Karol Martesko-Fenster is an Austrian-born American entrepreneur and pioneering cross media executive. He is the founder of Thought Engine | Media Group and his career in the motion picture, broadcasting, publishing, and Internet business spans over two decades and includes leadership in the American independent film industry.

Currently the President, Film & Media for S2BN Entertainment, Karol oversees all aspects of film acquisition, production and distribution for Michael Cohl's diversified enterprise. Karol joined S2BN in April of 2011 after serving as SVP/GM of Film & Animation for Babel Networks, the global online and mobile digital distribution network. Karol joined Babel Networks in September of 2008 after providing strategic consulting services to numerous film and media ventures, including Arts Alliance, T5M, SBI Management and Tribeca Enterprises.

Karol is the Executive Producer on Danfung Dennis’ 2011 Sundance world documentary competition Grand Jury and Cinematography Award winner Hell and Back Again (‘11), and Phil Cox’s 2011 Berlin Film Festival – Panorama Selection and 2011 Sundance world documentary competition title The Bengali Detective (‘11). Karol collaborated with Harry Belafonte on the 2011 Sundance US Documentary competition and opening night film Sing Your Song (‘11), and was the Executve Producer on James Allen Smith’s Floored (‘10), Jamie King and Peter Mann’s Dark Fibre (‘10), Co-Executive Producer on Dean Budnick & Peter Shapiro’s Wetlands Preserved: The Story of an Activist Nightclub (’06), the Executive Producer of Rob Nilsson’s Frank Dead Souls (’04), and the Producer of Gordon Eriksen & Heather Johnston’s Scenes From The New World (’94), Myth or Reality The Von Trapp Family (’92), Vienna 1900 (’86) and he collaborated closely with Richard Linklater on his Sundance Film Festival opening night and Berlinale Silver Bear award-winning Before Sunrise (’95).

Karol was previously the General Manager of the Film Division at Chris Blackwell's Palm Pictures Entertainment Properties and President of Palm’s RES Media Group.  During his five-year tenure he supervised the strategic re-organization of the film division and oversaw the company’s most successful theatrical releases Scratch and Sex and Lucia.  While at Palm, he led all operations and brand positioning for the RES business unit, expanding its digital film festival RESFEST, the world’s original digital arts and entertainment festival, into a global touring event spanning six continents, 19 countries and over 40 cities worldwide.  

Prior to Palm, Karol served for three years as President/Publisher of Rising Tide Studios, an integrated media and convergence company, where he supervised the growth and development of the Silicon Alley Reporter and Digital Coast Reporter magazines and numerous high profile conferences on the Media, Finance and Technology Industries. 

Throughout his career Karol has been on the forefront of new developments and paradigm shifting technologies. In the early 1990’s he co-founded and launched FILMMAKER Magazine, filmmag.com, indieWIRE.com, RES Magazine, andThe Virtual FilmFestival.  From 1986 to 1990, he was the coordinating producer for Great Performances Music on PBS and produced over twenty music television programs and five live satellite broadcasts, including; Gala of Stars, James Levine’s Mozart in Salzburg, Celebrating Gershwin: S’Wonderful & The Jazz Age, Herbert von Karajan’s Don Giovanni, Hal Prince’s Madama Butterfly, Pavarotti Returns to Naples, From Vienna: The New Year’s Celebration with Walter Cronkite and the Emmy Award-winning Leonard Bernstein at 70.  Karol was the Market Director for the seminal 1989 Independent Feature Film Market and in 1990, as Acting Executive Director of the Independent Feature Project Karol restructured the nation's leading film service organization and initiated the inaugural Gotham Awards.

Current and past boards have included innovators in media and film such as CINELAN (New York), BellaGaia (New York), ConditionONE (New York), WorkBookProject (New York), T5M/Rightster (London), The Film Collaborative (Los Angeles), Rising Tide Studios (New York), Sputnik7 (New York), Hamptons International Film Festival (East Hampton, NY) and the LA Film Festival (Los Angeles).

Karol has collaborated on the Webby Award nominated, and award-winning enterprises, sputnik7.com ’01, indieWIRE.com ’01 & ’03, epitonic.com ’03 and Sally Potter’s RAGE ’10. Karol has appeared in numerous international publications and is a frequent speaker at film and media events around the globe with a particular concentration on transformative entrepreneurship and immersive video-centric content applications.

Born in Vienna, Austria, Karol has lived in over 20 cities internationally, and is culturally fluent in German and English. He received a B.A. from SUNY Purchase and an M.F.A. from Columbia University with a concentration in entertainment law, theater management and film production.  When he’s not working, Karol enjoys traveling and spending time with his wife Julia and their two children.