Leah Weinberger
Chief Business Development Officer / Director of Development
Leah Weinberger is an engaging businesswoman merging her social activism with her solid business principals to build success. With over 20 years of experience in the Not-for-Profit business sector she brings her ability to create, manage and successfully execute growth strategies. Her polished communication and networking skills allow her to quickly target and source through various channels viable venues for highly profitable ventures.
Ms. Weinberger’s unique research protocols combine both business and social recommendations in order to quickly analyze projects and the people involved with them and thus create tailored strategies, strong risk assessment and full capitalization on the various tiers of potential within a project. In her career, Ms. Weinberger has worked with such organizations as Peace Now, the JSSA of Maryland, and the Junior League offering her skills and support with Research, Statistical Analysis, and Project Management.
After arriving in Austin in the late 1990’s, Ms. Weinberger became active in local community service through various Jewish organizations including the Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Synagogues in Austin. Over the years she would use her skills to support these Organizations in, Sales, Research, Marketing, Promotions, Education, and Fund Raising.
Carrying her strengths and values into local politics, in 2001 Ms. Weinberger used her networking skills and professional background to work with AARP and the Legislation to successfully pass the Texas Legislation Bill HB472 : designed for the protection of the elderly from predatory companies. Following this in 2002 she served as an Ambassador for the City of Austin, where her duties included facilitating growth through new business expansion, development and relocation.
Wanting to give back to the Austin Community Leah founded Austin Rosh Chodesh Women’s Group aka The Seudah Chics in 2004. Using her innate talent at engendering communication and cooperation she melded reform, conservative and orthodox synagogue members into a Jewish social/service group whose works include the creation of a Mitzvah web ring to care for elderly and sick in need and organizing relief efforts for victims of Katrina.
By 2008 Leah had reached a point in her life where she had more time to pursue her personal interest which, given her passion for reading and her affinity for storytelling, was writing. Having always had the ability to capture the attention of children with her fantastical stories of adventure, encouraging self-reliance, independence, bravery and social awareness Leah chose to wrote her first story and join her first writers group.
Within two years she was holding the Coordinator Position of the Screenwriters of Austin (2009) where she was able to combine her passion for and love of creative and philanthropic work in the form of developing emerging writers while honing her craft and learning the business of screenwriting. By 2010 she had entered and won her first short story script contest. Leah then went on to win the Austin Filmmakers Director Pitch Event leading her to produce her first Short Film: the award winning BITS & PIECES [2010] (DVS USER Short Film), quickly followed by writing and producing her second short film RACK [2010] (Top 20 finalist of the Prestigious Online Doorpost Film Contest). These winning short films would also enter Ms. Weinberger into the business of film and pair her with her future business partners leading to the formation of Edgen Films, LLC.
Since then, she has had multiple film projects optioned and in development with various film companies. Leah has gone on to integrate her business skills seamlessly into Producing working as an Associate Producer on THE CURSE OF BABYLON(In Distribution) , Co-producer for 3DAYS (In Distribution) , and as the Unit Production Manager on BIG FOOT WARS (In Distribution) among others. Her current Scripts in development are: VIKINGS vs WEREWOLVES, FAIRY HILL, JUNKYARD DOG and SHADOW RIDERS.
Leah continues to grow Edgen Films by using her talent to create market specific scripts that sell, her business skills to produce films that sell, and her development skills to create key relationships which extend into strategic alliances that create long term value for the company.