Peter Rivera

SVP, Interactive Design & Development
AOL Programming

It's possible that most things I have learned about creativity I initially discovered by watching the movie "JAWS" (1975) over 40 times. I shall explain.

I got my start as a designer and illustrator in 4th grade by collaborating with my best friend to create a "Mad-magazine-like" satire of the entire film. Since I drew Quint, after he was eaten, I was relegated to drawing "clouds and waves", which also taught me to plan ahead whatever the project.

There are valuable lessons regarding economy in "visual storytelling" and "keeping an audience engaged". Pretty obvious. But there is a good lesson in there around "practicing restraint" in that it is far better to show no shark or conservatively leverage a broken mechanical shark, than flaunt a CG-created monstrosity as we often do today. It was perhaps my first lessons in KIS, "keep it simple". What is perceived by others as limitations (a broken shark causing severe schedule slips) can actually be your catalyst for something truly original, something never seen before. And, pertinent to our industry, technology will only take you so far before you need to have an idea. The development world has its share of broken mechanical sharks.

An epiphany about the dualities in human nature occurred (perhaps around the 10th viewing?) as our three protagonists venture out to catch the shark. My reading is that they are symbolically the sides of ONE PERSON all vying for control of the situation. You have the Emotional side (Martin Brody), the Scientific side (Matt Hooper), and the raging MANIAC (Quint with his "I'll-never-put-on-a-life-jacket-again" speech). As a designer and creative director of experiences, I have spent my career wrestling and balancing those aspects of myself to create great work. On occasion those internal battles have been dramatic.

In terms of Mr. Spielberg, the big lesson from him is to get it done whatever happens—as the expectations are high and it is all (seemingly) falling apart. And to build a great team to pull it together while you are sleeping on the couch for a few hours.

I could go on with about 15 other lessons, but this is supposed to be the short bio. Oh yeah, and I manage a team of over 150 brilliant and dedicated web professionals at one of the world's greatest interactive brands. Before that, during Web 1.0, I did interactive marketing and design for a company called Modem Media in both California and Connecticut. Good times.

Rachel Been

Photo Editor, AOL Latino, Musica

Someone once called me an effervescent bundle of mania. I guess that is fairly accurate when looking at my incongruous yet short chronology of life events. I originally anticipated a career in neurosurgery or working as a serial killer investigator with the CIA, but was soon deterred when my father offered me his old Canon AE and a darkroom in our basement. I quickly developed wrinkly chemical hands and an affinity for the history of photography. I would concurrently print my own negatives and peruse my father’s old images - Martin Luther King, Mario Savio delivering speeches at UC Berkeley, Joan Baez, the Black Panther Movement, Anti-Vietnam marches. Years later I would look at similar images while sifting through prints at the Smithsonian Institution and at Magnum, and wonder if the images I shot of raging anarchists in Barcelona, impoverished migrant workers, or bloodied protestors pre-Iraq war, would encourage my future family to work within photography.

I am part of a generation of shooters, editors, Art Historians (my degree gave me a title!) who appreciate the yellowing archival images of Capa's wars, the visceral quality of film grain, the personal effect of a medium format portrait, but who also are excited to be participatory in the future...a novel generation of video capturing, of post-production pushed to its moral limits, of images transmitted live to online newsprint. Perhaps one day I will get to explore neurosurgery, but for now I am content with what my wrinkly-handed roots have brought me: the possibility to evolve and evolve with an art form.

Allison Bucchere

VP, AOL Lifestyle Design

Allison Bucchere is the Creative Director for AOL's nine lifestyle web sites (food, living, stylelist, coaches, horoscopes, diet/health, books, home and parenting) reaching about 20 million unique visitors each month. Over the past seven years at AOL she has worked in both the San Francisco and Virginia offices, developed advertising creatives generating $500 million/year and designed web experiences for shopping, travel, kids and teens audiences. Before AOL, she ran her own design consultancy focusing on skincare, big 5 consulting and wine industries. She served on the AIGA San Francisco event planning committee from 1998-2002. Allison is an avid photographer, baker and 1940's-style swing dancer who enjoys spending time with her husband and little girl in Arlington, VA.

Jason Cranford Teague

Director, Web Design Standards
AOL Programming

Jason Cranford Teague is the Creative Director for the top youth culture Web site, AOL RED (beRED.com). He is also a member of the W3C's CSS Working Group, the advisory board for Sessions.edu, and regularly contributes software reviews to Macworld Magazine. As if that wasn't enough to keep him busy, he is also the Internet Strategist for Yuri's Night (yurisnight.net) the World Space Party and keeps a Web designer's blog at webbedENVIRONMENTS.com. Jason writes books (mostly so he can remember how to do all of this stuff) including the best selling CSS, DHTML, and Ajax Visual Quick-start Guide (Peachpit Press), Final Cut Pro and the Art of Filmmaking (Sybex), and Photoshop CS at Your Fingertips (Sybex). He lives with 2 cats and 2 kids, but only the one wife.

Michael Costantino

Principal UI Designer and Information Architect

Michael Costantino is Principal UI Designer and Information Architect at AOL where he labors energetically to bring new and improved experiences to the glass. For over 15 years he has managed the creation and lifecycles of award-winning technology products ranging from websites, to CD-ROMs, to e-Learning architectures, to fitness hardware/software, to computer sound equipment/software, and more. In recent years Costantino has lead major information architecture initiatives for Intel, AOL, Pitney Bowes, IBM, Aetna, New Balance, Nordic Lottery Systems, and Prentice Hall. He has taught and written about information architecture and is committed to bringing keen intelligence, quality, innovation, excitement, and the feeling of "just right" to his work. Mike has two Master of Music degrees from the University of Michigan, and a BA in Music and Astrophysics from Williams College, where he received the Hubbard Hutchinson Fellowship upon graduation for outstanding creative work. His life is held in balance thanks to family, friends, ultimate frisbee, music, a cappella, and sleeping on the train. "tutto nel mondo é burla" Verdi, Falstaff

Cathaleen Curtiss

Director, Photography

Cathaleen Curtiss is Director of Photography at AOL. The photography department creates the editorial photo presentations and features, manages and assigns original photography for AOL. She has advocated for the elevation of photography at the online service, growing the staff from 3 photo editors in 1997 to its current organization. Cathaleen has been a champion of expanding photojournalism online, directing the development of AOL Visions—a photo content-centric area that features dozens of photo galleries and photo features on an ongoing basis. Cathaleen attended Rochester Institute of Technology, where she studied photography, and went on to graduate from Central Michigan University with a degree in journalism. She worked at several newspapers of varying sizes from Texas to Ohio as a photographer before moving to Washington, D.C., to work at the Washington Times. While at the Times, she photographed everything from Super Bowls to superpower summits, covered three presidential administrations and handled daily assignments both as a photographer and editor. Cathaleen is a member of NPPA and the WHNPA and was named The White House News Photographer Association's Photographer of the Year in 1990. She has won numerous other regional and national photography awards and is a frequent panelist at industry conferences and seminars.

John Kilpatrick

VP, AOL Entertainment Design Studio

John Kilpatrick has worked in the interactive design field for over 11 years. Currently, he is the creative director for the AOL Entertainment Design Studio in New York. He is responsible for leading the design experience and creative teams for: AOL Music, Moviefone, AOL TV, AOL Radio, AOL Games and Gamedaily. Prior to joining AOL, he was a founding partner of a New York City design studio (Double K Design) where he focused his company’s efforts on clients such as: Prada, Estée Lauder, Mercedes-Benz, Cynthia Rowley, Nike, Honda, Versace, B&B Italia and the 60 Thompson Hotel. Before running his own company, he consulted with Organic and Razorfish and worked full-time with Cambridge Technology Partners User Experience Lab in New York in a creative leadership position.

Bill Knight

Creative Director, Experience Design

Bill Knight is the Creative Director of AOL's suite of information based websites, News, Sports, Money, Technology and Weather.

Since joining AOL in 2003, Bill has worked on projects ranging from AIM social media products, AIM.com, AIM Today and Uncut Video to name a few.

Bill's design career spans 14 years, from its early beginnings in traditional print and ad-vertising transitioning quickly into the digital realm. It's here that Bill worked on award winning interactive products with clients ranging from Motorola, Gulfstream, PGA of America, Biogen, Pharmacia, Pfizer, Fidelity and others.

In Bill's younger years, life was all about flying. Just one week after his first birthday, Bill made his first log book entry. It was at that moment his passion (and addiction) for aviation began. He has spent a great deal of life with his feet off the ground, and although flying isn't his day job, aviation is still a large part of his life. Through the training, memories and lessons learned, Bill has applied them to each stage of his life.

In addition to flying, Bill enjoys life outside work with his wife, two daughters and Boston Terrier, Roxy.

Trevor McFarland

Director, Programming Product Development

I was destined to be a designer. Well, sort of. I went off to college with aspirations of designing cars, maybe for Ford or GM. After finishing my undergraduate degree in Aerospace Engineering with a concentration on fluid mechanics, I entered the workforce far from the land of design. The chosen (okay, so it's all I could find at the time) field of satellite communications resulted in me writing software to plot positions of tracked planes on a map. If only I had the mashup power of Google Maps at the time! But the timing was perfect because as the power of the web emerged I went with it. Not before long I was working at an emerging stalwart called America Online and explaining to my friends what "http" meant when seen on movie posters. Fast forward many years and although the company's mission has changed I'm still doing what I love - conceiving, defining and delivering better ways for people to discover and consume information that helps them improve their lives. Fortunately I have a lot of expert designers working with me to help make that happen.

Lara Rodriguez

Director, Creative Operations

Lara Rodriguez heads up Creative Operations for AOL’s Interactive Design and Development groups in New York, Virginia and Bangalore, India. Currently based in NYC, Lara began her career in 1992 as a graphic designer for GSD&M Advertising in Austin, Texas, after graduating from Texas State University with a BFA in Painting and Graphic Design.

Her den-mother/navigator/firefighter abilities lent themselves beautifully to design and creative management in San Francisco for Young & Rubicam and JWT, then later as Director of Creative Services for Wieden & Kennedy, New York. She has built a career on streamlining creative departments, supporting designers and their endeavors (affectionately likened to “herding cats”), and cultivating strategic partnerships with Creative Directors and supporting departments alike.

Lara has been with AOL since March of 2006, and continues her love of all things creative surrounded by the best group of creatives in the country.

Sun Sachs

VP, Key Experiences

As a seasoned creative, Sun brings together a decade of interactive experience across multiple disciplines including: design, animation, online video, rich media advertising, front-end technologies, product development and experience design.

Sun is the Director of the AOL Key Experiences group which is a rich media design and development organization that works laterally across AOL Programming channels on global capabilities, custom programs and high value ad integrations. Previously Sun worked at a number of interactive agencies for leading brands like Mercedes-Benz, Verizon Wireless, TNT, Discovery Channel, Cablevision and Coty Beauty. Sun has been awarded numerous accolades including: Webbys, Site of the day and an Emmy nomination for The Top 11 Video Countdown Show.

Sun lives with his wife and two kids in Manhattan and is also an avid digital photographer and Triathlete.

Milissa Tarquini

Director, User Interface Design & Information Architecture

Milissa Tarquini is Director, User Interface Design and Information Architecture at AOL. An AOL veteran since 1995, she has been an integral part of creating the AOL legacy of designing easy-to-use software and content areas. She vaguely remembers her previous life as a graphic designer. She graduated from Hofstra University with a Bachelor’s degree from a whirlwind triple major of CompSci, Human Factors, and Fine Art. Her parents still can't believe their luck that the education they paid for has real application to her everyday work. Milissa is originally from South Jersey, but moved to the DC area on a whim in 1993. She lives in Arlington, VA, and if she is not at the AOL offices trying to slash meaningless features from products, you can find her with her husband chasing their toddler-aged daughter, Isobel.