Peter Agelasto
Founder, Chief Executive Officer
peter@bluewallmedia.com
Peter Agelasto has spent 15 years in the independent music business and 10 years in the technology business. Peter, originally a Mayan archaeologist, came to the Internet in the 1990s while observing the relationship between technology and society. Peter has been preaching consumer generated media ever since his first recording device. In 1998, Peter founded Monkeyclaus, a recording studio, internet media startup, and digital music label. In 2000, Peter founded multimedia based internet startup BlueWall Media. Peter's vision in this industry is fresh, creative, and community focused.
Sara Pope Agelasto
Co-Founder, Chief Operations Officer
sara@bluewallmedia.com
Sara's experience is the result of a lifetime of travel and volunteerism. As a scientist, she has a particular attention to detail. She specializes in management of groups and organizational skills. She has managed groups as diverse as out-of-school youth as a Peace Corps Volunteer, hundreds of artist accounts for the music industry, and small teams of business professionals for start-up organizations. She has a potent understanding of diplomacy among people and an acute comprehension of the cutting edge BlueWall Technology that make her a driving force behind the BlueWall Team. Sara also studies yoga and health and is the Co-Founder and Editor of the Bluewall Niche Community iHanuman.com.
Jim Fishel
Co-Founder, Executive Vice President, Business Development
jim@bluewallmedia.com
Jim Fishel has more than 40 years experience in the music business and as such, his biography reads like a roadmap of the industry's present evolution. Moreover, his Rolodex reads like a who’s who of the entertainment business and its allied industries. Starting as a Concert Organizer at the University of Miami, Jim joined Billboard magazine as a Senior Editor after graduating from college. From that position, he moved to Director of Product Management at Columbia Records, then to Record Producer at CBS Records, before becoming Vice President and Executive Director of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). More recently, Jim was Director of International Operations for GRP Records and Vice President of New Business Development for TIME LIFE. He has two Grammy nominations, a Grand Prix du Disque Award and other critical awards for entertainment-related creative works in the audio and video worlds. He has also served on the executive board and committees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Rhythm and Blues Foundation, Jazz Music Association, Country Music Association, and he initiated a joint venture with Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of American History for creating permanent exhibit on the importance of American Popular Music in the 20th Century. Whatever his role, Jim's ability to merge business and creativity has always put him at the forefront of change as an acknowledged forward-thinking force in the industry's executive offices.
Vijith Assar
Lead Developer, Content Specialist, Writer
vijith@bluewallmedia.com
Vijith Assar has worked in audio production and also spent many years following the development of media file formats and encoders, giving him a balanced view into the technologies driving both production and consumption. He writes about music in his spare time, including several articles about cutting-edge tech, and these days writes prose and code simultaneously for BlueWall.
Parker Fishel
General Manager, Content Specialist, Archivist
parker@bluewallmedia.com
Although Parker Fishel graduated with a B.A. in English from Columbia University in 2010, he has over four years apprenticing in recorded sound conservation, preservation and archiving. Most recently, Parker has worked as an audio consultant for a forthcoming collection by avant-garde saxophonist Evan Parker and as an independent scholar writing a bio-discography on jazz musician Marion Brown. He has three years of experience working for Bob Dylan Music Company and four years as a programmer at radio station WKCR-FM in New York, where his classic country music program was voted "Best Country Radio in New York" by the Village Voice in 2008.
Abel Okugawa
Producer, Recording Engineer, Digital Media Specialist
abel@bluewallmedia.com
Emmy award winning recording artist and producer Abel Okugawa heads the Studio and Production services of BlueWall. Though our youngest veteran engineer, Abel started recording almost 20 years ago and has consequently watched the industry transition from analog to digital media. Highly adaptive, Abel's multimedia talents run from high fidelity archival transcription of analog media to sound and video design to recording software expertise.
Samantha Ashley
Padawan
samantha@bluewallmedia.com
Samantha is a young web designer that entered the field here at Bluewall as an intern while she was still in high school. Since then, Samantha has grown as a programmer and was promoted to a full-time employee. At age 12, she began developing a love of HTML and CSS and today her work with us uses those skills.
Advisory Board
Chad Ciesil
Chad (@chadciesil) and his partners seek to provide new tools and freedom for developers and content owners. When the current barriers are broken down, the opportunities to create, attract and sell abound. He spent seven years at Whittmanhart serving as president, where he led his team in strategy, marketing and client services to build the agency’s national reputation as well as drive significant growth across multiple offices. Through associations like SoDA (Society of Digital Agencies), where he served on the board for two years, The eight years he’s spent on the “traditional” marketing side and nine on the “digital” marketing side give him a unique perspective to provide the leadership and direction necessary in this new digital universe.
Walter McDonough
General Counsel, Intellectual Property, Licensing
Walter is a professor of copyright law at Suffolk University Law School and serves as a board member on the United States performing rights society SoundExchange and the Alliance of Artist and Recording Companies.
Jeff Bloom
Passionate social entrepreneur Jeff Bloom was the chief architect behind the development and success of CTA Solutions, a Hawaii-based technology, education, and staffing company founded in 1986 and was recognized for his work when in 2000, he received Microsoft’s “Top Innovator Award” for developing “’PACAF Today’ as the most innovative application to benefit warfighter knowledge management while saving taxpayer money.”. During the 20 years he owned and managed CTA, he built it into Hawaii’s leading provider of staffing, technology consulting, and education solutions. In 2006 Jeff sold CTA Solutions and entered semi-retirement, donating his time supporting technology and education community service projects. During that period, he also joined the University of Hawaii as the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) Workforce Development Program Coordinator supporting a National Science Foundation Grant; and he has also been consulting various technology companies and government organizations focusing on strategic planning, implementing technology best practices, and business development. His clients include the State of Hawaii, Synergy Asia Pacific and other organizations. For the State of Hawaii he managed a STEM Education grant awarded to Governor Lingle by The National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, The Gates Foundation and The Intel Corporation. Among his numerous accolades are: Ernst & Young Hawaii 2000 Entrepreneur of the Year, the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2001 Small Business Person of the Year for the State of Hawaii, and Pacific Business News’ Best in Business in 2004. He has also been inducted into the Junior Achievement Hawaii Business Hall of Fame.
Steven D'Onofrio
Steven D’Onofrio, Esq. is the President of D’Onofrio & Associates, a music licensing (master and music publishing), anti-piracy, recording artist and Intellectual Property Consulting Firm, located in Washington, DC. D’Onofrio & Associates consults for intellectual property owners, recording artists, record companies, music publishers, songwriters and other companies who seek to license music and music publishing rights, as well as companies seeking to acquire or sell music masters and publishing catalogs, and Internet, new technology and manufacturing companies who seek to actively deal with protecting intellectual property rights in their everyday business.
Parker C. Agelasto
Special Collections Advisor
Parker C. Agelasto is an independent consultant with 15 years of experience in the museum profession. With a B.A. from Bates College, M.A. in art history from the University of Virginia, and M.B.A. from the Darden School of Business, he applies analytic research skills and strategic thinking to issues facing not-for-profits. He seeks creative and sustainable solutions to implement across the organization to generate efficiencies and grow new audiences while bolstering the organization’s mission and core values.
