This committee was formed in 2019 to develop and enact the Strategic Plan for the Center’s foundation.
Interim Co-Chairs
Henry Scott
Henry Scott, managing director of Media-Maven LLC, a media consulting firm, was the founder of West Hollywood Media Company, which published WEHOville.com and WHM magazine. He has decades of experience in media, communications and marketing. In 2003, he helped Metro International S.A., the London-based originator of the free daily newspaper concept, launch its highly successful New York City edition. Earlier as president of Out Publishing, he turned around the financially troubled largest-circulation gay lifestyle magazine. He also served as publisher of Atlanta’s Creative Loafing weekly newspaper. In 1994, he launched The New York Times Company’s first online venture and developed and managed The Times’s first foreign-language edition, published in Russian from Moscow. He was the member of The Times Company’s senior management charged with developing an electronic media strategy for the company.
Jeff Seymour
Jeffrey A. Seymour heads the Seymour Consulting Group, providing consulting services in governmental, land use planning, public policy analysis and ordinance studies. Prior to establishing his business, he served as senior deputy to Los Angeles County Supervisor Edmund D. Edelman and was vice president of Bank of Los Angeles. Jeff serves on the board of directors of the UCLA Foundation and the West Hollywood Library Foundation, where he serves as chair. I n the past he served as a regent of the University of California, president of the U.C. Alumni Association, the UCLA Alumni Association and a member of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.
Members
Bob Bishop
Bob Bishop brings a journalist’s eye for the unusual and an historian’s requirement for accuracy to a popular series of local history articles he has written for WEHOville.com since 2015. He lived in West Hollywood for 22 years before relocating to his home state of Mississippi recently. While in West Hollywood, he was active in neighborhood and business groups, as well as charities including Project Angel Food and Pets are Wonderful Support.
A former public relations manager and journalist, Bishop retired from Northrop Grumman Corp. in Redondo Beach, Calif, where his success publicizing space exploration satellites the company designed and built for NASA earned him numerous awards from the Public Relations Society of America and the International Association of Business Communicators. As a journalist, he worked for the Sun-Herald, a daily newspaper in Gulfport-Biloxi, Miss., and Electronic News, a national trade paper based in New York City covering the computer industry. Bishop received a Bachelor of Science degree in Communications from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1973.
Roy Oldenkamp
Roy Rogers Oldenkamp is a long-time historic preservationist, beginning his work in Atlanta, Georgia helping to save author Margaret Mitchell’s “Dump” and the Fox Theatre as well as many landmarking and preserving early homes in the Candler Park/Inman Park area. His efforts continued in West Hollywood, where he sits on the board as a founding member of the West Hollywood Preservation Alliance and has helped to save dozens of historic properties, many with both or either Hollywood or LGBTQIAA+ connections. He is co-founder of the locally created Helltown Whiskey and likes the beach, painting and rock and roll.
Jon Ponder
Jon Ponder is a creator of the hit podcast series, “Hollywood & Crime.” He also writes about history for WEHOville.com and on his website, “Playground to the Stars.” He was the editor of Gore Vidal’s official website and worked as a researcher on Hugh Hefner’s never-finished autobiography. In addition to a lifelong interest in history – particularly the history of Los Angeles – Ponder has had 30-plus year career in advertising, marketing, promotion and website development. A resident of West Hollywood since 1998, he is vice president of the West Hollywood Historic Preservation Alliance and a co-founder of the Alla Nazimova Society.
Domenic Priore
Domenic Priore is a writer and television producer specializing in pop culture history, sociology and music. He is the author of Riot on Sunset Strip: Rock ‘n’ Roll’s Last Stand in Hollywood (foreword by Arthur Lee of Love, afterword by Stephen Stills of Buffalo Springfield), Beatsville (w/ Martin McIntosh), Pop Surf Culture: Music, Design, Film and Fashion from the Bohemian Surf Boom (with Brian Chidester) and Smile: The Story of Brian Wilson’s Lost Masterpiece (forewords by Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks).
As a result of that project, Domenic wrote the liner notes, sourced photographs and helped sequence the music for The Beach Boys: Smile Sessions box set, which won the 2013 Grammy Award for Best Historical Release. He also wrote the biographical text for the art book Shag: The Collected Works. Domenic was the primary writer on the two-part AMC documentary series Hollywood Rocks the Movies: The Early Years (hosted by Ringo Starr) and Hollywood Rocks the Movies: The 1970s (hosted by David Bowie). A Los Angeles native, Priore has returned to SoCal after living in New York City and San Francisco.