About Us
Portraits to be added soon. Meet the hosts and curators shaping each conversation with intention, craft, and care.
Lori Ellis
Host
Lori Ellis is the host of Open Door Salon. An experienced moderator, facilitator, and speaker, she specializes in authentic discussions with senior executives on the challenges shaping life sciences—and what comes next. She has served as the sole producer and moderator of audio podcasts for multiple news organizations and has earned multiple awards for her work, including Muse Creative, LIT, Vega, and Adobe awards. Companies she’s partnered with credit her with helping them win industry thought leadership recognition.
Chris Walters
Executive Producer
Christopher Walters is a cinematographer and director with over twenty-five years of professional experience, having photographed hundreds of commercials, music videos, and seventeen feature films. Raised in a small fishing town in Nova Scotia, he began earning a living behind the camera at thirteen and moved to New York City at eighteen, entering the industry during the early internet boom through collaborations with Heavy.com and Warner Brothers Online.
He later became a longtime collaborator of legendary commercial director Bob Giraldi, shooting more than eighty national advertising campaigns, while also working extensively with emerging hip-hop artists including early collaborations with 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg, and Dr. Dre.
In 2019, Walters relocated to Myanmar. Following the military coup and the imprisonment of the country’s democratically elected leadership, he began producing media in direct support of the pro-democracy movement, working to undermine the authority of the military junta and encourage defection within the armed forces.
In 2022, Walters traveled to Ukraine, where he co-created the documentary Comedy of War: Laughter in Ukraine, filmed across the front lines of the war, and is currently completing his second feature there, Kharkiv. In addition to his film work, Walters co-founded the AR company Time Traveler and the New York–based production company pirate/shark/dinosaur.
Yaro Yaroslav Demchuk
Yaroslav Demchuk is a professional in the camera department, a documentary cinematographer, and producer based in Ukraine, with extensive experience in technical support and visual storytelling. He has spent over eight years working as a 1st and 2nd Assistant Camera, providing critical on-set support across film, commercial, and documentary productions, ensuring smooth camera operations and problem-free shoots.
He began his career in 2013 as a professional drone pilot, gaining hands-on expertise in aerial cinematography, safety protocols, and coordinating complex shots with production teams. In 2016, Yaroslav helped establish a cine gear rental house in Lviv, Ukraine, where he deepened his knowledge of camera systems, troubleshooting, equipment logistics, and workflow management.
Over the past four years, he has focused on working as a cinematographer and producer for documentary films in Ukraine, applying his technical skills and production experience in challenging and dynamic environments. Known for his reliability, adaptability, and solutions-oriented mindset, Yaroslav approaches every project with a practical, production-first perspective, combining technical precision with thoughtful visual storytelling.