Charlie Fink is an AR/VR consultant, and former Disney, AOL, and AG Interactive executive who now writes about immersive technologies for Forbes. In the ‘90s, he was EVP & COO of VR pioneer Virtual World Entertainment. A well-respected columnist and author, Fink is a popular speaker at tech conferences like CES and AWE. He is the author of the AR-enabled books Charlie Fink's Metaverse, An AR Enabled Guide To VR & AR (2018) and Convergence, How The World Will Be Painted With Data (2019).

 

Over the past thirty years working as an award-winning writer, executive, and producer, Charlie Fink has created and launched new media brands for Disney, AOL, and American Greetings. He is best known for coming up with the original idea for Disney's "Lion King" (Bambi in Africa). In addition to his work on the second golden age at Disney animation (‘85-’92), Fink was EVP & COO of Virtual World Entertainment, a pioneering VR startup the used flight simulation technology to network players together in virtual reality. The company later sold to Microsoft. In January 1996, Fink joined AOL as the SVP & Chief Creative Officer of AOL Studios (‘95-’99).

 

Fink left AOL in mid-1999 to start a venture-backed personalized e-news service, eAgents, that was acquired by American Greetings Interactive (AGI) just twelve months after it was created. Fink served as President and Chief Creative Officer of AGI for three years, and its Chairman for several years thereafter. During his tenure, AGI built a 20M advertising business with offices around the country and acquired its two biggest competitors, Blue Mountain, and eGreetings, enabling it to take the category from "free" to "fee". Today, AGI has over 6 M subscribers and is the most profitable division of American Greetings. In 2005 Fink created Charlie Company, an SEO/SEM affiliate marketer, and consultancy that was sold in a private transaction in 2014. For client Moveon.org, Charlie created "The Other 98%" which has 6.2 M followers on Facebook.

 

Fink has also a producer of live theater in New York City. From 2007-2017, as Producing Artistic Director of The New Musical Foundation, Fink produced over 30 readings, workshops, and off-Broadway productions, which collectively won over fifteen awards. He is Chairman Emeritus of the Drama Desk Award-winning NY Musical Festival. His new show, EXRED (Enterprise XR Education & Demos), will begin touring in North America in September, 2019.