Founder & Executive Director
Susannah Tantemsapya is the Founder & Executive
Director of both Creative Migration and Creative Migration
(East). Her career has spanned the fields of music, art,
film and journalism with an eclectic mix of experience. Her
most ambitious endeavor to date is Bangkok 1899.
Susannah holds a B.A. in Photojournalism from the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. During that time, there were two defining experiences that shaped her commitment to preserving the environment: spending 80 days in the Baja California wilderness through the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS); and a five-week organic architecture workshop at Arcosanti, Paolo Soleri’s experimental town in Arizona’s high desert.
While at Carolina, she started out as an editor and photographer for the independent music publication ‘SUP Magazine. Following graduation, Susannah moved to New York City to work at Jupiter Media Metrix and V2 Records with Board member Andy Gershon. This path eventually led her to Capitol Records in Los Angeles. Subsequently, she worked as road crew for Grammy-winning recording artist Lucinda Williams and the critically-acclaimed indie band Eels.
Her first film experience was as a Production Assistant in 2005 for avant-garde theater director Robert Wilson with talents Sean Penn, Robin Wright and writer Laura Albert (a.k.a. JT Leroy). She has continued to work in various aspects of this medium both in front and behind the camera. This includes Creative Migration’s sustainably produced film POST NEW BILLS: The Story of Green Patriot Posters (2014), which was part of a traveling exhibition with the Design Museum Foundation from 2014-16.
As an art journalist, Susannah’s writing has appeared in publications such as Whitewall Magazine, Canvas Magazine, art ltd. and The WILD Magazine. In 2014, she started producing and hosting ...the charming mistakes of my youth... on KCHUNG Radio in Los Angeles. Being an architecture enthusiast, Susannah has been the Estate Manager for mid-century modern architect Richard Neutra’s Wirin House, as well as working closely with his son Dion Neutra at the Neutra Museum. Most recently, she has been collaborating with CM artist Noémie Goudal, curating her residency at the Neutra VDL House (2018) and producing her conceptual work Telluris (2017) in the Mojave Desert.
Since 2021, she has served on the Convening Team of Entertainment and Culture for Climate Action (ECCA), a global collaborative initiative supported by UN Climate Change and UNESCO.
Susannah is also on the Advisory Board of the Hollywood Climate Summit, a Global Ambassador & Fellow at the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), on Tatler’s Gen.T Asia List (2019), a Founding Member of Soho House Bangkok and an advisor for the exhibition Brackish Water Los Angeles (Getty: Pacific Standard Time 2024).
She is currently based in Los Angeles and Bangkok.
Susannah holds a B.A. in Photojournalism from the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. During that time, there were two defining experiences that shaped her commitment to preserving the environment: spending 80 days in the Baja California wilderness through the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS); and a five-week organic architecture workshop at Arcosanti, Paolo Soleri’s experimental town in Arizona’s high desert.
While at Carolina, she started out as an editor and photographer for the independent music publication ‘SUP Magazine. Following graduation, Susannah moved to New York City to work at Jupiter Media Metrix and V2 Records with Board member Andy Gershon. This path eventually led her to Capitol Records in Los Angeles. Subsequently, she worked as road crew for Grammy-winning recording artist Lucinda Williams and the critically-acclaimed indie band Eels.
Her first film experience was as a Production Assistant in 2005 for avant-garde theater director Robert Wilson with talents Sean Penn, Robin Wright and writer Laura Albert (a.k.a. JT Leroy). She has continued to work in various aspects of this medium both in front and behind the camera. This includes Creative Migration’s sustainably produced film POST NEW BILLS: The Story of Green Patriot Posters (2014), which was part of a traveling exhibition with the Design Museum Foundation from 2014-16.
As an art journalist, Susannah’s writing has appeared in publications such as Whitewall Magazine, Canvas Magazine, art ltd. and The WILD Magazine. In 2014, she started producing and hosting ...the charming mistakes of my youth... on KCHUNG Radio in Los Angeles. Being an architecture enthusiast, Susannah has been the Estate Manager for mid-century modern architect Richard Neutra’s Wirin House, as well as working closely with his son Dion Neutra at the Neutra Museum. Most recently, she has been collaborating with CM artist Noémie Goudal, curating her residency at the Neutra VDL House (2018) and producing her conceptual work Telluris (2017) in the Mojave Desert.
Since 2021, she has served on the Convening Team of Entertainment and Culture for Climate Action (ECCA), a global collaborative initiative supported by UN Climate Change and UNESCO.
Susannah is also on the Advisory Board of the Hollywood Climate Summit, a Global Ambassador & Fellow at the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), on Tatler’s Gen.T Asia List (2019), a Founding Member of Soho House Bangkok and an advisor for the exhibition Brackish Water Los Angeles (Getty: Pacific Standard Time 2024).
She is currently based in Los Angeles and Bangkok.
Creative Migration, Inc.
President
Susannah Tantemsapya
Founder & Executive Director
Creative Migration, Inc.
Creative Migration (East) Foundation
Susannah Tantemsapya is the Founder & Executive Director of both Creative Migration and Creative Migration (East). Her career has spanned the fields of music, art, film and journalism with an eclectic mix of experience. Her most ambitious endeavor to date is Bangkok 1899.
Her full bio here︎︎︎
Vice-President
Andy Gershon
Andy Gershon has been a tastemaker in business, discovering and nurturing careers of The Smashing Pumpkins to Moby to The White Stripes. While being in the music business, Gershon has been an artist and photographer in his own right over the past several years. He has created a diverse body of work that has been shown in solo shows in New York City (Castor Gallery), Los Angeles (Kopeikin Gallery) and Kansas City (Weinberger Fine Art). His photography has been collected in various private collections in Los Angeles, Aspen, Miami and New York in addition to several corporate collections in New York and Washington D.C.
Gershon’s musical career began in the late 1980s in artist management, working with English alternative bands Love and Rockets, the Cocteau Twins and The Sundays. In the early 1990s, he discovered the Smashing Pumpkins at what was then a defining moment in music when alternative music was becoming mainstream. In addition to guiding the Smashing Pumpkins to multiplatinum success, Gershon revitalized Bryan Ferry’s career. In 1996, Gershon formed Outpost Recordings with artists ranging from the multiplatinum rock act Days of the New to the first electronic dance music platinum act The Crystal Method. Outpost’s first four albums sold over 3.5million records in America and were critically acclaimed. Also at this time, Gershon had a movie production deal with New Line Studios to produce remakes of several Hong Kong action movies. Gershon was one of the first from Hollywood to make a deal in Hong Kong with the Chinese for their movies in the mid 1990s.
In the summer of 2001, Sir Richard Branson sought Gershon out to run V2 Records in North America, where he signed and marketed hugely successful artists such as The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, The Black Crows and Moby as well as the Grammy nominated soundtrack to the film, “I am Sam.” Gershon was eventually recruited to Sony/BMG to assist in the making and marketing of various rock and mainstream acts, such as Chevelle, Incubus, Ozzy Osbourne, Los Lonely Boys, Alkaline Trio and Cyndi Lauper amongst others. Over the last several years, Gershon has won 13 Cannes Lions Awards for branded music videos that he produced for the video pioneers, Ok Go. In addition, he produced last summer’s Broadway In Residence series, featuring Broadway runs including Dave Chappelle, Barry Manilow, Morrissey and Mel Brooks. He currently lives and works out of his studio in New York City and Sagaponack, NY.
Secretary
Samuel Rubin
Samuel Rubin is the Co-Founder of YEA! Impact and the Hollywood Climate Summit. Born and raised in Barcelona, Samuel began producing films to ignite positive change. His first feature-length documentary, “COLIS SUSPECT” (2017), unpacks border security and received the Best First Film Prize at Tetouan’s Film Festival.
Samuel received a B.A. in Film and Television at UCLA and worked at DeLite! Media, Prodigium Pictures and Good Docs. Now, he serves as the Chief Impact Officer at YEA! where he oversees campaigns such as Can You Hear Us?, for Hulu’s I Am Greta, and previously, Youth v Gov on Netflix, and Since I Been Down on SundanceNow.
In 2021, he developed the impact strategy for the Good Energy Playbook, leveraging his expertise in intergenerational and climate storytelling. Currently, Samuel serves in the Convening Team of the UNFCCC sectoral initiative for climate action in the Film & TV industry and has been included in the 2022 Grist 50 Fixers list for his role in flipping the script on climate change within Hollywood.
Treasurer
Don Guarnieri
Don Guarnieri is currently the Director of Special Projects
for Omnivore Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of
restaurant point of sale integration technology. Guarnieri
was the VP of Marketing for Solid Instance, a Palo Alto
based development company focused on Application
Virtualization and Publishing systems for large software
companies.
Previously, he was a contractor with Playboy Enterprises helping restructure the Playboy.com business model. Guarnieri was the Network Architect for Penthouse.com and served as Business Manager for the video department. Guarnieri got his start in the technology world with LANSystems, one of the first companies to build local area networks for Wall Street investment banks in the 1980s and 1990s. He was the producer for Matrix Art Collective featuring Michael Somoroff's Illumination and Absence of Subject. Guarnieri is the co-creator with Michael Rees of the Sculptural User Interface software, a Creative Capital project. He was the Executive Producer for International WOW Company Drama Desk nominated Surrender: A Simulated War Deployment in Three Acts, and is a Co-Producer of the Sundance Award winning, Emmy Award and Oscar nominated film Gasland and was a consultant to Gasland 2. Guarnieri was the Instigator for the 3D film version of Charlie Victor Romeo (Sundance, Hamptons, New York, CPH:DOX, Perth, DOXA, AFI Fest).
In another life, Guarnieri was Jim Otto in Matthew Barney's OttoShaft at Documenta. He has co-authored two books with James Nadler about computer networks,How to Keep Your Novell Network Alive and Netware Answers. Guarnieri was a member of the Board of Advocates for 3Legged Dog from 2008-2013, and was a member of the Board of Directors of PS122 for 15 years serving as its President from 2005-2007. Guarnieri has a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute.
Previously, he was a contractor with Playboy Enterprises helping restructure the Playboy.com business model. Guarnieri was the Network Architect for Penthouse.com and served as Business Manager for the video department. Guarnieri got his start in the technology world with LANSystems, one of the first companies to build local area networks for Wall Street investment banks in the 1980s and 1990s. He was the producer for Matrix Art Collective featuring Michael Somoroff's Illumination and Absence of Subject. Guarnieri is the co-creator with Michael Rees of the Sculptural User Interface software, a Creative Capital project. He was the Executive Producer for International WOW Company Drama Desk nominated Surrender: A Simulated War Deployment in Three Acts, and is a Co-Producer of the Sundance Award winning, Emmy Award and Oscar nominated film Gasland and was a consultant to Gasland 2. Guarnieri was the Instigator for the 3D film version of Charlie Victor Romeo (Sundance, Hamptons, New York, CPH:DOX, Perth, DOXA, AFI Fest).
In another life, Guarnieri was Jim Otto in Matthew Barney's OttoShaft at Documenta. He has co-authored two books with James Nadler about computer networks,How to Keep Your Novell Network Alive and Netware Answers. Guarnieri was a member of the Board of Advocates for 3Legged Dog from 2008-2013, and was a member of the Board of Directors of PS122 for 15 years serving as its President from 2005-2007. Guarnieri has a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute.
Member
Janet Martin Tantemsapya
Janet Martin Tantemsapya is a retired American citizen that has spent most of her working life overseas. Since 2005, she has been a Founding Donor and Board Member of Creative Migration. In 1947, Janet moved to post-war Paris with her family. Her father, Graham A. Martin, worked for the US Foreign Service in France and Switzerland, and later appointed as Ambassador to Thailand, Italy and South Vietnam until his evacuation during the Fall of Saigon in 1975.
From 1964 to 1988, she served as a Bilingual Flight Attendant (Overseas Division) for Pan American World Airways, the golden years of commercial aviation. During that time, she was on Special Assignment for Pan American Exhibit at World Trade Fair and Asian Games in Bangkok in 1966. Other notable duties include an around-the-world trip with the King & Queen of Thailand in the mid-1960s, and serving as a volunteer to fly American troops in and out of conflict zones for R&R during the Vietnam War. While working for Pan Am, she was based out of Hong Kong, London, Florence, Italy and New York.
Janet graduated from George Washington University in 1960 with a B.A. in French Literature and a Minor in Spanish. During her university studies, she served as a Bilingual Guide & Interpreter for the US Pavilion at the World Fair in Brussels, Belgium, receiving an official letter from President Eisenhower for her Outstanding Contribution to the United States. She continued her post graduate studies at the University of Seville for Spanish (1960), the University of Geneva for French Literature (1961), Georgetown University for Linguistics (1964) and Wake Forest University (1989) with a Minor in Educational Psychology and Fundamentals in Education, Methods & Materials for teaching a Foreign Language. She also earned a Certification to teach the French Language to grades 9-12 in 1989. She was a French instructor through the mid-1990s for junior high and high school students.
Janet is fluent in French and Spanish with a working knowledge of Italian. She enjoys fencing and sculpture in her free time. She also has been a member of the Arbor Day Foundation and National Trust for Historic Preservation for several decades. She currently resides in Winston-Salem, NC.
Creative Migration (East) Foundation
President
Susannah Tantemsapya
Founder & Executive Director
Creative Migration, Inc.
Creative Migration (East) Foundation
Susannah Tantemsapya is the Founder & Executive Director of both Creative Migration and Creative Migration (East). Her career has spanned the fields of music, art, film and journalism with an eclectic mix of experience. Her most ambitious endeavor to date is Bangkok 1899.
Her full bio here︎︎︎
Vice-President
Stephanie Dizon
Stephanie Dizon has over a decade of experience in supply chain management, having worked with both multinationals and startups in consumer goods, export, logistics and SaaS platforms. Her expertise is in change management and implementing programs to onboard non-technical Clients in Asia and Africa to adopt digital systems.
Stephanie is currently the Head of Operations at Farmforce AS, a SaaS company focusing on delivering digital traceability and transparency of sourcing in emerging markets.
Secretary
Tanatip Arunanondchai
Tanatip “Ten” Arunanondchai, is an accomplished industrial designer with a track record of launching successful products to the market. He has spent the past three years as a product designer at Snap, Inc. He has achieved industry firsts through Snap’s cutting-edge products Spectacles 2 and Spectacles 3.
Prior to Snap Inc., Tanatip spent eight years at One & Coin San Francisco creating multiple beautiful, iconic products and experiences such as HTC Vive, HTC EVO, HTC Incredible and HTC One M10.
Ten has a BFA in Industrial Design and a minor in Interaction Design from Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). He has been guest lecturer in design programs at Stanford University and California College of the Arts (CCA). He is also a recipient of numerous patents and awards from ID Magazine, IDSA, Business Week, IF Industries Hannover and Red Dot.
Treasurer
Satayaphorn Tantemsapya
Satayaphorn Tantemsapya is a retired Thai national with experience in finance, education, hospitality and sustainability. From mid 1960s to late 1990s, he worked in the financial sector including IBM Thailand, Bangkok Bank, Bangkok Metro Bank, Thai Development Bank and the World Trade Center (Thailand). During that time, he also taught at Thammasat University, The Thai Chamber of Commerce University and Assumption University.
Since 1997, he has served as the Executive Director of The Pinnacle Hotel Lumpinee, Bangkok. From 2018 to 2019, he was a consultant for Scholars of Sustenance (SOS), a food rescue NGO. Satayaphorn is the author of the books All About Wines and Golf Lessons Illustrated which were published in Thailand. He has also been the editor of the Boston University Alumni Association Directory since 1975.
Satayaphorn holds a BS in Business Administration, International Business (1964) from Boston University. Prior to graduating he also attended Bristol College of Commerce and St. David's College, University College of Wales in the United Kingdom. He is a member of the Boston University Alumni Association in Thailand, AUA, OESA, Old European Students, Assumption Association and the Commanderie du Bontemps de Medoc et Des Graves, Bordeaux, France.
Advisory Board
Charlotte St. Clair Wilson
Charlotte St Clair Wilson is a creative policy expert based in San Francisco, CA. She is currently the Advisor to the Commissioner for the Americas for the Government of Victoria, Australia specializing in trade and investment between Australia and the Americas region in the creative industries. Charlotte uses her legal expertise to advise tech and creative companies on their international expansion plans. Companies she works with include major tech, media and entertainment companies, VFX and games studios and a range of creative start-ups, entrepreneurs, artists and musicians.
Charlotte began her career as a solicitor at Minter Ellison Lawyers before serving as a Senior Legal Advisor in the Department of Premier and Cabinet in Melbourne, Australia. She specialized in criminal justice and environmental law reform, as well as providing legal advice to the Premier in his dual role as Minister for the Arts and Multicultural Affairs.
She then became an advocate for the creative industries in Australia including working for Live Performance Australia, the industry body for music, theatre and performance in Australia; Director of No No Gallery, a non-profit art space; and as a Senior Advisor for Creative Victoria, one of Australia’s leading government agencies for the promotion of the creative industries.
In 2018, Charlotte founded the contemporary art space, Cage me a Peacock. The space was a creative hub for inclusive interactive exhibitions and a studio space for a variety of arts practitioners. Charlotte has also served on the Board of Girls Rock! Melbourne and Sisterworks Inc as well as providing legal advice for a range of clients in Australia and the USA.
Since moving to California, Charlotte has continued to strengthen ties between creative practitioners across the globe. She is available to provide legal and strategic advice for individuals and companies looking to expand internationally, including immigration, commercial and contracting advice.
Deb Aikat
A former journalist, DEB AIKAT (pronounced EYE-cut) has been a faculty member since 1995 in the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. An award-winning researcher and teacher, Dr. Aikat theorizes the role of digital media in the global sphere. His research ranges across the media.
Dr. Aikat co-authored the 2019 book, Agendamelding: News, social media, audiences, and civic community, with Dr. Don Shaw, Dr. Milad Minooie and Dr. Chris Vargo. The book theorizes how audiences meld messages of newspapers, television, and social media in our 21st century digital age.
Dr. Aikat’s research range across the mass media and has been published in book chapters and peer-reviewed research journals such as First Amendment Studies, Health Communication, International Journal of Interactive Communication Systems and Technologies, Global Media and Communication, Electronic Journal of Communication, Popular Music and Society, Convergence: The Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, and publications of the Association for Computing Machinery, Microsoft Corporation, and the International Radio and Television Society (IRTS). He has reviewed manuscripts for the Journalism and Communication Monographs, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, Journal of Communication and leading publishers such as Sage, Wiley, Routledge, McGraw-Hill, and Oxford University Press.
The Scripps Howard Foundation recognized Dr. Aikat as the inaugural winner of the “National Journalism Teacher of the Year award” (2003) for his “distinguished service to journalism education.” The International Radio and Television Society named him the Coltrin Communications Professor of the Year (1997).
In addition to teaching 300-student classes, Dr. Aikat has taught online courses for more than 22 years. In 1997, he conceptualized UNC’s first online course in journalism. He developed in 2003 a graduate-level online certificate program in “Technology and Communication.” He has won fellowships from renowned research institutions such as the United States Information Agency (1990), the Institute for the Arts and Humanities (2000 & 2003) and the Journalism Leadership Institute in Diversity (2004-05). He serves as an elected member of the AEJMC Publications Committee, which administers AEJMC’s research journals.
Dr. Aikat earned a Ph.D. in Media and Journalism, in 1995, from the Ohio University’s Scripps School of Journalism. He completed a Certificate in American Political Culture from the New York University in 1990. He graduated with academic distinction at the top of his class in M. A. Journalism in 1990 from the University of Calcutta, India, where he also earned a B. A. with honors in English literature in 1984. He worked as a journalist in India for the Ananda Bazar Patrika’s The Telegraph newspaper from 1984 through 1992. He also reported for the BBC World Service.
Debra Scacco
Artist, curator and creative strategist Debra Scacco
studies contemporary and historic structures of
permission. Working at the intersection of history, culture
and environment, her work connects policy to people by
highlighting individual stories impacted by entrenched
political structures.
Previous exhibitions include Royal Academy of Arts (London), Viper Basel (Switzerland), and the Victoria & Albert Museum (London). In 2012, she was the inaugural Artist-in-Residence at Ellis Island Museum (NYC). She is the recipient of a 2019-20 Cultural Trailblazer award by the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (LADCA). Her public installation “Origins” is housed at Los Angeles State Historic Park. Her installation “The Letting Go” is currently on view at LAX Airport (Terminal 7) through May 2020.
Curatorial projects include “La Reina de Los Angéles” (Descanso Gardens, 2018) and “On Going Home” (Charlie James Gallery, 2017; part of Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA). Her work is found in collections including Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Hammer Museum. Scacco is the Founding Director of AIR at Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator: a residency supporting research-led artists working with climate-related themes.
Previous exhibitions include Royal Academy of Arts (London), Viper Basel (Switzerland), and the Victoria & Albert Museum (London). In 2012, she was the inaugural Artist-in-Residence at Ellis Island Museum (NYC). She is the recipient of a 2019-20 Cultural Trailblazer award by the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (LADCA). Her public installation “Origins” is housed at Los Angeles State Historic Park. Her installation “The Letting Go” is currently on view at LAX Airport (Terminal 7) through May 2020.
Curatorial projects include “La Reina de Los Angéles” (Descanso Gardens, 2018) and “On Going Home” (Charlie James Gallery, 2017; part of Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA). Her work is found in collections including Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Hammer Museum. Scacco is the Founding Director of AIR at Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator: a residency supporting research-led artists working with climate-related themes.
Ellen Foster Kuhn
Ellen Kuhn is an innovative leader in information technology with over 25 years of experience within the public and private sector delivering enterprise and digital transformation solutions. Ms. Kuhn is an expert with connecting mission objectives to business requirements. Ms. Kuhn has successfully led sales teams and delivered year-over-year growth for firms such as Sun Microsystems, IBM, SAP and Oracle where she has held positions in sales leadership, business development, consulting and project management for US Regulated Agencies and NGOs. Customers have included: The United Nations, UNICEF, IADB, Homeland Security, Department of State, Department of Justice, Department of Agriculture, IRS, Interior and more.
As a solution advisor and problem solver, Ms. Kuhn looks at business trends which allow her clients to get ahead of the wave. Clients benefit greatly from Ms. Kuhn’s expertise and experience in providing executive strategy and project leadership.
Raised in the U.S. Foreign Service, in the following countries: France, the Philippines and the Netherlands, Ellen’s background and experience provides the entrée working with the federal government and federal business partners to help support and meet their mission objectives through technology advances.
Elissa Rae Ecker
Elissa Rae Ecker is an interdisciplinary maker, curator, and lecturer currently working in Bangkok, Thailand. She holds a BFA in painting from the Peck School of the Arts at The University of Milwaukee and an MFA in Art Practice from the School of Visual Arts in New York. Elissa’s project-based practice questions traditional gender roles while playing with the absurdities of current visible traditions she experiences in Asia and from her rural upbringing in the USA.
Often wry in execution, her work spans object making, time-based media and net-art experiments. As a founding member of LIV_ID art collective (Bangkok-based), she also facilitates art experiences beyond typical art world boundaries including a local market pavilion in the 2018 Bangkok Biennial and collaborations with the French Embassy during Galleries Night for the past three years.
Often wry in execution, her work spans object making, time-based media and net-art experiments. As a founding member of LIV_ID art collective (Bangkok-based), she also facilitates art experiences beyond typical art world boundaries including a local market pavilion in the 2018 Bangkok Biennial and collaborations with the French Embassy during Galleries Night for the past three years.
Jing Deng
For the past decade, Jing Deng has been a Beijing representative at The Cohen Group, a global, business advisory firm providing corporate leadership with strategic advice and assistance in business development, regulatory affairs, deal sourcing and capital raising activities. She has held a variety of internships with media,consulting, and marketing firms in Beijing, London and Los Angeles. Most recently, she worked as a marketing intern for Creative Migration, covering business development and marketing activities. She has since become Vice President of their Board of Directors.
Prior to her internship at Creative Migration, Jing worked as a project assistant for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s Communication Project. In this role, she researched innovative ideas for a project to advance farming productivity in developing countries and helped to establish a communication network to promote farming information exchange between local farmers in Asia and South America. Previously, Ms. Deng joined Lockwood Gibb & Associates, a London-based consulting firm for private and investment banks, as a part-time research assistant providing client research to the team. In addition, she interned with China Central Television (CCTV), the Chinese government’s television media outlet.
Ms. Deng graduated in 2009 from a dual Master’s program co-organized by the London School of Economics and University of Southern California. She graduated with a Master’s degree in Global Media and Communications. Prior to her graduate studies, she earned her Bachelor of Art degrees in International Journalism and English from Beijing Foreign Studies University.
Jeremiah Chiu
Jeremiah Chiu is Los Angeles-based creative director, conceptual artist, and synthesist. From 2008-16, Jeremiah served as co-founder and principal of Plural (now Studio Chew), an award-winning and internationally recognized design studio. Jeremiah's current practice, Some All None, is an extension of Plural, focussing on merging art, music and technology into new hybrid forms.
Most recently, Jeremiah was the Exhibition Graphics Lead (on the IN-FO.CO team) for the U.S. Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. Jeremiah is a resident DJ at Dublab and has exhibited/performed at The Getty Center, LACMA, and the MCA Chicago, amongst other institutions.
Leslie VanKeuren Campbell
Leslie VanKeuren Campbell is the founder and CEO of Sustain LA, a social enterprise dedicated to disrupting the
concept of convenience and promoting Zero Waste. As a
20 veteran of the food and beverage industry, Leslie witnessed firsthand the disconnection between sustainable business practices and the disposable reality
of the present. After orchestrating numerous sustainable
improvements at a notable Silver Lake restaurant, Leslie
founded Sustain LA in 2009 as a means to put into action
Zero Waste solutions for businesses, events and
individuals in the greater Los Angeles area. In 2019,
Sustain LA launched the first Zero Waste refill station in
Los Angeles.
Leslie has been involved in, studying and practicing sustainability and Zero Waste for over 10 years. On her path to founding Sustain LA, she completed UCLA Extension’s Global Sustainability program (Earned with Distinction), as well as becoming a Certified Sustainable Recycling and Resource Management Professional with the California Resource Recovery Association in 2010. She was a U.S. Green Building Council LEED Green Associate from 2010-2014, and holds an AA in Environmental Studies from Santa Monica College with Honors.
She is a founding coalition member of Don’t Waste LA and a member of the Los Angeles Food Policy Council Food Waste Prevention and Rescue Working Group. In addition to operating Sustain LA, she is currently pursuing a Food Studies Certificate, UCLA Extension, focusing on food insecurity, surplus food rescue and transparency in food labeling. Her goal is to reduce food insecurity and food waste, while increasing ongoing sustainable solutions for businesses and local communities in Los Angeles.
Leslie and her husband have called Los Angeles their home for 20 years. Together with their daughter and their cat, they enjoy a Zero Waste lifestyle, public transportation and plenty of time in the great outdoors.
Leslie has been involved in, studying and practicing sustainability and Zero Waste for over 10 years. On her path to founding Sustain LA, she completed UCLA Extension’s Global Sustainability program (Earned with Distinction), as well as becoming a Certified Sustainable Recycling and Resource Management Professional with the California Resource Recovery Association in 2010. She was a U.S. Green Building Council LEED Green Associate from 2010-2014, and holds an AA in Environmental Studies from Santa Monica College with Honors.
She is a founding coalition member of Don’t Waste LA and a member of the Los Angeles Food Policy Council Food Waste Prevention and Rescue Working Group. In addition to operating Sustain LA, she is currently pursuing a Food Studies Certificate, UCLA Extension, focusing on food insecurity, surplus food rescue and transparency in food labeling. Her goal is to reduce food insecurity and food waste, while increasing ongoing sustainable solutions for businesses and local communities in Los Angeles.
Leslie and her husband have called Los Angeles their home for 20 years. Together with their daughter and their cat, they enjoy a Zero Waste lifestyle, public transportation and plenty of time in the great outdoors.
Peter Himmelstein
Peter Himmelstein is an architect based in Los Angeles. In 2020, he co-founded THECALIFORNIAOFFICE with Jeff Soler.
As a Design Director at Gensler in Los Angeles from 2014-2020, Peter led several large scale projects including planning and design of multiple new buildings at Sunset Gower Studios for Hudson Pacific Properties, a commercial tower at 401 S. Hewitt in the Arts District for Legendary Developments and the renovation of the California Market Center (CMC) for Brookfield Properties, as well as the first tower in the Nueva las Condes development in Santiago, Chile and the Digital Media Labs for the Los Angeles Public Library.
Before moving to Los Angeles, Peter had his own office, Peter Himmelstein Architect (PHA), in New York. PHA completed numerous residential and commercial spaces including a 7,000 SF townhouse in Tribeca. After closing the office in 2008 he worked for Roman and Williams on the Viceroy Hotel (now Le Meridien) on 57th Street and for David Rockwell and DS+R on a vast, innovative performance space, the Shed, and the adjacent residential tower, 15 Hudson Yards.
Peter attended the GSD at Harvard University, and graduated from GSAPP at Columbia University in 1990. Peter is licensed in New York.
Tuck Muntarbhorn
Tuck Muntarbhorn is a Thai artist and entrepreneur based in London and Bangkok. His “ light paintings,” often six-foot squares, reflect his belief that "the highest function of an artist is to make beauty manifest." Prior to establishing himself as an artist, Muntarbhorn cofounded the international semi-couture brand Busardi in 2009 which exhibited during Haute Couture Week in Paris.
In 2017, Muntarbhorn became the first Thai artist to speak on a TED stage in the UK (TEDxSOAS). In 2018, Muntarbhorn launched TuckSpace, his first spiritual art space in London - home to his series The Holy Land until 2022. His works can be found in private collections in Brazil, Canada, France, Italy, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey, the UK and USA.
In 2020, Muntarbhorn launched his own plant-based and non-alcoholic culinary concept, Plant London, aimed at connecting and transforming lives through the power of “green” produce and stories.
