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Who are the panelists?

The panel for the CNN Future Summit: Virtual Worlds is set. Featuring artists and executives forging the new frontiers of cyberspace, the program will premier on June 13 on CNN International. Originating from Singapore and Palo Alto, California, the program features creative visionaries and entrepreneurs leading us into a new age of creativity and imagination.

Trond Aas (Singapore)

CEO, Funcom
Trond Aas is a world leading independent developer and publisher of computer and console games with a focus on action adventure and massively multiplayer online games. Funcom is the developer of Anarchy Online, which has won 20 international awards. Since 1993 Funcom has provided the globe with outstanding entertainment and continues to expand its track-record of 23 released games to date, including the award winning and critically acclaimed Anarchy Online - The Notum Wars and the heralded masterpiece Anarchy Online - Shadowlands.

Stewart Butterfield

Co-Founder, Flickr
Stewart Butterfield is the Director of Product Management for Yahoo. Two years ago, Yahoo bought his company, Ludicorp, where Butterfield and his wife Caterina Fake co-founded the photography website Flickr and created the game Neverending.

Trip Hawkins (Stanford)

Founder & CEO of Digital Chocolate
Trip Hawkins has been a new media pioneer for 30 years. Early in his career, Trip played a key role in defining the personal computer at Apple. He went on to found Electronic Arts and built the company into the industry leader. Trip also founded 3DO, a pioneer in digital video, network gaming, and social communities. The author of three patents, Trip introduced the use of celebrities and athletes in video games. He received a MBA from Stanford University and developed his own major at Harvard University, where he graduated magna cum laude with a degree in Strategy and Applied Game Theory.

Zareh Nalbandian (Singapore)

Managing Director & Co-founder, Animal Logic
Zareh Nalbandian is Managing Director and co-founder of Animal Logic. In 2007, he won an Academy Award as the executive producer of the animated hit movie "Happy Feet." He helped define the original vision for the company and has subsequently managed its growth into Australia's most creatively and technically advanced visual effects house. With an astute business sense and instinct for new venture opportunities, he oversees Animal Logic's ever strengthening position as a world standard digital production studio.

Ellen Poon (Stanford)

President & Creative Director, Lancet Films
Ellen Poon is a visual effects artist who has worked on some of the biggest films of all time. You've seen some of her work in movies such as "Jurassic Park," "Star Wars: Episode I," "Men in Black," "Mars Attacks" and "Shrek 2."

Philip Rosedale (Stanford)

Founder and CEO, Linden Lab
Philip Rosedale runs Linden Lab, the company that produces the Second Life. Rosedale has a degree in Physics from the University of California, and is known for his contributions to the development of streaming media and for having been the CTO of RealNetworks after they bought his company, FreeVue, in 1996. Rosedale has stated that his goal with Second Life is to demonstrate a viable model for a virtual economy or virtual society. In his own words, "I'm not building a game. I'm building a new country."

Jimmy Wales (New York)

Founder, Wikipedia
Jimmy Wales is an Internet entrepreneur and wiki enthusiast, and founder of the Wikimedia Foundation - a non-profit organization that operates the free online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, as well as other open-source projects. Born in Huntsville, Alabama, Jimmy is a graduate of Auburn University and the University of Alabama. He currently sits on the board of the Wikimedia Foundation, as well as manages his new for-profit venture, Wikia.

Leo Sang-Min Whang (Singapore)

Professor of Psychology, Yonsei University
Holding an MA and PhD from Harvard University, psychologist Dr. Whang's main interest was how human behaviour changes through social-cultural circumstances. Since the Internet stirred up his imagination, he has studied cyber psychology and youth culture with an emphasis on online gamers. He wrote his first book, "There is another 'me' in the cyber space", in 2000, while his follow up work, "New generation of Korean in cyberspace" was an epitomic piece on changes in Korean youth culture. He currently contributes to the research on Asian youth culture through role playing on-line games, such as Lineage.

Buddy Ye (Singapore)

CEO, WangYou Media
Mr Buddy Ye is Co-founder and CEO of Beijing-based WangYou Media (www.wangyou.com external links), a leading youth-oriented social networking service company in China. Mr Ye has over ten years of experience in founding, leading and managing start-up companies in China's new media and technology sector. Previously, Buddy was the founding member of MeetChina (renamed to MeetWorldTrade), a cross-border e-commerce company, and ECantata, a web-based software and consulting firm.

Nick Yee (Stanford)

Founder, The Daedalus Project
Nick Yee is currently a PhD student in the Department of Communication at Stanford University. At Stanford's Virtual Human Interaction Lab, he conducts experimental studies exploring social interaction and self-representation in immersive virtual reality. Nick is also the founder of The Daedalus Project, an online survey of over 40,000 online gamers on a wide variety of issues. His work has appeared in many news outlets, including The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal, and Business Week.

Contributors

Jeremy Bailenson
Director, Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab.

Richard Bartle
Fellow at University of Essex and co-creator of the first massive multiplayer role-pay online game, MUD1

Danah Boyd
PhD Candidate, University of California, Berkeley

Charles Giancarlo
Chief Development Officer, CISCO

Jeff Green
Editor, Games for Windows Magazine

Roger Guyett
Visual Effects Supervisor, ILM

Henry Jenkins
Director, MIT Comparative Media Studies Program

Raph Koster
Founder & President, Areae

Jane McGonigal
Alternate-Reality Game Designer

Ruben Steiger
Founder & CEO, Millions of Us

Michael Sanders
Motion Capture Guy, ILM

Colum Slevin
Singapore Head of Production, ILM

Sherry Turkle
Director, MIT Initiative on Technology and Self

Bill Turpin
CEO & Founder, Multiverse