Meet the Team
Meet the "who" behind Disguise. Our team is made up of talented people who bring a wide range of skills across different industries to the business.
Executive Team
Fernando Küfer
Since joining Disguise, Fernando has led the company on a continuous growth journey, opening locations all over the world, and attracting a majority backing from the Carlyle Group with Epic Games taking a minority stake.
Fernando brings 18 years of executive and leadership experience across retail and manufacturing, having worked and led in five countries. Prior to Disguise, he was CEO at A2B Bikes, and has also held CFO and senior financial roles at Ultra Motor, L’Oréal, The Body Shop, Gillette (now P&G) and Lidl Spain. He has a BA in International Business Studies and speaks seven languages.
Bill Collis
Bill has extensive experience in the film and video industry. Formerly CEO and President of The Foundry, which he led for over a decade, Bill has organically transformed the company from a niche visual effects software business into a global force in the development and distribution of post-production media tools and product design technology.
Bill’s leadership skills earned him an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year award in 2012. He holds a PhD in signal processing, numerous patents, a major feature film credit, plus a prestigious Scientific and Technical Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Tom Rockhill
Tom leads the Global Sales team at Disguise, responsible for driving growth whilst ensuring the customer is always kept top of mind. He and the team are continually introducing Disguise to new geographies and industries without losing sight of existing client demands.
Dedicated and energetic, Tom spends a lot of time in front of customers, travelling the world in order to best understand how Disguise products are being used. Previously in senior management positions at Foundry and Yellowdog, Tom has a breadth of international experience in Media and Entertainment Technology within APAC and EMEA.
Alex Wills
Alex is responsible for delivering the overall brand & user experience across every touch point of the business.
Alex has been focused on immersive and spatial technologies, platforms and XR design for over 15 years and is now leading the charge within Disguise to build out the end-to-end metaverse solution stack for brands, studios, broadcasters and bands. Whilst at AKQA, R/GA and The Mill Alex worked directly with some of the world’s most innovative brands, including Nike, Google, Magic Leap, Riot Games and Beats by Dre to develop transformative experiences.
Raed Al Tikriti
Raed is constantly keeping his eye on the market to understand how best to move Disguise forward. He combines a deep technical understanding of how and why products get made with excellent relationship management skills, to help Disguise exceed customer expectations.
Raed has an extensive background in product management, having previously held similar roles across broadcast technology and digital media on both sides of the Atlantic, including Grass Valley in Canada and Ventuz in Germany.
Martin Somers
With over three decades spent establishing and managing large manufacturing operations all over the globe and a further ten years in M&A at PwC, Martin brings a wealth of experience in developing sustainable growth initiatives whilst optimising operations and supply chains.
As Chief Operations Officer, Martin’s main focus is to ensure all our customers get the highest quality products delivered to them on time, so they can create the best possible stories. He also plays a key role in directing our support team in achieving the best outcomes whatever situations they face.
Ryan Sklar
As Chief Financial Officer, Ryan oversees all financial matters for Disguise including controllership, tax, treasury, analysis and financial operations. Over the last five years, Ryan has been instrumental in developing the finance team, helping triple the size of the business, expanding our global office footprint and securing Disguise’s first round of private equity investment.
Prior to joining Disguise, Ryan worked within a variety of roles across high-performing finance teams from The Body Shop, BD Pharmaceuticals, A2B and Young & Rubicam (WPP).
Lorna Bains
Lorna’s ambition is to enable and embed transformation in organisations, teams, and leaders. She plays an instrumental role in helping the Disguise team accelerate their development, exceed their potential and achieve their goals.
Lorna has built her expertise in consultancy, including Interim HRD, Leadership Development, Team Development, OD, Talent and Transformation. She has grown organisations and the people behind them in a variety of sectors, with a career spanning UK and EMEA, including The Walt Disney Company, Belron and Accenture.
Ashraf Nehru
In 2003 Ash co-founded United Visual Artists, a London-based art practice integrating new technologies with traditional media, which in turn led to the creation of d3 Technologies in May 2010 (later renamed to Disguise). Ash created a pioneering 3D visualizer that paved the way for our current Designer software.
Ash has a passion for visual design and technology integration, which earned him an inaugural fellowship from Backstage Academy.
Today Ash forms part of the Disguise board and continues to remain a big part of the Media and Entertainment community.
Global Management
Peter Kirkup
Peter leads the Disguise Solutions team of design experts who assist customers in building virtual production stages across the globe. He has helped bring some of the biggest AV systems in the world to life including Dubai's Al Wasl Plaza and the Illuminarium projects, and has helped deliver U2s concert on the world's biggest indoor LED screen at the Sphere in Las Vegas. While contributing to Disguise's solution developments, Peter is also working to define and execute the company's innovation strategy around AI, web technologies and spatial computing.
Alexandra Coulson
Alexandra heads up the global marketing team at Disguise, responsible for driving revenue to the business leveraging a data-driven strategy. Passionate about marketing and certified in a number of marketing growth areas, she is building the Disguise brand recognition through a multi-channel strategy. Prior to Disguise, she led global marketing campaigns for Gartner, and built her experience in international markets. She was responsible for marketing large enterprise solutions for large FTSE100 brands, delivering a united strategy orientated around the needs of the customer.
Emma Rudd
Emma heads up our People team to business partner with employees working across our USA, EMEA and APAC regions. She holds an LLM in employment law, is CIPD qualified and has over 20 years' experience leading HR and People across a range of industries. Emma is committed to attracting the best and brightest talent to Disguise and making it a great place to work. A self-confessed wordsmith and actress, Emma has also done improv comedy in the not-too-distant past.
Phil Cooksey
Phil joined Disguise with 15 years of experience leading teams in both direct and indirect channels, most recently within professional video, TV, film and broadcast for Canon. Phil is leading our sales teams around the world, particularly focussing on being close to our customers, getting to know the uniqueness of each region, listening to the feedback of our community and adapting accordingly. In Phil's words: "Each market is so unique and we're working with our community to try to adapt the way we do business to localise Disguise and offer the benefits of our solutions".
Tom Whittock
Tom was one the key developers of our early d3 software, known today as Designer. Before Disguise was born, he worked on piloting our software on the first Massive Attack shows and worked closely with our growing user community to understand their needs. Tom is also one of the driving forces of our xR workflow, building out from its first application at the 2018 Winter Olympics into the award-winning solution that is shaping virtual production today. Before joining Disguise, he spent 10 developing various games for EA, Sony and other independent gaming developers.
Susi Cardew
Susi is responsible for bringing all the brilliant talent around the world into our rapidly growing Disguise family. She is the key driver of our global talent acquisition strategy and internal mobility programme, while also shaping our employer brand to reflect our core values and enable a proactive pipeline of talent with key skills for Disguise’s present and future. Susi spent the last 20 years in both in-house and agency hiring roles within the media entertainment and content industries, starting her career at the BBC working across radio, music & TV before taking up senior roles at Disney and NBC.
Addy Ghani
As the VP of Virtual Production, Addy is building a Disguise creator community and strategies that will further the proliferation of virtual production and Disguise as a key workflow for film and TV production. Prior to joining Disguise, Addy designed and built world-class stages for DreamWorks, Verizon Media and NBCUniversal to help creatives visualise their dreams. Addy is well-versed in VFX and animation, as well as emerging formats like AR and VR. He is an unofficial Unreal Engine Evangelist and a Fellow, and loves to converse about the possibilities of game engines as a storytelling tool.
Dan Baum
With over twelve years of sales experience in the film and TV industry, Dan is passionate about bringing Disguise’s next-generation solutions to new markets and customers. After a tenure at RED Digital Cinema occupying various sales roles, including Director of Sales, Dan joined Disguise to lead our sales efforts in the Americas, particularly focusing on his expertise and passion for virtual production and live events. Currently, Dan is on a mission to democratise the toolsets that help storytellers communicate their vision in new and creative ways. Outside of work, Dan enjoys playing guitar and surfing the Southern California beaches.
Lizzi Barnett
Lizzi is an experienced commercial lawyer, specialising in media, technology and intellectual property law. As Group General Counsel, Lizzi oversees Disguises’ global Legal function. Lizzi previously spent 8 years at Technicolor Creative Studios, heading up legal and business affairs at The Mill + MPC, both well-known for visual effects and production. Lizzi previously worked at UK consumer association, Which?, focusing on copyright and technology law for their magazines and apps. Prior to this, Lizzi trained at City law firm, Norton Rose, and worked at West End media law firm, Forbes Anderson Free. Outside work, Lizzi loves travelling, reading, writing, skiing and yoga.
Igor Pancaldi
As VP of Design, Igor has been instrumental in creating and establishing Disguise's new brand architecture - putting our aim to deliver the next generation of visual experiences at the heart of it all.
Igor has over 20 years' experience in creative leadership roles working for the likes of R/GA, DLKW and AKQA designing and leading campaigns ecosystems for Microsoft, Magic Leap, Siemens and more. Blending agile ways of working with traditional creative processes Igor is elevating the design thinking and customer experience across all of our touch points.
Regional Management
Alan Lam
Alan heads up our APAC team, responsible for growing Disguise’s community and reach in the region. Fluent in English, Cantonese and Mandarin, Alan has nearly two decades of marketing and sales management experience in entertainment and broadcasting technology within APAC. His engaging leadership and business planning skills are key to securing Disguise’s future in this fast-growing, multicultural marketplace.
Tsuyoshi Mitera
Mitera heads up our Japan office, expanding our reach in the Japanese market and bringing Disguise to the forefront of cutting-edge live and virtual production. He has over 15 years of experience in ProAV international sales. Prior to Disguise, Mitera spent 10 years at Roland Corporation looking after both domestic and international sales and managing its Europe subsidiary, then another three years at Cerevo as VP of Global Sales and Marketing.
Jinny Kim
Jinny joined Disguise in September 2019 and has since been instrumental in turning Korea into one of our most burgeoning global markets. Jinny’s mission is to turn Disguise into the industry standard for high-end productions in Korea, from broadcast and fixed installations to concert touring. With BTS a happy customer, Jinny is now eyeing more K-pop stars to include Disguise in their touring set-up.
Aaron, our Sales Manager in Beijing is passionate about bringing new technologies for immersive entertainment to China. Throughout his career, he has participated in the design and construction of many xR/VP stages in the region.
As a graduate of the Communication University of China, Aaron is one of the main authors of the World Ultra HD Industry Alliance(UWA) xR Virtual Production Integration System Technical Requirements and Test Methods manual. He is also a standing committee member of the Digital Visual Design and Presentation Special Committee of China Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (CSMPTE).