We’ve been in the creator economy since before it had a name.
We’ve helped build creator businesses reaching hundreds of millions of fans, launched hit television series, films, and music, led global media companies, and developed products used by millions.
Built by leaders from media, entertainment and technology.
Meet the people
behind Engine Room.
We’ve spent our careers building media companies, launching creator businesses, producing hit content, and developing technology. Now we’re building the platform we always wanted as creators and executives.
Keith Quinn
Founder, CEO
Biography:
Keith Quinn has focused his career on enabling creative people to make a living out of their talents, and on creating relationships between creators and large companies. Keith built Paramount Pictures digital content business that served digital and streaming platforms from start-up to high eight-figure revenues. He is a veteran of two startups that focused on emerging creator talent and digital platforms, co-founding Agility Studios as its Chief Content Officer, and serving on the management team of LivePlanet, where he ran development & production. He has held key strategy, marketing and business development roles at Mark Burnett Productions and WPP Group. Keith has developed and executive produced series for major studios, global streaming services, and leading podcast platforms. He also has advised top management about emerging content opportunities at content companies such as YouTube, Verizon, ivi.ru, Philo, The Charity Network, Business Insider, Wrigley Media Group, Showtime, The Video Genome Project (sold to Hulu), Luminopia, Illumination Entertainment, and Uproxx
Accolades:
Paramount: SVP Originals LivePlanet: SVP Development & Production Netflix, Sony, Fullscreen, iHeart, Fox, Sonar: Executive Producer YouTube, Uproxx, Zodiak, Verizon, Redbox, Illumination: Content Strategy Water.org: Board of Directors Harvard BA, Kellogg MBA
Social media:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/quinnkeith/
David Harleston
Founder, COO
Biography:
David Harleston is a content strategy, licensing and business affairs senior leader who has negotiated and overseen hundreds of millions of dollars in diverse media transactions, including IP and content acquisition, distribution and licensing deals with every major U.S. cable and OTT content distributor in addition to multiple mergers and acquisitions in both the television and music industries. Harleston is highly experienced in television, film and music business affairs, heading those divisions at several global media entities including Al Gore’s Current TV, multiple Emmy and Peabody Award winning Al Jazeera America and Corus Entertainment’s U.S. operation. Harleston’s music industry expertise was recognized by his appointments to the roles of President of the iconic Def Jam Recordings/Sony Music and head of urban music at MCA/Universal Music. Harleston advises global digital media companies on content and growth strategies, strategic partnerships and distribution.
Accolades:
Current TV: EVP Al Jazeera America: EVP Corus: Business Affairs Def Jam Recordings: President MCA/Universal: SVP Urban Music Sony Music: Counsel Harvard BA, Yale JD
Social media:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidharleston/
Chris Vroman
CFO
Biography:
Christopher Vroman has spent his career building, improving, investing in, and operating companies. He most recently worked with a New York-based family office, executing a venture capital investment strategy, and previously as the top executive of one of the family offices’ portfolio companies. Christopher previously worked as a private equity investor at Corridor Capital and Black Canyon Capital (an affiliate of Canyon Capital), two middle-market funds based in Los Angeles. He served as Director of Business Development at RKO Pictures, where he developed financing structures to fund RKO projects. Christopher has five years of experience as a management & strategy consultant at Scient Corporation (now part of Publicis Groupe) and Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), where he advised both venture-backed startups and enterprise clients. He holds an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Clarkson University.
Accolades:
Emmett Partners, Partner Exley NB, President Corridor Capital, Sr. Assoc. Black Canyon Capital, Sr. Assoc. RKO Pictures, Director Accenture, Consultant Wharton MBA
Social media:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cvroman/
Jeff Wilder
CTO
Biography:
A seasoned technology leader and solutions architect with 20+ years of experience delivering scalable platforms, mobile apps, and ecommerce solutions for global brands and startups. Brings deep expertise across modern tech stacks and a product-minded approach to aligning engineering execution with business strategy, including emerging capabilities in AI-driven experiences and automation.
Social media:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreywilder/
Geordie McClelland
Head of Product
Biography:
Geordie McClelland is a seasoned entrepreneur and strategist with a diverse portfolio of work across various industries, including consumer packaged goods (CPG), retail, health and wellness, automotive, and information technology. Most recently, Geordie was a co-founder and Chief of Strategy for altr, an award-winning digital product design firm that sold to Delve in June of 2023. Prior to altr, Geordie worked for the Coca-Cola Company’s internal Think Tank; led the development of the Strategy practice and served as VP of Strategy for Straightline International; was a senior consultant for Monitor Group’s Marketspace digital practice; Director of Strategy at BEAM interactive; and founded theThings, an online job service that was recognized by Innovate + Educate as a top company working to address the skills gap and bridge the opportunity divide among young Americans. Through the course of his career, Geordie led digital product and marketing strategies for leading global brands including Converse, MINI USA, Virgin Mobile, Coca-Cola, Erewhon Markets, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Thomson Reuters, Dell, TripAvisor, and SimpliSafe. For the past 5 years, Geordie has served at the Co-Chairman of the Board of Strategies For Youth, a national non-profit working to improve outcomes, reduce unnecessary arrests, and use of force in interactions between young people and law enforcement through research, training, and policy development.
Social media:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geordiemcclelland/
Marc Leuchner
Head of Brand/Design
Biography:
Marc Leuchner is a designer, developer, and creative technologist with over 20 years of experience crafting interactive experiences for global brands including Netflix, Adidas, New Balance, MINI, and Google. As Head of Design/Brand at Engine Room, Marc leads branding, UX, and motion design, merging creativity and engineering to build tools that empower creators. His work spans web, mobile, and experiential design, often blending storytelling, animation, and code to create intuitive, playful interfaces. Marc brings a rare mix of technical fluency, design vision, and leadership that defines Engine Room’s creative direction.
Social media:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marc-leuchner
Deep expertise from the
worlds of media and tech.
Our advisors have built, led, and invested in some of the world’s most successful media, technology, and creator businesses. Their experience helps shape the future of Engine Room.
Karen Roter Davis
Biography:
Karen’s journey has seen her go from startup attorney to moonshot deep tech investing. Karen has extensive experience as a director and advisor to public and private companies valued in the tens of billions. Most recently, as Director of Early Stage Projects at X, Karen managed a deep tech portfolio for Alphabet. Karen has led multiple initiatives at Google over the past two decades, including overseeing operations for its groundbreaking IPO. She is no stranger to complex technology and complex deal structures, but is a straight shooter with a knack for cutting to the core of the critical technology or business issues to address for success – from inception through scale. Karen has taught innovation at Northwestern University, where she earned both an MBA and a law degree following her Princeton undergrad.
Accolades:
Entrada Ventures: Managing Partner X – The Moonshot Factory: Director Google: Director, Principal, Corp Counsel Urban Engines: GM (acq. by Google) Innovyze: Board Director
Social media:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karenroterdavis/
Chris Williams
Biography:
As CEO of pocket.watch, Chris is responsible for setting pocket.watch’s vision as well as helping to cultivate a strong working environment where his world class management team is driven to perform at the top of their abilities. Chris is a true pioneer of online video, with 20 years of proven success in both predicting and capitalizing upon marketplace holes that have dictated the future of media and entertainment. Most recently, he served as the Chief Audience Officer of Maker Studios and prior to that, he was the founder and CEO of venture backed startup, Take180. Both companies were acquired by The Walt Disney Company where Chris also launched Disney Online Originals, a division dedicated to the creation of Disney branded short form content. The earlier part of Chris’s career was spent at Yahoo, where he was one of the first 100 employees.
Accolades:
pocket.watch: CEO & Founder Maker: Chief Audience Officer Disney: VP & GM Online Originals Take 180: GM (sold to Disney)
Social media:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismwilliams/
James Andrews
Biography:
James Andrews is the founder of Authenticated Ventures, a venture advisory designed to build better companies, launch new ideas and illuminate influential people through experiences, content and investment advisory. At the center is The Authenticated, a 300+ membership community made up of influential creative entrepreneurs, brand builders, investors and innovators in culture. The Authenticated has a city tour, mobile/web platform and creates content and community opportunities. Post COVID, The Authenticated has created weekly “virtual Jeffersonian dinners” and produces monthly salons and summits in live stream on a number of topics and themes. Andrews previously founded Social People, a strategic digital agency that was acquired in 2013. Social People worked with clients Nike, Beats By Dre, The Grammy Awards, CNN, Equinox and Lexus on global social media initiatives. Before launching Social People, Andrews was VP, Ketchum PR and built their global social media practice area for clients Monster.com, FedEx, GeekSquad, Nokia, and Wendy’s. In 1999, Andrews built and sold email newsletter SoulPurpose.com to Urban Box Office, a digital entertainment company. At the center of the NYC dot-com boom the company went on to raise $40m and hire 320 employees in 15 months. Andrews formative years were spent as a senior marketing executive at Columbia Records in the mid 90’s, helping develop artists like Nas, The Fugees, Destiny’s Child and Lauryn Hill become household names.
Accolades:
The Authenticated, Founder Urban Box Office, EVP Ketchum Sony Music
Social media:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keyinfluencer/
Marisa Bryce
Biography:
Marisa has over 20 years of experience with entrepreneurial environments in venture-backed and Fortune 100 companies, with specific expertise in strategy, business development, and product development. She most recently co-founded CityXones a hyperlocal news venture, Cartera a payments platform, and Jury Box Films a film investment company. Previous roles include those with Qualcomm, EY, Sara Lee Corporation (now Hillshire), Tribune Media Company, and multiple start-ups in a variety of verticals. Marisa is highly active in the startup community and is a mentor for the globally recognized Founders Institute and is the Chapter Director for The Founders Network, an invitation-only, internationally peer network for technology founders. She is a member of the prestigious Economic Club of Chicago. She is active philanthropically and is a member of the Women’s Board of the Joffrey Ballet, President of the Alumni Club of Colorado for Northwestern’s, Kellogg School and the founder of multiple non-profit philanthropic boards. She has an MBA from Northwestern, JD from the University of Virginia, and a BA from Wellesley College.
Accolades:
Clear Sky Media Qualcomm Tribune Company
Social media:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marisabryce/
Mark Jacobstein
Biography:
Mark Jacobstein is a Visiting Partner at South Park Commons. In 1994, Mark founded Small World Sports, the world’s first online fantasy sports company, and Small World Software, NYC's first web agency. He co-founded Digital Chocolate with Trip Hawkins, co-led loopt with Sam Altman, and led mobile startup iSkoot through acquisition. More recently, he led business growth at both Guardant Health (through its IPO) and Immunai (as it raised $300M), co-founded Jimini Health, and co-founded Near Horizon. He concentrated in computer science at Harvard, and lives on the Stanford campus with his wife and two daughters.
Social media:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markjacobstein/
Oliver Delfosse
Biography:
Olivier Delfosse is the Head of Strategic Partnerships & West Coast Operations for Jellysmack, a leading data and technology company leveraging proprietary tools to unlock the social potential of Creators and media owners. In his role, Olivier leads a global business development team, manages strategic relationships with all social platforms, and leads an LA based content team responsible for the delivery of over 15+ leading Snap Discover shows driving 5B monthly views. Prior to Jellysmack, Olivier was the Chief Operations Officer (COO) at StyleHaul, the largest global community of fashion and beauty creators, with more than 4500 creators in-network and more than 1.5 billion views per month. As COO, Olivier drove operational excellence and solidarity across each business unit, led platform partnerships, and managed a team of 40+ across Operations, Sales, HR and Production. Before StyleHaul, Olivier was the Global SVP, Digital at Fremantle and part of the central digital group driving global digital strategy.
Accolades:
JellySmack: EVP, Head of Strategic Partnerships & West Coast Ops. Stylehaul: COOFremantle: SVP Global, Digital
Social media:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olivierdelfosse/
Sandy Grushow
Biography:
Sandy Grushow is one of a rare breed of entertainment executives who successfully married his vast experience in traditional media with the worlds of digital and social media and technology. Grushow achieved creative, financial and strategic success as Chairman of FOX’s broadcast network and television studio, where his tenure saw the debut of the “American Idol” juggernaut along with major hits such as “24,” “House” and “Malcolm in the Middle” and the “O.C.” As CEO of Phase 2 Media, Grushow applies his 25 years of operational experience to provide investment and advisory work across the digital and social media and tech sectors. Grushow currently serves as a board member of Monica & Andy, a digitally-native, direct-to-consumer children’s clothing and accessory business and Ghostcast, an audio-first social media company. Most recently, he served as a longtime board member of Tubi, an ad-supported video streaming service acquired by FOX in May 2020. Before that, he served on the board of The Weather Channel prior to its sale to Byron’ Allen’s Entertainment Studios, where he remains an advisor. Prior to Phase 2 Media, Grushow spent two years as Chief Content Officer at MediaLink, where he helped build an advisory practice in the digital content and distribution space, representing companies that included Paramount Digital Entertainment, Machinima, Maker, YouTube and Unilever.
Accolades:
Chairman, Fox CEO, Phase2Media CCO, Medialink
Social media:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandy-grushow-3479b212/
Alex Carloss
Biography:
Alex has held leadership posts for more than 25 years with best-in-class media and technology businesses. Early in his career, he held positions at The Walt Disney Company, WarnerMedia, Electronic Arts and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios. At Paramount/Viacom, he launched and helmed the studio’s digital distribution division. From 2011-2019, he worked for Google, steering YouTube’s original programming and partnerships businesses across Entertainment, Sports, News, Family and Gaming verticals globally, leading initiatives that supercharged YouTube’s ecosystem of creators, brands and fans. Since 2019, he has focused on the $100B mobile games category, both as a principal of N3twork Studios as well as blockchain games startup, Forte, where he presently works. Mr. Carloss holds a Master of Arts from the University of Edinburgh, and is a recipient of the annual Deloitte Award for Innovation.
Accolades:
N3twork: Principal & CXO YouTube: Sr. Director, Global Partnerships & Originals Paramount: GM & EVP, Digital
Social media:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexcarloss/
Tacita Morway
Biography:
Tacita Morway is a technology leader specializing in AI products that solve real problems. As CTO at Textio, she led R&D, product, and design for an AI-native platform, building production AI systems that served enterprise customers at scale. For over a decade, she has led engineering and product teams where AI and data have been core infrastructure— scaling ActBlue during hypergrowth serving millions of users, leading engineering teams at Salsify on its path to unicorn status, and building computer vision technology at Ditto, analyzing social media content at scale for brand intelligence. A frequent speaker on AI development and responsible technology, Tacita is known for choosing the right hard problems to solve and building the teams to solve them. She believes breakthrough products come from teams that are technically ambitious, deeply collaborative, and given the space to do their best work.
Social media:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tacita/
Richard Lewis
Biography:
Richard Lewis is a board-level media and technology executive and SXSW Board Member with over 20 years of experience driving global commercial strategy, platform monetisation, and digital transformation. A former Director at Google and YouTube, he led UK content partnerships and launched major platform features like Shorts, Premium, and Podcasts. His career spans commercial leadership at Paramount, HTC, and Acast, specialising in AI-driven innovation and scaling high-performing international teams.
Bring your brilliance
to the Room.
Great ideas are everywhere, but the talent to scale them is rare. We’re always looking for brilliant minds, from SaaS developers to media innovators—who want to help creators master their metrics and own their growth. Even if your perfect role isn’t listed, we want to hear from you.
No current positions
We’re not actively looking, but we’re always interested in talent. Please send us your resume for future consideration.
