A new video game takes flight at Tribeca Flashpoint Academy’s Avarice release event
HINDSIGHT - WRITE SOMETHING WORTH READING ABOUT OR DO SOMETHING WORTH WRITING ABOUT
Friday, May 31, 2013
TRIBECA FLASHPOINT ACADEMY CEO HOWARD TULLMAN MOVES TO CHAIRMAN
Tribeca
Flashpoint co-founder to slide into chairman's seat
Howard Tullman, founder, Tribeca Flashpoint Academy
May
30, 2013
Serial entrepreneur
Howard Tullman has relinquished his role as chief executive officer for Tribeca
Flashpoint Media Arts Academy, the Chicago-based private school he helped start in 2007.
He is replaced by Todd
Steele, who co-founded Career Education Corp. and helped build the school's
international divisions. Mr. Steele left Career Education in 2008 and has most
recently been working as a consultant.
"I am thrilled to
lead the next phase of expansion and development for this game-changing
school," Steele said in a statement.
Mr. Tullman will become
chairman of the school, which in 2010 added actor Robert De Niro as
an investor. He will focus on expanding the school's
business partnerships.
Mr. Tullman was not
available for immediate comment.
The school, which has
about 600 students in its two-year film and gaming degree programs, is planning
on aggressive expansion. It added 65,000 square feet last year in anticipation of enrollment doubling.
HAT STATEMENT:
I'm
pleased to announce an important and exciting change for the Academy. The Board
of Directors and I have determined that, in view of the challenges which we have ahead of us as well as the new areas we want to
expand into and the amazing incremental growth opportunities which our recent
Title 4 achievement has created for us, we definitely need to expand and deepen
our senior management team.
I
am going to move up to Chairman of the Board and we will be bringing in a very
talented and seasoned education executive, Todd Steele, to be the new CEO.
We have known Todd for several years and many of
you also already know and have had a chance to work with him as well and he already has considerable experience with Tribeca
Flashpoint Academy since he has been a member of the Board since we concluded
our deal with Sterling Partners more than a year ago and has worked on some of
our new online curriculum initiatives. The Sterling people are also very
excited about and supportive of this change.
I'm
looking forward to working closely with Todd as the college continues to
expand. I am also excited about continuing to explore new technologies for the
school; working with our many business partners to expand our arrangements with
them; developing some new business opportunities which I am particularly
interested in; and, most importantly, to keep working to promote and publicize
our college and our mission of educating the best and brightest digital media
arts graduates and preparing them for great jobs and bright futures.
Of
course, I will also continue my writing, teaching and speaking engagements so
you can expect to continue to hear from me just as regularly as you have in the
past. I'll also be available to help on special projects, share my thoughts
with you on whatever and to answer any questions you may have about anything
that comes up as we move forward.
I
look at these changes as another chapter in our continuing story and a chance
to expand our team and keep moving our school forward. I hope you'll all join
me in welcoming Todd and providing him the same kind of help, hard work,
commitment and passion that you have shared with me for the last few years and
which were such an important part of our successes so far. Together, today, we
move forward.
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Friday, May 24, 2013
TRIBECA FLASHPOINT ACADEMY CHAIRMAN HOWARD TULLMAN SPEAKING AT CUSP CONFERENCE AT MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART
Howard Tullman
Howard Tullman is a serial
entrepreneur, venture capitalist, educator, writer, lecturer and art collector.
Currently
Chairman of Tribeca Flashpoint Media Arts Academy and the General Managing
Partner of HYDR>BOX, LLC and the Chicago High Tech Investors, LLC, Howard
was formerly Chairman of the Board of The Princeton Review (NYC) and The Cobalt
Group (Seattle).
He
is an Adjunct Professor at Northwestern’s Kellogg Graduate School of
Management, serves on Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s ChicagoNEXT and Cultural
Affairs Councils, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn’s Innovation and Arts Councils,
and on Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle’s New Media Council. He is a
member of the Advisory Boards of The Starter League, Built in Chicago,
Hightower Advisors and several other start-ups.
With
an entrepreneurial career that spans four decades and a broad range of
industries, Howard has started twelve companies including Tribeca Flashpoint
Media Arts Academy, CCC Information Services, Original Research II, Tunes.com,
the Rolling Stone Network, Imagination Pilots and Experiencia. In addition, he
has been hired to manage and has served as CEO in several large-scale and
highly-successful turnarounds including COIN Management Systems (Atlanta),
Xceed, Inc. (NYC) and Kendall College in Evanston, Illinois.
Thursday, May 23, 2013
No, this isn’t the Occupy playbook — it’s Avarice, a video game created by students at Chicago’s Tribeca Flashpoint Academy.
Building a fully functional multi-level video game might not be a classic college assignment, but Flashpoint isn’t a classic college. Founded by serial entrepreneur Howard Tullman, the digital media arts school has students cut their teeth on the sort of work they’ll encounter as professionals.
Last Thursday, Avarice debuted to a crowd of students, teachers, and Chicago techies. Alan Reck, the Flashpoint professor who crafted Avarice’s initial design, led the audience through game’s virtual world. Players assume the role of a corporation’s hired mercenary, build a combat craft, and fly increasingly dangerous missions.
For more than a year, Flashpoint students have been developing Avarice in collaboration with Reck and his Chicago-based gaming company, ZoopTEK Studios. Reck thought up Avarice’s basic plot and the game’s weaponry, while students built each level’s narrative and designed the world, filling in everything from the texture of cacti to the colors of the ships.
The event allowed attendees to play the game to a live score provided by Miguel Kertsman, the composer of Avarice’s soundtrack, and Chicago-based drummer Ernie Adams. The musicians improvised to suit the game’s action, while audience members battled to the death in Avarice’s world.
The program has results: Steam, the leading producer of PC gaming technology, is releasing Avarice over the summer. Kertsman’s soundtrack will be released in tandem with the game.
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