From Hollywood to Harvard to Bollywood to Singapore to Seoul, RICH Learning sought out and connected some of the brightest and best minds on the planet to aid us on our quest of access to excellence.
We send our gratitude to the following Academic, Business and Creative “ABC” Friends and Mentors who helped us crystalize our understanding of where the future of education needs to move. As MIT’s Alan Kay said, “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”
Academic INSPIRATION
Thanks to recent advances in brain-scan technology, we have learned more about how the brain learns in the last 10 years than we learned in the last 10,000. Today, in essence, we have a window into the learning brain. Yet, few educators are applying this knowledge to existing education systems, let alone to the future of boundryless Web 3.0 education systems. Meet some of the brilliant friends and mentors who have inspired us with their future-leaning wisdom, thought-provoking writing and tectonic brain-scan research:
Dr. Jin-Hoon Ahn · MSC Brain Neuro-Epistomologist, Yosei University (South Korea)
Dr. Manal Elwah · Founder, CEO Art2Care (Egypt)
Tamer Garip · Founder, XR Metaverse Labs, Near East University (Northern Cyprus)
Dr. Luther Luedtke · Former CEO, Education Development Center (Boston)
Dr. Charisse Oland · EdD, Founder Oland Consulting (Sioux Falls)
Dr. Aniruddh Patel · Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience and Music, Tufts (Boston)
Dr. He Qi · International Artist in Residence, Cambridge, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Berkley (China/LA)
Dr. John Ratey · Professor, ADD/ADHD/Exercise and the Brain Expert, Harvard (Boston)
Bart Teal · Founder, Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence (Chapin, SC)
Dr. Walter L. Tobin · Consultant, former President South Carolina State Department of Education (Columbia, SC)
Dr. Yaunjing Wilcox · Founder Education Evaluation Exchange (China/Minneapolis)
Dr. Maryanne Wolf · Founder Center for Dyslexia and Early Reading, Tufts, UCLA (Boston/LA)
Business INSPIRATION
How do you build the world’s top children’s brand from scratch? With world-class thinkers and doers who excel in their own fields. With the kindness, cautions and sometimes brutal honesty, these invaluable friends, mentors and advisors have given us friendship and wisdom to inform our creation of a richer Metaversal edTech.
Mina Abdelmalek · CEO at AAA Global Consulting (Cairo/LA)
Zahid Ali · Expert in Web3, Digital Assets, Blockchain, Strategic Growth, Tokenization, DeFi, DAOs, NFTs, Metaverse, GameFi (London)
Dr. Ted Baehr · Founder/CEO, MovieGuide, Animation Emmy and Multiple Award-winning Producer (Hollywood)
Ahmet Bilgen · Cypriot Entrepreneur, VC, Angel Investor (North Cyprus)
Jim Boettcher · Co-founder & Managing Partner Anthropocene Ventures (Silicon Valley)
Georges Chamchoum · Co-founder/Executive Director, Asian World Film Festival, Emmy and Multiple Award-winning Film Director & Producer (LA)
Richard B. Goldstein · Sr. Investment Advisor-B Riley Wealth (San Francisco)
Dr. Steve Goodwin · Founder/CEO, Turning West Consultanting (LA)
Sara Eid · Head of Transparency Unit-Media Expert, Egyptian Ministry of Finance (Cairo)
Mahboob Mahmood · Founder Knowledge Platform & Green Guardians (Singapore)
Will Oechsler · SVP at www.odb.org, C-Level Marketing Exec having led projects for McDonald’s, Reebok, Sony, Procter & Gamble, and Walt Disney World (Grand Rapids)
Pablo de Perez de Rosso · Netflix Head of Strategy, Planning & Analysis (LA)
Sumedha Saraogi · Cheif Marketing Officer, Toonz.co and Head of Business Development, Cinema Management Group (India)
Amrita Sethi · First NFT Artist in the Middle East (UAE)
Dr. Jeanni Yi · CEO of DYF Entertainment & Family Film Awards (China/NYC)
Jeyanti Yorke · Co-Founder and Chief Encouragement Officer at Leaders.org (Singapore)
Paul Zadorsky · EVP, Crayola International (Canada)
Creative INSPIRATION
All the dazzling tech in the world won’t do much without the creative sparks, passions and imaginations of innovative people. As we gear up for world-music, world-games, and world-tech on a world-class gaming platform, here’s a tip the hat to these masters of creativity who enrich our journey and inspire our future:
Andrea Andrea · Disney voice artist, writer, singer, international philanthropist (LA)
Reuel Benedict · Founder & Music Director of Eggs Benedict Productions (India)
Michael Bridges · Double John Lennon Songwriting Winner, 5M miles and 5000 concerts with “Lost and Found”, music industry tech leader, on-stage comedian, currently Development Director of California Parks (LA)
Tom Brooks · Grammy & Latin Grammy-winning producer, 150 Sony Albums (6 Platinum, 12 Gold, plus a GMA Dove Award), keyboardist for Alan Parsons Project, professor (LA)
Yaupin Cao · Rising pop star of the Chinese cultural bureau (Nanjing)
Pete Michels, Emmy-nominated animator, supervising director/Bentabox (LA)
Todd & Jesse Ray Ernster · Minnesota Hall of Fame Band “The Killer Hayseeds” and producers of 750+ songs for Dr. Rich over 30 years (MSP/LA)
Moshe Hacmon · Award-winning architect, photographer, designer, actor, inventor, dancer, founder of Faces of Water nano-partial photography (Israel/LA)
Lori Hammel · Broadway, television and film actress, voice talent, comedienne, producer, writer, coach of original RICH Learning Series Skool (NYC)
Zhiming Han · Award-winning composer, performer, 100+ American and Chinese films (China/USA)
Tonia Hughes · Among Minnesota’s most gifted artists, Tonia is acclaimed for her transparent delivery, leaving audiences with a poignant electricity (MSP)
Hooman Khalili · Writer/Director/Producer, Cave Scribe Films, YouTube Personality, Bay Area Radio #1 Talent (20 Years), International Peace/Arts Producer, Children’s Cancer Advocate, Iranian Women’s Freedom Murals, Philanthropist (San Francisco)
Laura Marini · Emmy-nominated Co-Executive Producer New Dominion Pictures, director, voice actress, comedian, coach of original RICH Learning Series Skool (NYC)
Dr. Wintley Phipps · Multi-Grammy nominated singer, writer, philanthropist, founder of US Dream Academy, mentor to Oprah Winfrey, collaborator on the Tower of Virtue for RICH Learning (USA)
Yuval Ron · Award-winning international film composer, ensemble leader, mindfulness/healing neuroscience 40 hz album design. Composer of the Oscar-winning “West Bank Story” (Israel/LA)
Dapo Torimiro · Multiplatinum Producer/Songwriter, CEO at Dapomiro Productions (LA)
And then there’s Phil…
Finally, we honor our priceless and peerless mentor Phil Roman, the 6-Emmy Animation Legend Producer, Director, (The Simpsons, Garfield, The Grinch, Peanuts, Tom and Jerry).
“The more tectonic talent we gather around us, the more wonderful, thunderful and fun-fun-funderful our world.”
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
If you would like to join in the designs, evaluations, critiques and dreaming out loud with our team, fill out the form below. We will get back to you to find out how your interests, gifts and talents might add to future worlds we create together.