Charlie Fink (producer)

Charlie Fink was vice president for creative affairs at Disney. He is credited for pitching the story "Bambi in Africa" which later became The Lion King.[1][2] In 1992, Fink alongside Tim Disney purchased Virtual World game center in Walnut Creek[3] where he was EVP & COO. He is the author of the AR-enabled books Charlie Fink's Metaverse[4][5] and Convergence, How The World Will Be Painted With Data.[6] He is an adjunct faculty member teaching XR at Chapman University in Orange, California.[7]

For the British musician, see Charlie Fink.
Charlie Fink
Charlie Fink
OccupationAuthor Producer

Career

Fink started his career in the Animation Division of Walt Disney Pictures, where he rose to the position of vice-president. In his six years with Disney, Fink developed and produced animated motion pictures, including Beauty and The Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King, which was based on his idea, "Bambi in Africa".[1][2] In 1992, Fink left Disney to become Executive Vice-President, chief operating officer and Director of Virtual World Entertainment, a software developer and location-based Entertainment Company owned by Tim Disney.[3]

In early 1996, Fink joined AOL as Senior Vice-President and Chief Creative Officer of Greenhouse Networks,[8] where he created and launched some of the formative Internet's largest content brands, including Love@AOL, Electra, Entertainment Asylum, and Santa's Home Page (which he also co-produced with the late Brandon Tartikoff and Will Vinton as an ABC TV special).[8][9][10]

After leaving AOL in 1999, Fink founded eAgents.com, a daily email service that provided targeted news and entertainment to over five million Internet users each day. In September 2000, less than eight months after founding the company, with its initial product still in beta, eAgents was sold to American Greetings Interactive (AGI).[11] Fink served as President of American Greetings until 2003, and chairman until 2005. During his tenure, American Greetings acquired its two largest competitors, BlueMountain.com and eGreetings.com, and transitioned from a free site to a fee based subscription service with over five million paying subscribers.[12]

In 2005, Fink founded and operated digital marketing agency, Charlie Company, specializing in integrated lifestyle marketing campaigns for global brands, startups, and non-profits leveraging search engine marketing, search engine optimization, social, content creation, viral, guerrilla and experiential channels; clients included Sprint, eBay, Phoenix Education, Capital One, Moveon.org and others; created & produced YouTube series The Two McCains, 2008; created "The Other 98%" for Moveon.org in 2009,; developed and executed go-to-market strategy for Erodr, a venture backed geo social app for college campuses, driving 300,000 trials, 2012 – 2014.

Fink earned his BA Degree from Sarah Lawrence College and a Master of Fine Arts Degree from the Art Institute of Chicago.[13]

Theatrical career

Charlie Fink is the founder and artistic director of the New Musical Foundation, which produces readings, workshops, and festival productions of new musicals.[14] He was chairman of the board[15] of New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF),[15] from 2007 to 2017.[15] He was honored at the 2017 NYMF gala[15] alongside playwright Marsha Norman for his ten years of leadership. He was previously honored in 2014 by No Rules Theater Company.[16][14] Fink produced Who's Your Baghdaddy? at the Actor's Temple in New York City in 2015. The show nominated Best Musical by the Off-Broadway Alliance.[17] The New York Times called the production "a cunning, rock-solid musical comedy with a terrible title".[18] The show, its title shortened to Baghdaddy, was revived for a subsequent, limited run at St. Luke's Theater in New York City in March 2017. It played 46 performances and closed on July 2, 2017.[19]

References
  1. Tim Grieving (September 17, 2014). "The Music of The Lion King: A 20th Anniversary Conversation with Rob Minkoff and Mark Mancina". Projector and Orchestra. Retrieved March 6, 2015.
  2. "Roundtable Interview:The Lion King". Blu-Ray. September 28, 2011. Retrieved March 6, 2015.
  3. Patrice APODACA (December 14, 1993). "It's High-Tech Playtime". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 6, 2015.
  4. Charlie Fink (March 12, 2018). "Charlie Fink's Metaverse - An AR Enabled Guide to AR & VR". Amazon. Retrieved February 22, 2020.
  5. Charlie Fink's Metaverse – An AR Enabled Guide to AR & VR. Cool Blue Media. January 8, 2018. ISBN 978-1640079793.
  6. Charlie Fink (September 21, 2019). "Convergence World Will Painted Data". Amazon. Retrieved February 22, 2020.
  7. Arp, Dennis (March 30, 2020). "Dodge College VR Class Reinvents Itself to Research Book on Virtual Collaboration". Chapman Newsroom. Retrieved April 24, 2020.
  8. Sharon McDonnell (October 22, 1997). "Behind the Screens at AOL's Entertainment Network". Retrieved March 6, 2015.
  9. Bruce Haring. "Launching Entertainment Vehicles in Cyberspace". USA Today. Retrieved March 6, 2015.
  10. John Geirland (November 2, 1997). "Making AOL a Media Company". Archive Wired. Retrieved March 6, 2015.
  11. John Backus (December 31, 2000). "AG Interactive". New Atlantic Ventures. Retrieved March 6, 2015.
  12. "E-Commerce Report:The possible sale of Blue Mountain Arts could lead to the end of the free online greeting card". The New York Times. South Africa. September 10, 2001. Retrieved March 6, 2015.
  13. "The Big Fish of the Fun Business". Information Technology Leaders. Archived from the original on October 18, 2014. Retrieved March 6, 2015.
  14. Lorraine Treanor (November 3, 2014). "Heís mad for musicals". Washington DC Theater Scene. Retrieved March 6, 2015.
  15. Ryan MCPhee (October 4, 2017). "Marsha Norman and Charlie Fink Will Be Honored at New York Musical Festivalís 2017 Gala". Playbill. Retrieved January 26, 2018.
  16. Joel Markowitz (October 26, 2014). "No Rules Theater Company proudly honors Charlie Fink with the 2014 RuleBreaker Award". Washington DC Metro Theater Arts. Retrieved March 6, 2015.
  17. "The Official 2016 Off Broadway Alliance Award Nominations". The Producer's Perspective. April 26, 2017.
  18. Anita Gates (October 13, 2015). "Whoís Your Baghdaddy?,í on the Difference Between Credible and Reliable Intelligence". The New York Times. Retrieved September 10, 2016.
  19. "Baghdaddy". Show Score. Retrieved January 26, 2018.
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