Geneviève Lord - Director

With a background in programming, IT and International Business complemented by an MBA from McGill University, Geneviève was previously IT Consultant and Director for 11 years while living in five countries. She then became a game producer and senior game director for Ubisoft and A2M (Behaviour) in Montréal. In 2008 she became the Director of the Montreal branch of the Champlain College of Vermont.

Geneviève's special interests are coaching and all applications of Convergent Media. When not working, she can be found in a good book, European BD or playing video and board games with her (very tall) children. She is committed to helping students reach their full potential by harnessing the effects of new technologies.

Stefi Brazzeal - Assistant Director

Stefi Brazzeal has worked in the field of international education at the university level for several years in the United States before coming to work with students at Champlain College in Montreal in 2009. She has experience working in various capacities with international students, students studying abroad, and third-culture kids. Stefi is an advocate of intercultural understanding and awareness, and values being part of community that provides support to students in a city filled with incredible opportunities and enriching experiences.

Stefi completed her undergraduate and graduate degrees in Intercultural Studies, with emphasis in Intercultural Training and French, and continues to be involved in several professional organizations. Her interest in working with students abroad stems from her own experiences and reflections growing up as a third-culture kid in Brazil, the French-Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, and Montreal, Quebec.

Duncan Mckenna - Activities and Residence Coordinator

Duncan is a Montréal native with an academic background in Environmental Studies, Human Ecology and Public Health Studies from Concordia University and University of Montréal. He has been involved in student committees from high school through university level, coordinating guest speakers, social events, ski trips and getaways. Duncan has also been involved in several community outreach programs (both at home and abroad) and he hopes to extend these activities to Champlain's Montréal students. He has lived and traveled extensively in Brazil, France and Canada's Arctic region of Nunavik, therefore acquiring a good understanding of the ins and outs of living amongst other cultures as well as taking on new languages. Duncan has life guard and first aid training as well as experience working in a safety sensitive environment with special needs individuals. He is very passionate about his Montréal hometown and enjoys sharing its wealth of culture, amenities and events to the fullest. His hobbies include sailing, cycling, hockey, snowboarding and cross country skiing.

Thomas J. Anderson - 3D Animation

Senior animator at Artificial Mind and Movement in Montreal, Thomas has been working in the Montreal games industry as an animator for the past 10 years. He has worked on 16+ titles including Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, as well as FarCry: Instincts, Surf's Up and Indiana Jones for the Nintendo Wii.

Patrick Boutot - Game Architecture

"After a short time working as an educator Patrick Mathieu Boutot start working in the video game industry at Ubisoft Entertainment Montreal. He works on critically acclaimed game like Assassin's Creed and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game. Very technical, Patrick did multiple lectures and training courses for the gaming community. Patrick is currently working at WB Games Montreal."

Denis Brault - French I and Conversational French

Denis has always believed in lifelong learning - through teaching! He started as a caddymaster teaching teenagers to become expert caddies, then on to coaching hockey to young athletes, and finally moving on to teaching the fine skills of public speaking and debating to high school students. His learning through teaching has continued in a 30-year teaching career in French, punctuated by a 10-year period as a school administrator, where he was responsible for teaching and guiding young teachers. His teaching experience includes Latin, ancient Greek, Greek and Roman history and civilization at McGill, Concordia and Université du Québec à Montréal.

His learning experience has led him to a bachelor's and master's degree, and a master's in education degree from Loyola College, University of Cincinnati and McGill University, as well as teaching diplomas in TESL, TFSL, cooperative learning, reality therapy, history and English literature. Denis is still an active hockey player (another 30-year career!). He is a member of numerous professional associations, and enjoys reading historical biographies and watching PBS music specials. He continues to follow his second passion- hockey. He still plays in an old-timers' league (another 30-year career). He is married (a third 30-year career!), and has two daughters. One shares his passion for teaching and hockey, and the other is about to begin her own marriage career!

Elie Charest - Advanced Seminar in Game Design

Though Elie Charest has been designing games for almost as long as he's been playing them, it was only 16 years ago he found out you could actually make a living from it. There's been quite a bit of gameplay since, from pen-and-paper RPGs (Heavy Gear, Jovian Chronicles) to license-based console games (Scooby-Doo, MySims Racing, Rango), including a 10-year stint as level designer, lead game designer and creative director for Montreal-based A2M and its Chilean Studio Wanako. Recently, Elie has been setting up his own independent studio, Miralupa, with two college friends. The new studio recently released its first title, Chromian Wars, an augmented reality tank battle game for the iPhone/iPad.

Jacque Choi - 3D Character Development

Jacque Choi is a 12 year veteran of the video games industry, and graduated from the Emily Carr University in Vancouver BC with a degree in Fine Arts. He has worked all over the industry on games such as Tony Hawk's American Wasteland, Tony Hawk's Project 8, Gun, FarCry 2, Rango, and is currently employed at Funcom Montreal as the Principal Character Artist for their upcoming MMO; 'The Secret World'.
He is an active member of various online art communities such as Gameartisans.org, and Polycount.com, and you view some of his work at http://www.jacquechoi.com
Jacque is thrilled to be teaching at Champlain College, and hopes to really push the students to new heights.

Heidi Crux - Import/Export

Having spent over 25 years in the business of Import and Export Heidi brings a wealth of information as well as first-hand accounts of the fast-paced and dynamic industry of International Trade. Not only does Heidi have a vast library of business experience to call upon, her teaching skills span institutions such as Concordia University, O'Sullivan College and the Lester B Pearson School Board teaching courses such as Management, Soft Skills Development, Logistics, Conflict Management, Transportation, Effective Communications and Supply Chain Management.

Born and raised in Montreal Heidi likes to take full advantage of the changing seasons from apple picking to snow shoveling which she actually enjoys! And when she's not in class or grading papers, Heidi likes to spend her spare time going for very long walks (especially in the fall), reading and meditating - unfortunately however, house maintenance has to be squeezed in there too.

Jason Della Rocca - Communication and Ethics

Jason is the founder of Perimeter Partners, a consultancy that provides strategic level guidance and expertise to companies and organizations on the boundary, or perimeter, of the game industry. For nearly nine years, he served as the executive director of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), a professional society committed to advancing the game industry and the careers of developers. Jason was honored for his industry building efforts with the inaugural Ambassador Award at the 8th annual Game Developers Choice Awards. He continues to be an advocate for the expressive power of games and their capacity to change the world.

As a sought after expert on the game industry, Jason has spoken at conferences worldwide (e.g., GDC, Tokyo Game Show, Nordic Game, ChinaJoy, etc), lectured at top universities (e.g., National University of Singapore, McGill, University of Tokyo, Penn State, etc), and has either written for or been interviewed by countless news outlets (e.g., Wired, Edge, Nightline, LA Times, NPR, Wall Street Journal, The Escapist, etc).

Jason has been a member of the game industry for more than a decade, and has previously worked at IGDA, CMP, Quazal, Matrox Graphics, Silicon Graphics and Price Waterhouse. He blogs at www.realitypanic.com and can be reached via Jason [at] PerimeterPartners.com.

Patrick Fortier - Advanced Seminar: Game Design

Patrick has been actively working in the gaming industry for about 11 years now. Although he would have loved to enjoy an academic training in game development, that was not an option at the time. Instead, Patrick majored in translation (with a minor in literature) and although there was no direct link with gaming, the experience still developed the writing and organizational skills that were to become so useful later on when he entered the industry. Having held game design and lead game design positions on a variety of titles, he later moved on to the role of creative director. He's occupied this position for the past 7 years on such franchises as Myst and Splinter Cell. Living in Montreal, Patrick has spent most of his professional career over at Ubisoft before recently going over to A2M to work on the next-gen title "Wet". In his spare time, Patrick enjoys a variety of sports (hockey being his favorite!) and he also likes to read a lot. Right now he is passionate about his new "Frank Lloyd Wright-like" house and is looking forward to spending many happy days there.

Xavière Hardy - Game Producation II

After a Masters in Management in Lille (France) at SKEMA business School, Xavière completed in Montréal a specialized Master in Project and Program Management in partnership with UQAM (2005). She decided to stay in Montréal and started to work at Campus Ubisoft as a coordinator for the student final project. She then worked for Behaviour (formerly Artificial Mind and Movement) on Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings (2007-2009), on Naughty Bear (2009-2010), and on an undisclosed project as a Production Manager. Xavière is currently Project Manager at THQ Montréal on the next Patrice Désilets' Game.

Pierre Harvey - Import/Export

Pierre Harvey benefits from more than 20 years of experience in the field of strategic positioning and market development in more than 26 countries of the world. He is an expert in corporate training for SME's in strategic international relations and regional business development with the Northeastern region of the USA.

Fully bilingual, he has been involved with more than 240 SME's across Quebec, the Maritimes and with over 20 not-for-profit organizations in the field of international trade development in Canada, the US Northeast, Maghreb and Western Africa regions. Mr. Harvey holds a Master's degree (M.Sc.) in international relations from Long Island University in New York as well as a United Nations Graduate Studies Certificate from the same university. He also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in history specialized on the Middle Ages from the Université de Sherbrooke.

Mr. Harvey is considered an expert in international trade and relations with the New England States. He also teaches ethics and governance classes with the Executive MBA program of the Centre d'entreprise Laurent Beaudoin of the Université de Sherbrooke. He is also a regular speaker and advisor with organizations such as the International Trade Center of the World Trade Organization. He was invited to Montreux, Switzerland back in 2008 during the World Export Development Forum where he presented one his papers: ECO-Sustainable Business Strategies for SME's: Short Term Pain for Long Term Gain.

He currently acts as the President of the Board of Directors of the Salesian Seminary. Mr Harvey is married to Hélène Rioux. They live in Sherbrooke, Qc and have two daughters, Élisa and Laura.

George Kalogerakis - Writing the City

George believes he has the best of all worlds. He is the child of Greek immigrants who moved to Montreal in the 1960s. He was educated in English but works in French. That makes him a allophone with friends among the anglophones and the francophones. He fell in love with journalism because there are not that many professions where you have the right to ask invasive questions of people with power. But he kept at it because of the stories of ordinary people in extraordinary situations. He specialized in crime, writing about murders, organized crime and bloodthirsty bikers. Eventually, he ended up organizing investigations for the Journal de Montreal, where they uncovered pedophiles lurking on teen chat rooms, a black market in human eggs, unsafe airports, etc. Outside of that, he has kids, goes mountain biking and explores Montreal's many cultures the best way possible - by eating their food.

Annie Khatchadourian - Canadian Culture through the Fine Arts and Canadian Culture through Film (A)

Annie was born and raised in Montréal. She attended Concordia University during both her undergraduate and graduate studies. She completed her bachelor's degree in fine arts, majoring in art history, in 2001, and later received her master's degree in art history in June 2007. Her thesis dealt with exhibition practices of Canadian cultural establishments regarding First Nations art at the turn of the twenty-first century.

For four years, Annie was a tutorial instructor for an interdisciplinary fine arts course at Concordia University, where she led weekly sessions on topics involving a broad range of arts, relating the Canadian visual and performing arts to greater national and international cultural and social issues. Since 2008, she has also taught a number of courses in First Nations and Canadian art and culture, and Art History, at Marianopolis College - one of the top pre-university colleges in Quebec. Annie has traveled extensively throughout Europe and has visited various parts of North and Central America, the Middle East and Australia.

Guillaume Langlois - Game Production II

Guillaume has been a multimedia designer and programmer since he graduated from Ecole Polytechnique Montreal in 2004. He is the president and founder of Space&Dream, a company dedicated to the creation of interactive/immersive experience, some of which have toured the world. He is also very dedicated to education and technology transfer.

Louis Lavoie - Advanced Seminar: Art & Animation

Louis wanted to make video games since he was a child. After high school, he completing a three years degree in Graphic Design from Ahuntsic College and went on to get a diploma in 3D Art from NAD Center in Montreal. Working at Ubisoft for 6 years, he first did character modeling for Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, then went on to create environments (lighting, shading, texturing and modeling) on critically acclaimed titles such as: Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin's Creed, Prince of Persia: Next Gen.

Louis is now a senior Level Artist, currently working on the video game adaptation of James Cameron's upcoming movie Avatar which is due late 2009. In the future, he is looking to expand his experience in the game industry with various styles of art and technical challenge but more importantly, he wants to share his knowledge with other artists and students trying to get into the industry. In his free time, he enjoys doing digital painting, sketches, gym training and practicing martial arts.

Jim Manson - Global Studies II: Human Rights & Responsibilities & Canadian-American Relations

Jim began his academic career in Jamaica in 1980 teaching West Indian history after earning a diploma in education from McGill University. Upon returning to Canada, he completed a Master's degree at Concordia University in 1983. During the remainder of the decade, Jim taught in the Quebec public school system and free lanced as a sportswriter for Canadian Press. He began his university teaching career at Concordia and McGill Universities in 1991 after completing his comprehensive exams towards a doctorate in history (Canadian - American relations) at Concordia. Since 1999, he has served as a history lecturer and academic consultant for Routes to Learning, Canada. He has written three books dealing with the history of the Eastern Townships - the area where he was born and still resides. His first book entitled, The Loyal Americans of New England and New York was cited as an influence by prominent Canadian historian J.I. Little in his most recent publication. In addition to teaching history his passions include a great affection for 1960's rock and roll and an unswerving devotion to the New York Yankees and the New York Giants.

Claude Martel - Global Studies I: Technology & Development

Claude holds a Ph. D. in Educational Technology from Concordia University and is a well-established practitioner and educator in the training and education Canadian community. He has been in the forefront in the development of Human Performance Technology practices and the implementation of distance education technology in large corporation and educational institutions.

Over the last, 25 years, he has held senior roles in large organizations like Pratt and Whitney Canada, Telus, Hydro-Québec and DMR (Fujitsu) Consulting. He has also worked as a national and international HPT consultant, providing expertise and support to national and international organization like the Airport council International(ACI), the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the John Molson School of Business and St-Justine Hospital.

He is also a founding member and former President of multiple training and education association, like the eLearning Alliance and the Quebec chapter of the Canadian society of Training and development (CSTD) and he is the current chairman of the Canadian eLearning Enterprise Alliance (CeLEA), the national association of E-Learning producer.

In addition, he has managed over 60 projects and has implemented HR, communication and training technology solutions in over 30 large organizations.

Mark Medicoff - Small Group Communication

Mark Medicoff, MA Media Studies (Concordia University), is a new faculty member of Champlain College. He is a lecturer of business communication at the John Molson School of Business at Concordia University, where he received the distinguished teaching award in 2001. He has also taught small group dynamics at Dawson College. Mark continues to enjoy his work as columnist specializing in travel issues and blogs on subjects relating to budget travel for retirees.

Nick Oroc - Advanced Seminar in Concept Art

Gaspard Petit - Graphic Programming II

Gaspard Petit graduated from Concordia in Software Engineering in 2003. He has since then participated to several software systems at companies such as SoftImage, Discreet Logic, ToonBoom Animations and Artificial Mind and Movement (A2M), revolving around image processing, including MPEG 4 compression, colour correction, chroma keying, GPU based video processing or game programming. He completed a master in computer vision at Universite de Montreal in 2006 focussing his research on motion estimation and has been teaching various graduate and undergrad courses since 2005, including media processing for game development, software engineering and advanced rendering and virtual interactions. Interested in project management, he also completed a MBA in 2008 and started his own company, doing real time image and video processing for the news and broadcast industry.

Noé Sardet - Canadian Culture through Films (N)

Noé has always been fascinated by visuals: images and films. By combining creativity and technical skills he found his balance during his training and later in his professional practice as a multimedia designer and audiovisual producer. He finds inspiration in contemporary art forms such as graffiti, music and video art.

He holds several degrees in multimedia design & engineering and art direction. He has worked in several fields such as graphic arts, museum scenography, scientific communication and cultural projects worldwide: New York, San Jose, Montreal and Villefranche-sur-Mer, in the south of France, where he is originally from. His career has shifted slowly towards production, working with moving images, exploring innovative paths of filmmaking.

More recently, he has created Parafilms, a production company based in Montreal specialized in web based video productions: Documentary, animation, live action and fictional films.

Jessi Thind - Interactive Storytelling

Jessi has been in the game industry for ten years, first as a tester, then as a game designer and now as a narrative designer. He recently finished working on an undisclosed title for UbiSoft and has worked on several published games including James Cameron's Avatar and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell. He has also worked on several indie games including Ovolo's 'City Rain' an award-winning puzzle game with strong environmental themes. Jessi also writes for television and film. He has one produced feature film along with several optioned scripts including a World War One feature to be produced by Rahila Bhootwala (The White Countess/ Le Bonheur de Pierre).

Martin Walker - Game Programming and Advanced Seminar in Game Development

Martin Walker, CTO at A2M since 2001, has been involved in commercial software development in Montreal from the mid 80's. He has spent most of his career in the multimedia arena, working for companies like Matrox Electronics, Softimage and others. He has been a key player in building tools and environments for video productions including special effects and 3D computer graphics. His venture in the gaming industry has evolved into the creation of two generations of multiplatform game engines and the elaboration of an optimized production pipeline to unleash the creative power of artists, designers and programmers on over 60 titles. An avid sci-fi movie viewer and sci-fi book reader you can often find Martin in a quiet cafe reading the latest cyberpunk novels.

Shona Watt - Global Enviromental Earth Science

Shona is passionate about finding solutions to environmental problems. She acquired her B.Sc from the McGill wildlife biology program in Ste Anne de Bellevue. She recently completed her M.Sc in environmental management from the University of Stirling, in Scotland. Her Master's thesis focused on how Scottish municipalities can use awareness campaigns to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. She has previously worked as an environmental educator and has volunteered for such organizations as the World Wildlife Fund and the Sierra Club. Shona has recently travelled to Sri Lanka, Germany, and Sweden. In her free time, she enjoys nature photography, hiking, and yoga.

Michael Yeomans - Advanced Seminar in Game Design

Michael Yeomans is currently an Art Director at Ubisoft Entertainment on a AAA first person shooter.

He studied commercial illustration at Dawson College Illustration and Design, and illustrated several informational books for various publishers before finding full time work in the games Industry, with the arrival of Ubisoft in Montreal. Over a games industry career spanning twelve years and three studios, he has shipped eleven games, and has garnered extensive experience in lighting, modelling, scene visualization, level design and editing, pre-rendered and real time graphics, character modelling (high and low rez) texturing and VFX and outsourcing management. Michael has extensive team leadership experience, and his current project is his second in an art director role. He has worked for the last six years in Australia, only having recently moved back to Montreal to be closer to family.

Michael's interests outside work include photography, oil painting, and constantly staying in tune with the film and games industry. Oh yeah, and he plays games!