The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has chosen three external advisers who will help select the group tasked with reviewing new member applications in the coming weeks.
The three new advisers are Shaka McGlotten, Santiago Pozo and Paula Williams Madison. Also, the Board elected Adam Tanswell as executive secretary and Henry Arnaud as treasurer. Last week, Jeff Harris, Dr. Joanna Dodd Massey and Sharlette Hambrick were selected as the independent HFPA board directors.
“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,” HFPA president Helen Hoehne said in a statement. “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.”
The new advisory board consists of three outside members, one HFPA member and the Association’s current DEI consultant to ensure that the group’s focus is on promoting diversity, equity and inclusion. The advisory board was recommended by Ropes & Gray, the outside legal counsel tasked to help reform the HFPA bylaws.
In the last two weeks, the HFPA has elected a new president, named three external members to the Board of Directors (which consists of 2/3 of women and 1/3 of people of color), been in communications with studios throughout the industry and started the process of meeting with Hollywood publicists, an insider told TheWrap. In the coming weeks, the organization will be naming a new round of members.
McGlotten is an artist and anthropologist and author of “Virtual Intimacies: Media, Affect and Queer Sociality” and “Dragging: Or, in the Drag of a Queer Life.” They are also a Professor of Media Studies and Anthropology at Purchase College-SUNY, where they also serve as Chair of Gender Studies and Global Black Studies Programs.
Helen Hoehne Elected as HFPA President
Pozo has produced, written, directed and distributed films and served as an executive at Universal Pictures Marketing before he founded Arenas, one of the largest Latino companies in Hollywoo specializing in marketing motion pictures and television, in 1988. He then sold the business in 2020 to d2H. His credits include “The Book of Life,” “Annabelle,” “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,” “Transformers,” “The Avengers,” among many more.
Madison is chairman and CEO of Madison Media Management LLC, a Los Angeles-based media consultancy company. Previously, she served as president and general manager of NBC4 Los Angeles, as well as Los Angeles Regional General Manager for NBCU’s Telemundo TV stations, and Vice President and News Director of NBC4 New York.