COMPANY INFO

Lean Forward Media (LFM) is a high-growth company dedicated to creating high-quality content that entertains, engages and educates. LFM owns the home entertainment rights to the Choose Your Own Adventure® book series, one of the best-selling book series of all time. LFM developed and produced the breakthrough interactive DVD, Choose Your Own Adventure®: The Abominable Snowman, a movie that puts the viewer in control of the story. The company is producing a series of Choose Your Own Adventure® movies. In April of 2004, LFM won Venture Bowl, the nation’s largest business plan competition. The company is backed by venture capital from the New York based, early stage venture fund, Carrot Capital and a number of strategic Hollywood investors.   The company is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California.

Their movie Choose Your Own Adventure®: The Abominable Snowman received a 2006 iParenting Media Award for Excellent Products, was approved by the Dove Foundation for family viewing, received recognition from the Film Advisory Board, and was recently named a “Kids First All Star” by the Coalition for Quality Children’s Media.

In 2006, Lean Forward Media launched its Mom Advisory Board which is comprised of many of the on- and off-line world’s most respected and influential parents.

For further info,  see our press and  awards.  

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Michelle Crames, CEO, has experience in production, strategy, family entertainment, and education.  She has worked for and consulted to Warner Bros., The Walt Disney Company, ContentFilm, and McKinsey & Company.  She has done significant work to develop and implement partnership programs, and has helped to develop high-quality content for children.  Michelle is an amateur stand-up comic, has served as an advisor for chapters of Girls, Inc. and Caring Communities, and has volunteered to raise awareness for AIDS in Africa.  She is passionate about traveling, having visited six continents and over 35 counties. Michelle has B.S. degrees in Operations Research & Industrial Engineering and Hotel Management from Cornell University, where she was a National Scholar, and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where she was awarded the Robert F. Jasse Award by the Entrepreneurship faculty as the graduating student most exemplifying strong entrepreneurship and leadership skills.  Michelle was named by Forbes Magazine the 2004 Forbes Future Capitalist of the Year.

David Geliebter is a serial entrepreneur with significant experience successfully starting, growing and selling businesses. Prior to starting Carrot Capital in 2001, David founded and ran the Carson Group, one of the world’s most successful financial information and advisory companies with over 450 employees and operations around the world. The company was sold to Thomson Corporation for $200 million in cash. David was also a founding principal and President of Evolution Capital, a NASD broker/dealer subsidiary of Carson and an early-stage and mezzanine level healthcare investment banking firm. Before Carson Group, David started and ran another successful business in the financial services sector: Harvard Capital. This company was sold to WPP Group in 1986. He was named Entrepreneur of the Year for New York in 1993 by Inc. magazine and Ernst & Young. David is also the Chairman of St. Camillus Medical, Access Scientific, Critical Diagnostics and Cure Therapeutics, four Carrot Capital-initiated companies. He sits on the boards for these companies.

Sven Jacobson is a Principal of Carrot Capital. Prior to Carrot, he was Senior Partner of New Moon Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm. Sven has a strong operations background, having lead multinational teams as VP: E-Commerce of European-based Leisureplanet, and having served on the board of directors of Rennies (part of Bidvest Group, one of South Africa’s top 20 listed companies) where he was responsible for operational and strategic turnarounds in the Account Management, Corporate Sales, and Information Systems divisions. Sven is the interim Chief Operating Officer of St. Camillus Medical, Access Scientific, Critical Diagnostics and Cure Therapeutics, four Carrot Capital-initiated companies, and sits on the boards for these companies. Sven holds an MBA and B Sc in Electrical Engineering from WITS University (South Africa).

Erik Feig is the President of Production and Acquisitions at Summit Entertainment. He began his career by producing the teen hits I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER and I STILL KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER for Columbia Pictures and the teen comedy SLACKERS, also for Sony. After developing projects for most of the major studios and networks, he was under an overall producing deal with Artisan when Summit recruited him to run their film activities. In that capacity, he oversees development and co-productions with Summit's client companies, including Alcon Entertainment, Beacon Pictures, Intermedia, Mandalay Pictures, Newmarket Capital Group, Walden Media, Artisan Pictures, and Escape Artists. Erik is also responsible for creating a slate of in-house produced titles for Summit. He is currently in production on MR AND MRS SMITH, starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie and directed by Doug Liman (BOURNE IDENTITY). He is in pre-production on ME AGAIN and THE ALIBI for Spring '04 starts and an as-yet-untitled teen music-driven film from the writer of SAVE THE LAST DANCE for a summer '04 start. His recent producing credits include WRONG TURN, a teen thriller for Fox, starring Eliza Dushku and with creature effects by Stan Winston. As well, another recent production, DOT THE I, a romantic thriller from first-time director Matthew Parkhill, starring Gael Garcia Bernal, won the audience award at the Deauville Film Festival and was accepted into the Premiere section at the Sundance Film Festival. Erik received a BA in English from Columbia University, 1992.
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