Dr Jodi Nelson-Tabor

Director, MARS Academy - Building systems, leaders, and cultures which make the creative industries future-ready. Future-Ready Leadership | Catalyst Pathways | WFTV | WiVP | Women in CreaTech | PhD | MFA

East Sussex, England, United Kingdom

About

For 25 years, Dr Jodi Nelson-Tabor has worked at the exact point where creative industries promise the future and deliver the past. Bridging that gap — between industry ambition and the education systems meant to serve it — is where she has spent a career building what should have existed already. As Director of MARS Academy at Bild Studios, she leads the UK's virtual production and real-time technology workforce development programme, equipping the screen sector with the skills it needs to compete globally as AI reshapes roles faster than any training pipeline has been built to absorb. She has designed and scaled learning programmes across 11 countries, improved talent retention by 30%, and grown academy verticals from start-up to multimillion-pound revenue impact across screen, media, creative technology, advertising, and publishing. Her diagnostic of why talent pipelines fail — regulatory capture, externalised costs, and the reformer's dilemma — is the sharpest available explanation for why, after twenty years of policy effort, the outcome hasn't shifted. Genuine intent. Real investment. The pipeline still leaks and the talent is still leaving. Her prescription is equally precise: legislation that changes the conditions of the system, not legislation that asks individuals to perform differently within it. She is the founder of HAICA Ltd (Human-AI Catalyst Advisory), creator of the Creative Leadership Catalyst™ Framework, and the architect of Dr Jodi AI — an AI coaching tool trained on her methodology and built for the women the creative economy loses precisely when they become most valuable: the 6–15 year mark, when systems knowledge and leadership capability compound. The Catalyst Readiness Index™ is live at drjodiai.com. Eight minutes. Four dimensions. A precise read of where you are and what moves next — for women who already know something needs to shift but can't yet name what. Her long-form research and thinking publishes weekly on Catalyst Pathways on Substack. She is one of the few practitioners deploying AI in her own image who is publicly interrogating how it should be done — writing about ethical AI deployment, visual representation bias, and accountability standards before most organisations have asked the questions. She writes weekly in Future-Ready Leadership on LinkedIn. Building the talent, the systems, and the leaders the creative industries will rely on next. Let's connect.

Experience

  • Director of MARS Academy at Bild Studios
    Jan 2026 - Present · 6 mos

    Strategically oversee and grow the capabilities of MARS Academy. Use extensive academic and industry experience to hone and expand its course offering, deepen university partnerships & industry engagement. Focus will be on scaling training reach and building resilient job-ready talent pipelines for the screen industries, equipping the UK screen workforce with new technology skills critical to maintaining the country's competitive edge and future-proofing jobs in the face of AI disruption.

  • Final Pixel (Full-time · 3 yrs 6 mos)
    • Head of Final Pixel Academy
      Sep 2023 - Dec 2025 · 2 yrs 4 mos

      Driving business development, marketing & operational excellence across strategy, talent & learning in Academy vertical.

    • Business Development & Training Manager
      Jul 2022 - Sep 2023 · 1 yr 3 mos

  • Senior Lecturer, Digital Film & Television Production at University of Greenwich
    Oct 2017 - Jul 2022 · 4 yrs 10 mos

    Transformed traditional film production education courses into industry-leading, technology-integrated portfolio, positioning graduates for success in rapidly evolving creative sector while establishing new benchmarks for academic-industry collaboration.

  • Strategic Creative Consultant at BND|mand
    Jun 2013 - Jul 2022 · 9 yrs 2 mos

    Strategic business transformation consultancy specialising in cross-functional leadership alignment (marketing, startup ops, culture, digital transformation), operational excellence, and values-led organisational change through innovative frameworks, micro-learning methodologies, and sector-specific solutions delivering measurable impact.

  • Independent Filmmaker (Writer/Producer) at Hip Chik Productions
    Jan 2000 - Jul 2022 · 22 yrs 7 mos

    Independent Entertainment/Film Production Company specializing in all facets of Film, Music and Digital Media production. Freelance Producer, Writer, Director https://www.youtube.com/jodinelson1