Jesse Green of StrongFront is the cover story of Say Magazines latest issue

By Cheryl K. Watson of the BDC

Jesse Green is president of StrongFront A/V Productions Inc., a video and broadcast production facility. This year, with the help of BDC, the company has expanded into the sound recording, record label and distribution business. A new office in Winnipeg's market area has helped his company to gain a new and larger client base as well as bringing up its profile in the industry.

Jesse has been busy making strategic alliances to meet the demands of his company's growing client base that now reaches across Canada. His long-term goal is to make StrongFront one of Canada's premier Aboriginal audio-visual companies servicing the broadcast and business community nation-wide. He hopes it will eventually be one of North America's prime contacts for production in Canada.

Jesse Green is an Anishinabe from the beautiful community of Shoal Lake, Ontario who grew up in Winnipeg, Vancouver and San Francisco.

Although he wishes he had more of a connection to the reserve life he missed, he has no regrets. He had a normal Aboriginal upbringing coming from hard times but persevering with the wise words of mom and dad. "While people think I am a successful business man, I feel I am still growing and have a long way to go before I reach what I consider to be success," said Jesse. "I believe once you reach your current goals you need to create new goals -- so the work is never done."

The son of bluesman Billy Joe Green, Jesse credits his talent and creativity to his father, a multi-nominated and award-winning musician. "My whole life I remember hearing guitar playing and music in the house," says Jesse. "I played my dad's guitars until I was 12 when he bought me my own amp and guitar, and the rest is history." He credits his brains from his mother Ann Green, originally from Sioux Valley, Manitoba. "My mom's side of the family is full of scholars and university graduates, so I think my business savvy came from that side."

Jesse Green started out as a musician in the early 90's playing in an Aboriginal rock band called Peacemaker. "We were innovators at the time," he says. "In 1992, we came out with the first CD put out by any Aboriginal band in Manitoba or in Canada." After eight years of entertaining across Canada and the United States, Jesse reverted back to his high school pursuit of video production. "It was an easy transition," he remembers. "I knew the whole entertainment industry inside out. Through my music career I knew all the TV producers and radio stations across Canada and had a good rapport with them so it was easy to get my foot in the door." Thus began Jesse's career back into the world of video and broadcast. After many production gigs, internships and tours of duty in the budding Aboriginal broadcast world, Jesse took a one year business course and officially launched StrongFront A/V Productions in 2001.

Jesse hopes to triple his capacity this year and expand with two full-time employees and numerous subcontractors. He is very optimistic about the future.

Jesse still plays guitar and sings in a hard rock band called X-Status. He feels he must play and compose music to keep a balance in the crazy world of the music business. His sister, Rikki-Lee Green, plays bass in the band. X-Status was nominated for an Aboriginal Peoples Choice Award for Best Rock CD and won an award for Album Cover Design.

For more information on StrongFront A/V Productions, visit its Web site at www.strongfront.tv