NEW YORK CITY — Creative media company Alkemy X (www.alkemy-x.com) has appointed Rich Shurtliff director of information technology. He brings deep experience in IT for visual effects, design and content production, and will oversee the company’s information technology strategy, services and operations at its Philadelphia, New York, and Los Angeles studios. He succeeds Bob Pyle, who is retiring after nearly 30 years.
Shurtliff previously served as chief studio Engineer at Studio6, a New York creative content company. His background also includes senior IT roles with R/GA, RhinoFX and Curious Pictures. The California native has a degree in electrical engineering from the University of California, Irvine.
Pyle joined Alkemy X in 1990 and has successfully helped the company adapt to innumerable changes in technology. Among other things, he oversaw the technical aspects of the company’s expansion to New York in 2011 and Los Angeles in 2018. He also supervised the launch and growth of its visual effects division, whose credits include AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead, NBC’s Blindspot, HBO’s The Leftovers, Netflix’s Maniac and Amazon’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
“Alkemy X has a long tradition of working at the leading edge of technology to drive creativity, efficiency and security,” says Alkemy X CEO, Justin Wineburg. “Rich is an exceptionally skilled engineer. He has experience in each area of our business and has managed large, multi-site production environments. He will ensure that we continue to innovate, grow services and capacity, and, most importantly, deliver excellence for our clients.”

Alkemy X’s technical infrastructure runs the gamut of visual effects production, motion graphics production, nonlinear editorial, editorial compositing, color grading and other functions. Based in New York, Shurtliff will be responsible for maintaining workflow efficiency and performance, implementing new technologies and upgrades, and planning for future growth.
“We have very strong visual effects, editorial and post production departments distributed across three production facilities,” notes Shurtliff. “Managing those resources is an exciting challenge. The work our teams produce is top-notch.”
“Alkemy X has been a great place to work; I have enjoyed every minute of it,” says Pyle. “Keeping pace with changing technology has been challenging and exciting. I take great satisfaction in the success we’ve had and the many great projects we have delivered.”