Gavin Poolman

Gavin has produced/ executive produced/ financed 23 films with an aggregate production value of over $500M. Born in Canada, he graduated from Trinity College, University of Toronto with an Honours B.A. in French Language and Literature and a double minor in Computer Science and Philosophy. After 3 years as a software developer working on government and private sector contracts, he moved to the UK to attend the London Film School. After graduating, he played lead guitar in various London-based indy rock, acid jazz, and funk bands and worked in various crew capacities on film and television productions, in 1990 he joined the Glinwood Films group as an acquisitions and finance executive, where he was involved in the financing and licensing of The Sheltering Sky, Naked Lunch, A Rage In Harlem, etc., and the structuring of Japanese tax-shelter finance for Howard's End and The Crying Game. In 1994, he was appointed Head of Development at sales agent Mayfair Entertainment International (Jefferson in Paris, Vanya On 42nd Street, Richard III). In 1996, together with investment banker Mark Beilby, Gavin founded media finance and production boutique Apollo Media. Films he has produced/ executive produced for Apollo include: * The Zookeeper, starring Sam Neill, premiered at the 2001 Toronto International Film Festival and the Commonwealth Film Festival in Manchester, and won the Grand Prize at the Taos Film Festival 2002. * Festival Express (w Janis Joplin, Grateful Dead, and The Band), produced together with John Trapman, was theatrically released in the USA in July 2004, and combined both worldwide critical acclaim with commercial success. * Chelsea On The Rocks, directed by Abel Ferrara (w Ethan Hawke), which had its world premiere at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. From 2006 - 2008, working together with LA-based Grand Army Entertainment, Gavin was involved in financing 11 independent US productions: * Five Dollars A Day (Christopher Walken, Sharon Stone); * Hachiko (Richard Gere, directed by Lasse Hallstrom); * Lies and Deception (Christian Slater, Cuba Gooding Jr); * The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond (Bryce Dallas Howard, Ann Margret); * Mad Money (Katie Holmes, Queen Latifah, Diane Keaton); * Major Movie Star (Jessica Simpson); * New York I Love You (Natalie Portman, Hayden Christensen, Orlando Bloom); * Not Forgotten (Paz Vega, Simon Baker); * Smother (Liv Tyler and Diane Keaton); * Streets of Blood (Val Kilmer, Sharon Stone); * The Year of Getting to Know Us (Jimmy Fallon, Lucy Liu, Tom Arnold) In 2008, together with Finnish software developers Marcus Wikars and Magnus Holtlund, Gavin and his partner in Apollo, Mark Beilby, co-founded mobile technology company Vevox (www.vevox.com), a leading B2B provider of real-time mobile interactive services to the market research, meetings & events, and education sectors. Shareholders include advertising giant WPP and Chris Morris, the founder of Computershare. Clients include Molson Coors, Jimmy Choo, eBay, KPMG, PWC, WPP, Vodaphone, Coventry University, University of Southampton, AIG, Ipsos, Mediaset, SVT, YLE, EMI, Teliasonera, YouGov, and the NYPD. In 2014, Vevox (then called Lumi) was named by the UK Government as one of their prestigious Future 50 top British tech companies. In June 2013, Vevox completed the acquisition of IML, a UK-based tech company providing software services to meetings and events. In April 2017, Vevox'x subsidiary IML was bought by private equity group Vespa Capital with Vevox remaining a substantial shareholder. From 2013 - 2018, together with Ingenious Media and backed by a large UK financial institution, Apollo developed and launched the Ingenious Senior Film Fund, which Gavin co-managed. From 2015 - 2017, he served on the British Screen Advisory Council as a full member. He is a member of the Academy Of Canadian Cinema & Television.