Dear colleagues,
I understand it is proper protocol to introduce myself. I'm a friend
of Reuben Abraham's and am hard at work on our upcoming TEDIndia
Conference in Mysore Nov 4-7, 2009. My job at TED encompasses several
aspects: the TED Fellows program, the TED Book Club, Membership,
and working on producing the conferences. I am also the conference's
resident satirist, making fun of the speakers at the end of the
conference.
Right now we're in the process of selecting 100 Fellows for TEDIndia
from hundreds of applicants.
In my spare time I am producing and directing a feature length
documentary on our youngest TEDAfrica Fellow William Kamkwamba, now 21
whom I've been mentoring for the last two years. Don't try this at
home. Directing movie while having a full-time job is a distinctly bad
idea. I'm loving it anyway.
I also work on rural economic development in a village in Malawi,
Africa (which has nothing at all to do with Madonna, thank goodness.)
I'm eager to learn as much as possible about the subcontinent before
the conference. I welcome your suggestions, referrals and queries.
Sincerely,
Tom
Tom Rielly Community Director
TED Conferences LLC
55 Vandam St. 16th Floor NY NY 10013
new mobile number: 646.256.7419
Tel: 212.346.9333 Fax: 212.227.6397 [email protected] www.ted.com
For masochists only:
June 2009
Tom Rielly
Biography
Tom Rielly is Community Director at TED Conferences where he is
responsible for TED’s audience, including membership, fellowship, and
book club programs. He also serves on TED’s executive team. Rielly is
also TED’s acclaimed resident satirist, performing his unique
summaries of the speakers at many TEDs.
Rielly may be best known as founder and former CEO of PlanetOut, the
leading gay and lesbian Internet company which accomplished three
firsts: first venture investment in, first corporate financing of, and
first IPO of a company serving the gay market. He also held senior
sales and marketing positions at technology startups such as Acronym
Media, Farallon Computing, Voyager, SuperMac Technology.
Rielly has served as Executive Producer of two films, an experimental
feature about lesbian romance and the Golden Gate bridge as a suicide
icon called The Joy of Life, which premiered at the Sundance Film
Festival, and Moving Windmills, a short documentary film about William
Kamkwamba, a promising young Malawian social entrepreneur.
Moving Windmills was awarded the Pangea Day world film festival’s
North American Filmmaker’s Award from Participant Productions,
producers of An Inconvenient Truth, Good Night and Good Luck, Syriana,
and Charlie Wilson’s War. It also received an award from the Seven
Fund and has been selected for several film festivals including
Without Borders in Rome
He is now executive producing and directing a full-length documentary
based on Moving Windmills. His photographs of Kamkwamba and his family
have appeared in major newspapers, museums and on websites around the
world. He writes occasionally for I.D. Magazine and other publications
and websites. With Karen Wickre, he contributed to Out in All
Directions: A Gay and Lesbian Almanac (Warner Books).
Rielly has founded or co-founded four NGO’s: most recently Moving
Windmills to work on projects in Africa (Executive Director, 2008-),
Digital Queers (1990-1995), a seminal gay and lesbian rights group in
Silicon Valley, New Media Centers (1992-) and the Yale Macintosh
Users’ Group (1984-).
Rielly’s interests include gadgets mentoring, filmmaking, photography,
politics, lesbian and gay civil rights, comedy, public speaking,
traveling and most recently rural economic development in Africa,
particularly in Malawi. As a teen actor, he had a small role in the
feature film My Bodyguard (1980).
Tom Rielly Community Director
TED Conferences LLC
55 Vandam St. 16th Floor NY NY 10013
new mobile number: 646.256.7419
Tel: 212.346.9333 Fax: 212.227.6397 [email protected] www.ted.com
TED2010 Long Beach CA SOLD OUT. Simulcast in Palm Springs CA now
open. A few seats remain for TEDGlobal in Oxford, UK July 21-24,
2009. Watch for TEDIndia registration opening soon.
