The Hollywood Foreign Press Association on Monday continued its transformation into a reimagined organization with the appointment of three external advisors who will select the group tasked with reviewing new member applicants in the coming weeks.

“The creation of an Advisory Board comprised primarily of outside professionals is intended to provide an independent voice in our new member selection process starting with the selection process of the members of the Credentials Committee,” said HFPA President Helen Hoehne. “Shaka McGlotten, Santiago Pozo, and Paula Williams Madison have the experience and knowledge needed to ensure the new member selection process remains focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion.” 

Also on Monday, the HFPA announced the Board elected Adam Tanswell as Executive Secretary and Henry Arnaud as Treasurer. These moves follow last week’s appointments of Jeff Harris, Dr. Joanna Dodd Massey, and Sharlette Hambrick as the first independent board directors for the HFPA.

The new HFPA Advisory Board consists of three outside members, one HFPA member, and the Association’s current DEI consultant ensuring the focus is kept on promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in the credentialing process of new HFPA members. The Advisory Board will oversee the selection of the five new outside members of the revamped Credentials Committee – the group which will review new member applications in the coming weeks.

The Advisory Board was recommended by Ropes & Gray, the outside legal counsel tasked with reforming the HFPA bylaws, that it be a temporary board during the initial transition period to the new governance and ensure the new Credentials Committee was selected outside of the HFPA. The Advisory Board may also be asked by the Board of Directors to provide advice, insight, and guidance on other issues it deems necessary.

The Advisory Board will meet separately and apart from the Board of Directors and will conduct its own meetings and interviews of the Credentials Committee candidates. They are free to determine their own criteria for selection.

Joining the HFPA as advisors:

Shaka McGlotten is an artist and anthropologist. They are the author of Virtual Intimacies: Media, Affect, and Queer Sociality (SUNY Press 2013) and Dragging: Or, in the Drag of a Queer Life (Routledge 2021), as well as dozens of other publications. Their work looks to art, media, and technology as they interface with BIPOC experiences. Among the first ethnographers of digital spaces, they focus, especially on networked intimacies. Their work has been supported by Data & Society, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Akademie Schloss Solitude, and Creative Capital | The Andy Warhol Foundation.

Shaka McGlotten is Professor of Media Studies and Anthropology at Purchase College-SUNY, where they also serve as Chair of the Gender Studies and Global Black Studies Programs. Their work stages encounters between black study, queer theory, media, and art. They have written and lectured widely on networked intimacies and messy computational entanglements as they interface with qtpoc lifeworlds.

 

Santiago Pozo is considered one of the foremost authorities in the world on marketing entertainment to Latino audiences. In addition, he has produced, written, directed, and distributed films. 

After formative years as an executive with Universal Pictures Marketing, in 1988, Pozo founded Arenas, which soon became the largest and most recognized Latino company in Hollywood, specializing in marketing motion pictures and television. After 32 years running Arenas, Santiago sold Arenas’ marketing business in 2020 to the prestigious d2H agency in order to focus on producing, writing, and consulting for the entertainment industry.

Pozo has worked on more than 600 films, including The Book of Life, Annabelle, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Transformers, The Avengers, Toy Story 3, Star Trek, Madagascar, The Conjuring, Son of God, Shrek, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Apocalypto, along with Selena, My Family, Like Water for Chocolate and Born in East L.A. Further, Pozo is an accomplished film producer and distributor of such films as Imagining Argentina, Empire, The Three Wise Men, Culture Clash in America: Live!, and Bless Me, Ultima. As a writer, MGM has optioned his screenplay (written with Gregory Small), THE RUN.

Santiago holds a graduate degree in History from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and a Master of Fine Arts from the USC School of Cinematic Arts, the Peter Stark Producing Program. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of Hollywood and Spain.

 

Paula Williams Madison is Chairman and CEO of Madison Media Management LLC, a Los Angeles-based media consultancy company with a global reach.

In 2011, Madison retired from NBCUniversal where she was President and General Manager of NBC4 Los Angeles. She was also Los Angeles Regional General Manager for NBCU’s Telemundo TV stations, and Vice President and News Director of NBC4 New York. Under Madison’s watch, WNBC4 Los Angeles earned numerous Emmy, Golden Mike, and Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards.

Paula, whose Chinese name is Lowe Xiao Na (罗笑娜) is the granddaughter of a Hakka Chinese man who emigrated as a teen from Lowe Swee Hap (Luo Ruihe) in Shenzhen, China, in 1905 to Kingston, Jamaica. He returned to China in 1933 with most of his family. His life and history are the subjects of her documentary and book.

A highly sought-after public speaker, Madison received numerous honors and awards: named one of the “75 Most Powerful African Americans in Corporate America” by Black Enterprise Magazine in 2005, and included in the Hollywood Reporter’s “Power 100”. In 2013, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti appointed Madison to the Los Angeles Police Commission, where she served as Vice President until 2015. Madison is the former Owner/CEO of the Los Angeles Sparks WNBA basketball team.

She also serves on the Boards of the Los Angeles Chinese American Museum, the Center for Asian American Media, Cardinal Spellman High School, Black Filmmaker Foundation, Sabio Mobile Inc., as well as Chair of The Nell Williams Family Foundation.

She is also an honorary member of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., a predominantly African- American sorority whose members boast more than 250,000 college-educated women.

Madison graduated from Vassar College and served 10 years as a Vassar Trustee (to the College); and four years as President of the Board of Directors of the Alumnae/I Association of Vassar College.

 

Adam Tanswell is an award-winning journalist from London. Alongside his current editorial role as Hollywood Correspondent for the UK movie magazine Total Film, his prize-winning articles have been published in a number of prominent British publications including Radio Times, SFX, Metro, SciFiNow, First News and Digital Spy. On television, his filmed interviews have appeared on UK channels such as MTV, Comedy Central, and ITV.

Henry Arnaud has been a regular freelancer in the U.S. for Vogue Paris, Elle France, Le journal du dimanche, and several other prestigious publications in France, Switzerland, and French Canada over the past two decades. He is currently the US correspondent for Le Matin, Luxe, and 20 Minutes Switzerland. He also contributes to several television and radio outlets in French-speaking territories such as TVA, Cogeco, Télé Cable Sat.