Who We Are

Michael Angst Founder, Chief Executive Officer

Michael is an operating executive and private equity investor with significant experience managing tech-enabled businesses.

Prior to E-Line, Michael spent several years as a private equity investor with Bluefin Partners, where he focused on businesses that convey services on a global basis by harnessing the collective strength of highly distributed, independently owned and operated businesses. His investments included Lason, a multi-national outsourcing company that delivers service through over 70 independently owned micro-franchises in India and China (employing over 10,000 people).

Prior to Bluefin Partners, Michael served as the President and Chief Operating Officer of National Healthcare Resources (NHR), a tech-enabled services provider in the insurance sector, where he supervised the growth of the company from an early stage to over $150MM in annual revenue and oversaw the acquisition and integration of over 20 private companies. Michael began his professional career with Salomon Brothers, where he worked for five years as a quantitative analyst developing trading analytics and supporting investment banking transactions.

Michael currently serves as Co-Chair of FilmAid International, an NGO that uses the power of film to promote health, strengthen communities and enrich the lives of the world's vulnerable and uprooted and also serves on the Board of Directors of Sustainable South Bronx, an organization that drives environmental justice through economically sustainable projects.

Michael is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in computer science and electrical engineering. He also studied in the graduate film program at NYU, where he produced the award-winning short film work of Jim Taylor (Academy Award winning screenwriter of Sideways) and Keir Pearson (Academy Award nominated screenwriter of Hotel Rwanda). He has produced short films that tackle tough social issues ranging from mental disabilities to gender bias in Eastern cultures. As a theatre producer, Michael has helped mount several socially relevant works, including a New York production of The Investigation by Peter Weiss, which recounts emotional testimony from witnesses and survivors at the Frankfurt Auschwitz war trials.

Alan Gershenfeld Founder, President

Alan has spent the last twenty years at the intersection of entertainment, technology and social entrepreneurship.

Prior to E-Line, Alan spent seven years as CEO and Co-Founder of netomat, a leader in mobile-web community solutions. As CEO, Alan helped to transform a network-based art project into a pioneering software company, raising funding from VCs, strategic investors (Motorola, WPP, Forbes), foundations (Rockefeller's ProVenEx double bottom line fund) and securing clients and partnerships with leading technology and content providers such as Electronic Arts, Warner Brothers, Motorola and Miramax. netomat was selected as a Technology Pioneer at the 2007 World Economic Forum at Davos.

Before netomat, Alan spent six years at Activision, a global leader in entertainment software. He was a member of the executive management team that rebuilt Activision from bankruptcy into a profitable industry leader with more than a billion dollars in revenue. At Activision, Alan served as Senior Vice President of Activision Studios where he supervised all product development at the company's Los Angeles studios. Titles released under Alan's leadership include Civilization: Call to Power, Asteroids, Muppet Treasure Island, Spycraft, Pitfall, Zork and Tony Hawk Skateboarding.

Before Activision, Alan spent nearly ten years in the film industry where he worked in development, production and post-production with credits on numerous feature films and documentaries. As a writer, Alan was a film critic for the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong and co-author of Game Plan, a book about the computer and video game business published by St. Martin's Press. His articles and photographs have been published in numerous magazines and newspapers including the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Filmmaker Magazine, Cinema India-International and Bowler's Journal.

As a speaker, Alan has presented at a wide variety of conferences throughout the world including PC Forum, Sundance Film Festival, Games for Change, CTIA, Mobile Imaging Summit, Game Developers Conference, Milia/Cannes, LAX Conference, ICE/Toronto, Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema, SoCap and the World Economic Forum at Davos.

Alan serves on the Board of Directors of FilmAid International, a nonprofit that uses film and video to empower refugees throughout the world and on the Advisory Boards of Scenarios USA, Creative Capital, SplashLife, We Are Family Foundation and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center For Educational Media and Research (Sesame Workshop). He is also the former Chairman of Games for Change, a nonprofit that helps to rise the sector of computer and video games for social change.

Rick Daley Chief Technology Officer

Rick has nearly thirty years of experience as a software engineer and engineering manager. In the mid 80's, Rick led the effort at Apple to enable Macintosh software applications to run on Apple's first commercial UNIX operating system. In the early 90's, he was the lead engineer in a group at the investment bank Salomon Brothers, where he helped produce a fault-tolerant real-time messaging system used to share data between traders, the sales force and the firm's clients. In the late 90's, Rick was an early member of WebTV, where he was the architect for the group that built the WebTV service. He left WebTV in 2000, after helping to integrate the WebTV service into Microsoft following Microsoft's acquisition of WebTV. In 2000, Rick became EVP of Engineering at National Healthcare Resources (NHR), where he led NHR's successful software-as-a-service business.

Brian Alspach Producer

Brian brings ten years of experience as an executive and consultant specializing in the development of early-stage businesses, web-meets-world services and new media. Prior to joining the E-Line Team, he spent several years with Verus Partners, a private equity advisory firm, where he specialized in the development of custom technology platforms integrating electronic and real-world workflows. His projects included Lason, a multi-national outsourcing company that delivers service through over 70 independently owned micro-franchises in India and China (employing over 10,000 people). Prior to this, he served in several technology and operational rolls (including divisional Vice President of Operations) at Concentra, a national healthcare services provider with over $1B in revenue.

His work as a writer and digital filmmaker has appeared at such venues as the Philadelphia Fringe Festival and at Yankee Stadium during the 2007 MLB playoffs. He also mentors young people in the areas of digital media writing and production and serves as an advisor to early-stage and youth-created businesses. Brian received his Bachelor's degree in English from The College of New Jersey.

Charles Amis Game Designer

Charles began telling stories and designing games in his backyard at the age of 7. With only three kids playing, you have to use your imagination, get inventive, and keep things fresh. Since then, he has worked on a broad range of games including casual PC titles, collectible card games, board games, and sports. In all his work, he tries to bring different artistic media together to give the audience an unforgettable experience. He holds a BA from Hampshire College with a focus on multidisciplinary storytelling and an MA from the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU with a focus on transmedia storytelling.

John Boeck SVP, Online Operations

John is an operating executive with significant sales, technology, and operations experience. Prior to E-Line, John spent several years with Verus Partners, a private equity advisory firm, where he specialized in the development of custom technology platforms integrating electronic and real-world workflows. His projects included Lason, a multi-national outsourcing company that delivers service through over 70 independently owned micro-franchises in India and China (employing over 10,000 people). Prior to Verus Partners, John served as the Chief Information Officer of National Healthcare Resources (NHR), a healthcare services provider. Following its acquisition of NHR, John served as a divisional CIO of Concentra, a national healthcare services provider with over $1B in revenue, where he supervised $15MM in earnings growth for a $200MM highly-distributed division through technological and operational transformation.

John began his professional career as the founder of Mutex Software, a technology consultancy serving the financial services industry, where he spent 10 years architecting and developing trading, investment banking and back-office systems for Salomon Brothers, Lehman Brothers, Wagner-Stott, and Goldman Sachs. John graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with degrees in computer science engineering and economics.

Anthony Furtado Artist

Tony is an illustrator and the creator of the webcomics ELF 'n TROLL and 'Tween. He has worked with numerous publishers of the last 20 years, including Heavy Metal Magazine, Antarctic Press, Caliber Press, Head Press and many others. His webcomics have been featured on Modern Tales, as well as 01Comics, where he also served as Creative Director.

Michael Gi Associate Game Designer

Michael has dreamed of working in the game industry since his early days of gaming. He has played games ranging from the PC, to consoles, to collectible cards and even tabletop miniatures. Michael spent two summers working at Internal Drive Technology Camps teaching kids how to design and create their own games using various software. Most recently, he was employed as an intern at E-Line Media prior to joining the team. Michael is a recent graduate from Stony Brook University with a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and a specialization in game design.

Ian Gil Artist

Ian graduated with honors from NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study in January 2010. He concentrated on “Experience”, and found that it pretty much is what you make of it. What he's making of it lately: comic books, drawings, paintings, websites, and travel plans.

Ian briefly interned for E-Line a few years ago, and once he was out of school they lured him back with promises of power and fame.

Katya Hott Educational Media Specialist

Katya is working on her Masters in Educational Technology at New York University. Her background is in linguistics and English as a Second Language. She has taught ESL in classrooms around the world for the past four years. Now, Katya is combining her studies in education with her passion for technology and games. She aims to develop curriculum that allows teachers to incorporate and embrace games in their classrooms. When not gaming or designing curriculum, Katya assumes her alter-ego as Bgirl Gypsy, a breakdancer.

Joey Manley President, E-Line Comics

Joey has been working in online entertainment since 1996, when he was hired as the original Director of Free Speech Internet Television, which won a Webby Award in 1999. From 2000 - 2002 Joey served as Vice-President, Interactive for Streaming Media, Inc. In 2002, he launched Modern Tales, the first of several webcomics-themed sites he would launch in subsequent years, including WebcomicsNation and Graphic Smash. In 2007, Joey and Josh Roberts co-founded ComicSpace LLC. Joey is also the author of one novel, The Death of Donna-May Dean, published by St. Martin's Press in 1991.

Scott Price Producer

Scott has spent his professional life trying to make computers work for people by helping people play with computers. He helped the Math Forum to create digital manipulatives for math students, built an IT Department during 6 years as teacher, dean, and IT Coordinator at Exploration Summer Programs, developed databases for non-profits, and performed quality assurance testing with Scholastic, Inc. He tested four games for Gamelab and produced four more before joining Gamestar Mechanic.

Phil Puthumana VP, Business Development

Phil is a business development executive with significant experience in strategy, marketing, and operations. Prior to E-Line, Phil led business development efforts in the commercial sector in the NYC metro region for Technodyne, a global consulting and IT services company offering a wide array of solutions ranging from strategy consulting to implementing IT solutions for Fortune 1000 Clients. Some of his clients included the Royal Bank of Canada, Nomura Securities and MetLife. Previously, he was Director of Offshore Operations for Technodyne’s Indian operations, based in Bangalore. Prior to Technodyne, he was co-founder of MathThink, a leader in online math education focused on disadvantaged youth. MathThink was a top-ranked provider for after-school math education in the City of San Francisco and throughout much of the Western United States.

Before Phil took the entrepreneurial plunge, he managed financial application product development at Oracle and financial statement audit and business process consulting at Ernst & Young, with Microsoft as a major client. Phil is a CPA and graduated with MBA degrees from Columbia University and the Haas School of Business at U.C. Berkeley. In a former life, he was also a stand-up comic, playing comedy clubs around the country.

Josh Roberts Co-Founder, E-Line Comics

Josh started onlinecomics.net in 2001. It quickly became the largest and most popular directory of online comics. In 2006, he launched ComicSpace, a social network for comics creators and readers. In 2007, he merged his business with Joey Manley's WebcomicsNation to form ComicSpace LLC.

Kai Skye Game Programmer

Kai has immersed himself in game programming and online entertainment since he was a teen. In 2007 he was introduced to Gamelab where he worked with experienced game professionals to publish an online Flash minigame for kids. The following year, he was hired to create games for Sony's Playstation Home environment and the iPhone platform at Working Library. Kai has designed and developed several websites and is currently maintaining a website that is based upon his own research in reverse engineering replay files for the popular online game Gunz: The Duel. Kai graduated from Stony Brook university with a bachelor's degree in computer science and a specialization in game programming.

Tim Tournay Developer

Before joining E-Line, Tim worked as a contractor creating military simulation software to help soldiers better deal with social situations in the Middle East. He then spent a year working for NATO at their programming center in The Hague, Netherlands helping to enhance software for NATO activities. He traded his war games for peace games in 2006 by joining ImpactGames to be the lead software developer for the critically acclaimed Israeli-Palestinian conflict resolution game PeaceMaker and went on to lead the development of the news-gaming platform PlayTheNews. Tim received his BA in Computer Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh.

Sun Yang Artist

Growing up in Korea, Sun learned how to read and write through comic books. With her first NES system, she gained a sense of direction (which might not have been the best tutor since she gets lost easily while reading maps). Sun delayed her plan of eloping to the realm of comic art to study Illustration at Parsons School of Design. After getting her BFA, she joined Gamelab, working on critically acclaimed, award-winning projects such as Miss Management, Bob the Builder: Can Do Zoo and Bravo's Top Chef: The Game.