Bent Hellested

CEO & Executive Director

Creative flair, leadership, vision, planning, and organizational skills are a few of the talents Video Take One Productions has in their CEO. Bent Hellested has spent his entire life honing his abilities to position himself and his company for success.

Born July 10th, 1962 in Nashua New Hampshire, Bent was the second oldest of five siblings. Trying to keep up with his older brother Svend, made Bent a fierce competitor. Having two brothers and two sisters, meant learning how to socialize and communicate at an early age. His hard working parents Louie and Mette, raised Bent teaching him the value of a dollar, as well as installing a solid foundation of values. Honesty, trust, friendship, and the belief that all people should be treated with dignity, are just a few of the principles Bent thanks his parents for to this day.

Bent was hired by Apple Computers in 1980, and worked his way up the corporate ladder over the next 17 years. His tenure at Apple provided him a well rounded education in business. Starting in service, Bent learned the importance of customer satisfaction as well as the intricacies of the logistical support needed to be successfully. He met with Steve Jobs in his first year and was put in charge of employee moral. Due to his prowess in finding solutions and running a tight operation, Bent was promoted and sent to the legendary Macintosh Factory in Fremont, California. His mission was to help bring the factory online. Working with the latest in automation technology and engineers, Bent initiated many new processes including a Fi-Fo auditing system for inventory control. After 3 years at the plant, Bent had become recognized as an expert in Macintosh software as well as information and systems management. The plant manager, promoted Bent to be one of the first new product planners and sent him to join and initiate the New Products Operations Group in Cupertino, working with Engineering and R&D. Bent was assigned to the very first new product project adding an external hard drive (HD20) to the Macintosh product line. Over the next fifteen years, Bent worked in every design center from printers, to portables, to servers, to desktops. As senior planner, Bent was assigned to support the Apple fellows doing the company's long term strategic product planning. Along with his planning responsibilities, Bent oversaw and managed all the new product material logistical support across all design centers. Over 75 million dollars of confidential, custom components stored in several warehouses locally and globally. Bent was recognized by Mike Campi (President of World Wide Ops) for designing, creating, and bringing online the database to manage all of Apple's New Product components. Additionally, Bent served as the customer representative for IS&T for all major system integrations done on a corporate level. Bent was laid off from Apple in September of 1997.

Bent started his first company in 1994, called Bent Enterprises. His company provided consultation and database solutions for enhancing small business. He established several clients, with the most notable being a construction company called Trim Tech. With the job bid-to-inventory database Bent designed for their estimator process, the company was able to streamline personnel and submit bids faster and more accurately. This led to a ten fold increase in their profits. Although his entrepreneurial spirit had been kindled, Bent chose to shut down Bent Ent. in 1997, the precursor to his ambitions to launch Video Take One Productions.

Out of high school Bent showed his artistic side. Painting, writing, sculpting and videography were all areas where Bent showed his creativity. His friends all knew Bent as the one video taping all their activities and coordinating their own, home made skits. So it was no surprise when his friend Jack Grossman asked him if he wanted to join a TV show called " The show with no Reason ". Bent was also known for his keen wit and sense of humor, so he signed up as the lead writer on the show, focusing on doing comedy. From there the rest is history. Bent started the R2cents Show, where he brought in Kevin Peoples as well as other friends. Then came the " Eye2eyE TV show ". Bent went to Deanza College and studied film making and TV production under Ron Fish as well as joining the writing team of SUTN TV's first season.

VTO Productions was launched in 2003 by Bent in partnership with his brother Niels Hellested and Kevin Peoples. United by the common vision of utilizing the synergies of the modern multi-media world, and committed to taking advantage of the ever expanding available bandwidth and technologies, Bent and his partners are making big plans to lead VTO Productions into the future. 10 years, awards, and over 150 Eye2eyE TV shows, a recently released DVD/CD compilation " Starvin' It's not a game", a growing client and viewer base, an ever expanding digital content network (VTOBN), and new partnerships with businesses and artists, are just the most recent examples of Bent Hellested's efforts and his company's success !