Entertainment Technology Center at USC Announces Retirement of Executive Director/CEO Charles S. Swartz

Entertainment Technology Center at University of Southern California (ETC-USC) executive director/CEO, Charles S. Swartz, has retired from his position at the University-based research organization. Mr. Swartz has stepped down because of health reasons, it was announced today by Elizabeth M. Daley, dean of the USC School of Cinema-Television and Bob Lambert, corporate senior VP, worldwide technology strategy, The Walt Disney Company and current chair of the ETC-USC executive board.

"Charles took the reins at ETC-USC at a critical moment for emerging digital technologies," said Dean Daley. "Under his leadership, the Center has played an important role in helping the industry embrace digital content and distribution and new, digital-centered, business models. He will be deeply missed by everyone."

"Charles brought vision, focus and boundless energy to his work and thanks to him, ETC-USC will continue," said Lambert. "ETC-USC's board of fourteen sponsoring companies unanimously agreed to confirm the direction of the organization and to move ahead with its slate of projects for 2007 and beyond."

Swartz took his post at ETC-USC in February 2002, when he reinvigorated and refocused the organization. Under his watch, ETC-USC's Digital Cinema Lab became Hollywood¹s de facto digital cinema forum, most notably hosting and supporting the Digital Cinema Initiatives work toward establishing the first digital cinema specifications. In addition, Swartz has built ETC-USC into a vital educational center for entertainment professionals, producing such events as the Digital Cinema Summit at NAB, Other Digital Stuff: Expanding the In-Theater Experience, the Digital Screening Series and the Entertainment Technology Summit. He also successfully laid the groundwork for upcoming initiatives related to digital content and the digital home. Prior to joining ETC-USC, Swartz served as director of integrated strategy for media and entertainment at e-business consulting firm Sapient and director of business development for the entertainment industry at Anderson Consulting (now Accenture). In addition, he was program manager at UCLA Extension's Department of Entertainment Studies and Performing Arts, where he created a curriculum that set new standards for film and television education. Swartz began his career in film and television production at Warner Bros. Television, Roger Corman's New World Pictures and Dimension Pictures, co-founding the latter. He produced eight feature films and earned a screen credit for writing six of them. ETC-USC's executive board is currently conducting a search for a new executive director.

About Entertainment Technology Center-USC: The Entertainment Technology Center at University of Southern California (ETC@USC) is a neutral, non-partisan research organization in the School of Cinematic Arts that studies entertainment technology developments that are critical to the creative community; production companies; content owners, distributors and exhibitors; and technology companies. ETC@USC's sponsors include USC-School of Cinematic Arts; Hollywood's major studios: NBC-Universal, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox, Viacom/Paramount Studios, The Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros.; Lucasfilm Ltd.; Cisco; Deluxe Entertainment Services Group, Inc; and Thomson. Entertainment Technology Center-USC Directory page

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