The founder and president of M2 Research, Wanda Meloni is an industry analyst and market strategist. Wanda has a deep understanding of emerging trends in interactive entertainment, games, and social media. She has been tracking entertainment, development tools, 3D and graphics technologies; and emerging markets and trends for over 15 years.

Wanda publishes articles and reports that on the market dynamics affecting development and consumer trends. In addition to her published works, she consults with many of the top companies in the industry, providing custom analysis, investment strategies, strategic positioning and competitive analysis. Prior to starting M2 Research, Wanda was president at DFC Intelligence, working with interactive game clients and custom projects. Early in her career Wanda was a senior analyst at Jon Peddie Research tracking 3D gaming, animation, virtual worlds, 3D web applications, CAD, visual simulation, and enterprise graphics solutions.

Ms. Meloni holds an MBA in International Business and speaks several languages. She is a frequent contributor for some of the industry’s top publications and speaks at various trade events. Wanda has been quoted in numerous publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, USA Today, Fortune, London Times, New York Times, SF Chronicle and LA Times.

As a senior analyst at M2 Research, Billy Pidgeon provides in-depth overview of the games market’s diverse sectors, tracking and projecting changes and growth in traditional and emerging hardware, software, business models and revenue streams on dedicated and convergent platforms. Billy has twenty two years experience in the games industry in market research and games production.

Billy has authored extensive syndicated and custom research reports, as well as advised some of the industry’s top executive management teams. Prior to joining M2 Research, Billy was the Research Manager for the Games at IDC. He also worked at Jupiter Media Metrix, covering interactive entertainment, digital audio and video, user interfaces, software tools networking and 3D technology.

Billy has keynoted and moderated panels at leading trade shows including Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Game Developers Conference and the Games and Mobile Forum. He has appeared on major networks including CBS, ABC and CNN and has been interviewed and quoted frequently in top publications such as Newsweek, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and USA Today. He has appeared on international and U.S. radio and television including NPR, CBS, ABC, CNNfn, MSNBC, and data from his reports has been quoted as reference in the media and in console vendor and publisher financial presentations.

As a senior analyst, Louise Curcio offers great insight into the behaviors, trends and activities of kids. She covers the online gaming space for kids ages 4-12 and brings vast knowledge and expertise. For the past fifteen years, she has been focusing on researching, developing and marketing consumer products and games for boys and girls.

Previously, Louise was Vice President of Entertainment Marketing at Mattel working on entertainment-based toy products for kids. For over seven years, she led the development and marketing of product lines for Disney, Nickelodeon, Pixar and Universal. Most recently as Vice President at Upper Deck, she led web development, on and off-line marketing and virtual world development on brands like World of Warcraft (trading card game), Yu-Gi-Oh! (trading card game), Marvel and Upper Deck sports trading cards. She led social networking initiatives for the sports business and online marketing for World of Warcraft. Additionally, she created and oversaw the company’s effort in creating UpperDeckU.com, a virtual world licensed by Major League Baseball, MLBPA, NHL and the NHLPA designed to expand the relevancy of the Upper Deck brand and broaden the appeal of sports card collecting for boys.

Louise has a M.B.A. from University of Southern California and a B.A. from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

As a senior analyst at M2 Research, Sharleen Sy brings a unique hands-on perspective to issues and trends facing MMOs and virtual worlds. Armed with both an engineering degree and an art/comic book background, Sharleen has been involved in the graphics software and digital media industry since 1988 with a strong focus on marketing, product management, UI/UX design and strategic business development.

Sharleen was co-founder and Chief Creative Officer for CYBERWORLD International Corp, an early software developer of virtual worlds with innovative 3D technology for the web.Sharleen was responsible for the executive management and marketing of the entertainment business unit and content studio, building strategic relationships with leading studios including Warner Bros, Universal Pictures, Disney, Stan Lee Media, and the Discovery Channel. Prior to CYBERWORLD, Sharleen held senior product management roles for companies such as Alias|Wavefront, MGI Software, and Delrina and has managed over 35 product launches.

Sharleen is a graduate of the University of Toronto with a B.A. Sc. in Industrial/Systems Engineering, specialized in Ergonomics and Human-Computer Interaction.