About Us
November 25, 2019 2020-12-04 11:41About Us
About
Pacific Content is a leading podcast services company, helping some of the world’s biggest brands create and market compelling audio stories.
Our team is made up of veteran media professionals: experts in podcast production, strategy, marketing, distribution and sound design.
A diversely talented group, our team brings decades of experience, expertise and insight to the table. We’ve created some of the most successful, ambitious, and influential branded podcasts ever made.
We hail from different backgrounds but share a common passion for bringing brands to life. We do that through impactful audio stories that entertain, educate, move, and inspire audiences.
The Team
Steve Pratt
Biography
Steve co-founded Pacific Content in 2014 to help brands and marketers transform into successful media companies through podcasting. He loves helping our partners turn brand strategy into compelling podcasts and learning how to activate the superpowers of brands to build large audiences quickly.
Steve has always been obsessed with what is new and next in the media. Prior to Pacific Content, his career included TV startups, satellite radio startups, and digital music startups. He has been podcasting since 2005, when he co-created one of the world’s first and most successful music podcasts at CBC.
Jennifer Ouano
Biography
Jennifer Ouano loves creating and building things from scratch and seeing them manifest into reality – stories, shows, teams, and businesses. She’s a stickler for detail and gets excited about innovative ways of thinking and doing. She feels very fortunate to be working with the bright and talented minds at Pacific Content, and collaborating with the excellent teams that make up the company’s client base. She’s been known to conjure up elaborate staff activities that involve lots of secret locations, lots of costume changes, an inordinate amount of performances, and elusive plastic trout in the middle of a desert.
Chris Boyce
Biography
Radio programming expert, cross-platform innovator, and trend-setting producer—Chris has earned his reputation as a leader in content creation for more than 20 years. He started early, hosting a community access TV show as a teenager before spending time in the world of pro-wrestling, finally taking refuge in the world of public radio.
During his time running Radio & Audio for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, he led the launch of CBC’s new digital music service and music strategy, as well as moving the broadcaster to the forefront of cross-platform content production and distribution. Under Chris’s leadership, CBC Radio significantly grew its digital audience, dominating the Canadian podcast market while continuing to grow broadcast audiences to record levels, reaching more Canadians than at any point in its history.
At Pacific Content Chris works with clients to develop successful podcasts and oversees a number of shows as Executive Producer.
Dan Misener
Biography
Dan’s passionate about telling great stories, and discovering how new technologies and formats can help do that. He arrived at Pacific Content after ten years at CBC Radio, where he produced content for Spark, DNTO, and GO!, and local afternoon shows across Canada. As an indie podcaster, he helped create the pioneering video podcast, Jim Dupree: Enthusiast, as well as Grownups Read Things They Wrote as Kids — a New York Festivals’ award-winner, Buzzfeed chart-topper, and iTunes “Best Of”.
Jonas Woost
Biography
Jonas is a digital media and entertainment executive with a passion for innovating in the digital content ecosystem. His work has received a number of awards and in 2019 he was named one of BC’s 40 under 40. Between 2015 and 2019, Jonas was the Executive Producer for Original Content & STORYHIVE at TELUS. He helped one of the biggest Canadian telecommunication companies tell impactful and engaging stories while at the same time supporting Western Canada’s community of filmmakers.
Previously Jonas was with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) where he ran CBC Music, which was one of the most successful digital music services in Canada, attracting 1.2 million visitors every month.Before moving to Canada in 2010, Jonas was the Head of Music at the London-based digital music start-up Last.fm. He was in charge of all negotiations and relationships with music owners when CBS acquired Last.fm for US$280 million in 2007.
Geoff Siskind
Biography
As a producer, writer and director, Geoff has helped launch some of Canada’s most popular reality television programs including Storage Wars Canada (aka Storage Wars Northern Treasures on Netflix), Canada’s Worst Driver, Redemption Inc with Kevin O’Leary, Canada’s Worst Handyman and Junk Raiders. He’s produced radio programming and documentaries for public radio networks across North America, including Search Engine (for which he won the New York Festivals’ International Broadcasting Award), Outfront, and The Phone Book Stories. An alumni of the Canadian Film Centre’s Interactive Entertainment Program, Geoff directed the interactive documentary Tightrope, which has been presented by many festivals, including SXSW (Austin), IDFA (Amsterdam), and Hot Docs (Toronto).
Karen Burgess
Biography
Karen has worked in the media since she first took a summer internship at her local CBC Radio station. Along the way she moved coasts, won a bunch of awards, and launched three national radio shows on everything from country music to economics. She’s run daily current affairs programs, headed up a newsroom, and created content for pretty much every digital, audio, and broadcast platform you can use to tell a story. She comes to Pacific Content with two decades of experience making great shows, training hosts, producers and journalists, and creating teams where people love to work.
Andy Sheppard
Biography
Andy was a national host and producer at CBC Radio for 15 years, working on flagship shows such as After Hours, The Signal, Global Village, and Metro Morning. He shared in a Deutsche Welle Radio Award and a CBC Program Award. He has reported on illegal rocket festivals from South East Asia, produced a documentary on artificial intelligence from Silicon Valley, and recorded traditional music on remote islands in the South Pacific. Andy is also an international touring musician, a film and TV composer, a finalist in the Peak Performance Project, and the recipient of the Colleen Peterson Songwriting Award. He has a degree in music and arts from McGill University.
Tara Brockwell
Biography
What’s your story? Tara’s an incessantly curious person who’s worked in local radio with the CBC in Montreal and Vancouver. She’s especially proud of creating specials that challenge notions of race, language and mental health, flexing the fabric that makes and breaks our communities. Before delving into the world of radio, she roamed the globe teaching in Egypt and South Korea with the hope of gaining insights into the meaning of life. She’s still looking. In the meantime, she’s excited to explore all of what makes us tick by sharing stories with an excellent group of raconteurs at Pacific Content. When not creating podcasts, she’s listening to them while spelunking through the clutter at home… wish her luck!
Christian Prohom
Biography
First and foremost a musician, Christian spent several years playing in notable West Coast punk bands Red Tide, D.O.A. and the Dayglos, before transitioning into a slightly less eardrum-compromising career in film & television. He’s composed and designed sound for all manner of fine folks from broadcasters like the CBC, CTV, Discovery Network, WTN/Slice Network, Knowledge Network, to independent and feature filmmakers. When he’s not bending sound into podcasts for Pacific Content, you’ll find him in the woods with his family, foraging for perfectly safe things to eat.
Dominic Girard
Biography
Dominic’s been telling audio stories for about 15 years now. He cut his teeth at CBC Radio, first at The Current, and then helped create and make Day 6. He moved to Banff, Alberta, to build, launch and manage a French and English language radio network at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. It was a job so all-encompassing he even got to pick the paint colours for the studio (mostly greys and an eye-popping yellow, if you’re wondering). An accomplished interviewer, news producer and documentary maker, he most enjoys telling intimate, personal stories of fascinating people, and punctuating stories with carefully layered sound design. When his nose isn’t buried in his work, you’ll find him in a forest, or on a beach, or riding his motorcycle, or building a fire, or perfecting his tomato sauce, or refining his cocktail skills.
Mio Adilman
Biography
Mio will do pretty much anything to get a good story. Once that meant absorbing countless blows to the head from members of the Pillow Fight League (ouch!). Another time, he asked close friends to anonymously write what they really thought of him while testing a personal feedback app (double ouch!!). Mio has exposed listeners and viewers to these new, sometimes painful, experiences in a wide variety of public radio and television roles over the past 15 years, both as a producer and on-air contributor/host. He also has a recurring dramatic role, appearing as Terry in the cult favorite TV show Trailer Park Boys.
At Pacific Content, he has produced (sometimes hosted) a wide range of lifestyle, business and tech podcasts for clients such as Slack, Audible, Envoy, and others. Repeat Customer, by Zendesk, was nominated for a Webby Award. Fixed That For You, by Segment, won an Adweek Best Branded Podcast Award. Mio is forever fascinated by the intersection of your brand proposition and compelling, free-standing content. In his spare time, Mio is training to figure skate, competitively. He recently debuted a routine danced to Flight of The Bumblebee, dressed as a bee.
David Swanson
Biography
David believes a good story should reveal the extraordinary in the seemingly ordinary, to help people better understand the world and their place in it. Before coming to Pacific Content, David worked as an associate producer on a number of CBC Radio programs including The Early Edition, BC Almanac and On The Coast. He also produced and designed the Interesting Vancouver Presents podcast and worked as the program director for Simon Fraser University’s CJSF 90.1 FM. David’s stories have taken him on a climb to the mouth of a smouldering volcano… and through Las Vegas to capture the moment an ex-convict reunited with his estranged stepmom. His work has been heard on the BBC World Service program Outlook and on CBC’s Podcast Playlist and The Doc Project.
Some of David’s favourite things include backcountry hiking, tennis, the smell of Halloween, running for the bus, and dad jokes.
Gaëtan Harris
Biography
Gaëtan has a passion for great sound. An avid radio listener from an early age, he found his love for storytelling when he received a voice recorder for his birthday at the age of 7. Born and raised in Winnipeg, he cut his teeth in radio as a host on college and commercial rock radio before moving West in search of education. After graduation from the British Columbia Institute of Technology, Gaëtan was hired as a Creative Producer for nascent Vancouver station Roundhouse Radio, where he established his career as an award-winning Sound Designer. In his spare time, he is an animation and commercial voiceover artist and play-by-play announcer for the local Junior B hockey team.
Ashley Walters
Biography
After completing a Masters of Journalism at Ryerson University, Ashley beamed herself aboard the mothership at the CBC. For the past 5 years, she’s produced radio documentaries for CBC’s national programs including The Sunday Edition, Ideas, Living Out Loud, and The Doc Project, covering topics ranging from women’s vigilante groups in India, to labour disputes, to the science of near-death experiences. She’s done sound design for the CBC programs Podcast Playlist and The Sunday Edition, was part of the team that launched the popular podcast Someone Knows Something, and was a technical producer on CBC’s Missing & Murdered: Who Killed Alberta Williams podcast. In 2014, she won a Gabriel Award for artistic achievement in a radio story. Ashley also produces a podcast about Canadian artists for the Art Canada Institute in Toronto.
Brittany Duggan
Biography
For Brittany, putting together a podcast episode is a bit like choreography — combine compelling ideas and stories with select pacing and sound and you’ve got memorable entertainment with impact. Brittany found her way into journalism following a career as a contemporary dance artist in Toronto. A Master of Journalism at the University of British Columbia introduced her to audio, video, and digital modes of storytelling, and she has since diversified her coverage of arts in Canada to include culture, society, and current events. Brittany has freelanced for the CBC, Maclean’s, Canadian Geographic, and The Georgia Straight, among others. She’s the former co-host and co-producer of Arts on Air at UBC’s radio station CiTR and still enjoys being a critic for Canada’s dance magazine, The Dance Current.
Shawn Cole
Biography
Shawn has been working passionately with sound for over 20 years, seeing it as the perfect way to blend science and art. From mixing legendary anime series (Dragon Ball, Inuyasha, Gundam Seed, Hamtaro), to recording and producing albums (Yukon Blonde, Bend Sinister, Half Moon Run, Hannah Georgas), Shawn is singularly focused on ensuring that the auditory experience engages the listener and propels the story forward. His work has been recognized by the Western Canadian Music Awards, the Calgary Music Awards, and through Canadian Certified Gold and Platinum records. As a principal owner of Fader Master Studios in Vancouver, Shawn spent 15 years finding unique ways to create compelling soundscapes for music and storytelling. In his spare time, Shawn enjoys spending time with his family, volunteering at an elementary school, and tinkering with robots.
Pedro Mendes
Biography
Pedro Mendes has been an audio producer, host, and editor for almost two decades. He spent 13 years at CBC Radio where he worked on arts, sports, music, and current affairs programming, as well as producing and hosting a number of his own series and documentaries. He has worked as a studio director for Penguin Audio Books with some of Canada’s most prominent authors as well as a past Prime Minister. Pedro is also Canada’s leading voice on classic men’s style. He has published a book on the history of Canada’s oldest tailor and writes for prominent newspapers and magazines around the world. He has also produced a number of documentaries, a TV show, and a podcast series about classic style, the history of denim jeans, and why dressing sustainably matters.
Jeff Blundell
Biography
Jeff Blundell spent a decade travelling the world as a television producer for Discovery Channel. He chased Wood Buffalo across Siberia for the documentary series “A Risk Worth Taking,” and hung out with all ten of Canada’s astronauts for the documentary, “The Last Shuttle.” Jeff was part of the team that launched the all-sports channel, Sportsnet, in 1999, and the lifestyle channel, Cottage Life, in 2012. Before joining Pacific Content, Jeff produced podcasts for some of Australia’s biggest brands, including GE Australia, OZ Forex, and Telstra. When not podcasting, Jeff can be found sailing wherever the water is blue and the wind is steady.
Pippa Johnstone
Biography
Pippa is a freelance podcast producer and sometime theatre-maker from Vancouver, now living and working in Toronto. She co-hosts & produces Word Bomb with TVO, an award-winning series about the evolution of words, associate produces CBC’s PlayME, a podcast featuring new Canadian plays, and produced the Globe Content Studio’s AI Meets World for Microsoft. She is passionate about making innovative audio, from radio plays, to live performance, podcasts or audiobooks, and will take any excuse to spend time in a recording studio. She holds an MA in Media Production from Ryerson, and a BFA in Acting from UBC.
Michael Harris
Biography
Michael is the author of two national bestsellers—Solitude and The End of Absence (for which he received the Governor General’s Literary Award). He writes (often about online life) for Esquire, The Washington Post, Wired, Salon, The Globe & Mail, and dozens of other publications. He’s also worked as an editor at Vancouver magazine and Western Living. Michael is a faculty member in the Banff Centre’s Literary Journalism program.
Miriam Johnson
Biography
Miriam is a writer, producer and musician with a passion for stories and sound. Before joining Pacific Content, she worked in film and TV on documentaries for National Geographic, The Discovery Channel, and HBO. Her writing has been featured in the New York Times. Some of her favourite podcasts include: Ear Hustle, Caliphate, and S-Town. Miriam performs in a band, trains as a boxer, and loves hiking in the woods with her Swiss Shepherd dog.
Annie Rueter
Biography
Annie Rueter is a podcast producer and journalist based in Vancouver. She’s a big fan of talking with strangers, the outdoors, books, art, and dessert. Before joining Pacific Content, Annie was a fellow of the Global Reporting Program at the University of British Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism. Annie spent a year as a GRP fellow, reporting on global seafood supply chain issues. The multimedia project won gold in the 2019 Digital Publishing Awards for Best Editorial Package. Annie is well-versed in simplifying complex stories and information, having produced two seasons of Choiceology with Pacific Content (exploring lessons from behavioral science), and a season of if/else (debating career choices in technology). Annie’s other work can be found in CiTR Radio, CBC News, Canadian Geographic, NBC News, The Globe and Mail, among others.
Elizabeth Hames
Biography
Elizabeth Hames joined the company as an experienced journalist, writer, editor, and producer. She is also the host and producer of SLUMTOWN, an investigative podcast from CBC Edmonton. Throughout her career, Elizabeth has established herself as an excellent chaser and writer, and an endless well of story ideas. She is always on the lookout for stories that are surprising, unique and compelling, and she loves to experiment with story treatment.
Melanie Green
Biography
Melanie Green has always wanted to tell stories. She’s a fervent chase producer and the host of Remote Works by Citrix. After being a current affairs associate producer on CBC’s The Early Edition and On the Coast, Melanie moved to Star Vancouver, a digital expansion of Torstar’s Toronto Star, where she reported on culture, public policy and politics. In her previous professional life, Melanie managed a restaurant and live music space. If she’s not working, you can find her growing, harvesting, or cooking food.
Rehmatullah Sheikh
Biography
Rehmatullah graduated from UBC’s School of Journalism and was a recipient of the CBC Vancouver Newsroom scholarship. He spent his most creative days working in current affairs radio as an Associate Producer for the shows, On The Coast and The Early Edition. Rehmatullah was also a fellow at the Global Reporting Centre, where he was part of an investigative project that looked at the impact of fishmeal factories in West Africa. He won CBC’s Alexis Mazurin Award for a podcast he produced about the ban of Skype in the United Arab Emirates. Rehmatullah’s third-culture upbringing fuels his passion for speaking to strangers, telling their stories, and showing that our world becomes a little more interesting and fun when we care to listen.
Alison Broverman
Biography
Alison Broverman is an award-winning audio producer, arts reporter and occasional playwright. On air, she has taste-tested a data drink machine (for CBC’s Spark; the data was delicious), and simultaneously donated blood and conducted an interview (for CBC’s Here and Now; the nurse was not impressed). In print, she has pitted vegetables against each other tournament-style (onion won) and followed an immersive theatre production from Barrie, Ontario to London, England. Prior to joining Pacific Content, she produced a wide variety of radio shows and podcasts for CBC Radio, including How To Do It, Grownups Read Things They Wrote as Kids, The Fridge Light, and Podcast Playlist. Her written work has appeared in The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, Quill and Quire, and The Canadian Theatre Review, among many other publications. By night, Alison can be found running Borrel, the Dutch bar and restaurant she opened with her partner in Toronto in 2017.
Chris Clark
Biography
After a few years of shredding in metal and rock bands, Chris turned his fascination with cool noises toward composing and designing sound for film and TV. Through his home studio RootChord Sound, he has spent the last 10 years working on feature films, short films, TV series, web series, and even virtual reality. He has received multiple awards and nominations for his film and TV work – not that he’s bragging – and now has the unique opportunity to help Pacific Content tell their one-of-a-kind stories through dynamic audio experience. When he’s not in the studio, you can find Chris going fast – either down the slopes or on two wheels – or otherwise exploring what beautiful BC has to offer.
Erin Petit
Biography
Erin enjoys finding the human spark in the story. Erin spent over a decade at the CBC as a producer and journalist, creating content for a variety of shows. She is one of the founding producers of CBC Radio’s The Current. An autism advocate, Erin has applied her skills to fundraising and event management for a multinational nonprofit. In all her endeavours, she channels the power of stories to make deep and lasting connections. She is excited to continue this work with the Pacific Content team.
Olivia Quan
Biography
Olivia is an audio engineer and sound designer in Vancouver, BC. Whether she’s working on a record or a podcast, she uses sound as a catalyst for great storytelling. She grew up an avid music listener, knowing that she wanted to dedicate her life to making people feel through audio. Olivia’s career started with an internship at a studio where she is now a house engineer. Her two favourite things include analog tape machines and long walks through the forest.
Shana Hugh
Biography
Shana has been producing stories since a casual conversation on the beach landed her a job at a newspaper in Mazatlan, Mexico. Following that, she spent 15 years in the world of radio and television with the CBC, telling stories for national and local audiences: from daily current affairs to radio series and forums. She has also worked as a writer with the Knowledge Network, Paperny Films, and Beetlebox Media, where she wrote a documentary about 100 Years of the Santa Claus Parade in Toronto – the oldest Santa Claus parade in the world. These days, when she isn’t weaving stories for podcast audiences, she can be found playing in nature or building LEGO.
Mark Angly
Biography
Mark is an unashamed audio nerd who enjoys applying his love of sound to create things. His professional journey started over a decade ago in a punk rock band, but after a few years spent getting a degree in music production and recording bands at Fader Master Studio, he transitioned to audio post production. Mark has worked on everything—from dozens of Christmas movies for film and television, to “Snowpiercer” for Netflix, honing his sound design and mixing skills to complement the needs of any project. He even won a Leo award for his work on the Sci-Fi Feature, “Volition.” He’s incredibly excited to have now immersed himself in the world of podcasts.
Mike Tennant
Biography
Since landing work writing for a local paper at the age of 14, Mike Tennant has amassed hundreds of credits and a tidy cache of awards for his work in podcasts, broadcasting, TV, and print. He co-created, wrote, and produced the hugely popular series, The Age of Persuasion, for public radio in Canada and the US, which spawned a bestselling book of the same name. He lives in Kitchener, Ontario.
Ira Basen
Biography
Ira Basen has had a long career at the CBC. He was senior producer at Sunday Morning and Quirks and Quarks. He has been involved in the creation of three network programs: The Inside Track, This Morning, and Workology, as well as several special series, including “Spin Cycles”, an award winning six part look at PR and the media, and News 2.0, The Future of News in the age of Social Media.
He continues to produce documentaries for The Sunday Edition with Michael Enright on CBC Radio One, focusing primarily on issues around media, marketing, technology, and higher education. He also writes podcasts about technology for the Trailblazers podcast series, sponsored by Dell Technologies and hosted by Walter Issacson.
Richard Johnson
Biography
Richard Johnson loves to tell unusual stories that emanate from inspiring and innovative people. For nearly a decade he lived and worked abroad—reporting on the refugee crisis in the Middle East, economic development in North Africa, Indigenous social justice movements in India, and the peace process in Israel and Palestine. Closer to home, he writes about innovation, technology, public policy, and the unlikely partnerships that drive social change in our communities and our world. His work has appeared in The Walrus, THIS Magazine, Reader’s Digest, The New Quarterly, the Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, and other publications, and he is a former Fellow in Literary Journalism at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. He lives in Victoria BC, with his wife, a podcast producer, and their two young sons.
Mark Slutsky
Biography
Mark Slutsky is a writer and director based in Montreal. When he’s not writing podcasts, his movies have played festivals like Tribeca and the Toronto International Film Festival. He’s made short films for the likes of Sesame Street and he writes video games too, for which he’s been nominated for a couple of Canadian Screen Awards.
Matt Hird
Biography
Matt is a research consultant out of Toronto, Ontario. Prior to founding Ember Media Insights, he had slung radio and television audience data for two of Canada’s largest broadcasters, as well as Canada’s national television marketing and research association. When not keeping Pacific Content’s clients up-to-date on their podcasts’ performance, he works with research companies on brand lift and landscape studies, most notably The Canadian Podcast Listener.
Sean Wang
Biography
Sean is the finance guru at Pacific Content. He holds a CPA, CMA designation in British Columbia, Canada. His superpower is providing financial strength to ensure a sustainable and profitable business, while helping to get life-changing podcasts into the ears of millions of people. Sean became an accountant by luck and he’s not the typical accountant type. He brought operations and finance experience to a wide variety of industries prior to Pacific Content—Hospitality, FMCG, Media, Casino Gaming, Engineering Consulting, and Financial Services. His biggest passion project is teaching his kids Mandarin and Farsi, and his ultimate goal is to keep up with his kids mountain biking and skiing in different parts of the globe.
Sean Howard
Biography
Sean is a recovering juggler, comedy improviser, and marketer. He brings his 20+ years of marketing and advertising experience to Pacific Content along with his extensive history in audio fiction podcasting. He is the founder of Fable and Folly, a co-creator of Alba Salix and a comedy improviser in the dark comedy podcast, Civilized. He lives in Hamilton, Ontario with Eli, his partner of 20 years, and their two rescue dogs, Ms. Mae van de Wag and Lady Miss Bean.
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