In 2011, veteran film distribution and sales executive Richard S. Guardian left his position as Co-President of Lightning Entertainment, the Los Angeles-based company he co-founded in 2001, to set up his own sales, distribution, and financing consultancy, Guardian Entertainment International LLC, retaining his former employer as a principal client.

Guardian, whose entrée into the industry was as a management trainee with United Artists in the late 1970’s, has varied, global experience: marketing and merchandising manager for Hoyts Theaters in Australia; North American Manager for the Australian Film Commission; head of international sales for Overseas Filmgroup (now First Look Media, a division of Millennium Entertainment); international sales for HBO Enterprises in New York; and heading Beyond International Group’s film division’s office in Los Angeles.

Guardian’s involvement with film projects can begin at script stage and then run all the way through the financing, sales and distribution process.