JENNIFER MURRAY

Chief Executive Officer / Executive Producer

Jennifer Murray is the founder of GENEVE SKYE and Executive Producer of the company’s exclusive and co-productions. Witnessing common struggles faced by early-stage non-profit founders, Ms. Murray was inspired to create a social enterprise whose majority profits offer financial sustainability to entrepreneurial humanitarian organizations.

The pFILM Campaign™ she champions marries (philanthropy +FILMS) within a company context to relieve the overwhelming financial and publicity needs commonly faced by newfound social entrepreneurs whose innovative humanitarian solutions have potential for large-scale societal impact.

Ms. Murray’s distinguished experience in communication and leadership focuses on producing impactful and entertaining motion picture and television pFILMS (philanthropy +FILMS)™ that maximize returns on investments and contributions for humanitarian aid.

In communities worldwide individuals are pioneering approaches to revolutionize quality-of-life for the marginalized and disadvantaged. Too often in the early stages of organizational development, a founder’s enterprising impact is limited by a shortfall of financial resources.

Higher Education

Jennifer Murray holds a graduate degree in communication with a research focus on the Creative Process of Entrepreneurship; including doctoral work in strategic leadership. Ms. Murray is the current Chairman of the Alumni Board for the Regent University School of Communication & the Arts and former Chairman of the Regent University Executive Alumni Board.

Leadership Development

In academe, Ms. Murray has served in the Center for Civic Engagement at Rice University as a director of the leadership development program, Leadership Rice. Her primary responsibilities centered on preparing emerging leaders for positions of life-long leadership. Jennifer taught/co-taught Leadership Theory to Practice, the advanced Leadership Practicum, Entrepreneurial Leadership, Creativity, and the special topics Leadership Certificate Seminar on Dialogue, Values and Ethics.

Communication Strategies

Prior to joining Rice University, Ms. Murray established GENEVE Strategies, a communication consultancy servicing higher education, non-profit and entrepreneurial markets in Texas, Virginia and Washington, D.C. Engagements concentrated on corporate communications, leadership development and communication strategy, and incorporated her professional certification as a leadership coach and coach trainer.

Relationship Cultivation

Throughout her career, Ms. Murray has developed professional relationships with a broad spectrum of organizations that contribute to society, including the United Nations World Food Programme, Capital One Bank, the Department of Education, Fox News, the City of Houston Office of the Mayor, National Science Foundation and the National Diversity Council.

Humanitarian Aid

Previously, as an executive during the startup of The First Response Team of America—a non-profit dedicated to improving expediency and quality of response to natural disasters in rural America—she applied her inspiration to organizational strategy and development, public and media relations, marketing communication and resource development. Having been nominated by Ms. Murray, the organization's founder was honored as a 2008 Top Ten CNN Hero of the Year and, in Houston, was bestowed The Jefferson Award for Public Service.

Jennifer Murray is a native Houstonian and an alumna of Leadership Houston.

RENEE SPADACHENE

Vice President

As an executive with GENEVE SKYE LLC, Renee Spadachene collaborates on the strategic and conceptual components of the business and is passionate about the company’s overall development and expansion. Renee is a vision-oriented team player with proven leadership capacities as an adept communicator who successfully builds strong teams that accomplish challenging objectives.

A professional with more than 15 years of experience in sales, marketing and successful non-profit money management, Mrs. Spadachene has a targeted focus on fiduciary responsibility, revenue generation and revenue flow—highly transferable skills which correlate precisely to the GENEVE SKYE balanced producing approach to media production.

Corporate Experience

Mrs. Spadachene began her business career at Media Systems, Inc., a high-end home theatre design and installation company. Working directly with the owner of the company, she learned and executed all aspects of running a successful small business. At Media Systems, Renee’s passion for movies was ignited.

From Media Systems she embarked on a successful sales career at GE Capital ITS, where she cultivated her knowledge of technology and the sales process.

Mrs. Spadachene went on to sell Enterprise Resource Planning software for HTE, Inc. that encompassed all the working areas of local government. Deals ranged from single module sales to comprehensive multi-million dollar systems. She continued her professional career at a thriving internet startup purchased and spun off by HTE, Inc: Onvia Demandstar (NASDAQ: ONVI).

At Onvia, Mrs. Spadachene identified funding sources, qualified and developed new accounts, and negotiated corporate and municipal licensing contracts. She specialized in Business to Government (B2G) technology sales, regularly led her team in reaching aggressive sales targets, and successfully developed a greenfield region into a thriving business unit.

Civic Engagement

Today, Mrs. Spadachene holds two nonprofit board positions where she affects growth for their respective causes. While serving as Secretary on the Board of Fort Bend Youth for Christ, she has applied her professional expertise in revenue generation toward management and execution of multiple fundraisers benefiting the charitable organization. Renee has served on the FBYFC board for over ten consecutive years.

Mrs. Spadachene also served on the civic board of the Houston West Road Community Preservation Alliance for 5 years. Her relentless commitment to community concerns was instrumental in stopping a large company from exploiting a protected environmental sanctuary for economic purposes.

Higher Education

Mrs. Spadachene is an alumna of the University of Houston's C.T. Bauer College of Business where she earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in Entrepreneurship. In 2008, the Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship at Bauer College was ranked first in the top 25 undergraduate entrepreneurship programs in the U.S. by Entrepreneur Magazine and The Princeton Review.

Renee Spadachene resides in her native Houston with her husband and two young children.

JASON RICHARDS

pFILMS Producer

At the helm of GENEVE SKYE’s pFILMS Division, Jason Richards manages the inception, intake, review, and cultivation of creative film and television properties (including finished works, screenplays and story treatments) according to the purposes and policies of Geneve Skye’s philanthropic mission. Additional responsibilities include the establishment and promotion of the pFILM™ ("Philanthropic Film") brand, and building and maintaining scalable infrastructure for Geneve Skye's Development Department.  Mr. Richards operates in physical production as a director and producer.

Communication & the Arts

Mr. Richards’s professional career in communication and the arts has its roots in his love for the theatrical. While completing his undergraduate business studies at the University of Florida, he toured the state with a theatrical troupe doing repertory performances. He also traveled to Rio de Janeiro in 1996 for a summer Portuguese language exchange program; a component of his Portuguese language minor. After earning his bachelor’s degree, Richards relocated to Miami, where he worked as a software firm department manager at New Generation Computing, Inc. before leaving corporate life to pursue acting. He went on to perform in leading theatrical roles at a variety of venues including the Dade County Auditorium, Actor’s Playhouse, and the Broward Center for the Performing Arts.

Richards landed his first television appearance, a recurring role as a Spanish-speaking gringo on the La Família Fernandez segment of Univision’s long-running variety show Sábado Gigante. His most notable performance was opposite Dean Jones in the nationally syndicated television movie Scrooge & Marley, in which Jones played Ebenezer Scrooge and Richards portrayed Scrooge’s sensible and less-jaded nephew Fred.

Richards discovered his love for writing and directing during his two year tenure as drama teacher at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Day School in Miami’s Coconut Grove. There he wrote five of the 11 plays he directed for the school’s first through sixth grades, including The Final Frontier, a sci-fi adaptation of the 1806 Lewis and Clark Expedition loosely based on the television classic Star Trek. This newfound love of writing and directing led Richards to move to Virginia Beach, VA to study the art of filmmaking at Regent University.

Humanitarian Aid

Richards’ time in Miami also introduced him to his love of humanitarian outreach—a passion which resulted in numerous visits to Nicaragua to work with the Buzbee and Farrington families of Open Heart Ministries in Managua. In Nicaragua, he has been privileged to help lead camps for children of La Chureca—the neighborhood in Managua’s city dump—on an annual basis since 2003. Richards quips, “I go down there every chance I get. And for selfish reasons; I get more out of the experience than anybody. It’s a huge blessing for me.”

Higher Education

Mr. Richards holds an M.A. Communication with a concentration on Cinema-Television Directing, and B.A. Business Administration from the University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business Administration.

MICHAEL SALTAR

Sr. Director of Marketing & Special Projects

As the Sr. Director of Marketing and Special Projects, Michael Saltar provides Brand Development and Creative Direction at the corporate and project levels. He is also the company liaison for Special Projects conducted in association with our business partners and friends in Europe. As a strategic and creative marketing specialist with over two decades of accomplished and progressive leadership as a Creative Director, Michael has developed and successfully led highly adept professional teams whose collective resume includes Emmys and Clios, along with an impressive media-related portfolio featuring work for Columbia Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, CBS, Hallmark Hall of Fame and Disney.

A true artisan who understands the business side of creative professions, Michael’s versatile experience deftly moves GENEVE SKYE forward in our philanthropic mission.

Musical Artistry

A rich and diverse cultural heritage in the arts and media have shaped the unique career and creative output of Michael Saltar. His father, Italian musician and motivational speaker Sam Saltar, shared the stage with such entertainment greats as Tony Bennett, Elvis Presley, Judy Garland, Liberace, Lucille Ball, Frankie Avalon, Milton Berle, and was a key player in the bands of Stan Kenton and Maynard Ferguson. This background afforded Michael a unique perspective into the development of the world’s first truly global music: the “big band era”.

Having performed hundreds of concerts with his father and other pop/classical-music artists such as piano showman, Dino Kartsonakis, Michael’s performances are truly powerful and captivating. He has emceed for live shows, writes for full orchestra and performs live as a concert pianist using 21st-century technology to enrich the experience with dramatic visuals and multimedia. As a stage writer for live productions, Michael’s scripts and musical scores breathe new life into historical epics such as his King David’s Secret.

Creative & Commercial Artistry

Passionate about combining the performing arts with the “quieter” side of visual and written arts, Michael also works as a fine artist, commercial illustrator, and screenwriter. He has been on the creative side of marketing, publishing and advertising for 23 years through his agency, Saltar Media, Inc. SMI team members have participated in projects that have won Emmys, Clios, and have personally won prestigious design and photography awards and have produced volumes of work for clients which include Dell Small Business, CompUSA, FILA, Dole, Chiquita, Deloitte & Touche, Columbia Pictures, Touchstone, CBS, CBN, Hallmark Hall of Fame, Market Street/United grocery stores, County Seat, the Southland Corporation, the Galleria, the Dallas Museum of Art, Hillwood Development (Ross Perot), Disney and Hyatt Hotels.

Thinking outside the proverbial box has led to high-profile opportunities such as executing branding and visual communications for Tampa-based GuardianLion Wireless, who developed the world’s first wristwatch/cellphone/GPS device. Other Saltar Media, Inc. clients include large-scale international organizations with multiple media outreaches including a #1 Nielson-rated Daily Christian TV Program, feature films, international conventions, recording studios, book and magazine publishing houses; and 720 Model, a Hollywood entertainment company introducing international superstars to the United States.

Champion for a Cause

In a modern world run rampant with increasing diagnoses of autism, after the birth of his firstborn son, Michael found his family was on the wrong side of the growing statistic in which 1 in 91 children are diagnosed with autism. He has become a tireless advocate for biomedical intervention for the reversal and prevention of autism-spectrum disorders. A champion of a cause close to home, his dedication is fueled by his love for his own son, and the realization that other families can experience similar reversals through biomedical treatments.

Higher Education

Mr. Saltar holds a Master of Music with a concentration in music composition and a special projects focus on interpretive stage drama. An alumnus of Baylor University, he graduated with a Bachelor of Music and focused on film scoring. Throughout his course of study his interests were honed in writing full orchestra while melding his broad artistic interests into a new medium that combines the arts and communications technology.

Michael Saltar’s passion for music and creative arts are only paled by his ardent and focused enthusiasm for raising his two young sons to be men who flourish in reaching their fullest potential and purpose in life.

DENESSA HAUDEK

Director of IT & Project Management Office

Corporate Experience
Denessa Haudek has over ten years of progressive experience in the Information Technology industry. Her experience has ranged from small start-up businesses to Fortune 500 companies. She has had the opportunity to work many facets of IT including network infrastructures and software and web development (SDLC). The past four years of her experience have been primarily focused on Web 2.0 technologies.

As a Corporate IT Director and Broadcast Operations Director for WhiteBlox online content streaming, she has worked with numerous organizations such as: The Jesus Film Project, Indy Racing League, Eros International (Bollywood), Clear Channel, Missouri School Board Association, and Autism Speaks.

Prior to her position with WhiteBlox, Mrs. Haudek grew her knowledge of the development lifecycle while working for Electronic Data Systems (EDS) as a Quality Advocate for the Quality Control Project Manager out of their communications vertical. She has also had the experience of corporate mergers and acquisitions and understands the trials and strategies IT—specifically infrastructure—may face.

Education
Mrs. Haudek is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) by the Project Management Institute, the leading membership association for the project management profession. In addition, she has earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in Management Information Systems (MIS) from the University of Houston’s C.T. Bauer College of Business.

Performing Arts
Denessa Haudek studied many forms of dance for 18 years and is a graduate of Houston’s High School for the Performing and Visual Arts—underscoring her interest for working in entertainment and the arts. She has studied with influences such as: Steven Boyd, Priscilla Nathan-Murphy, Sheila Barker, Savion Glover, and Dorrell Martin as well as the Houston Metropolitan Dance Center, Broadway Dance Center, and Steps on Broadway to name a few. Denessa has not only taught and choreographed for 5 years but has performed with Psophonia Dance Company and Houston Metropolitan Dance Company including performances at Choreographer’s X 6 and World Jazz Congress.

Civic Engagement
As a champion for children in her community, Mrs. Haudek has demonstrated community leadership by teaching dance to disabled and handicapped children to give them a deserved opportunity to perform for an audience. She has also volunteered to work with inner-city children in an after-school program to teach the musical The Wiz, with performances and rehearsals that offer a safe place to stay after school while introducing the children to new productive and life-enriching activities.

DOUG ROBINSON

Sr. Resource Development Officer

Corporate Experience
Doug Robinson is the newest team member to join Geneve Skye. Doug will focus his efforts on developing a functional fund raising campaign. His distinguished experience includes operational and sales management for Fortune 500 companies. Doug has served in The United States Air Force as a Security Specialist and was trained under the guidance of Special Forces. He was stationed in Ramstein A.F.B. Germany and participated in both the football and baseball squads.

Higher Education
His education includes a B.S. in Business Management and a B.A. in Psychology. Doug is currently pursuing a graduate degree in psychology.

STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP COUNCIL

Consultants & Advisors

Business / Legal

Lynne Dittmer, MBA	RLG International	Dallas
Bill Herrington, MBA	Capital One Bank	Houston
Jason Ryan, Esq.	CenterPoint Energy	Houston
Roberta Skebo, MBA	UH-SBDC	Houston
Courtney Smith, MBA/CPA	City of Houston	Houston
David Wimberly, CPA	The Blackthorne Group	Jacksonville, Fla.

Film / Television

Cindy Bond, President	Promenade Pictures	Los Angeles
Dennis Brown, Retired	Sony Pictures (fmr.)	Los Angeles
Michael Patrick, Dean	Regent Communication	Norfolk, Va.
Frank Yablans, CEO	Promenade Pictures	Los Angeles

With special thanks to: Leadership Houston & Rice University