Welcome to Digital Design Foundation

Leadership Team

Robin King, Chairman of the Board
Professor King was the founder of the world-renowned Computer Animation Program at Sheridan College in the early 1980’s. Graduates of the program have won or been nominated for many Academy Awards and are supervising animators for companies such as Industrial Light and Magic, Pixar, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Disney, Sony Imageworks, Dreamworks and other companies around the world.

He has consulted for government and educational institutions in North America, Portugal, India, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan and China and has worked extensively for three years on Taiwan’s initiatives in digital content development. Prof. King consults for companies such as Autodesk and Toonboom and for the past two years has been Chair of Digital Arts and Design at Peking University as well as currently consulting for the Communications University of China in Nanjing Professor King has consulted on, designed and/or supervised the development of a number of groundbreaking digital media facilities including the Living Arts Centre (Toronto), the Sheridan Centre for Animation and Emerging Technologies, the Digital Entertainment Institute (Taipei), the Digital Media Centre (Cyberport: Hong Kong) and the Shenzhen Yijing Cartoon and Animation Base.

King lectures internationally at animation and media events and frequently judges professional and student animation competitions. In 2002 he was given the Lifetime Achievement Awards at the Canadian New Media Awards.

John Stadler, Acting Director
John Stadler has been starting schools in China for five years and in the US since 1992. A graduate of Harvard College and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, Stadler co-founded his first company, Clearpoint Research Corporation, while still in graduate school. Since then, as an angel investor, he started several more companies and the Francis Parker Charter School in Devens, Massachusetts (www.parker.org). Stadler taught mathematics at the Parker School for four years; in 1999 he was awarded Master Teacher certification by the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards (http://www.nbpts.org/; less than 0.3% of American teachers achieve this honor each year). In China, Stadler has invested in schools and companies, including Eton Academy (www.etonkids.com) and the Institute for Digital Design. In 2006, he authored the Stadler’s Guide to Education (www.stadlersguide.com) in Shanghai and Beijing.Professionally, Stadler has made education and standards the focus of much of his work. The Parker School pioneered the use of portfolios for middle and high school student assessment, as well as teacher evaluation. The NBPTS certification requires a combination of testing, references, and the preparation of a 200-page portfolio of supporting video and documentation.