OUR Herman&CharlyVille TEAM

Christopher Reising:  (Co-Founder)

Mr. Reising, Founder of Song Design Creative Media and co-founder of Herman&CharlyVille, has created the story lines and written, arranged, recorded and produced the songs and voiceovers for the Herman and Charly series. He has actively pursued the development of the books, music, and technology for this project for the past few years. The musical and visual interactive educational value of this project has been the goal from the beginning. It has developed into a multi-phased interactive idea for the music educational and emotional benefit of all children. The promotion of the self-esteem building aspect of this project has become increasingly important over the years but has always been a driving force behind the development of the project. Prior to founding Song Design Creative Media, Christopher Reising:

*  spent ten years selling educational music products nationally to mass merchants and distributors internationally through his marketing company-Reising Marketing Group.

*  was responsible for bringing Karaoke to the United States, working with his partner and the CEO of Clarion, Japan. 

*  Later he re-designed Denon’s (Nippon Columbia, Japan, LTD.) karaoke machines for the U.S. Market. 

*  He formed his Katris Music publishing company in 1977 and published songs that won the American Song Festival and went on to international covers.

*  He released two original singles that received extensive airplay throughout the nation; and  ‘Love Affair’ was ‘Hot Pick Single Of The Month’ in October 1984 in BILLBOARD MAGAZINE. *  ‘Love Affair’ was placed in a HBO movie in 1998 called ‘The Underground’.

*   He was part of the musical team that created a fund raising play (cast of fifty five) at Disneyland Hotel for ‘Make a Wish’, Orange County, CA and Disneyland, raising over $28,000 for ‘Make a Wish’.

*   was music director and writer of the theme song for ‘GAME OF GAMES’, an edutainment format marketed to major corporations to educate upper management on intercommunications with their employees.  This project went on to do two pilots with the ABC network.

*  On June 6, 2006 he completed the first Elementary level Herman&CharlyVille Musical ‘WHAT ABOUT ME?’...that was performed by 111 Kindergarten and pre-k kids with the help of their teachers and the Westchester Arts Council, Partners in Art program that went off like a Broadway show…KIDS…Taaa Daaa!

Christopher will be responsible for the book and lyric writing, recording, voiceovers and production of Herman and Charly World’s products. He will produce educational formatted presentations and will host any shows as well as control the direction and development of all aspects of the music, voice, writing and product development in the Herman and Charly line. He will also oversee the sales and marketing of this project.

Katharyn LaRanger:

(Co-Founder/Creative Partner/Illustrator)

Katharyn LaRanger has for the past 25 years been the studio designer and, painter for The LaRanger Studio, Inc. (a stained glass corporation of which she is Vice President).  She has designed and painted large windows for churches and elegant homes from New York to Japan. The LaRanger Studio Inc. recent works include:

*   25 Dahl de Verre windows for the Chapel of Life in Carmel, NY

*   Corporate headquarters for Citizens Utilities in Stamford, CN

*   Putnam Hospital Chapel in Carmel, NY *   12’ x 25’ ceiling in the Frank Lloyd Write style

*   Large installations in Professional offices

*   Custom designed installations in many private residences. Prior to her work with stained glass she was a freelanced designer in NYC for 10 years in fabric design. She worked for companies such as Cannon, Kandell, and Henry Glass.  She also designed cosmetic packaging and products design for Estee Lauder, Revlon and Avon.  Her work won awards both nationally and internationally while designing for these companies. Her artistic talents include design, painting, drawing, character development, printmaking and photography.  She has exhibited her work in galleries in NYC, Boston as well as in traveling exhibitions in many other cities.  She has also worked with designer cards, music store logos, album covers, photographic instruction, and was a tutor for gifted children in the arts.

She created the look of the characters, the quality of the illustrations in the series, and continues to develop all the characters in the storyline in a style consistent with the Herman and Charly world. She is in charge of all the artistic elements of the work. 

Bob Helpert (Partner/Chief Advisor)

BACKGROUND:  Extensive business experience in the retail and high-tech arenas, including rapid growth as well as turnaround situations; over 25 years of experience, including positions as President, COO, and CFO; has served on several Boards including public companies; has worked in small and large companies, from startups to Fortune 500 companies OPERATING EXPERIENCE:

*  President and COO---WH Smith

*  CFO, Secretary and Treasurer--- Zany Brainy

*  Exec VP---Transworld Entertainment

*  CFO---Emulogic

*  Controller---Teknekron

*  Controller, World Wide Packaging---American Can Co.

*  Manager, Operations Analysis---Xerox

*  CPA and Attorney

ACCOMPLISHMENTS:

*  Built a struggling retailer into an extremely profitable industry leader. As President, with all functional responsibilities, dramatically expanded the business in 5 years, with a

*  combination of cost cutting/divestitures, repositioning/acquisitions, introduction of new merchandise categories, and team building.

*  Took startup from a 15 stores to over 180 within 6 years; as CFO, took company public, and arranged several types of financing, including debt and equity. Functional area responsibilities included Distribution, Real Estate and Construction, MIS, Loss Prevention, Human Resources, and Legal. 

*  Headed Finance and Operations, including Manufacturing and Assembly, of a turnaround electronics company; managed cash burn, identified over 50 potential suitors, and spearheaded negotiations for eventual sale.

*  Managed Operations Analysis function for high-tech industry leader, and led projects that generated multi-million dollars in revenues and cost savings. One such project unbundled servicing of product from product rental and resulted in a separate, and significant, profit center for the Company.

*  Negotiated licensing and royalty arrangements with fortune 500 companies, on behalf of a medical devices startup with substantial intellectual property.

Paul R. Hollett

Executive Producer/Managing Director

Light Fantastic Studios, Inc.

Paul Hollett is a digital media pioneer with over 25 years of experience in crafting electronic communications. He blends a background in design, video, still & motion photography with expertise in the latest electronic systems and software technologies. Production exposure on virtually all platforms has evolved his veteran outlook on methods of seamlessly integrating art, animation, interactive data architecture, 3D and VR immersive visuals into rich digital content "experiences". His strategic thinking has assisted numerous clients find fresh ways of marketing and branding with creative digital asset management. Paul was a founder of both Arc Studios International and ZStrata LLC in New York City, with interactive clients such as Bozell Worldwide, Cantor Fitzgerald/eSpeed, Poppe-Tyson, Burson Marstellar, McCann-Erickson, Wunderman, Young & Rubicam, Paramount, Simon & Schuster, Philip Morris, Sony, Merrill Lynch, Prudential, Chase, Intel and MCI. Over the years, Paul has built his own virtual Who's Who of interactive media specialists; a network of talented media developers and digital artists, animators, programmers and writers that enrich his ability to express his clients vision and critical communications. Past projects have included exhibit design, event media production, musical & entertainment content, advertising and television media, children's games & CD-ROMs, interactive magazines and webcentric community development. Paul holds a degree in Fine Arts from Arizona State University and teaches digital media design and production at Pratt Institute and for the Association of Graphic Communications (AGC). He is a member of NYNMA and is on the Computer Graphics Advisory Committee at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT).

Paul is an accomplished photographer and fine artist who resides in Long Island with his wife Valerie and two children Lorraine and Steven.

EDWARD G. CHRISTIE (Consultant)

Mr. Christie is going to be bookending our animation projects with puppets.

Mr. Christie has been associated with The Jim Henson Company for 25 years.  He is currently a creative and managerial consultant at Sesame Workshop, primarily designing characters for Sesame Street. He began at The Jim Henson Company in 1978 as an intern at the New York Muppet Workshop while still enrolled at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Soon after, he was hired by the company to work on Jim Henson’s first feature film, The Muppet Movie. He returned to U Mass to graduate with a B.F.A., then rejoined the company, and has since designed, built, and wrangled puppet characters on most of Henson’s productions, including the TV series The Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock, The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, The Jim Henson Hour, Bear in the Big Blue House, and numerous specials; the films The Dark Crystal, The Great Muppet Caper, Muppets Take Manhattan, The Muppet Christmas Carol, and Muppets From Space; and the stage musicals Carnival (Encores! at City Center) and Little Shop of Horrors. The focus of much of his work has been the construction and design of the Muppet characters for Sesame Street, in both its domestic and international productions, including China, Japan, Germany, Russia, South Africa, Mexico, Israel/Palestine, Egypt, France, India and Bangladesh.

In 1991 he was promoted to Project Supervisor/Art Director of Sesame Street, and in 1995, to General Manager/Art Director of the New York Workshop, where he oversaw all creative activities and operations.  In 1999, he was promoted to Vice President. He left The Jim Henson Company in 2002. Independently, Mr. Christie has created puppets for commercials and the Broadway productions of Doonesbury, Peter Pan, and Sugar Babies. He has also developed his own licensed characters and toy concepts.

He is the winner of 8 Emmy Awards for his work on Sesame Street and has been nominated for Emmys for other Henson productions, such as The Muppet Show. He received the Oasis of Peace Award for his work on the Israel/Palestine production of Sesame Street.

Marigrace holds a B.A. and M.S. in Education.  She has worked as a pre-school and kindergarten teacher both in regular education and special education settings.  She as been an educational consultant for children’s television including:  Nick Junior (Dora the Explorer), Sunbow Entertainment (Boats-A-Float), Larnet Media (Puzzle Place), and Disney (Out of the Box).  She is the Executive Producer of “Circle Time for Everyone”, a video intended to train teachers on how to facilitate large group meeting times in inclusive settings.  She was responsible for the creation and implementation of a pre-school curriculum guide for Nickelodeons “Cable in the Classroom.”  She as been a workshop leader at many workshops throughout New York including: a panelist for Childcare Reform shown at the White House.

Meryl Newbern (Consultant/Creative Writing Team)

Theresa O’Rourke, Esq. (Partner)