Leadership Bio

Name: David Woolson

Commission function: Chief Executive Officer

Professional Experience: David Woolson is a lawyer with 25 years experience serving in senior executive positions in the entertainment and media industries.

Woolson joined MERC in 2007 after serving as president of Big Catch, a talent negotiation and rights management company located in Portland. He also served for eight years as executive director of Oregon Film and Video Commission where he recruited film and television productions to Oregon. His work with the commission resulted in unprecedented levels of feature film, television and commercial productions in Oregon and record revenues to the state. Some of the feature projects he worked on include, "Mr. Holland's Opus", starring Richard Dreyfuss, "The River Wild", starring Meryl Streep, "Maverick", starring Mel Gibson, "The Postman", starring Kevin Costner, "Men of Honor", starring Robert DeNiro and several other feature films, television series and television movies.

Woolson's background also includes serving as a senior executive and attorney with studios and production companies in Los Angeles including Paramount, Orion Pictures and Dick Clark Productions. He was responsible for negotiating a wide variety of development and talent deals for film and television productions, licensing and distribution arrangements, international co-production and financing agreements. He also supervised numerous production, business and legal issues.

David began his career in music and radio working as an announcer, musician, recording engineer and manager of recording facilities. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Television Management and Audio Engineering from Eastern Washington University. David also earned a Law Degree from Gonzaga University.