Dave Habiger, Aidan Foley Join Legend Leadership Team as Chairman, CEO

HOLLYWOOD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Media industry veteran Dave Habiger and technology and entertainment executive Aidan Foley will join Legend as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, respectively, the company announced today. In addition, Legend has hired Ellie Trope as Vice President of Legal Affairs.

Dave Habiger brings a wealth of executive-level management experience to his new role as Chairman. He has an established history of being a visionary for future formats, consumer's digital media creation and distribution.

Dave most recently served as Chief Executive Officer of Textura Corporation TXTR a software payments platform. Prior to this, he served as Chief Executive Officer of NDS Group Ltd., a leading software development company for the cable and satellite TV industry. As Chief Executive Officer at Sonic Solutions SNIC, he partnered with Hollywood studios to lead the company's ascent to one of the largest global providers of premium movies and TV shows via the Internet and consumer electronic devices.

In 2011, he was named an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year, and in 2008, Corporate Leader Magazine chose him as one of its 40 Under 40 business leaders. In 2010, The Hollywood Reporter chose him as one its Digital Power 50. He is a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors, National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. He holds a BBA from St. Norbert College and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

Aidan Foley will draw on decades of executive-level experience in the technology and entertainment industries for his new role as Legend's Chief Executive Officer. Foley has established a significant track record of growth and accomplishment in the companies he has helped to manage. He has earned a reputation for designing the strategic and operational elements of business through the perspective of the customer, a distinction which has resulted in strong growth in both revenue and brand awareness for those firms. As part of the management team of several industry category leaders, he has gained experience running creative, software, hardware and services companies on a global scale.

Foley is Founder/CEO of AF Double Eagle, a corporate development company. As part of his efforts there, in 2011, Foley led the group that acquired Fox Mobile from News Corp. Fox Mobile is a global mobile network company distributing studio and television content on a global basis. The company was sold 3 years after acquisition, at over 28 times invested capital, as part of a roll up in the industry. During his tenure at Double Eagle, Foley also provided NCR Corp. management expertise on its content distribution business through its kiosk operations, Blockbuster Express, and led the relationships with the studios and other content companies critical to these operations. The company was sold to Coinstar as part of a strategic partnering relationship with its Red Box operations.

Foley serves on the board of directors, and is Chairman of the Strategic Partnering Committee, of Truevision 3D Surgical. Truevision is a medical device company specializing in digital 3D visualization and guidance for microsurgery. Truevision has strategic partnerships with Alcon, Leica, and others, for the distribution and support of the Truevision products on a global basis, and is the established leader for neurosurgery and ophthalmology.

Prior to Double Eagle, Foley joined Ascent Media Group, a roughly $1 billion media and entertainment services company, as chief marketing officer. Ascent Media's key offerings to its customers were creative services, media management and networks capabilities. Additionally, Foley served as president of the company's enterprise solutions group, a team of industry professionals providing broad consulting and professional services to Ascent Media Group's extensive client base. He directed the transition from Liberty Livewire to Ascent Media with a successful major multi-media brand launch campaign.

Previously, Foley spent eight years as the Chief Executive Officer of Eastman Kodak's Digital Motion Imaging Division, managing several global businesses concurrently. Key among these businesses was Cinesite, an award winning visual effects company with operations in Los Angeles and London. Foley served as Chairman and CEO of Cinesite.

Foley serves as a frequent spokesperson on issues impacting the entertainment industry and is a member of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from UCLA.

Ellie Trope joins Legend from MGA Entertainment, where she served as General Counsel. She previously served as Counsel at Overbreak, where she provided legal advice to the company's product development, marketing, finance, and human resources departments and managed its intellectual property portfolio. A graduate of Whittier Law School, Trope also has experience in private practice serving as counsel to companies and individuals in consumer products industries.

"We know great talent when we see it, and the hiring of these three dynamic individuals only bolsters our reputation as the market leader in virtual reality, visual effects, and 3D conversion," Legend CFO Mark Steffler said. "Their partnership and contributions will be essential to our continued success in helping our studio clients produce the most cutting-edge, revolutionary moviegoing experiences for consumers."

Legend, whose clients include an array of Hollywood's top studios, holds 23 patents in five countries for its advanced technology and has long been recognized as the definitive market leader for 3D conversion and the use of visual effects and virtual reality in filmmaking.

ABOUT LEGEND VR

Founded in 2014, Legend VR is the Virtual Reality division of Legend which offers a full-scale solution for VR creative, production and post needs, from concept to final color, for all types of 360-degree and VR content. Our VR & VFX Supervisors work with creative agencies, studio executives, producers and directors to help define and execute their 360-degree campaigns from start to finish.

Legend has played an integral role in some of the most buzzworthy VR content of late for clients like Lionsgate, Warner Brothers, Apple Music, Annapurna Pictures, Hulu, and Tidal. Other recent projects include "The Click Effect", a film that premiered in January 2016 at the Sundance Film Festival for which Legend performed stitching, VFX, and 3D functions, "Take Flight," from The New York Times' Great Performers series from which Legend completed CG/VFX work, 3D Conversion, on-set capture of talent, and color correction, and "Stan Lee's Cosmic Crusaders," a VR project that the team at Legend created and produced for Stan Lee's first VR experience, from concept through completion.

ABOUT LEGEND VFX

Legend VFX is a visual effects studio that takes great pride and passion in bringing our clients' digital visions to life. Based in Los Angeles, our wide array of talent encompasses concept art, pre-viz, matte painting, on-set supervision, 2D compositing, 3D/CG effects, animation and color grading. Our talented and diverse team of artists have completed work on feature, television, commercial and virtual reality projects, and specialize in Nuke based compositing and Maya.

The Legend VFX team has recently completed projects for Disney, Sony, Warner Bros, Lionsgate, MGM, Legendary Pictures, Annapurna Pictures, Apple Music, Columbia Pictures, and The New York Times.

ABOUT LEGEND 3D

Legend's proprietary 3D pipelines have been developed and patented over the past years, specializing in producing the highest quality 3D storytelling available while also providing the most creative and collaborative workflow for the filmmakers we partner with. Started in 2009, Legend has created 3D conversion on the highest profile content ever released, working with directors such as Michael Bay, Robert Zemeckis, Bryan Singer, Tim Burton, Zack Snyder, Guillermo Del Toro, and Tony Scott, Roland Emmerich, Paul Feig, Timur Betmambetov and many others.

Our studio clients continue to return to Legend based on our attention to creative detail and ability to help directors realize their creative vision in 3D. The cost-effective and fast processes we offer in both VFX and 3D conversion, including our award-winning Real-Time Depth Grade workflow, allows directors to work with our stereo supervisors to do 3D experimentation and adjustments in a real-time DI setting, sequence by sequence or even reel by reel.

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