Jason is a digital media expert with more than twenty years of development experience. He began his career in the mid-90’s as a video game artist at Konami, where he quickly climbed the ranks to become a lead artist. Seeking new challenges, Jason attended the Vancouver Film School to study film and storytelling where the short film he wrote, directed and produced was selected as a finalist for the BC Film Director Internship Program. With cinematic skills in hand, he returned to the game industry as a designer at Radical Entertainment, shipping several acclaimed titles including Hulk, Hulk Ultimate Destruction and Simpson’s Hit & Run.
In 2005, Jason began teaching art, design and coding at the Art Institute of Vancouver. As the lead faculty of the Game Art & Design department, he was instrumental in developing the curriculum into one of the top 10 undergraduate Game Design programs in all of North America according to the Princeton Review. Jason is deeply engaged in the local digital community, volunteering for over a decade with organizations including the Artery, IGDA, Full Indie and GameMaker Vancouver User Group, and is the current President of the Vancouver ACM SIGGRAPH chapter. He is a trusted consultant for various industry groups including Cultural Human Resources Canada, Nordicity, and New Media BC (now DigiBC).
Jason has been involved with the CDM since it started, first having consulted with Dr. Gerri Sinclair on the curriculum, then attending as a student in 2014, and graduating in December 2015.