Madison Merritt | Co-creator, Slingshot
Madison Merritt is Executive Vice President of Unscripted Development at Entertainment One. Before joining eOne, she founded Mad Ave Entertainment, with the focus of creating television, branded entertainment and digital content. In July 2014, Mad Ave Entertainment signed an overall deal with Asylum Entertainment, to develop and produce content.
Until December 2012, she was Senior Vice President of Series and Development for Ish Entertainment.
For her last year of college she studied at La Universidad del Salvador in Buenos Aires before eventually moving to New York where she began working for VH1, CMT and Logo in Acquisitions and Co-Productions. Pursuing her dream of producing, she moved to Los Angeles and worked on such shows as Rock of Love, America’s Most Smartest Model, The Shot and Miss Rap Supreme. In 2008, she made the move over to Ish Entertainment as Director of Development, ultimately heading up and overseeing all of West Coast Development for the company.
Madison has developed and sold several projects to networks such as VH1, MTV, Oxygen, Lifetime, TLC, HGTV, WeTV, and Facebook.
Adam Haber | Co-creator, Slingshot
Adam Haber has had a long career in finance. He traded commodities for over two decades on several different New York exchanges and has been an active Angel Investor and advisor to over 30 startup companies. He is also the former owner of two Manhattan restaurants: Aldea, which had a Michelin star; and Lupulo, its sister restaurant.
Adam was a trustee on the Roslyn School Board from 2009-2018. He also serves as a Board Member of the Hagedorn Little Village School, which provides educational and therapeutic services for children with developmental disabilities.
Adam was appointed to the Nassau Interim Finance Authority (NIFA) on July 22, 2015 by Governor Andrew Cuomo, and served as Deputy Chief of Staff for Economic Development in the Town of Hempstead, NY, (the largest town in America) from 2018-2019.
He has a Bachelor’s Degree of Science with a concentration in Finance from SUNY Albany and a Master’s Degree in Political Science from Long Island University – Post.
L. Chris Stewart
L. Chris Stewart is the CEO of Stewart Trial Attorneys, a serious injury and wrongful death law firm. Chris handles a variety of cases including wrongful death, civil rights, premises liability, mass torts and sexual assaults. Chris has won numerous record setting jury verdicts and made U.S history when he won the first billion dollar jury verdict for a rape victim. Chris is also recognized worldwide as one of the top civil rights lawyers of his generation. He has represented some of the most famous civil rights cases of this century that were captured on video including Walter Scott, who was shot in the back on video by a police officer. The case settled for $6.5 million dollars the highest in South Carolina history, and the officer received a twenty year prison sentence. Chris also represented Alton Sterling who was held down and killed on video by police in Baton Rouge. Other high-profile cases include Gregory Towns of Georgia, which led to a record settlement and two prison sentences for the officers involved; Chase Sherman of Florida who was killed on video which led to a record settlement, and Deaundre Phillips who was shot on video by police which is still in Court. Attorney Stewart demands not just a monetary award for his clients, but also policing reform to prevent future abuse.
Attorney Stewart is one of the most decorated African-American lawyers in the country having received the Julia Humbles’ Civil Rights Award, the Wiley Branton Award for Leadership, the Outstanding Citizen Award for the State of Georgia, the Georgia Senate Outstanding Public Service Proclamation, the Pinnacle Leadership Award, the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus Chairman’s Award, the Esquire Award, the R.E. Thomas Civil Rights Award, the first and only African-American voted Attorney of the Year for the State of Georgia.
Chris has been featured in international media including CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, The New York Times, Fox News, Good Morning America, The Today Show, Forbes and is a contributor on various media outlets. He travels frequently speaking at a variety of events and schools as the key note speaker. Born and raised in southwest Atlanta, Chris is extremely active in the Atlanta community and is also a board member of the historic Southern Center for Human Rights. He is a double HBCU alumni, graduating from Xavier University (LA) with honors in English, Tulane University with a Master’s of Science in Public Health, and Howard University School of Law. Having overcome reading issues as a youth, Chris embodies his favorite motto “Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.”
Darryl N. Ramsey
Darryl Ramsey is an accomplished Information Technology, Cyber and Physical security strategist with over 20 years of experience in several market segments. Darryl is currently the Client Executive for New York State at EY connecting solutions to meet the most challenging issues facing Government and Public Sector entities. Darryl has held Business Development, Engineering Architecture and Sales Strategy positions across various sectors including Life Sciences, Healthcare, Education and Public Sector. A portion of in that twenty-year tenure was technology-focused roles at Cisco Systems and Juniper Networks. Drawing from his deep experience within the Education landscape, Darryl had the privilege to be appointed to the Recommendations for Education and Advancement of Learning (REAL) Agenda Commission. The REAL Commission was formed as a national center created through bipartisan support in Congress to deliver innovations that transform teaching and learning. Its goals were driven by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra. The commission submitted its recommendations to the Obama Administration in April 2012.
Darryl is an active and contributing advocate for the fight against Trafficking in persons and forced labor. During his time at Juniper, he was involved in the company’s corporate responsibility initiative with partner Not For Sale. He is an adamant advocate for efforts supporting diversity and inclusion in the workplace and is a proclaimed Change Agent in support of women’s issues. He is a past and present guest facilitator for New York City’s Mayor’s Office to Combat Domestic Violence. Mr. Ramsey participates on several boards including several New York based School K-20 advisory organizations.
Jonathan Kadin
Jonathan Kadin currently runs KadinCreative, a film and television production company based in Los Angeles. His first production under this new venture is Sony’s upcoming musical, a reimagining of Cinderella, starring Camila Cabello (in theaters February 5, 2021).
Prior to launching KadinCreative in 2019, Jonathan was a motion picture studio executive for 20 years at Sony’s Columbia Pictures label. During this time he rose up the ranks to Executive Vice President and oversaw over 30 films, including successful hits like the recent release of Bad Boys For Life, as well as the 21 Jump Street franchise, acclaimed comedies such as Superbad and Step Brothers, and the Academy Award best picture nominee, Moneyball.
Jonathan’s professional experience also includes his role as a finance executive at Walt Disney Studios, and two years at Coopers & Lybrand in New York where he earned a CPA license.
Jonathan received a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from The University of Michigan.