Andy Ruffell - CEO
Buster Cox - Production Director
David Mardini - Co Founder
Luciano Alexandresco - Creative Director
Andrew Ott - Producer / Director
Jean R. Delcin - Art Director / Webmaster

Copyright

DANCESTAR & MOBO AWARDS FOUNDER: ANDY RUFFELL

At the age of 14 Andy left school and began a highly successful career in BMX bicycle racing where he won the first official BMX race in the United Kingdom. Over the course of the next six years he toured the world competing in international racing and freestyle riding championships where he won more than five national Racing Championships, 4 national Freestyle Championships, various European Racing & freestyle Championships and several world events. During this period he established several world records, at least one of which stayed unbroken until recently and in 1984 he received a Young Sportsman Of The Year award from the UK Minister For Sport.

Now 39, Andy also developed a significant career in television and hosted 7 series over 4 years of the nationally televised BMX Beat on the UK ITV network as well as presenting the prestigious Kellogg’s BMX Championship on Channel 4 for three years. He has appeared in over 400 TV shows in the UK and around the world including two appearances on BBC Superstars (20m plus viewers) and starred in various commercials for Kellogg’s and Ready Brek. He’s the author of the best selling BMX From Start To Finish (first published 1984) and even made a BMX record that hit the top 30 in the UK. In 1983 he landed the starring role in BMX The Video that was produced by Thorn EMI and sold over 1 million copies worldwide.

Andy was one of the first to take BMX on the road with a freestyle trick riding show and clocked up over 200 shows and demonstrations a year in shopping malls and sporting events from 1981 to 1986 across 20 countries..

Andy also founded and produced several major BMX and Skateboarding events including the European BMX Freestyle Championships and the world-renowned ‘Holeshot’ event, which brought together the world's best BMX riders and Skateboarders – a forerunner to the modern ‘X Games’ – all with international TV coverage.

In 1988 he decided to retire from competitive sport and developed his next career behind the camera as a producer at London's BiG Group Communications Agency. Over the next few years he produced a wide range of award winning entertainment programmes and documentaries around the world including Asia and North and South America for clients including British Airways, Johnnie Walker, Cathay Pacific and Cunard Line. During this time Andy spent three years mainly based in Hong Kong developing TV projects in Asia.

In 1995, Andy undertook one of his greatest challenges when after a chance meeting with Kanya King they created and launched the MasterCard MOBO Awards – now one of the world’s largest televised urban music events. The event has just celebrated its 10th anniversary and is broadcast nationally on BBC1 in the UK and in 20 countries across the globe. Since launching The MOBO Awards, the parent company has grown to include TV Production, Publishing, and Music and Internet divisions.

Ruffell is also Founder and CEO of ‘DanceStar’ – the global dance music awards platform. It is an event concept developed across three continents with the first DanceStar show – ‘The World Dance Music Awards’ taking place on June 1st 2000 at London’s Alexandra Palace. It was broadcast on the UK's Channel 4 network and various territories around Europe reaching over 100 million households worldwide.

March 2002 saw the launch of DanceStar USA – The American Dance Music Awards that took place at the prestigious Jackie Gleason Theatre in the dance music ‘Mecca’ of South Beach, Miami. It became the most talked about event of 2002. The 2003 show took place live on the sands of Miami Beach and was seen in 54 countries across the world – the most watched electronic music show in history…

Andy has now Created, Produced and Exec Produced more than 18 world class televised award shows and over 50 other event, TV and video projects around the world in places as diverse as Kuwait, Hong Kong, Venezuela and mid Atlantic on the QE2.

Andy’s TV events have featured some of the world's biggest names in music and entertainment including, 50 Cent, Destiny’s Child, Tina Turner, P.Diddy, Diana Ross, Ja Rule, Lenny Kravitz, Juliette Lewis, Lionel Richie, R.Kelly, Dionne Warwick, Moby, Boy George, Bootsy Collins, BB King, Bono, The Edge, Fatboy Slim, George Benson, Kool & The Gang, Santana, Jay-Z and Tony Blair.

In 2005 Andy purchased a significant stake in A3 Networks a Florida TV and web broadcaster and joined the board as President and CEO. The company is now about to expand across the USA with New York launching in 2008. The company has now grown into a major internet player with over 20 hours of original programming online at www.watchA3.com.

The future looks good for Andy Ruffell with his consultancy company advising US and European corporations on televised event development, plus three new globally televised events are in development with major broadcasters including a Latin Version of DanceStar.

Andy has now based his operations in Miami and New York with AR Consulting Inc encompassing Music, TV and Radio Projects.

For further info please contact Elliott Stares – elliott@andyruffell.com