Big Star Media Group Announces New Management and Board of Directors

DALLAS, Jan. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Big Star Media Group, Inc. (Pink Sheets: BMGI) (the "Company") today announced the new members of its Board of Directors and the new management team elected and appointed over the past ninety days.

Big Star Media Group, Inc. is a multi-faceted music, film, and information communications company with a strategic focus on leveraging digital media technology to bridge the gap between authentic artists passionate about their music and the modern consumer.  Its various entities focus on everything from the webcasting of live music events, to promoting new musical talent, producing films, and communicating corporate messaging.  

Jeff Skillen – Director, Chief Executive Officer, President of Big Star Records, LLC

Mr. Skillen has extensive senior executive level experience at world-class companies focused in the entertainment and technology fields. Prior to forming his consulting firm, SkillSet Enterprises, Jeff was an Executive Vice President at Gibson Guitar Corporation where he held responsibility for strategic partnerships, branding, worldwide entertainment relations and new technology initiatives. Under his direction, Gibson achieved extraordinary results in working with high profile artists, industry executives, and media to achieve remarkable brand awareness, product placement and marketing value for Gibson brands.  Prior to joining Gibson in 2005, Jeff held the position of Vice President of the Entertainment and Pro Audio divisions for Digital Theater Systems (DTS), the world-renowned entertainment technology company. While at DTS, he played an integral role in securing DTS technology into the emerging DVD format and subsequent high-definition DVD formats. This achievement launched high quality surround sound audio and introduced the company to hundreds of millions of consumers around the globe. He was also responsible for producing and marketing award winning surround sound audio titles from such varied artists as Queen, Porcupine Tree, Frank Zappa, N.E.R.D. and Medeski Martin & Wood, among others.  He has served as Executive Vice President of Valley Entertainment, an independent recording label, and was General Manager of a joint venture label with Warner Bros. Records, Nashville. Mr. Skillen currently serves as the Director of Development for the Nashville Songwriters Foundation and as a Visiting Scholar at Louisiana State University and the University of Montana. He has previously been a member of Digital Entertainment Group (DEG) Communications Committee, and a member of Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) Audio Technology Advisory Board.

Gary Vincent – Senior Vice President, President of Big Star Films, LLC

Mr. Vincent is a lifelong music industry professional. Gary is a record producer, musician, engineer, and songwriter. Mickey Gilley, John Anderson, The Crickets, Gary Morris, Tompall Glaser, Chris LeDoux, Leon Redbone and many others have recorded his songs. He was recently nominated for a Grammy for his co-production of a song on Elvin Bishop's record "The Blues Rolls On." Gary is currently the President of Ground Zero Blues Club Music, a co-venture film company with Morgan Freeman. He is also the owner of The Clarksdale Sound Stage, a unique recording studio and soundstage located in Clarksdale Mississippi.  

Tim Shell – Director, President of Big Star Live, LLC

Mr. Shell founded ExecuTrain of Texas, a worldwide corporate training provider and world leader in business education training, in 1988 and has been President and CEO of ExecuTrain of Houston since he opened the company in 1990. In 1991, he opened ExecuTrain of Austin where he also continues to serve as President and CEO.  Both ExecuTrain offices quickly became synonymous with learning and development in the cities of Houston and Austin. The privately held U.S. based company has 150 franchise locations in 25 countries. Seeing the need to expand to web-based e-learning and LMS solutions, Mr. Shell created and opened Solo Learning in 1999.  In addition, Mr. Shell also serves as a director on multiple non-profit boards.

Dennis McLaughlin – Director (Chairman)

Mr. McLaughlin is a twenty-five year veteran of the energy industry, during which time he has served as CEO for several energy-related companies. He serves as Chairman and CEO of Evolution Resources, Inc., a publicly traded company, since May 2009. He also serves as Chairman of Evolution Fuels since September of 2005 and as CEO from February of 2006. Mr. McLaughlin has served as CEO and Chairman of Apollo Resources International, Inc., a publicly traded company, focused on the acquisition and development of upstream oil and natural gas production assets as well as the evaluation and development of existing and future alternative energy sources.  Known as an entrepreneur and a biofuels energy industry leader, Mr. McLaughlin has guided a number of mergers and acquisitions while teaming with seasoned managers and investors to create value in a rapidly developing business arena. In 1993, McLaughlin founded Aurora Natural Gas, which was recognized by Entrepreneur Magazine as the fastest growing small company in the United States in 1995. He later founded Aurion Technologies, a technology company that researched and developed a low-cost telemetric meter and data collection system. This technology helped revolutionize the natural gas field data collection industry by replacing manual field data charts with data collection over the Internet. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Oklahoma in 1992.  He was presented with the OU Regents Outstanding Alumni Award in 1999.

Kit Chambers – Director, President of Big Star Informative Media

Mr. Chambers has been Secretary and Executive Vice President of Evolution Fuels Inc. since November 8, 2005.  He has been the Executive Vice President, Chief Accounting Officer, and a Director of Evolution Resources, Inc. since May 2009.  Mr. Chambers has been a Director and Secretary of Apollo Resources International Inc. since October of 2004 and serves as its Vice President.  Mr. Chambers served as the President of Blue Wireless & Data Inc. (formerly, Reva Inc.) from September 27, 2005 to September 13, 2006 and served as its Corporate Secretary from July 2004 to September 13, 2006. He served as the Chief Executive Officer of Blue Wireless & Data Inc., from May 3, 2005 to September 27, 2005. He served as Chief Operating Officer and Secretary of Ocean Resources Inc., a US public company engaged in deep-ocean salvage of commodity metals from October 2003 to January 2005.  From January 1999 to December 2001, he was employed by Aurion Technologies LLC, as Vice President of Operations, then as Vice President of Sales Engineering. From March 1994 to December 1998, he served as Vice President, Software Development of Aurora Natural Gas LP. From January 1998 to February 2004, he served as an Independent Consultant in the film/video industry in Dallas, Texas. He serves as Director of Apollo Resources International Inc.

Carol Vincent – Director

Ms. Vincent has been involved in international song catalog administration for over twenty-five years, mainly providing royalty and licensing services for catalogs which include titles recorded by stars such as Christina Aguilera, Kelly Clarkson, The Byrds, REO Speedwagon, Jerry Reed, Jimmy Buffett, Garth Brooks, Tim McGraw, George Strait, Merle Haggard, Kenny Chesney, Big and Rich, Bon Jovi, and Delbert McClinton, just to name a few.  She has been called upon to act as an expert witness in several high profile music lawsuits and has extensive knowledge in the area of worldwide copyrights.

About Big Star Media Group, Inc.

Big Star Media Group, Inc. is a multi-faceted entertainment and information distribution company focused on web-based presentations of live music events, the promotion of new musical talent, film production, and corporate messaging. For more information, please visit: www.bigstarmediagroup.com.

Forward-Looking Statements Disclosure

This press release may contain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the federal securities laws.  In this context, forward-looking statements may address the Company's expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "seeks," "will," and other terms with similar meaning.  These forward-looking statements by their nature address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain. Although the Company believes that the assumptions upon which its forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, it can provide no assurances that these assumptions will prove to be correct.  In connection with the "safe harbor" provisions of the federal securities laws, including the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, important factors that, among others, could cause or result in actual results and experience to differ materially from the Company's anticipated results, projections, or other expectations are disclosed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.  All forward-looking statements in this press release are expressly qualified by such cautionary statements, risks, and uncertainties, and by reference to the underlying assumptions.

SOURCE Big Star Media Group, Inc.