Biography
Cathal co-founded Brown Bag Films in 1994. In 2015 Brown Bag Films was acquired by 9 Story Media Group and Cathal became the COO of 9 Story media group responsible for all animation Production, HR and Technology across the group. Employing over 1,100 talented staff across studios in Dublin, Toronto, New York, Manchester and Bali, Brown Bag Films mission is to produce the best quality work for children on television.
In 2002 Cathal directed the short film 'Give Up Yer Aul Sins' which was nominated for an Academy Award® and in 2010 Brown Bag Films were nominated for a second Academy Award® with the short film 'Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty' directed by Nicky Phelan.
A graduate of ‘Leadership For Growth’ executive education programme at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. He has studied child psychology and is an honorary Fellow of IADT National Film School. Cathal was nominated for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year programme and has won an Emmy, a Peabody Award and the Murakami Award at Dingle Animation.
Areas of Expertise for Mentoring
- Animation production pipelines and workflow
- Corporate governance (choosing and chairing a board of directors etc)
- Corporate finance fundraising and working with VC or Private Equity
- Intellectual property exploitation (distribution etc)
- Production Technology (pipelines)
- M&A integration
- Leading and building teams
- Strategic HR and organisational infrastructure