What inspired you to step into the role of CEO?

I actually was never inspired to be a CEO, but I’m so happy I’m here. I have always been passionate about movies, the power of storytelling, and its ability to inspire audiences to drive change. At Picture Motion - which was originally founded as a small consultancy -  we led impactful marketing campaigns with award-winning filmmakers, and the experience taught me that traditional distribution is sometimes a bottleneck for creative projects and can limit their reach and social impact. I believed I could lead a team to break down those barriers and help filmmakers, studios, and audiences connect more meaningfully. So I just started doing that. One foot in front of the other. And then I got to bring on my partner, Wendy Cohen, and it grew into a real business. Then that required CEO leadership, And with Kinema, I saw an opportunity to revolutionize how films are distributed, making it more accessible for filmmakers to reach audiences and create meaningful social experiences. So I just moved in that direction. 

Kinema is a mission-driven company, why was that important to you?

I think all good companies are mission-driven. To me, a company’s mission is what real-world problem they are solving and how that creates value. For us, our mission is to innovate and progress the entertainment industry, because the current system is resulting in artists getting paid less and independent films struggling to get seen. We’re providing a new avenue of distribution to bring more revenue to artists and storytellers while delivering powerful, global cinema to audiences locally. That is important to me because I think it’s better for society and the economy to support systems that create opportunity and access, not just enable the monopolies and big players.  And also I think there’s money being left on the table that can be accessed with 

Has running a mission-driven company been harder or easier than you imagined?

Running (and even moreso starting) any business is harder than anticipated. If we knew just how hard it would be before starting or the myriad of factors it would take to make it work (much of it in our control and some not), then most of us probably wouldn’t do it.  It would seem insurmountable. It takes a combination of naivety and audacity to do it.  There’s a saying in the film business: “It’s a miracle a film ever gets made.”  I think it’s similar to launching a company. You can have all the market data and all the belief in the world, but success is found in the love of the day-to-day grind, dedication to the team you’re building with, and willingness to make mistakes and keep going. If your mission is to solve a problem, and it is a problem you understand well and can communicate it clearly to your team, partners and supporters, then the difficulty is not in being mission-driven but in finding the solution and effectively executing it. Because it takes a crazy ton of factors to pull it off. 

What is your biggest challenge as a CEO and how have you been able to overcome it?

My biggest challenge has been embracing the title and role of CEO and what that really means.  I don’t vibe with the concept of being a CEO, in what I think is the traditional sense.  I recoil at keynotes. I’m not savvy with investors. And I’m terrible at LinkedIn. So the biggest challenge has been discovering what it means for me personally to be a leader, to effectively manage a business model that ensures we live up to our mission. And that re-framing has made a world of a difference to me. 

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