ETC Executive Producer Don Marinelli announced today that MK Haley, currently Director, Product Design and Development, Digital Media at Disney ABC Television Group, will be joining the ETC as of August 1, 2009 as Associate Executive Producer.
With 15 years of experience at the Walt Disney Company, Mk has served in various managerial, technical, and creative roles across Virtual Reality, R&D, Special FX, and production teams while at Walt Disney Imagineering. From Imagineering Mk Haley moved to the Corporate New Technology team to manage Communication and Collaboration technologies, before moving on to the television group to oversee the BlueSky R&D team.
“MK Haley has been a tremendous friend of the ETC since its inception ten years ago, “ said Marinelli. “Randy Pausch would talk often about how fortunate he was to share an office during his faculty sabbatical at Disney with MK Haley and Jesse Schell. We were successful in getting Jesse Schell to become part of the ETC back in 2002. It was a long sought strategic move to reunite MK Haley with Jesse and the ETC. Happily, things just aligned beautifully of late to make this happen.” Marinelli said.
Mk Haley currently serves as a faculty member for Carnegie Mellon's Master of Entertainment Industry Management (MEIM) program in Los Angeles. She has also been very active with SIGGRAPH (the Special Interest Group for Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques) for the past 22 years, primarily overseeing conference programs related to Interactive and Emerging technologies and installations. Mk currently serves as Director of Encounters for the SIGGRAPH 2008 & 2009 Conferences. She has also served as the Director of Communications for ACM SIGGRAPH, the Emerging Technologies and Student Volunteer Chair.
Says ETC-Pittsburgh Program Director Drew Davidson, “"Having worked with MK through SIGGRAPH, I know she'll not only bring great energy and enthusiasm, but also all of her experience and expertise."
MK Haley did her undergraduate studies at the University of Massachusetts- Amherst where she earned a BFA in Design with a Computer Graphics and Graphic Design Emphasis. She received her MFA in Design with a Computer Graphics emphasis from California State University – Los Angeles.
As Associate Executive Producer, MK Haley will work alongside Marinelli to set and realize strategic and tactical objectives for ETC-Global. MK will also work closely with the ETC initiatives in Silicon Valley, California; Osaka, Japan; and elsewhere around the globe.
ETC faculty member Jesse Schell summed up the excitement surrounding Mk’s appointment when he said, "Mk Haley's name is well-known and respected in both industry and academia, and her wealth of experience, insight, and connections will be a tremendous boon to the ETC."