FONU2, Inc., announced Wednesday that Joseph Giamichael has been appointed to the company's board of directors and the company will move its corporate headquarters to Effingham County.

Giamichael had been one of the members of the Moon River Studios/Medient board of directors before resigning last week. He, along with board member and CEO Jake Shapiro, Charles Koppelman and former governor of New York David Paterson relinquished their leadership positions. Shapiro, who is the FONU2 board chairman, will be the CEO and CFO of Moon River as its winds down and completes the delisting of its stock.

FONU2, currently based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., will be building the planned movie studio complex on 1,560 acres off I-16 and Old River Road.

“I have worked with numerous management teams over my career,” Giamichael said. “Having worked closely with Jake Shapiro, I have extreme confidence in the success of not only the team that he is building, but in the fact that the studioplex project will succeed and become a major player in the film industry. I am excited to be joining the team and contributing to its success.”

Giamichael will take the place of outgoing FONU2 board member Nicole Leigh, and he also will be head of the company’s audit committee. Leigh also has purchased the company’s unprofitable comic book and collectibles business Zaldiva.

“I wish the company the greatest success,” Leigh said. “After 18 years of service, I feel my time has come to move on. Since meeting Mr. Shapiro, chairman of the board, I have personally witnessed him time and time again follow through on his word and on his representations. I have great confidence in this new board and the strategy that this company is taking on. I am anxious to see the company's great potential coming to reality.”

The company announced it has engaged veteran film editor Jim Flynn to complete the final cut of the critically-acclaimed and awaited release of “Yellow.”

“I have been working closely with (director) Nick Cassavetes on the final edit, and we are both extremely excited about how the film has turned out,” Flynn said. “This has been a great project to work on, as it really pushes the boundaries of modern cinema.”

Added Shapiro: “Besides being written and directed by one of America's top directors, ‘Yellow’ has a number of strong factors that we believe will contribute to its success. Not only does the movie show that co-star Sienna Miller creates a great attraction for moviegoers (her last film thus far has grossed in excess of $430 million), but it also shows that the recent success of ‘Birdman’ at the box office and at the Oscars has demonstrated that an artistic, creatively genius, film can also be a commercial success.”

Giamichael has more than a decade of research experience concentrating on the small cap companies. He previously worked as a managing director and a senior research analyst at Global Hunter Securities, covering international and industrial companies. Prior to that, Giamichael was a director of research and senior research analyst at Rodman and Renshaw, where he worked in a generalist capacity focusing on several verticals including industrial, agricultural and consumer companies across several geographies, including North and South America, Europe and Asia. His 13-plus years in financial services include his time with CJS Securities as a senior analyst, and managing director at Knight Capital, where he was a vice president and involved with special situation trading.

Giamichael holds a bachelor of science degree from Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.