Advisory Board

Rebecca Anders

John Perry Barlow

Ted Barnett

Jessica Bobier

Loren Carpenter

Zachary Coffin

Zach explores the interactive possibilities of kinetic sculpture. With an eye toward material, mass, precision and form, this search continues.  Raised in Atlanta, educated at the Cooper Union and in love with San Francisco, he went to Burning Man in 1996 and every year since. His first commissioned Burning Man work was the Sisyphus project in 2000, bringing a 9 ton granite boulder to the event.  He has been stepping on the scale ever since, building Rockspinner in 2001, the Temple of Gravity in 2003 and Colossus in 2005. He has built and installed large kinetic sculpture in the US and Europe and lives with his wife (Jill) and two kids (Sofia and Geronimo) in a big warehouse in Atlanta. He recently joined the heavy-equipment division of Burning Man DPW and has enjoyed the challenge of helping other artists push their gravitational limits on the playa.

Jeremy Crandell

David Martin Darst

David is a Managing Director of Morgan Stanley and Chairman of the firm’s Global Wealth Management Asset Allocation and Investment Policy Committee. He serves as Chief Investment Strategist of the Global Wealth Management Group, and was the founding President of the Morgan Stanley Investment Group. David is the author of five books, and writes extensively on asset allocation in the Morgan Stanley monthly publication Asset Allocation and Investment Strategy Digest and other publications, the predecessors of which he launched in 1997. David appears regularly on CNBC, Bloomberg Television, and in other media including Barron’s, The Wall Street Journal, Fox, and The New York Times.  David earned his BA degree in Economics from Yale University and his MBA from Harvard Business School, and he served as a visiting faculty member at both institutions for nine years. In April 2002, David was the moderator for Larry Harvey’s lecture “Viva Las Xmas” at Cooper Union in New York City.

Dicky Davies

Christian 'Dicky' Davies is an artist who recently moved to the Bay Area to pursue his work as a painter and conceptual sculptor. He is also currently enrolled at the San Francisco Art Institute working towards a BFA in the New Genres Department. His most noted work is the Dicky Box, installed at Burning Man 2005, which pushed the bounds of interactivity and community. He is currently living in San Francisco where he spends his time painting and doing work that allows a projection of idea to guide viewers and community members into a place of interaction with the art and others. Dicky recently co-founded the Finch Mob, a collection of artists dedicated to bridging the gap between idea and action through collaborative and interactive arts.

Erik Davis

Erik is the author of The Visionary State: A Journey through California’s Spiritual Landscape, the cult classic TechGnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Information Age, and a critical volume on Led Zeppelin’s fourth album. A frequent speaker and teacher at universities and festivals alike, Davis has contributed articles and essays to scores of books and publications, and posts regularly at www.techgnosis.com. He lives in San Francisco with his wife, and they first attended Burning Man in 1994.

Linda Gass

Linda is both an artist and an entrepreneur. Her experience includes managing software development, business development, founding an artist owned gallery as well as being a practicing artist.  She shows her work in galleries and museums internationally.  Linda also serves on the board of the Textile Arts Council of the de Young Museum, and is the Southwestern Regional Representative for the Surface Design Association.  She has served on the boards of the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles and the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship. She received her BS in Mathematics and MS in Computer Science from Stanford University. 

Dana Harrison

Dana retired in 1998 after finding that 18 years in executive positions in the financial services industry nourished her bank account, but not her heart and soul. She spent the next 8 years volunteering and then working for Burning Man year round as a Senior Staff member; developing an industrial building in Oakland into a live-work and performance space; and setting up and managing Planet Care, a group providing humanitarian and medical relief to refugees on the Thai-Burma border. Now, having wrapped up her other projects and stepped away from Burning Man duties to allow her to visit the glaciers of K2, she's looking for her next focus and challenge

Pete Hogg

Pete founded Digital Pond, which since 1992 has provided high-level graphic solutions to museums, corporations and retailers. Pete deploys the Pond's capabilities in support of Burning Man and the Black Rock Arts Foundation in a variety of ways. Often starting from a Larry Harvey "what if..." speculation, Pete has created alien world dioramas, details for the temple, the front of the cafe bar, and numerous smaller projects. Recently, Pete has focused the Pond karma on supporting BRAF; producing event signage, fine prints to assist in fund raising, and whatever else Leslie (who is Pete's sister) asks for.

Alexander Lloyd

A longtime Burning Man participant, Alex Lloyd is a member of the San Francisco Arts Commission, appointed by Mayor Gavin Newsom; and also serves on the board of SF Camerawork. Alex is a Venture Partner at Rustic Canyon, a venture capital firm. He was a founding partner of Accelerator Venture Partners, a San Francisco-based partnership that invests in and consults with early-stage technology companies.  Alexander received a BA in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA in Entrepreneurial Management from The Wharton School.

Carmen Mauk

Carmen is a gifted facilitator and catalyzer of transformation in human systems. She has collaborated with the Institute of Noetic Sciences and the Omega Institute to develop practices that support the conditions for collective wisdom to emerge in organizations. Currently Carmen is the project manager for Burners without Borders as well as Burning Man Information Radio.

Nick Morgan

Nick Morgan is an event producer, an environmental activist and a green property developer/manager.  He supports the convergence of environmental, arts and literary communities through events like the Living Dream Experience, Watershed Poetry and Environmental Festival, and the Otter Oasis Sunday Salon.  He has organized direct actions, citizen’s rallies, public meetings and environmental remediation for organizations as diverse as the U.S. Government and Greenpeace International.  He manages Peak Experience Productions, helps facilitate the Otter Oasis and serves on several boards, and has previously been a member of the City of Emeryville Brownfields Task Force and the Berkeley Community Environmental Advisory Commission.  Nick has a degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Duke University.

Joseph Olivier

Joe Olivier runs an engineering firm specializing in energy conservation for large facilities. He maintains his family's tradition of actively supporting local arts, and has organized fund-raising events for many worthy causes. Joe attended his first Burning Man in 2000, was facilities director for Jiffy Lube 2001-2002, and has volunteered for the Man Crew for three of the Builds.   Joe holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Tulane University and is a registered Professional Engineer. In his spare time he tinkers with video production and with his early model Rolls Royce.

Mark Pincus

A new-media entrepreneur, Mark founded tribe.net, supportsoft (NASD: SPRT) and freeloader. His best-known project is Tribe Networks, a popular social-networking and web marketplace.  He graduated from Harvard Business School and University of Pennsylvania.  Mark has attended Burning Man since 2002; but because of his passion for the Telluride Film Festival (which occurs over Labor Day), he didn't see the Man burn until 2005.

Alix Rosenthal

Alix has three strikes against her: she was born and raised in Southern California, she is a practicing attorney, and she works for the government. Despite these impairments, or perhaps because of them, she found her way to Burning Man in 2004, and it changed her life. Alix cut her teeth in politics at the age of 14, when she won her first election for class president. Having held many offices since then, including a seat on the San Francisco Elections Commission, she currently serves as President of National Women's Political Caucus - San Francisco, and as a Deputy City Attorney for the City of Oakland.

Peter Schurman

Peter builds organizations from concept to reality to long-term stability, most recently as founding Executive Director of MoveOn.org.  He is a late bloomer as a Burner, first attending the desert event in 2005.  For Peter, the event's freedom and community spirit are essential American values, and he believes BRAF may hold the key to connecting with people everywhere who share those values.  "We could be the core of the national community our country so desperately needs."

David Silverman

David started drawing at age 4 and has learned little since. He was successively animator, director, and supervising director of "The Simpsons"; co-directed DreamWorks' "Road to El Dorado" and Pixar's "Monsters, Inc."; and was story consultant to Blue Sky on "Ice Age."  He attended the University of Maryland, then received an MFA in animation at UCLA.  David has been to Burning Man five times since 2001, and wonders how to give the art a wider audience.  For fun he plays the tuba, most recently the fire tuba.

Mark Sinclair

Mark is an Associate Principal at Degenkolb Engineers here in San Francisco.  Degenkolb is a structural engineering firm that specializes in all things earthquake - building design, retrofit, consulting, risk management and construction.  He specializes in design and analysis, seismic evaluation and strengthening, peer review, post-earthquake inspection programs, seismic instrumentation, risk assessment, and other construction activities. He has 10 years of experience in research, design, testing, and supply of seismic isolation and energy dissipation systems, and is active in real-time seismic instrumentation of buildings for rapid post-earthquake re-occupancy.  He has helped BRAF with structural design issues and obtaining building permits for a variety of projects including Passage, Flock and the Hayes Green Temple.  He is originally from New Zealand and arrived in San Francisco intending to stay for a year or so before continuing on with the world tour.  That was in 1993.  And no, you can't tell him a sheep joke that he hasn't heard already.

Mark Van Proyen

Mark Van Proyen is a San Francisco-based artist and art critic who is Associate Professor of Art History, Painting and Digital Media at the San Francisco Art Institute. He has exhibited his paintings and digital prints internationally (most recently in Beijing, China), and is a Contributing Editor for ARTWEEK magazine. He also writes regularly for Art Criticism, Bad Subjects, Art Issues, the New Art Examiner and Art in America. He earned his Master of Fine Arts Degree from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1979. He is also a programming consultant for the Western States Arts Federation.

Leo Villareal

Leo Villareal is an artist, living in New York City. whose light sculptures have been exhibited in galleries and museums from Taipei to Toulouse and across the U.S.  He has attended Burning Man since 1994 and is one of the founders of Disorient.  He studied installation sculpture and video at Yale University and went on to the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University, specializing  in virtual reality, simulation and interactive television.

Mike Wilson

Mike Wilson is an executive at the forefront of new media development, publishing, film and videogame production, and Internet marketing.  A pioneer and leading expert in development and marketing to the computer- and video-game audience, he takes pride that every game industry company he has been a part of is still in existence and most are thriving.  He produced the acclaimed documentary film "Burning Man: Beyond Black Rock."  Now Mike is threatening to shake up the games biz again in 2006 with a project known only as "The Second Coming."