Stan Kinsey is a former Disney executive and co-founder of Iwerks Entertainment, along with Oscar winner and Disney legend Don Iwerks. Kinsey is famous for being a visionary that sought to take the Walt Disney Company in the direction of computer animated films (chronicled in the books Disney War and The Pixar Touch).
Originally from Indiana, Stan Kinsey did his undergrad studies at DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana and received his MBA at Stanford University. Kinsey was in the same class as Scott McNealy of Sun Micro fame.
At Disney, young Kinsey was a considered a "golden boy" by top Disney executives Frank Wells and Ron W. Miller. Kinsey had thrived running the Operations and New Technology group, and was Disney's chief technologist under executive Ron Miller. He championed the direction toward films created using computer animation. He saw the potential of computer animation and wanted the company to purchase Pixar, a collaborator and supplier of high-end computer hardware for the secretive Computer Animation Production System (CAPS) project. Kinsey believed the CAPS could "return Disney animation to its glory days by developing new computer technology." However, he was to be overruled by Miller's replacement and new chairman of Disney's film division, Jeffrey Katzenberg. Katzenberg and Micheal Eisner had brought a new culture to the Disney company as profiled in the book Disney War. Kinsey continued to clash with Katzenberg and eventually left the company in 1985. After the departure of Kinsey from Disney, Katzenberg relented and continued the partnership with Pixar and development of the CAPS championed by Kinsey.[1]
The evolution of CAPS and Pixar resulted in the great success envisioned by Kinsey. An Oscar for Scientific and Engineering Achievement was awarded in 1992 to the team that developed the CAPS system. Pixar became the Pixar Animation Studios, which went on to win 26 academy awards, 7 Golden Globes, and 3 Grammy Awards, and generate over $6.3 billion worldwide in revenue by the early 2000s. (The Walt Disney Company did buy Pixar Animation Studios outright on January 24, 2006 for 7.4 billion.)
Kinsey left Disney in 1985 and founded Iwerks Entertainment with Don Iwerks. Iwerks Entertainment became well known as a leading developer of special films, venues, and virtual reality theaters throughout the world. He was Chairman and CEO of Iwerks for 10 years.
Kinsey headed up another entertainment technology company called NTN Buzztime, a developer of interactive entertainment games. The company is known for its bar trivia online games. He was Chairman and CEO of NTN for 10 years.
Kinsey currently is CEO of Nigel Power LLC, a manufacturer of wireless communications equipment in San Diego and a subsidiary of Qualcomm.