GTSE 2026
GTSE GEAR I STORE
Meet The Speakers of GTSE 2026
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Michael Berube
CEO
CALSTART
Michael Berube is a seasoned executive with more than 30 years of leadership experience spanning the energy, environment, and automotive sectors. His career reflects a rare blend of government policy expertise and corporate business acumen, with a consistent focus on advancing clean technology, safety, and sustainable transportation. Michael most recently served as a senior leader at the U.S. Department of Energy, where he guided national research, development, and demonstration strategies across all aspects of transportation, from batteries and electric mobility to hydrogen, biofuels, and advanced materials. He played a pivotal role in developing the U.S. Transportation Decarbonization Blueprint and related action plans, represented the United States in multiple international initiatives, and created the department’s Energy Efficient Mobility Systems program, which focused on connected and automated vehicles. Prior to his government service, Michael held a range of executive roles at Chrysler, where he combined strategic vision with operational leadership. He led electric vehicle and plug-in hybrid initiatives, negotiated with the EPA and California regulators on emissions policy, and crafted Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) and greenhouse gas strategies that integrated both product and marketing solutions. His leadership in safety policy earned DaimlerChrysler the National Transportation Safety Board’s highest leadership award. As a business leader, Michael held Profit and Loss responsibility for the Chrysler and Jeep brands and played a key role in relaunching Alfa Romeo. He led brand marketing organizations; oversaw iconic products such as the Jeep Wrangler, Chrysler 300, and minivan lineup; and helped shape the Fiat-Chrysler product portfolio after the merger. Throughout his career, he has been a trusted voice in public policy and media, testifying before the EPA, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and the California Air Resources Board, and appearing across print, television, and radio outlets. Michael is an alumnus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT’s) Technology & Policy Program and the Sloan School of Management. His thesis on supplier relationships and environmental issues earned special recognition, and he contributed to pioneering research on corporate environmental management in the auto industry.
Mike Levine
Founder & CEO
FilmSpark.AI
Mike Levine is a pioneering digital artist, technologist, entrepreneur, and AI filmmaker whose career has spanned more than 25 years at the intersection of storytelling, visual effects, interactive entertainment, immersive media, and emerging technology. From his early work at LucasArts and Industrial Light & Magic to today's rapidly evolving world of generative AI, Levine has consistently worked at the forefront of technologies transforming how stories are created and experienced. A veteran of LucasArts Entertainment and Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), Levine created and led the Cinematics and Visual Effects group at LucasArts and served on the Technology Council at Skywalker Ranch. During this period, he helped develop breakthrough digital art and production techniques that contributed to some of the most recognized titles of the era. His credits include work on Star Wars: Rebel Assault, Star Wars: Dark Forces, Star Wars: Jedi Knight – Dark Forces II, Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire, The Dig, Full Throttle, The Curse of Monkey Island, Sam & Max Hit the Road, and Herc's Adventures. The longevity of that work continues today, with Levine receiving credits on modern remasters of Full Throttle and Dark Forces, as well as contemporary Star Wars: Battlefront titles. Following LucasArts, Levine co-founded Puffin Designs with veterans of ILM. The company developed Commotion, technology originating from ILM that became a widely used rotoscoping and visual-effects tool throughout the film and television post-production industry. Puffin Designs was subsequently acquired by Pinnacle Systems. During this period, Levine also worked on visual effects for the feature film Spawn and contributed to the opening sequence of the 1999 Academy Awards. His career continued to evolve alongside the entertainment industry's emerging technologies. Levine co-created Insecticide at Crackpot Entertainment with fellow LucasArts veteran Larry Ahern and later founded HappyGiant, which became a recognized developer in augmented and virtual reality. At HappyGiant, Levine and his teams worked extensively with major entertainment companies and global brands including Disney, Hasbro, Spin Master, Amazon, and others. The company collaborated with legendary visual-effects artist Phil Tippett, achieved recognition as Apple's Game of the Day for an augmented-reality title, and produced the AR experience for Pepsi's Super Bowl Halftime Show featuring The Weeknd. Levine also executive produced Sam & Max: This Time It's Virtual!, bringing the iconic LucasArts characters into virtual reality for a new generation. His work in AR, VR, games, and immersive entertainment has also led to appearances and presentations at major technology gatherings, including AWE and ARIA at MIT. Today, Levine is the Founder and CEO of FilmSpark.AI, where he is once again working at the leading edge of a major transformation in media production. FilmSpark.AI is developing a professional AI production console designed for studios, agencies, filmmakers, and professional storytellers. The platform takes a project through an integrated workflow from script to storyboard, character-consistent video, and final export, orchestrating more than 50 AI models within a unified production environment. Together with a core team of veterans from LucasArts, Electronic Arts, and Activision, Levine is focused on solving one of the central challenges facing professional AI filmmaking: bringing the workflow, consistency, creative control, and production discipline of traditional studio pipelines into generative AI production. Across his career, Mike Levine has been credited on more than 20 games, along with film, television, visual-effects, AR, VR, and immersive-media projects. His career provides a rare perspective on several generations of technological disruption—from the emergence of digital visual effects and interactive storytelling to augmented and virtual reality and now artificial intelligence. Rather than simply observing those transformations, Levine has spent his career building the tools, production techniques, companies, and creative experiences that helped make them possible.