Staff Bio’s | Film Production Capital

  William D. French, Esq.

Will French is the co-founder and President of Film Production Capital, L.L.C.

Film Production Capital provides tax incentive-based financing and financial services to the motion picture and digital media industries. The company has traded approximately $142,000,000 worth of state tax credits since 2003, which has provided financing to film and video game projects with aggregate production budgets of over half a billion U.S. dollars.

Mr. French has been actively involved in the enactment of tax incentive legislation, rules and regulations throughout the United States, and helped to author the very first digital media/video game tax credit program in the United States in 2005.

A graduate of Purdue University in 1995, Mr. French received his J.D. degree, cum laude, from Tulane University School of Law in 1998. At Tulane, Mr. French served on the Tulane Moot Court Board and was the Champion of the 1997 Junior Appellate Moot Court Competition. Upon graduation from Tulane Law School, he was elected by the law school faculty to The Order of Barristers.

Apart from his demanding film and digital media finance activities, Mr. French serves as Special Counsel to the law firm of Fishman Haygood Phelps Walmsley Willis & Swanson, L.L.P. in New Orleans as a tax incentive and corporate law specialist. Mr. French is also on the board of the Fenner-French Foundation, a non-profit charitable institution whose primary focus is to improve the quality of life and work for residents of post-Katrina New Orleans.

  Stephen G. Roberts, CPA

Stephen Roberts is the co-founder and Chief Financial Officer of Film Production Capital, L.L.C.

Mr. Roberts is a 1970 graduate of Louisiana State University, a Certified Public Accountant and the former President and current Vice-President of Roberts, Cherry and Company, A Corporation of Certified Public Accountants, with offices in Shreveport, Louisiana and Jackson, Mississippi. He also serves as Vice- President of RCG Network Engineering, Inc, a full-service computer company. He is a licensed securities broker and former Certified Valuation Analyst.

Mr. Roberts is a former Chairman of the Board of CPAmerica, an association of over 75 mid-level CPA firms located throughout the United States. He is a nationally recognized speaker in the Accounting industry having served as the keynote presenter of the AICPA national conference on several occasions.

Mr. Roberts and his family live in Shreveport, Louisiana, a major location for the film and television industry.

  T. Noel Paynter, COO

T. Noel Paynter is the Chief Operations Officer of Film Production Capital, L.L.C., in addition to being the President and local expert for several of the States in which Film Production Capital, L.L.C. operates.

Up until 2006 when most of his efforts and time shifted to the tax credit financing business, Mr. Paynter was a full-time, practicing attorney and CPA with the Phoenix, Arizona based firm, Woodrow & Paynter, P.L.C. His primary areas of practice include: Estate and Business Succession Planning; Probate; Business Formations and Transactions; and State and Federal Tax Law. Mr. Paynter also spent several semesters as an adjunct Professor at the Keller Graduate School of Management teaching Federal Tax Law to MBA candidates. His earned his education at University of Kansas (B.S.Bus.Adm., 1990) and the University of Missouri at Kansas City (J.D., 1993).

As the President of the Arizona Film & Media Coalition, he has been busy each legislative session in Arizona, protecting and improving the State’s film tax incentive program. Mr. Paynter is also on the Board of the Arizona Production Association and frequently lectures on the topic of State tax incentive financing all over the country. Currently, he resides with his wife and two children in Scottsdale, Arizona.

  John Bails

John Bails is Vice President of Film Production Capital, L.L.C. and oversees their office in Lansing, Michigan.

Mr. Bails graduated from Michigan State University’s Eli Broad School of Business with a degree in Accounting in 2000, and earned his law degree from Michigan State University’s School of Law in 2003. After working as a general practice attorney in Lansing, Michigan, Mr. Bails served overseas as a U.S. Diplomat for the Department of State. Most recently, he worked as a supervising attorney at Murthy Law Firm in Baltimore, Maryland, specializing in complex immigration law.

Mr. Bails is a long-time Michigan native, and has returned to his hometown of East Lansing, Michigan where he resides with his family.

  Allison R. Jackson CPA, CVA

Allison R. Jackson, Tax Credit Manager of Film Production Capital is a 1989 graduate of the University of Louisiana at Monroe, a Certified Public Accountant, and former auditor with KPMG. Allison is currently a Consulting Manager with Roberts, Cherry and Company, a Corporation of Certified Public Accountants where she has been for 12 years. Ms. Jackson lives with her family in Shreveport, Louisiana.

  Meggie Holland

Meggie Holland is the Tax Credit Administrator for Film Production Capital. She is a 2005 graduate of Baylor University and has degrees in public relations and museum studies. Her professional background includes non-profit fund development for the Van Cliburn Foundation and the Fort Worth Zoo. A native Texan, she moved to Shreveport, Louisiana, with her husband in 2008.

  Allison Berger Tiller

Allison Berger Tiller is Vice President of Film Production Capital, L.L.C. and works out of their New Orleans office.

Ms. Tiller received both her Bachelor of Arts and law degrees from the University of Virginia in 2000 and 2004, respectively. Following law school, Ms. Tiller practiced law with the Financial Institutions group of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom, L.L.P. Most recently, Ms. Tiller served as Program Director of Louisiana Appleseed and as Gulf Coast Recovery Program Director of Appleseed, a non-profit organization that uses the pro bono skills of professionals to solve systemic problems at the policy level.

Ms. Tiller serves on the boards of NOCCA Institute, Young Audiences of Louisiana, the Greater New Orleans Youth Orchestra and the Jefferson Trust at the University of Virginia. A native of New Orleans, she resides there with her husband.

 Louis M. Freeman, Jr.

Louis M. Freeman, Jr., serves as Vice President of Film Production Capital and resides in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Mr. Freeman is a graduate of Culver Military Academy and Tulane University's A.B. Freeman School of Business, where he received a B.S. in Management.

Mr. Freeman began his career as a securities broker in New Orleans in 1984. He moved to Hong Kong in 1989 to join Arral & Partners, Ltd., an Asia-Pacific private equity company with a series of funds and trusts investing in consumer-related industries such as hotel & resort development, computer technology, western-style retail and import/export trade. Mr. Freeman returned to New Orleans in 1993 after 5 years in Asia and continued to assist Arral in a representative capacity, as a fund-raiser, liaison to investors.

In addition to his duties with Film Production Capital, Mr. Freeman serves in an advisory capacity to TSB Ventures, LLC, a Louisiana private equity company specializing in early stage technology businesses. He is also a small business owner and provides business development and consulting services to early stage companies seeking capital for expansion or new product development.

Mr. Freeman has actively served on many community, educational and charitable boards and currently serves on the boards of the Rosamary Foundation, Tulane Business School Council and Tulane Cancer Center Community Advisory Board.