Transatlantic Innovation & Creativity: US and UK CoSTAR(s) in a new era of the special relationship.
Wednesday 24 September, 5.30-8.30pm
British Consul General’s Residence, Hancock Park, Los Angeles, California
The US and the UK have enjoyed a strong tie through creative industries and technologies over many decades. Hosted by the British Consul General this event brings together two world-leading innovators who have crossed the Atlantic in different directions, bringing together the two countries through story and technology, design and creativity:
- Dr Lynwen Brennan, Alumna and Honorary Doctorate Recipient of Royal Holloway (President and GM, Lucasfilm)
- Prof meriko borogove, Honorary Professor of Creative Technologies of Royal Holloway (former Apple lead on the iPhone camera)
The event will explore how different creative organisations design for innovation and the role Transatlantic relations play in building innovation ecosystems that enable ideas to flourish. The event charts a course of ideas and opportunities travelling across the Atlantic, from Lynwen’s early career with Parallax through to Jurassic Park and Star Wars and from meriko’s journey from creating QuickTime, iPhone and ML at Apple, including her founding role in the iPhone team, to her current research and arts focus at ScanLAB Projects and CoSTAR. Through their connection with Royal Holloway, University of London, ‘TransAtlantic Innovation’ will introduce US creative and technology companies to the UK’s new £51m CoSTAR National R&D Lab for creative industries opening at Pinewood in early 2026.
Sharing lessons from ground-breaking projects that have translated R&D to world-leading experiences and products, the session will turn to the future through the establishment of CoSTAR in the UK and the role that organisations like Disney and Apple are playing in of Transatlantic innovation. Supported by the British Consul General and the UK Government’s Department of Business & Trade, this is a chance to network with the CoSTAR team, UK and US companies looking to build partnerships.
Royal Holloway, University of London Alumni and Supporters
This event holds a special place for Royal Holloway, as all three speakers have a strong connection to the university, and the CoSTAR National Lab is being led by Royal Holloway itself.
At the heart of our university’s mission is a belief in the power of collaboration, curiosity and community. Our alumni and supporters are an essential part of that. Through their time, expertise and generosity, from mentoring and internships to scholarships like those supporting students from the USA, they help us create life-changing opportunities for the next generation.
We’re proud to invite our alumni to this evening, as Professor James Bennett, Director CoSTAR National Lab/StoryFutures and Janice Rodrigues-Mendes, from our Philanthropy and Alumni Engagement team will be co-hosting this event. It will be a chance to reconnect, network, celebrate our shared values, and build new connections between the UK and US through creativity, innovation and the transformative potential of the CoSTAR Lab.
Speaker Biographies
Lynwen Brennan
As President and General Manager of Lucasfilm’s businesses, Lynwen Brennan oversees all divisions, including Lucasfilm, Industrial Light & Magic, and Skywalker Sound. She is responsible for the development and execution of Lucasfilm’s business strategy and implementation of the company vision. Her career with Lucasfilm started in 1999 with her role as Technical Area Leader for the Computer Graphics Technical Directors in Lucasfilm’s storied visual effects company, Industrial Light & Magic. She rose through the ranks to become President of ILM in 2009. As President, Brennan guided ILM through one of its most successful periods. Under her leadership, ILM expanded its global footprint, opening offices in Vancouver, British Columbia, Singapore and London; and grew its San Francisco studio. In 2016, Brennan was awarded Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) on behalf of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, for her contributions in support of the UK’s visual effects industry. She also received the 2019 Special Award for Outstanding Contribution to Film and Television from the British Academy of Film and Television Art in Wales, BAFTA Cymru, and the prestigious Visual Effects Society Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Brennan holds a Bachelor of Science from Royal Holloway, University of London where she was also awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Science (Social Sciences) in 2018 for her outstanding work in the visual effects industry.
meriko borogove
meriko borogove is a technology and design executive, professor, and photographer, focused on interdisciplinary work on new interfaces and media languages in emerging narrative fields. A long-term Apple veteran gone independent, she partners with studios, theatres, researchers and creatives who push the boundaries of technology in the service of story, art and community.
Her tenure at Apple includes 22 years building critical engineering and design teams and inventing foundational technologies - spanning QuickTime, the transition to MacOS X, Intel, and then Apple Silicon, with a number of active patents across Apple’s technology stack. She was a founding member of the iPhone team, and was responsible for building the iPhone cameras—changing photography and videography forever.
meriko works with ScanLAB Projects, an artist-led studio exploring the world through machine vision technologies, where she is the Executive Producer of the FRAMERATE series (La Biennale di Venezia, SXSW, PHI Centre, +), and the Co-Director and Executive Producer of Felix’s Room (Berliner Ensemble). She is Honorary Professor of Creative Technologies at the Royal Holloway College of London, served as the founding CTO of the CoSTAR National Lab for R&D in Creative Technology, and recently partnered with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Met Museum.
Chaired by Prof James Bennett, Director of the CoSTAR National R&D Lab.
Hosted by Paul Rennie, British Consul General, Los Angeles.
