Current Board of Trustee Members
Mei-Lee Ney (Chair)
Diane Ziering (Vice Chair)
Diane Delpit Ziering joined the Otis Board of Trustees in 2012 and serves as Chair of the Audit Committee. She earned a BA from UCLA in Political Science with a minor in Art History, and a JD from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. Although the legal field was an interesting profession, raising a family shifted her attention toward charitable causes that can better the standard of living for people of all ages and backgrounds.
Education, housing, and healthcare are at the forefront of Ziering's volunteer and fundraising efforts. She supports several organizations, including Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA), CARE, Saban Free Clinic, and L.A. Family Housing. Her interest in the arts remains strong, and she and husband Michael support the L.A. Opera and have hosted the Pacific Palisades Film Festival. She is currently a member of MOCA's Drawings Committee and commits her time to the Otis College Board.
Leslie Belzberg (Treasurer)
Leslie Belzberg joined the Otis College Board of Trustees in 2020 and serves as Board Treasurer and Chair, of the Finance & Risk Management Committee.
Leslie is a film and television producer. She served as the Executive Vice President of Production at Imagine Entertainment and oversaw all elements of physical production in scripted television, unscripted documentaries, and features until 2022. Prior to Imagine, she was the Senior Vice President of Production at Gaumont and supervised both domestic and international productions, including Narcos for Netflix. She also served as head of production for Miramax and Endemol Shine. In addition, Leslie has been an independent feature and documentary producer, as well as a frequent collaborator of director John Landis. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and the Producers Guild of America.
Leslie’s daughter graduated from Otis College in May 2024.
James Hyman (Secretary)
James Hyman, a Los Angeles native and graduate of Princeton University is the CEO and Chairman of Hyman Inc., his family's multi-generational enterprise, that started over 3 generations ago by his great-grandfather. Today, Hyman Inc., is a multi-pronged global marketing and distribution company. Since 2009, the company has secured the exclusive worldwide license for Honeywell Home Security products and now distributes goods in over 90 countries world-wide. His passion for growth through collaboration and value creation continues to drive business expansion across enterprises. Mr. Hyman remains closely involved in the creative process including product development, global e-commerce, and platform expansion. His successful experience reinventing and rebranding the company, building a second company, and founding additional concerns has led to a passion for investment in series of start-ups, such as the nationally recognized, Ring/Amazon transaction.
James's philanthropy includes the GOFARR Charity - Children's Hospital Los Angeles, and City of Hope - Hardware/Home Improvement Division. He and his wife Leslie Weisberg are proud parents of twin sons.
James joined the Otis College Board of Trustees in 2021 and became the Secretary and Chair of Board Affairs in July 2024.
Dawn Baillie
Dawn Baillie (BFA ’86) joined the Otis College Board of Trustees in August 2020.
Dawn is a co-founding partner of BLT Communications, an entertainment advertising design agency employing over 100 passionate artists, strategists, and technologists. Since 1992, BLT has created award-winning campaigns for hundreds of film, television, streaming, and Broadway productions. In addition to numerous Clio Entertainment and Hollywood Reporter Key Art Awards (including Best Poster of the Past 35 Years for Silence of the Lambs). Dawn was honored with the inaugural Saul Bass Award, which recognizes talented creatives who demonstrate iconic and influential style.
In 2009, Dawn developed BLT Helps, a nonprofit arm dedicated to sharing BLT’s wealth of experience and creative resources with organizations making a difference in their communities. BLT Helps was inspired by her humanitarian and spiritual visits to India, where she was taught the value of selfless service.
In 2024, A retrospective of Dawn’s career was highlighted in an exhibition at Poster House Museum in NYC.
Dawn is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Scott Brown
Scott Brown was introduced to Otis College through the Board of Governors and became a member of the Board of Trustees in July 2024.
Scott is the founder of New Energy Capital Partners, an investor in clean energy infrastructure projects and developers. In 1988, Scott helped start the company which is now First Solar, the largest solar manufacturing company in the United States. From 1989-1992, he ran Glasstech Solar, Inc., a solar research and development company that held several records for thin film solar cell efficiency. From 1999-2005, Mr. Brown was a member of the National Advisory Council of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. NECP was acquired by Victory Capital Management in 2021.
In addition to his work in the renewable energy sector, Scott was a founding member of the Harvard Negotiation Project and President of Conflict Management Group, a non-profit international negotiation consulting company. HNP and CMG worked with leaders from Iran, South Africa, Sudan, El Salvador, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, and the former Soviet Union, among others, to facilitate peaceful management of conflict. CMG was acquired by Mercy Corps in 2001.
Scott is the current Co-Chair of the Board of Mercy Corps, an international relief and development NGO that operates in more than 40 countries, and is on the boards of several privately held clean energy companies and local New Hampshire non-profits. Scott is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School.
Roger Brown
Roger Brown joined the Otis College Board of Trustees in June 2020 and currently serves as the Chair of the Student Engagement Committee.
Roger is the chair and founder of the Salt Lick Incubator—the next phase in a career that has had many chapters. During his 20s, Roger spent several years living and working abroad; first as a teacher in rural Western Kenya, then in refugee programs in Thailand/Cambodia and Sudan.
He next founded Bright Horizons Family Solutions with his wife Linda Mason, becoming the leading provider of workplace child care in the US and beyond. The organization currently employs over 30,000 people in five countries and has been recognized as a great place to work and a leader in diversity, equity, and inclusion.
In 2004, Roger assumed the Presidency of Berklee College of Music where he served for 17 years. Under his leadership, Berklee opened campuses in Valencia, Spain, Abu Dhabi and New York City, created the world’s largest online music school, merged with Boston Conservatory, and built the award-winning 160 Massachusetts Avenue building and its multiple recording studios. Student scholarship and financial aid assistance grew over 800% during his tenure.
Roger is an avocational drummer and songwriter. The Salt Lick Incubator emerged from his observation during his Berklee tenure that while most very successful musicians are talented, most talented musicians are not as successful as they might be. The incubator is an effort to help launch the careers of talented musicians and improve their likelihood of building a sustainable career.
Leo Yu-Ming Chu
Leo Yu-Ming Chu became an Otis Trustee in 2021. A Hong Kong native, he is a General Partner of the Bicycle Casino and Hotel and the Crystal Casino and Hotel. He graduated from the Hong Kong Polytechnic College (now University) and is a trained textile fashion industry engineer. Leo had a successful 30-year career in the fashion industry before turning to the hospitality industry. He has an intimate knowledge of the food and restaurant businesses in Los Angeles.
Leo serves on the boards of the Southern California Special Olympics, the Cal State Dominguez Hills Business School, and the Morning Light Foundation. He also serves on the USC Boards of Councilors of the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, the Viterbi School of Engineering, and the Norris Cancer Hospital. He is a member of USC Keck Health Leadership.
Leo enjoys collecting cars and reading and is a world-class foodie.
Clifford Einstein
Cliff Einstein has spent more than 50 years in the advertising business, having been a founding partner of Dailey and Associates, an international advertising agency headquartered in West Hollywood, California. Over the years his agency produced memorable campaigns for Honda Motorcycles, The Southern California Ford Dealers, Nestle Foods, Gallo Winery, Unilever, Countrywide Financial, Great Western Savings, Western Airlines, Hunt Wesson, Australian Tourism, Safeway Stores, Weyerhaeuser Forest Products, White Stag Skiwear and Callaway Golf. Currently Cliff is Director of Strategic Planning for wHY Architecture, an international architectural firm headquartered in Culver City, California.
Cliff has been celebrated as one of his industry's more awarded advertising figures, winning several international Broadcasting Awards, Clios, and The AAF award for Best Advertising Campaign in America. Art and Antiques Magazine has listed The Einstein Collection as one of America's top 100, and the collection has been profiled in HG, Australian Vogue, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Art News, Great Britain's Art Review, and most recently, Vogue Korea. Cliff has also been featured in Time magazine in an essay on collecting contemporary art. Cliff is Chair Emeritus of The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), in Los Angeles where he previously served as Chair of their Board of Trustees. In partnership with his beloved late wife Mandy, Cliff created the Mandy and Cliff Einstein Visiting Artists Lecture Series at Otis which has launched the series of conversations with world-renowned artists and thinkers. Cliff and family also created the Mandy Einstein Fashion Scholarship in her memory, celebrating her many years of dedication to Otis College.
Cliff rejoined the Otis College Board of Trustees in 2018.
Laura Fox
Laura is currently an Adjunct Professor in the field of social entrepreneurship at USC Marshall and President of the Fox Foundation. Previously, she worked in the entertainment industry, where she was responsible for overseeing business and legal affairs for the DreamWorks SKG movie division and was Vice President of Legal Affairs for Walt Disney Pictures and Touchstone Pictures. She serves on a number of nonprofit Boards including P.S. Arts, Cedars-Sinai, City Year Los Angeles, Civicas and Visionary Women, and advisory councils including the USC Marshall Board of Leaders and UCLA Dean’s Advisory Board.
She received a B.A. in Political Science and Psychology from the University of Michigan and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School.
Bronya Pereira Galef
Edward HanEdward Han was introduced to Otis College through the Board of Governors and became a member of the Board of Trustees in July 2024.
Ed Han is a private investor based in Los Angeles. Previously, Ed worked in private equity at Bain Capital, a global investment firm that partners with management teams to build, transform, and grow great companies. Ed joined Bain Capital in 1998, and prior to his retirement in 2019, he helped build Bain Capital’s private equity businesses in North America, Europe, and Pacific. He has sourced, executed, overseen, and harvested private equity investments across a broad range of sectors in multiple geographies. Before Bain Capital, Ed was a consultant at McKinsey & Company, a leading international strategy consulting firm. Ed received his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar, and his A.B. from Harvard College, summa cum laude in Computer Science, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in his junior year. He also serves as co-Chair of the Board of Directors of Campbell Hall School, a K-12 independent school in Studio City, CA.
Leonardo Lawson
As the founder and CEO of BOND Creative MGMT, Leonardo has built and run brands in the US, Europe and Asia. He is the founder of BOND Creative Search, the premier search firm specialized in design led businesses. With offices in New York and Los Angeles, BOND partners with industry leaders including Airbnb, Alexander Wang, Amazon, Apple, Chanel, Coach, Estee Lauder, Gucci, Kate Spade, LVMH, Nike, Polo Ralph Lauren, Starbucks, and Tiffany & Co. BOND represents and manages groundbreaking talent across creative, digital, strategy and executive leadership.
Leonardo's draw to storytelling led him to establish BOND Motion Pictures, a film production company with a focus on bringing under-represented stories to the world. His role as Executive Producer ranges from financial investments to hands-on producing for narrative film, television projects and documentaries. He is a partner of the luxury cruelty free shoe brand Vetir Vert. A US-based, Italian manufactured shoe with a mission of creating a sustainable cruelty free option for luxury customers.
Leonardo began his career in the arts working as the Artistic Director for an internationally respected art gallery in SoHo where he discovered, nurtured, and managed artists. Having lived in Europe, the United States and Asia, he is widely recognized as a global talent spotter and trend forecaster. He has the unique ability to "get inside" a company's culture, identify and communicate with all levels of creative talent, and analyze the intricacies of brand building. His diverse range of client experiences and partnerships with industry leaders has educated him in the many paths to success and what to steer away from. He brings this unique perspective and knowledge to everything he works on. He joined the Board of Trustees in October 2021.
Leonardo is globally renowned in fashion and luxury brand building, management consulting, structural organization, and executive search. Leonardo is the CEO of the luxury brand The Vampire's Wife leading teams in the UK and US.
Joann Lee
Joann Lee joined the Board of Trustees in September 2024. She is the owner of Ai Plus Gallery, where she contributes to advancing education and fostering creativity. With a passion for the arts and a commitment to cultural exchange, Joann plays an active role in supporting both local and international collaborations. Her involvement in various events and initiatives reflects her love for education, art, and community engagement.
Brandon Levin
Brandon Levin joined the Otis College Board of Trustees in 2024. He is a Director in the Office of the CEO at Snap Inc. Brandon serves on the Board of Trustees of the Pasadena Playhouse and on the West Coast Advisory Committee of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is also a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Brandon has a BA and JD from Yale and an MBA from Harvard, and was awarded a Keasbey Scholarship for postgraduate work at Oxford (MSc) and Cambridge (MPhil). Brandon is a member of The State Bar of California. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife Elizabeth.
Enrique Martínez CelayaEnrique Martínez Celaya was introduced to Otis College through the Board of Governors and became a member of the Board of Trustees in July 2024.
Enrique Martínez Celaya is an artist, author, and former physicist whose work has been exhibited and collected by major institutions worldwide. He is Provost Professor of Humanities and Arts at the University of Southern California, and a Montgomery Fellow at Dartmouth College. His notable projects and exhibitions include the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., the Museo Marino Marini, Florence, Italy, the Berliner Philharmonie, Berlin, Germany, the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana, Cuba, and the Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig, Germany, among many others. His work is held in 57 public collections internationally, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Martínez Celaya is the author of nine books, including two volumes of his Collected Writings and Interviews, 2010-2017 and 1990-2010, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2020 and 2011; and The Nebraska Lectures, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2011. His work has been the subject of several monographic publications including Martínez Celaya, SEA SKY LAND: towards a map of everything, Berlin: Hatje Cantz, 2021, Enrique Martínez Celaya and Käthe Kollwitz: Von den ersten und den letzten Dingen, Berlin: Hatje Cantz, 2021, Martínez Celaya, Work and Documents 1990-2015, Santa Fe: Radius Books, 2016, and Enrique Martínez Celaya: Working Methods, Barcelona: Ediciones Polígrafa, 2012.
Martínez Celaya was born in Cuba and raised in Spain and Puerto Rico. He initiated his formal artistic training as an apprentice to a painter at the age of 12. He received a Bachelor of Science in Applied Physics with minors in Electrical Engineering and Spanish Literature from Cornell University, and a Master of Science with a specialization in Quantum Electronics from the University of California, Berkeley. He conducted part of his graduate physics research at Brookhaven National Laboratory and holds several patents in laser devices. He attended the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture and earned an MFA with the department's highest distinction from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he was also a Regents Fellow and Junior Fellow of the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center. In 1998, Martínez Celaya created Whale & Star as an evolving idea of social interaction and responsibility, whose imprint is internationally recognized for its books in art, poetry, art practice, and critical theory. He has offered lectures at venues worldwide, including the American Academy in Berlin, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Royal Drawing School in London, and the Aspen Institute.
He is the Distinguished Mentor for the MFA in Fine Arts at Otis College of Art and Design, and before his current academic posts, he held the positions of Roth Family Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Dartmouth College, Presidential Professor at the University of Nebraska, Associate Professor at Pomona College, and Associate Professor at the Claremont Graduate University. Martínez Celaya is a Fellow of the Huntington
Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, a Fellow of Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities, and a Fellow of the Robinson Jeffers Tor House Foundation. He is a Governor on the Board of Otis College of Art and Design, a member of the International Advisory Council of the Hispanic Society of America, and he was the artist advisor to the Anderson Ranch Arts Center from 2018-2021, where he was also the 2007 recipient of its National Artist Award. He received a Doctor Honoris Causa from Otis College of Art and Design in 2020 and delivered its commencement address.
Jennifer McCormick
Jennifer McCormick is the CEO of American Freight Logistics. She serves on the National Council of the American Red Cross Tiffany Circle and the board of ARC's LA region. She is also a member of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Acquisition Committee, a Trustee of US Olympic and Paralympic Foundation, a member of the board of directors of LA Opera and became a Trustee of Otis College Art and Design in 2020.
Luka OreškovićLuka Orešković was introduced to Otis College through the Board of Governors and became a member of the Board of Trustees in July 2024.
Luka is a partner at Prosperus Private Equity and Chairman of M+ Group. At Prosperus, the largest private equity in Adria region, he grew assets under management to over $200m. As Chairman of the Board of M+ Group, the largest CX company in Central Europe he grew from 200 employees to a European leader with over 11,000 employees and over $200m in sales and led it to IPO + SPO in 2019, since then quadrupling the share price.
Concurrently, at Harvard University he is an associate at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science. He served on the Advisory Board of Rutgers University and RTL Digital Advisory Board.
Luka previously co-chaired Harvard University’s Business and Government in Emerging Europe Seminar as the youngest ever program head of Harvard’s Center for European Studies, during which he co-authored two books, published by Springer and Lynne Riener Publishers and his research was cited by Brookings Institution, Center for European Policy Analysis, Oxford University Press etc.
He was the youngest member in history of the economic council of the President of Croatia, where among others he led the President’s collaborations with Al Gore, Elon Musk, and the Wall Street Journal.
While an undergraduate at Harvard he wrote regular articles and op-eds for The Economist, the Financial Times, Foreign Policy Magazine and Huffington Post. He regularly provides commentary for the Wall Street Journal, Guardian, The New York Times, Politico, Forbes, South China Morning Post, CNBC, Reuters and others.
Luka graduated from Harvard College with a concentration in History and Central and Eastern European studies
Jeffrey Shames
Jeffrey Shames is the Senior Strategy Advisor to Rockefeller Capital Management where he advises the CEO on Corporate Strategy, Acquisitions and Organizational Structure.
From 2005-2021 he was a Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management where he lectured in Finance, Leadership and Global Health Management.
He is the retired CEO and Chairman of MFS Investment Management® and the Board of Trustees of the MFS Funds.
He joined MFS in 1983 as an Industry Analyst and was named a Portfolio Manager in 1985, Chief Equity Officer in 1987, President in 1993 and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer in 1998. In September 2002 he retired as CEO and retained the Chairman title until his retirement in February 2004.
From 2010-2013 he was a Senior Advisor at Morgan Stanley where he advised the President of Morgan Stanley Investment Management and Morgan Stanley Smith Barney Wealth Management.
He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the X Prize Foundation, Tufts Medical System, Otis College of Fine Arts, SHOFCO, Summer Search, and is a Trustee Emeritus of Wesleyan University and Chair Emeritus of the Berklee College of Music. He is, also, a member of the Advisory Boards of the MIT Sloan School of Management and the MIT Finance Program.
He graduated from Wesleyan University in 1977 and Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management in 1983. In between college and graduate school he served as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in Fiji and with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C.
Debra Wong Yang