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Board of Directors

Karl Muth

Karl Muth is a co-founder of Channel G. Before his work with Channel G, he worked on a nationwide project to bring needed educational resources to underserved constitutencies. Karl is a graduate student at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business with a planned concentration in Economics. He holds a J.D. from The John Marshall Law School in Chicago and studied law at Universiteit Nederlandse Ant. He also has completed programs at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in Portfolio Management and Corporate Strategy. He has published papers on a wide variety of legal and business topics, including securities regulation, corporate governance, and Internet privacy issues.

Jim Fournier

Jim Fournier is the founder of Biomass Energy & Carbon a startup company, which offers a fundamental technology breakthrough for reversing climate change by producing sustainable energy along with agricultural charcoal from biomass. He co-founded Planetwork, a San Francisco-based non-profit network of people and organizations that share ecological and social justice values using the Internet. Jim has worked as an industrial designer, software developer, industrial ecologist, and entrepreneur. He is also working on a doctoral dissertation re-framing the evolution of technology in the context of biological evolution, entitled Meta-Nature. Fournier did undergraduate work in architecture, physics and chemistry at Bennington College and went on to study architecture at MIT. He chairs the New Visions Grants Committee at the Threshold Foundation, and is on the advisory boards of the Highfield Foundation, Meru Foundation, Buckminster Fuller Institute, People's World, ManyOne Networks and SF Green Maps.

Andrew H. Orgel

Andrew H. Orgel is Chairman & CEO, Global Media Group, a holding company with a select portfolio of high-growth opportunity media, entertainment and technology businesses. His career is anchored in the startup and management of innovative media and entertainment brands, the launch of some of the most successful global television networks and the creative development of consumer-driven interactive media. One of the industry’s most strategic and creative marketers and programmers, Orgel has been a senior executive at six television network startups, helped complete three corporate turnarounds and advised media, telecommunications and technology companies on their conception, financing, development, management, business models and market entry.

Following programming, operations and advertising sales positions at CBS, Orgel was part of the start-up team at the CBS FM Radio Division, where he led the New York Office, overseeing advertising sales. He left CBS after 6 years to start-up MTV Networks where he served as Vice President, Sales & Marketing of MTV, Nickelodeon and The Movie Channel. Following that, Orgel was recruited to join the start-up team at Arts & Entertainment Network where he originally served as Vice President, Affiliate Sales & Marketing and later the network’s Senior Vice President, Programming & Production.

In 1988, Orgel was asked to establish and lead the world’s first interactive television network.  As President & CEO of Video Jukebox Network (“the Box”), he directed the national launch of the youth market music television service and its growth to 14 million U.S. and U.K. households, via 170 viewer-programmed, interactive channels. Forbes featured The BOX as an “Up and Comer” and Fortune called the company “one of the most fascinating ideas” for the ‘90s. Orgel was labeled by Success Magazine as the man who “made TV interactive.” After Orgel’s departure, the company was purchased by Viacom’s MTV Networks.

In 1992, Orgel co-founded Interactive Enterprises to create interactive television properties with leading media, telecommunications and technology companies throughout the world including Philips Media, Sony Pictures Television, JskyB [Newscorp], Wink Communications [now Open TV] and Netcom Online Communications [now Earthlink]. Interactive Enterprises joined with U.S. West [now Qwest] to create Interactive Video Enterprises where Orgel developed a suite of interactive television services for digital broadband delivery.

He is a graduate of Ithaca College where he received his B.S. in Television & Radio. Orgel has served as a keynote speaker at major media and entertainment industry events around the world. In addition to Channel G, Orgel currently serves on the boards of QOL (Quality of Life) Media Inc., GLife, Inc., Channel Lab, LLC and the emerging global music brand, passportM. He is the newly appointed Chairman of the Ithaca College Park School of Communications Advisory Board.

Elizabeth King

Elizabeth is a co-director of the Steiner-King Foundation which funds in a variety of areas including media, the environment and social justice. She has worked for many years with several foundations and organizations with a focus on transformational philanthropy. She has also worked for more than a decade in the social profit arena as a fundraiser, networker and consultant. She has been involved in Channel G from its nascent stages, serving as a founding board member and ongoing consultant. Other arenas of interest and study include film, music, energy work and the areas of consciousness and spirituality.

Josiah Raison Cain

Josiah Raison Cain is a landscape architect, permaculturalist, and ecological designer who has been working on issues of environment, the arts, and social equity for many years both professionally and as a community leader. He brings 13 years of non-profit board experience, and has served terms on the Marin Community Foundation Community Partnership Committee, Lagunitas School Facilities Committee, San Geronimo Planning Group, and Marin Countywide Plan Built Environment Committee. Raison has owned two sustainable design firms and currently manages the Marin County office of Rana Creek Living Architecture. His green design experience has been applied to several buddhist retreat centers, civic & commercial projects, organic agriculture sites, schools, and high profile private properties.

Cain holds a BS  in Landscape Architecture from UC Davis and a Master of Design Technology & Environment from Harvard's Graduate School of Design. He regularly lectures on Green Building, Urban Ecology, Ecological Infrastructure, and Right Livelihood, and has addressed audiences at UC Berkeley, Harvard, SFSU, the Esalen Institute, Harvard Club of San Francisco, and many other venues. He currently serves as a board member for Kleiwerks International, a non-profit that educates and trains under-served communities worldwide to create sustainable housing out of local, natural building materials.

Patricia Karpas

Patricia Karpas is President of Karpas Ventures., a strategic consulting company that specializes in digital media for mature media companies, emerging start ups and non-profits. Previously, she was General Manager of the Television group at AOL where she built the AOL TV Channel and was responsible for the development of Joint Ventures with Networks and Studios. Before joining AOL in 2001, Karpas spent 11 years with NBC where she served as an executive in both the broadcast and cable divisions, including CNBC, NBC, and NBC Interactive. While at NBC.com, she lead the development of innovative, interactive business strategies for NBC programs like Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show, Homicide, ER, and The Olympics. Prior to joining NBC, Karpas spent six years with Time Warner Cable where she was responsible for marketing and retention strategies for Cable Systems. Her portfolio of consulting clients has included companies like Discovery Communications, Animal Planet, People Magazines' Digital Group, Entertainment Weekly, Fremantle Communications, Makeover Solutions inc., Zazengo and more. She is on the Board of NATPE, National Association of Television Programming Executives, and Channel G.TV, a studio that develops short films to showcase the work of non-profits. She is also deeply involved with the Artists for Charity Children's Home, an orphanage for 15 HIV+ children in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In this capacity, she has built a sponsor program and has developed a line of greeting cards, designed by the children, to raise funds. Karpas holds a BS from the University of Colorado and an MBA in Finance and Marketing from the University of Denver.