our team

Wamiq jawaid

FOUNDER & CEO

Wamiq Jawaid is a New York based media executive, film producer, and serial entrepreneur, with over 15 years of experience that spans domestic and international television, film, journalism, and digital publishing. He started his career working as a reporter on animal rights abuses in the Middle-East and Asia, for which he won the prestigious Humane Society Brigitte Bardot Award in 2007. That year, Wamiq founded and launched a digital news startup that gave investigative journalists and war correspondents a podium to get their voices heard. The one constant throughout his professional life has been to empower the disenfranchised.

Wamiq went on to work for prestigious book publishing houses both in New York and London, and most recently ran affiliate sales and distribution for Bloomberg TV and ViacomCBS to distribute MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, and Paramount Networks content on MVPD, OTT platforms, and the education space. He has produced and financed a number of film and television projects and is currently developing a spy-action thriller with A-list attachments.

Wamiq also has finance experience given his Investment Banking tenure at Merrill Lynch. He holds an MBA and Masters in Arts from New York University - Stern School of Business, and Columbia University respectively, and lives in New York with his wife and 2 children.

ian herman

COO & head of studio relations

Ian Herman is the Chief Operating Officer and Head of Studio Relations for Bowery Media. He has over 15 years experience in the studio system for theatrical, television and digital production projects alike. He started his career as an assistant to various award-winning producers and ultimately expanded to take on projects such as HOUSE OF LIES (Showtime, 2012), BELIEVE (NBCU, 2014), and THE ROMANTICS (Comedy/Drama, 2010).

He has also run production and digital media operations for the NFL during the primetime seasons of Kickoff, Super Bowl, Pro Bowl, Combine and the NFL Draft. He has run grant management and fund-raising for the United Nations and specifically developed policy for the Sustainable Development Goals/Agenda 2030. Ian holds a BA from Boston University and Hamilton College.

Ian oversees all day-to-day operations of Bowery Media, and given his decades tenure in Hollywood - he looks over all studio relations including any library acquisitions,  as well as project and developmental financing. Ian is a world traveler, an avid hiker, a voracious reader, and lives in Los Angeles. 

shane bookmiller

Vp, distribution and business development

Shane Bookmiller is a media executive with over 17 years of experience in domestic and international content licensing, distribution sales and partner marketing.  He spent the bulk of his career with Viacom developing, negotiating, and executing content distribution agreements along with account management support for high profile media corporations across Mobile, SVOD, AVOD, OTT and MVPD platforms. Shane blends his knowledge of traditional and emerging distribution industry to deepen relationships and grow business for partners. 

Prior to joining Viacom’s Sales and Business Development team, Shane led discussions to secure new channel distribution for Logo and EPIX in addition to managing affiliate partner marketing relationships for CMT, TV Land and MTV. 

Shane has a degree in International Business Marketing and a minor in Japanese from Darla Moore School of Business at University of South Carolina, along with a degree in TV and Media Production from American Intercontinental University.  He resides in Hell’s Kitchen, NYC.  

CLAIRE WEINGArTEN

Consultant, Acquisition AND distribution partnerships

Claire Weingarten has worked in the Film and TV Acquisitions, Distribution, Publicity and Exhibition worlds for over fifteen years at storied institutions like The American Film Institute and The Film Society of Lincoln Center. Most recently she has worked in distribution at the boutique movie studio, Film Movement, and for the legacy media company E.W. Scripps.

She is an award-winning documentary film producer whose films and television programs have shown at over forty film festivals on 5 continents garnering prizes like the Cinema for Peace Award (Berlin), Grand Jury Prize for Environmental Films (Santa Cruz Film Festival) and Best Environmental Film (Indie Spirit Film Festival). She produced her first documentary, BURNING IN THE SUN (2010) in Mali, Africa where she embedded with a Malian family launching a new business building the first known locally produced Solar Panels in West Africa. The film premiered at the New York African Film Festival at the Film Society of Lincoln Center and was heralded as "Inspirational!" (The Amsterdam News), "Charismatic" (Film Forward) and "Riveting" (Trust Movies) in it's uplifting portrayal of African entrepreneurialism.

Claire received a Masters degree in Cinema Studies from New York University and graduated cum laude from Columbia University with majors in Film Studies and Ethnic Studies and a minor in Anthropology.