Larry Ryckman

Lawrence G. Ryckman is an American producer and President and CEO of American Artists, Inc.

He brought new technologies to market, rebuilt a championship professional sports franchise and has assisted dozens of ventures in getting financed and off the ground. He also served as CEO of several private and public companies, headed over 1,000 employees in diverse industries and has successfully completed international licensing and joint venture agreements with multi-national corporations such as EMI, Polygram, Nintendo, JVC, Coca Cola, and NEC.

From 1982 to 1986, he was Vice President, Development, and then President and CEO of American Artists, Inc. He went on to establish American Artists Music and was involved with talent selection production and recording. Filmography includes: Virgin Queen of St. Francis High, Snowballs, and Crime of the Century. 1986 - Provided star-up capital and co-founded QSound, Ltd., a sound technology company established to develop a series of proprietary and sound technologies for the entertainment, computer and video game industries. He brought it public through a reverse merger with Archer Communications, Inc. He soon became President and CEO. He raised QSound over $20 million. 1988 - Founded Westgroup Corporations, Inc., a diversified conglomerate comprising subsidiaries in industries such as food preparation/distribution and electrical contracting and a specialty automotive parts manufacturer located in Hamburg, Germany. He took the company public through a reverse merger. He served as Chairman from 1988-1992. 1990 - His company, Westgroup Corporations, Inc. was featured in the Alberta Stock Exchange annual report as one of the most successful junior industrial companies trading on the exchange. 1991 - Moved from CEO to co-chairman of QSound and their first profitable quarter. 1991 - Youngest professional sports team owner in North American History after purchasing the Calgary Stampeder Football Club of the Canadian Football League (CFL). Many changes took place, including signing Heisman trophy winning quarterback, Dough Flutie and quarterback Jeff Garcia. During his 5 years in the CFL, he co-chaired the CFL expansion committee with John Candy and served on the Executive Committee of the CFL board of governors. 1993 - Purchase the rights to host the 1993 Grey Cup game in the city of Calgary from Toronto Argonauts owners Bruce McNall and Wayne Gretzky. The 1993 Grey Cup festival was a success drawing a capacity crowd of over 50,000 spectators and was reported as the best Grey Cup event in the CFL’s 80 year history. 2003 - Provided the start-up capital to being the development of MyStudio. 2004 - Founded, became President and CEO of Studio One Entertainment, Inc. (Studio One), a private Arizona company established to develop the revolutionary MyStudio. 22 patents have been filed related to MyStudio. He assembled a talented staff and has raised over $8 million since inception. 2008 - Negotiated and signed groundbreaking music license with publishing giant EMI which will allow consumers of MyStudio to record music videos using popular music for posting to their website, mystudio.net. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND AWARDS ----1985 - Most notable personal production accomplishment was the highly successful, one-hour documentary, “The Aryan Nation” which he produced and hosted. The award-winning and critically acclaimed investigative news program was an exclusive and powerful expose of the Aryan nations and the growing neo-Nazi movements in North America. 1992 - Listed as one of the top 25 most powerful people in Canadian sports by the National Globe and Mail newspaper. 1993 - Received the Vanier Award for his business and community accomplishments. This is one of Canada’s most prestigious national awards and is presented to young Canadians under the age of 40 who have made recognized and significant achievements of national interest. 1994 - Voted Runner-Up to the Premier of the Province of Alberta in the category of top civic, business and political leader of the last 100 years at the Calgary Centennial Awards. Awarded the CFL’s outstanding contribution award for his contributions to the league both as an owner and governor. Received the First Calgary “Community Vision Award of Merit” for his community contributions. Youngest President and CEO of a NASDAQ listed public company. Youngest President and CEO of a Toronto Stock Exchange listed company and TSE index . Youngest owner of a Professional sports franchise in North America. Youngest Member of Who’s Who in Canada.