Prime Focus announced today that industry veteran O.D. Welch has joined the company as Chief Operating Officer for North America.
Press Release from Prime Focus
Hollywood, CA (October 14, 2009) – Prime Focus announced today that industry veteran O.D. Welch has joined the company as Chief Operating Officer for North America.
Based out of the company’s Hollywood office, Welch will be responsible for overseeing the North American post production and visual effects service units (previously Post Logic Studios and Frantic Films VFX respectively). Included in his initial purview will be Prime Focus facilities in Los Angeles, New York, Winnipeg, and Vancouver.
In his new role, Welch will work closely with CEO Post Production, Rob Hummel, and CEO Visual Effects, Michael Fink, helping them to evolve and grow their businesses, while enabling their teams to achieve their very best work.
A builder and facilitator by nature, Welch has over 20 years of management experience in entertainment companies catering to the feature film, advertising, network TV, and music industries.
“We have handpicked the industry’s best and brightest to expand our global presence, and O.D. is no exception,” said Namit Malhotra, Global CEO and Founder, Prime Focus. “He brings unparalleled entertainment business savvy and executive-level experience with some of the most reputable projects and companies in the industry.”
Prior to joining Prime Focus, Welch was President of the Entertainment Management Group at Evolve Consulting in Los Angeles, where he oversaw business and financial advising to the firms’ entertainment and media clientele. From 2004 to 2008, he was Chief Operating and Financial Officer for the ComputerCafe Group (CafeFX, The Syndicate, and Sententia Entertainment, et.al.), where under his stewardship annual revenues for the group quadrupled. Welch has also served as President of consulting firm EMC, which followed a role as President of 525 Studios, concluding a nearly 14-year tenure there as senior executive for Liberty Media and Virgin Entertainment.
Welch is a member of the Producers Guild of America, the Visual Effects Society, and the Hollywood Post Alliance, and his credits as Production Executive on nearly three dozen feature films include “Speed Racer,” “Iron Man,” “Spider-Man 3,” “Pan’s Labyrinth” and “King Kong.”
According to O.D., “I’ve been looking for the opportunity to join an international entertainment organization that’s well positioned, nimble, and committed to excellence, and Prime Focus is just that. They are on the brink of some incredible opportunities, and I look forward to helping bring them to fruition. Add to that their award-winning talent roster, around-the-clock production capability, and people-centric focus, and my reply was simple, ‘Where do I sign?’.”
About Prime Focus
Prime Focus is a global Visual Entertainment Services group that provides creative and technical services to the film, broadcast, commercials, gaming, internet and media industries.
The group offers a genuine end-to-end solution from pre-production to final delivery - including previsualisation, equipment hire, visual effects, video and audio post-production, digital intermediate, digital asset management and distribution.
Prime Focus employs more than 1200 people with state-of-the-art facilities throughout the key markets of North America, the UK and India. Using its ‘worldsourcing’ business model, Prime Focus provides a network that combines global cost advantages, resources and talent pool with strong relationships and a deep understanding of the local markets.
Prime Focus is a public stock company with shares traded in the Mumbai and National Stock exchanges in India (Symbol - PRIMEFOCUS). Prime Focus also owns and operates Prime Focus London plc (Symbol - PFO), which is publicly traded in the LSE’s AIM market. For more information, please visit www.primefocusworld.com.
