Management
Ben Grass – Founder & CEO
Ben Grass is the CEO and Founder of Pure Grass Films. Pure Grass are currently developing a range of high end scripted television drama projects with creative partners including Justin Lin (Fast & Furious), Ben Younger (Bleed for This), David Eick (Battlestar Galactica), Jake Michie (Merlin), and Lucy and Professor Stephen Hawking. Previous credits include “Kirill” (which won a Webby and was nominated for a Digital Emmy) and “Beyond the Rave”, MySpace’s first original series outside the US. Ben was formerly responsible for Sony Pictures Digital in Europe and prior to that was Senior Advisor, Corporate Strategy at the BBC. Ben has an MBA from INSEAD, and a BA in History from Oxford University.
Advisors
Christophe Charlier – Chairman
Christophe Charlier is an international financier with significant experience in the financial services, natural resources, and sports and entertainment industries internationally. He most recently served as Chairman of the Board of Renaissance Capital, an investment bank specialized in emerging and frontier markets. He was previously a member of the Board of Directors of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets and Barclays Center, serving as Chairman of the Board of the Nets for four seasons including at the time of its move to Brooklyn. He has received production credits on a number of documentary films, including “Brooklyn Castle” for which he was nominated for a News and Documentary Emmy in 2014, and most recently the award-winning feature film “Race”, about the life of Jesse Owens.
Damian Lewis
Damian Lewis is an internationally renowned actor whose credits include Golden globe winning “Billions” (with Paul Giamatti); “Homeland” (starring alongside Claire Danes); “Band of Brothers” (produced by Steven Spielberg and Directed by Tom Hanks); Dreamcatcher (starring alongside Morgan Freeman) and Keane (Directed by Lodge Kerrigan). Damian is a partner at leading New York and London based film production company, Picture Farm.
Erica Motley – Board Member
Erica is currently a film and televisión consultant in New York where she packages projects for international producers and advises clients on film and televisión distribution and financing strategies. She also serves as the international acquisitions consultant for the K5 International sales agency and film fund.
Roger Vakharia
Roger is Managing Director, Global Alliances – Media and Entertainment at Microsoft. Until 2006, he was Managing Director of INTEL in Los Angeles, and was responsible for the company’s digital entertainment efforts and relationships with studios and record labels. Roger is now on the Board of Morgan Freeman’s digital content business Clickstar, and of EROS, owner of the largest library of Bollywood films in the world.
David Chermont
David is the CEO/Founder of Inbound Capital, an advisory boutique focusing on small & mid caps and start-ups. Prior to that, David built Equities from scratch at primary placement shop Anoa Capital. Prior to that, David was running Euro Mid Caps sales at Citigroup in London, where he has successfully rebuilt the franchise over the past 3 years (#3 ranked in Institutional Investors and Extel). Before Citi, David was co-head of team in charge of equity sales at RBS for Luxury Goods, Renewables and Mid Caps (2008-2009), after a position as Managing Director for Equity Sales at Bear Stearns Europe (2006-2008). He holds a Masters in Management from HEC Business School and a Masters in Finance from Dauphine University (Paris).