Law Journal, The Recorder, Mother Jones, The Progressive, The National Catholic Reporter, The San Francisco Bay Guardian, WebMD, Consumer Health Interactive and SF Weekly. Stein’s work has been widely reprinted, including in college course readers, a textbook, through online syndication and in magazines and books. She has a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University. Stein is the Treasurer of ReelChanges and a Special Advisor to the CEO. Go to Top

Luther Jackson

Luther Jackson is a San Jose-based consultant focusing on workforce and union innovation. He most recently served as executive officer of the San Jose Newspaper Guild/CWA, the union local representing newspaper employees at the San Jose Mercury News and Monterey County Herald. Luther was a leader in the Guild’s effort to promote employee ownership at 12 former Knight Ridder newspapers and was the catalyst behind a landmark study of the newspaper industry and unions led by UC Davis professor Chris Benner. Luther has leveraged that work to form new networks assisting journalists making the transition from newspapers to other news content delivery platforms. Prior to working for the union, Luther was a reporter at the Detroit Free Press where he covered business and politics. Luther serves on the boards of directors of American Leadership Forum – Silicon Valley; NOVA Workforce Investment Board; The Interfaith Council on Religion, Race, Economic and Social Justice; and Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice – California. An honors graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Luther is also a worship associate at the First Unitarian Church of San Jose. Go to Top

Diana Hembree

Diana Hembree is an award-winning health and medical journalist. Hembree served for more than a decade as a news editor and reporter at the Center for Investigative Reporting in San Francisco, working on health-related stories for CBS’s ’60 Minutes,’ PBS’s Frontline, the Times of London syndicate, and dozens of newspapers and magazines. While at CIR, she also worked with local and national TV stations and served as associate producer for Frontline’s ‘The Great American Bailout’, an award-winning PBS documentary about the aftermath of the savings and loans debacle. Hembree’s has also served as a senior editor at Hippocrates and Time Inc. Health, was a contributing editor at Parenting magazine and helped launch ParentTIME, the magazine’s Web site. A longtime member of the Association of Healthcare Journalists, she has lectured on journalism at UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, Stanford, San Francisco State, and other institutions. She has received more than two dozen national journalism awards, including the Investigative Reporters and Editors Award for television reporting, the National Education Writers Award, a Jesse Neal Award for magazine editing, the National Press Foundation’s Spanish Language Fellowship, and a team award for World Wide Web health reporting. Hembree serves on the ReelChanges board.

Brenna Bolger

Ms. Bolger is a veteran of decades in the marketing communications industry. She is the founder of PRx, one of the most-honored public relations firms in Silicon Valley, and has successfully led it for more than 30 years. Her branding experience spans high-tech communications from semiconductors to Internet startups, medicine and health services, government, transportation, arts, finance and philanthropy. She is recognized as a strategist, trend-spotter and trendsetter. Her track record in seeing the need for—and creating—public/private partnerships precedes their popularity by almost a decade. She is a visionary who has conceived major initiatives such as Joint Venture: Silicon Valley, The Synopsys Science and Technology Championship, and the Silicon Valley Technology and Homeland Security Summit and Expo. Her special strengths include recognizing, attracting and nurturing talent; and matching people, corporations and community needs into winning partnerships.

David Tenzer

David S. Tenzer is an entertainment lawyer and business consultant, with extensive experience in many sectors of the media industry. He is a member of the entertainment law firm Raskin Peter Rubin & Simon, LLP, based in Los Angeles. He is also the Managing Director of the firm’s affiliated consulting practice: RPR&S Media Partners, LLC. For 24 years (1982-2006), Mr. Tenzer worked at Creative Artists Agency in Los Angeles, one of the world’s leading talent agencies. He started at CAA as an executive in Motion Picture Business Affairs, then transferred to the Television Division, where he soon was named the head of Television Business Affairs. After several years, he became a Television Agent, working first in television movies, then covering CAA’s projects at CBS.  Mr. Tenzer co-founded and operated the agency’s International Television Department, Alternative Programming Department, and later its Lifestyles Department. During his tenure at CAA, he also worked with the agency’s New Media, Film Financing and Marketing Departments, handling clients such as eBay, Delta Airlines and Procter & Gamble.

As a Television Agent, Mr. Tenzer was responsible for selling over 40 produced series, movies and specials, with budgets in excess of $800 million. These included scripted prime-time series for broadcast and cable networks, reality shows, documentaries, children’s programming and international co-productions.

As a Business Affairs executive, he negotiated virtually every type of television contract, including license agreements on behalf of content providers, distribution and co-financing arrangements, overall deals with studios, contingent compensation definitions and agreements with above-the-line talent. He was also responsible for all commission and packaging issues within CAA’s Television Division.

Mr. Tenzer is currently on the Board of Directors of the International Documentary Association and the Banff World Television Festival, and has previously served on the boards of NATPE (National Association of Television Program Executives) and the Hollywood Radio and Television Society. He traveled to Beijing and Shanghai with Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan as an entertainment delegate on the city’s Trade Mission to Asia. He was named one of “Twelve to Watch” by Electronic Media in one of its annual cover stories.

Prior to joining CAA, Mr. Tenzer was a contracts attorney with IBM Europe in Paris and Columbia Pictures in Los Angeles. He also worked in private practice with the law firm Rosen, Wachtell & Gilbert, where he specialized in commercial transactions and business litigation.

Mr. Tenzer has an undergraduate degree in Politics from U.C. Santa Cruz, a law degree from U.C. Davis and an M.A. in Urban Studies from Occidental College. He was a Coro Foundation Public Affairs Fellow, and earned a Certificate in Advanced International Legal Studies from McGeorge School of Law.

Mr. Tenzer is a member of the State Bar of California and a licensed real estate broker. He is an experienced public speaker, and has appeared on numerous panels regarding media, entertainment, advertising, branding and technology.  He is a native of Los Angeles, where he lives with his wife and three children. He firmly believes that his beloved Dodgers will win the World Series again at some point in the 21st Century.