After graduating with a degree in Anthropology at Harvard, Jeff Ulin traveled to Africa where he volunteered with a unit capturing endangered rhinos and moving them to sanctuary areas. He jokes that this stint prepared him for working on Indiana Jones, but it was his training as a lawyer at the University of Chicago Law School and working at entertainment law firms that landed him a job working for George Lucas. He worked for 10 years at Lucasfilm where he came to head worldwide distribution for all markets (theatrical, video, TV, online), managed franchise sales for Star Wars and Indiana Jones, and oversaw the release of the last Star Wars film made by George Lucas, Episode III.
Always loving to write and create, Ulin co-founded Wild Brain, and as CEO ran the animation studio. Under his leadership, the studio produced Annie and Clio award-winning programs and commercials, and Ulin created the Disney pre-school hit series Higglytown Heroes. Having also worked as an executive with Paramount and Universal, helping manage their overseas video joint venture from London, he wrote the book The Business of Media Distribution- Monetizing Film, TV and Video Content in an Online World (1st edition 2010; 2nd edition 2014, respectively Elsevier and Taylor & Francis). He has used the book to teach the class Media & Entertainment: Economics, Policy, and Strategy at the University of California Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, and lectures on media distribution around the world. Ulin continues to be involved in cutting edge projects (co-executive producer of Battlefield Afghanistan broadcast on National Geographic), sits on advisory boards of start-ups (having navigated the convergence of digital media at one of Silicon Valley’s most renowned law firms), and now finds himself involved with Africa in a different way: based in Amsterdam, he is currently General Counsel of Irdeto, a subsidiary of South African-based media and Internet giant Naspers.
