Mike Ellis
Michael C. Ellis is the President and Managing Director of the Asia-Pacific Region for the Motion Picture Association (MPA) and Motion Picture Association International (MPA-I). As a specialist in facilitating industry-government cooperation worldwide, Ellis has successfully forged strategic partnerships and alliances that promote and protect the commercial and creative interests of Asia’s screen communities in the digital age. His tireless efforts have helped to gain market access for the MPA member companies’* entertainment offerings, as well as to improve and enforce the laws pertaining to intellectual property rights (IPR) in the region.
Ellis joined the MPA in 1999 from the litigation department of the international law firm Herbert Smith, and is a lawyer qualified in Hong Kong, England and Wales. Prior to this, he had a distinguished career in law enforcement that spanned two decades over which he served first in the British Police and then the Royal Hong Kong Police. There, he spent six years with the Commercial Crime Bureau focusing on trans-national fraud and extradition requests. He ultimately rose to the rank of Superintendent and had the honor of being aide-de-camp to the last Governor of Hong Kong, Christopher Patten.
An authority on copyright law, organized crime and IPR in Asia-Pacific and beyond, Ellis is also an Adjunct Professor of the EMBA program of modern film and TV management at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing and frequently speaks to raise awareness and understanding of these issues at conferences around the world. In addition to his legal qualifications, he holds an MBA.
The Asia Pacific Screen Academy expresses its respect for and acknowledgement of the South East Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. We pay our respects to the Traditional Owners of country, including the custodial communities on whose land works are created and celebrated by the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. We acknowledge the continuing connection to land, waters and communities. We also pay our respects to Elders, past and emerging. We recognise the integral role Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and First Nations peoples continue to play in storytelling and celebration spaces.