JAMES TUSTY
Executive Producer

James Tusty is Founder and President of Mountain View Group, Ltd. (1981), a U.S.-based communications and production company that has won hundreds of international awards for its work.  Mountain View creates corporate communications campaigns, educational programs, and television commercials for clients including Fortune 500 companies, advertising agencies, educational institutions, and government agencies. He is also currently working as an Executive Producer for Free To Choose Media.  

James has worked on educational projects in several former Soviet states. After the Warsaw Pact dissolved, he produced a fifteen-part television series for Hungarian television. He also produced multiple projects in Russia.

James Tusty received his BA in art and his MA in film and television from Bucknell University. He has been producing, directing, writing, and executive producing award-winning films and videos for more than thirty years.

A past president of the International Quorum of Motion Picture Producers, a past president of the NYC Chapter of Media Communications Association International, and a member of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Tusty also serves on numerous non-profit boards.

BOB CHITESTER
Executive Producer

Bob Chitester is founder and president of Free To Choose Network and its production and educational initiatives Free To Choose Media and izzit.org.  With more than 40 years of experience creating programs and series for public television and as president of the Erie public television station WQLN, Bob Chitester continues to be creatively involved in the creation of programs and series for Free To Choose Media and izzit.org. 

In partnership with his colleague Tom Skinner (senior executive producer at Free To Choose Media) Bob has served as executive producer for The Power of Choice: the Life and Ideas of Milton Friedman (on PBS), The Ultimate Resource (American Public Television), The Power of the Poor (PBS), Globalization at the Crossroads with Hernando de Soto, and Turmoil and Triumph: The George Shultz Years, a three-part documentary series for PBS.

In 1980 Bob Chitester brought Milton Friedman to public television and was responsible as executive producer for Friedman’s landmark PBS series Free To Choose and the best-selling book that emanated from the series. Free or Equal, hosted by Swedish author Johan Norberg, is his latest production — re-examining the impact of Free To Choose more than thirty years later.

Bob Chitester holds BA and MA degrees from The University of Michigan and has received an honorary Doctor of Literature degree from Allegheny College.

On the personal level, he pursues physical fitness (running, swimming and biking), indulges in wood and clay sculpture, reads poetry publicly, is a hunter and cuts several cord of fire wood each year, when he is not flying about in airplanes as part of his responsibilities at Free To Choose Network.  Bob and his wife, Carol, have 4 children and 8 grandchildren, one of whom they are raising in their home.

TOM SKINNER
Executive Producer

Tom Skinner is executive producer of all Free To Choose Media productions.

Tom is an award-winning television and film executive producer, most notably of the National Geographic specials and Planet Earth. He is an experienced innovator and administrator with a solid academic background, and extensive national and international production credentials in public and commercial television.

From 1970 through 1993, Tom Skinner served as vice-president, executive vice-president, and chief operating officer of QED Communications, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1993, he left to pursue opportunities in independent production for A&E, Discovery and Turner Broadcasting. From 1994 through 1999, he was vice president for programming at Resolution Productions.

Prior to his tenure at QED Communications, Tom was assistant manager at WITF-TV in Hershey, Pennsylvania and associate professor of Radio and Television and executive producer at San Diego State University. He is the recipient of numerous honors and awards including: four national Emmy Awards, two George Foster Peabody Awards, and a Columbia/DuPont Award; and was director of the Academy Award-winning film Journey Into Self.

Tom holds a BA degree in Speech and Education from the State University of New York, Fredonia; an MA in Communications from the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. in Communications and Theatre from The University of Michigan.

Tom is married to Marlis Mann of Leland, Michigan; he has 3 children and 7 grandchildren.

MAUREEN CASTLE
Producer

Maureen Castle is Senior Producer for Mountain View Group, Ltd., having produced dozens of award winning international films for global corporations such as GE, The Coca-Cola Company, and The Home Depot.  She is also a producer of educational programming for DVD and satellite distribution, and is a current producer for Free To Choose Media.

Additional production credits include The Natural Corridor, a 90-minute documentary film on the history of transportation that was broadcast on Public Television and distributed to schools across the US. She has also edited projects such as Cinderella, a video adaptation of the classic fairy tale that was cablecast and distributed on home video through Time Warner.

PAUL FEINE
Writer/Producer

Paul Feine worked for 10 years at the Institute for Humane Studies developing educational seminars and workshops for college students, aspiring artists and journalists on topics ranging from environmentalism and globalization to civil rights commercial culture. Most recently Paul produced “Reason in Amsterdam,” an international conference on the contemporary struggle for freedom in Europe that featured Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the creators of popular television series “South Park.” Paul is currently producing video projects at the Reason Foundation, a think tank in Los Angeles, California.