Team

Prior to founding Salon, Nick Taussig was formerly Managing Director of distribution studio Revolver. He acquired, and oversaw the release of, some of the most important films of the last decade, including Alex Gibney’s Oscar-winning doc Taxi to the Dark Side, Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York, Werner Herzog’s Grizzly Man, Guillaume Canet’s Tell No One, and Justin Kurzel’s Snowtown. He also headed up the production arm of Revolver, financing and producing four films with Paul Van Carter that grossed a combined £10m on a production cost of £2.7m. In addition, Nick is the author of four novels, his most recent, The Distinguished Assassin. With Paul, Nick has produced 15 feature films together including Ian Bonhote & Peter Ettedgui’s McQueen, Jonathan Teplitzky’s Churchill, and auteur Andrew Kotting’s most recent film, Lek & The Dogs, which premiered at the BFI London Film Festival 2017. Before his career in book and film, Nick studied literature and philosophy at Durham University, where he obtained a First, then went on to acquire a Master’s in Russian literature from the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies.

Before founding Salon Pictures in 2013, Paul Van Carter produced commercials for ten years, and was associate producer on Nicolas Winding Refn’s Bronson, starring Tom Hardy and winner of best film at Sydney Film Festival. Paul then moved to Revolver Entertainment to produce features with Nick Taussig, overseeing a stable of directors and writers and a development slate, he produced four films there, and wrote two of these. Paul has also published two books, including one on the subject of 20^th century art history entitled Oil on Canvas. He has also written My name is Lenny for Salon and directed The Guv’nor, nominated for best documentary at East End Film Festival 2016, and the NFA 2017. With Nick, Paul has produced 15 feature films to date, including Ian Bonhote & Peter Ettedgui’s McQueen, Jonathan Teplitzky’s Churchill, and auteur Andrew Kotting’s most recent film, Lek & The Dogs, which premiered at the BFI London Film Festival 2017.

Annabel has worked across film and TV in various development and production roles. She began her career working in script development at Headline Pictures across films including Quartet and The Invisible Woman, and TV drama series including The Man In The High Castle. She then moved to Buckland Productions as Head of Development, working on film and TV drama series, before moving into Production where she produced short films, music promos and branded content. She has worked in a freelance capacity for Film4, BBC Writers Room and Focus Features, and was chosen as ‘One to Watch’ by the Edinburgh International TV Festival. She is also a produced playwright.

Tom has a rich history in international real estate and finance, as a broker and serial-entrepreneur; along with production and finance experience in the film industry.  Prior to joining Salon in 2017 to help raise development and production finance, Tom has set up, grown, and managed multiple corporations from start up to multi-million turnover businesses across three continents and seventeen jurisdictions. Tom’s managerial roles have put him at the helm of companies that have successfully sold, acquired or financed over 1 billion euros worth of global real estate over that period, and has given Tom an intimate knowledge of equity and debt financing through a wealth of global investment models.

Emilia is a multilingual researcher and aspiring producer. Before joining Salon, she worked on productions including BBC2’s BAFTA-winning Exodus: Our Journey…, Jamie Oliver’s Jamie & the Nonnas and on-location in Italy for Channel 4’s First Dates Hotel. She has co-directed and produced a selection of short films, theatrical productions and also live events. A First Class graduate of the RCSSD in Drama, Applied Theatre and Education, she has practical experience of devising and facilitating stories from unusual perspectives. Emilia is fluent in four languages, and currently reading for a master’s degree at Raindance London.

Alex started his career at M&C Saatchi, working as Account Director on integrated brand campaigns for RBS, NatWest, Peroni and Currys PC World. He left in 2014 to head up  branded content at The Wagon, a comedy production company. Under his leadership, they won the Fitbit content account and worked on projects for Innocent Smoothies, Laphroaig, EA Games and Comic Relief. He spends any spare time he has writing comedy as part of sketch duo Mid-Brow, and working on pro bono charity projects.

Ian is an acknowledged business coach and serial entrepreneur, having helped start-ups, and rapidly grown and globalized a range of diverse businesses, creating distinctive, innovative, highly regarded and market leading organizations – from global blue chip players to SMEs as well as across the venture capital community. Highly experienced in international business, turnarounds, TV and film, private equity environments and market listings, Ian is also a change consultant to central government, as well as across the wider public and private sectors.  A professionally qualified Human Resource practitioner and NED, educated both in the UK and at INSEAD business school and has held a range of Board level appointments for leading global companies. Ian has been involved in film for over twenty years, and first partnered with Salon in 2014 to help develop the films Churchill and My name is Lenny as Executive Producer.

Neil has a rich history in cutting edge technologies originally with Microsoft and Google. The last three years Neil has worked in Big Data, Data Science & Artificial Intelligence (AI), creating 100+ hardcore data science projects and working with 300+ PhD Data Scientists. In that time Neil help start a Blockchain startup, Electron that combines blockchain and machine learning for transforming the energy sector. Recently Neil started Crypton Fund Management, applying AI + Crypto + Quant investment strategies for trading crypto-assets. Neil most recently boarded Salon to co-found Salon X as Strategic Director.