Representing all segments of the pay TV ecosphere, the honorees in MCN's 2018 Wonder Women class have achieved their organizations' goals while fostering overall industry growth and innovation.

They're among media's most influential women, the ones who have found the keys to "breaking through the clutter," as one described her team's approach to getting the job done.

Their perspectives on problem-solving, driving results and creating success demonstrate the leadership qualities that make them MCN's 20th anniversary honorees. And on the most timely issue facing this year's class — the impact of the #MeToo movement on the companies they lead — they offer vision for forging lasting change in the workplace.

Meet these 12 executives in person March 22 at the 20th Anniversary Wonder Women Luncheon. In the meantime, visit Celebrating Media's Influential Women to read their profiles.

More: MCN's Women to Watch 2018|The #MCNWW Online Archives

Related:With #MeToo, TV Hits the ‘Reset Button’| Q&A: Some On-the-Job Gender Training

NAME: Darcy Antonellis
TITLE: CEO
COMPANY: Vubiquity

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Prior to joining Vubiquity as CEO in late 2013, she was president, technical operations and chief technology officer at Warner Bros. Entertainment, where she played a key role in the studio’s transition to digital technologies and automated distribution systems.

QUOTABLE: “You want to avoid trying to boil the ocean to solve a multitude of problems. Think about your core and the company’s areas of expertise and where you can really bring value and enable new opportunities for your customers.”

Darcy Antonellis, CEO of Vubiquity, understands that a combination of hard work and determination is always required to successfully climb the corporate ladder.

But she’s eager to point out that this climb, typically a more difficult one for women in male-dominated fields, also requires the help of mentors and advocates who make their decisions without self-centered motives, but instead “pay it forward.”

“I feel very strongly that nobody makes their way completely on their own,” Antonellis said. “Recognizing those contributions and how you can learn from anyone on any given day is extremely important.”

Many Mentors, One Most Important
Antonellis noted several mentors who have contributed to her career, but gives much of the credit to her father, who is technically trained and worked in the broadcasting arena. He had some influence on Antonellis’s decision to focus her efforts on technology and engineering, she said.

Watch MCN: 12 Takeaways From MCN's Wonder Women Class of 2018

The importance of mentorship also ties into how Antonellis operates Vubiquity. A prime example is the “VUer Choice Awards,” an annual internal program that recognizes employees who are nominated and selected by their peers for exhibiting one of Vubiquity’s core values.

“Paying it forward is certainly one of those,” Antonellis said.

It’s been an interesting journey for Antonellis, who initially embarked on a career in journalism, including a post with the CBS News bureau in Washington, D.C.

“I later realized that I had a much greater aptitude and passion for math and science, and that ultimately spurred my interest,” she said.

Jim Riley, a former colleague of Antonellis at Vubiquity and now chief revenue officer at Mediamorph, said she possesses a unique blend of knowledge that is critical in the ever-evolving video and media business.

“Darcy is driven, strategic, tenacious and technically savvy,” Riley said. “She’s got a deep technical expertise that she marries with her enthusiasm about the future.”

Riley said he believes Antonellis got ahead of that curve working as a top engineering executive at Warner Bros. Entertainment, which she has parlayed into the leadership role she has today. “She has the technical acumen to handle the challenges of this new world we’re all living in and working together to bring to fruition,” he said.

As a global media distribution technology and services provider, Vubiquity, like other companies in the sector, has been required to evolve, going beyond securing rights and the tech required to distribute premium content to a wide range of screens.

These days, the turf of traditional pay TV operators is being invaded by content owners and new distributors that can tap into high-speed broadband connections to deliver over-the-top content directly to the viewer.

“The video space is incredibly dynamic,” Antonellis said. “The trend we’re seeing is of content owners becoming more direct-to-consumer distributors, and video distributors becoming content owners. We’ve made a lot of investments to enable and support new services rapidly.”

Knowing how to support those trends while also implementing a range of advertising, subscription and transaction-based business models, and doing it on an increasingly global basis, has been a major focus for Antonellis and Vubiquity.

“There’s a great opportunity for premium content to be shared and enjoyed, and that crosses a lot of borders,” she said, referring to the company’s international expansion (now at more than 120 countries and support for about 80 languages).

As CEO, Antonellis is tasked with maintaining a balance on the “here and now” of the business, as well as preparing for what’s to come. “I think the biggest challenges are really just around the raw, dynamic nature of the video landscape and consumption patterns,” she said. “The challenge for any executive team is to maintain discipline to stay focused, but not at the expense of adjusting to these relative changes.”

Finding the Time for Family
Antonellis also tries to strike the right work-life balance. Outside of work, her focus is on her two children, Andrea and Sebastian, who were born in Bogota, Colombia, and did not speak English when they were adopted as teens. Antonellis’s daughter is getting ready to graduate from college; her son is now working full time.

“They’ve really worked to find their way in the world,” Antonellis said. “I look at them as being my greatest inspiration. I think about the beginning of their lives and the challenges that they’ve overcome, and those are pretty good goal posts for me.”

Antonellis is also into sports — among them tennis (she played in college under a scholarship), golf, skiing, participating in triathlons and boating. “Probably everything except curling, maybe,” she said.

She’s also a big Philadelphia Eagles fan, and scored tickets to watch her team defeat the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC Championship.

Her passion for sports also translates to her interest in women’s health, as she is chair of the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women Los Angeles chapter.

And speaking of sports, regarding advice for other women interested in pursuing a career in engineering, technology and operations, she’d say the same thing cheering on her favorite teams. “The best thing I can say, and in all caps, is: ‘GO, GO, GO!’

NAME: Marianne Gambelli
TITLE: President, Ad Sales
COMPANY: Fox News Channel

CAREER HIGHLIGHT: Prior to joining Fox News in 2017, Gambelli was investment officer for Horizon Media. Before that, she had spent more than 20 years with NBC, where she was named president of sales in 2016.

QUOTABLE: “There’s a core group that has been here since the beginning and I think they’re really energized around all this change. … The new people, like me, have been accepted. Everybody’s on the same page which is really exciting.”

After ousting founder Roger Ailes and top-rated on-air host Bill O’Reilly in response to sexual harassment charges, Fox News Channel filled several top posts with senior women executives, including Marianne Gambelli, who became president of advertising sales last April.

The changes at Fox News were at the beginning of a wave in the media business, politics and other industries that saw high-profile executives and performers lose jobs because of inappropriate dealing with their female co-workers.

“I think that my whole career has been about making sure that the culture is friendly to women and mentoring women and giving them a role model, so I don’t feel that that’s changed in any way, shape or form,” Gambelli said.

“I feel like there should be a fair environment for everybody. That as a leader is what you’re supposed to do. So that has not changed,” she said.

Breaking Into a Macho Culture
TV advertising sales, once a very macho culture, has seen several women rise to the very top at media companies, including NBCUniversal, CBS, Disney-ABC and Turner.

“It’s sort of been coming,” Gambelli said. “I hope that it’s just that there are qualified executives in the role, regardless of what their gender is.”

Watch MCN: 12 Takeaways From MCN's Wonder Women Class of 2018

You can’t argue with success. It looks like Fox News had a record year in terms of ratings and ad revenue in 2017 and Gambelli continues to make adjustments to the sales department.

“Given her past accomplishments, it is no surprise that Marianne has hit the ground running and is taking Fox News to the next level,” said Jack Abernethy, co-president, Fox News and CEO, Fox Television Stations.

Gambelli began her career as an assistant buyer at Grey Advertising in 1980 and moved to Backer Spielvogel Bates as the first woman to work on the Miller Brewing account. She then went to NBC as an account executive in sports sales in 1990, rising to president of sales for NBC broadcasting in 2010.

After leaving the network, she returned to the agency business as chief investment officer of Horizon Media in 2013.

“It was incredibly valuable to have someone who’d been on the sales side for so long running a major sales organization,” said Dave Campanelli, executive vice president, managing partner, Video Investment at Horizon.

As a manager, Gambelli was able to quickly get to the heart of a matter. “She has a really good ability to cut the BS, cut right to the heart of what an issue was and be able to tackle it and solve it,” Campanelli said.

During her tenure at the agency, media buyers and sellers were gearing up to deal with data. With Gambelli’s background, “I think she was really valuable in explaining back to the networks, this is why this is important to our advertisers. These data optimization tools are what our advertisers are looking for now,” Campanelli said.

Gambelli also got a refresher course on how tough business has become for some clients. “The requests and challenges that we pose to the networks, we don’t pull them out of the sky. They’re usually founded in very real client challenges,” Campanelli said. He expects Gambelli to focus more on being collaborative in terms of maximizing revenue and “solving our clients’ business issues.”

Gambelli agrees her time at Horizon helped her better understand how clients think. “You realize the media mix and the strategy is so much greater than a TV buy or a news buy. You tend to get caught up.”

At the agency, she gained some perspective on how TV fits into the bigger picture. “If I can help solve their problems or speak their language versus just trying to sell them something, I think that makes our messaging more powerful. I’m not making a proposal that makes no sense,” she said.

But Gambelli said she eventually missed being in sales. “I wouldn’t have gone back anywhere, but I felt this was the right place to come to.”

During her time at the agency, the TV sales business had changed.

“Google and Facebook have become more powerful” as competitors for ad dollars, she said. “Four or five years ago, you didn’t know how it was all going to play out.”

As a result, she said, “it’s funny, it’s kind of come full circle because the traditional product, like sports, news, entertainment, the linear products, are still pretty powerful” in terms of the impact they have in helping to generate sales for brands.

Adjusting to the Digital Era
Under Gambelli, Fox News is one of a handful of networks testing a platform by Data Plus Math aimed at attributing the impact of commercials to a product’s sales.

She made a number of other changes at Fox News, promoting some of her top lieutenants and bringing TV and digital sales closer together.

Gambelli is also nearly done with a different, more personal project, rehabilitating a knee she had surgically replaced last year.

While she was up and about on her new joint quickly, “my level of activity and my expectations were completely different,” she said. Now, Gambelli said she’s playing golf and biking, but it took longer than she expected. “It’s been a process, but I’m getting there.”

NAME: Debra O’Connell
TITLE: Executive VP, Ad Sales and Marketing
COMPANY: Disney-ABC Television Group

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Creative deals made since the Disney-ABC sales reorganization; Disney VoluntEARS efforts

QUOTABLE: “In 2018, I am looking forward to continuing to test and learn in new environments, whether through ad formats or creative executions, and layering on technology to all that we are doing.”

When Rita Ferro, president of Disney-ABC Ad Sales, learned that the company was going to be reorganizing from three different sales organizations to one, there was one person she knew for sure she wanted to have by her side. That was Debra O’Connell, now executive vice president, sales and marketing, Disney-ABC Television Group.

“I specifically hand-picked her based on her skill set and drive, her success in building and managing teams and her understanding of how best to work with business partners,” said Ferro. “We are very aligned strategically in what we define as success and what we both know is important.”

That sales reorganization happened last February, when Disney-ABC Television Group ad sales was shifted from three teams that served ABC, Freeform and the Disney cable networks — Disney Channel, Disney XD and Disney Junior — to one team serving all of those properties, including linear and digital networks and Radio Disney.

The intention is to allow clients to run tailored campaigns across Disney-ABC networks that reach consumers from childhood to adulthood. For example, Walmart might want to advertise baby food to new moms, toys to younger kids, books and movies to older kids and economical prices to parents.

Results Through Creativity
“We are looking to drive results through creativity,” O’Connell said. “Doing that is breaking through the day-to-day clutter that advertisers can feel because there are so many [sellers] hitting them up for potential sponsorships. Our [intellectual property] is important to driving results because of the engagement we get. We offer the opportunity to reach consumers at all life stages.”

For example, ABC partnered with Dick Clark Productions to lock down a record number of sponsors for Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest 2018. Sponsors included Allstate, Pepsi, Planet Fitness and Uber. The broadcast showcased two new ad formats, branding the on-screen countdown clock and splitting the screen during commercial breaks. Disney-ABC also worked with those sponsors to create custom content. Pepsi and Uber took their turns on the countdown clock, with Uber reminding viewers from 11: 30 p.m. to 1 a.m., “If you drink, don’t drive.”

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In another example, ABC partnered with Mitsubishi Motors North America to market its Eclipse Cross during ABC News’s coverage of the total solar eclipse on Aug. 21. The car made its first appearance that morning on ABC’s Good Morning America and the automaker was the exclusive sponsor of the network’s two-hour special, The Great American Eclipse, which aired from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. that day.

Finally, Jimmy Kimmel Live! returned to Brooklyn for a week in October, each night featuring a major integration with a different brand, including Bank of America and Google Home Mini. The Google Home Mini spot featured a flashback of Kimmel’s actual family eating dinner together and arguing; it then returned to the present day to show Kimmel resolving the argument by asking Google for help.

“Advertisers are understanding what we are trying to do by taking that initial step with us,” O’Connell said. “Since last spring, when we first started bringing our groups together, we’ve seen a very large increase in the types of creative executions that we are bringing to marketing.”

O’Connell has prepped for these changes over her 20 years at the company, with posts that include president of ABC National Television Sales (where she led national ad sales at ABC’s eight owned stations in New York; Los Angeles; Chicago; Philadelphia; San Francisco; Houston; Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; and Fresno, Calif.), along with several posts within the multimedia sales and marketing divisions at ABC Television. She began her career as an account executive for two of Liberty Broadcasting’s radio stations, and as marketing director for DiCarlo Distributors.

While O’Connell’s job requires expertise across all facets of television advertising sales and marketing, it’s her people skills that allow her to really shine, Ferro said.

Good at Getting to ‘Yes’
“Debra knows how to build relationships. She understands that it’s how we’re going to get to ‘yes.’ She understands that it has to be a mutual win for both us as a company and for the client,” Ferro said.

O’Connell also applies this philosophy to the way she hires the people around her. “No matter the size of your business, you have to have a great team,” she said. “I’m a big believer in hiring the best people — smart and hard-working, of course, but that they are good people at heart is the most important aspect of that equation.”

While overseeing a large team, O’Connell manages to put her family first and make time to volunteer, both through the Disney VoluntEARS, which has connected her to groups such as the Boys and Girls Club, and at her daughter’s school.

“I feel like anyone who has success in their life can find time to give back,” O’Connell said. “Paying it forward is always the best medicine for anyone.”

Said George Bodenheimer, who recently returned to ESPN as interim CEO and was an early mentor: “Debra always knew the issues and the facts and she was able to articulate a vision. You could tell that she had that ‘it’ factor to become a serious leader. She’s committed to the company, but her family comes first. She’s dedicated to her family and dedicated to the company, and that’s a winning combination.”

NAME: Kerry Brockhage
TITLE: Executive VP and Chief Counsel, Content Distribution Group
COMPANY: NBCUniversal

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Brockhage recently closed a number of retransmission consent and affiliate deals with AT&T, DirecTV, Dish and Charter Communications, among others. She worked with the NBC Sports Group to secure carriage of the company’s new linear network, Olympic Channel.

QUOTABLE: “I think my strongest attribute is my enthusiasm. I really like what I do. I love this industry and it doesn’t feel like work to me, so I embrace it.”

To understand Kerry Brockhage, you just have to know she was in the office during the East Coast’s Bomb Cyclone in early January. The snowy sidewalk she takes to the bus that delivers her to 30 Rockefeller Plaza every day was untouched by other footprints and the office was quiet. But Brockhage, who serves as NBCUniversal’s executive vice president and chief counsel for the Content Distribution Group, wasn’t going to let a pesky nor’easter get in the way of work.

“Kerry is invaluable,” said Matt Bond, chairman of NBCU’s content distribution arm. “You need someone who can draft documents, say it right, spot problems and see solutions. And she does all that.”

Brockhage oversees distribution deals involving NBC’s broadcast stations and satellite-delivered networks. She recently handled several blockbuster retransmission deals and affiliate contracts with traditional satellite and cable distributors and also supervises carriage deals with new digital distributors including DirecTV Now, Hulu, Sling, Sony PlayStation and YouTube

Watch MCN: 12 Takeaways From MCN's Wonder Women Class of 2018

The regulatory aspect of Brockhage’s job makes it even more complicated, but Brockhage said, “It’s another reason and another level that makes this job so interesting.”

While keeping abreast of the regulatory hoops is time-consuming, her biggest challenge is changes in technology. Add to that the fact that the industry landscape keeps shifting and Brockhage’s days have their own adventures.

Steering Negotiations From Every Angle
“There is always something new and different to work on,” she said. “There’s either a new person or new aspect of a deal or a new viewpoint to consider or a new issue to address. In some ways, you are doing the same thing, but it’s always changing.”

While Brockhage must steer negotiations from every angle at a high level, it’s her attention to detail that sets her apart from other attorneys, Bond said. “She gets involved in every aspect of every deal. She is the go-to person when you have a question about just about anything.”

Robyn Polashuk, a partner with the law firm Covington & Burling in Los Angeles who worked with Brockhage at Lifetime in the mid-2000s and a member of  MCN's Women to Watch Class of 2018, agreed. “Kerry is practical, level-headed and methodical. She is one of the hardest-working people I know. She is also incredibly calm and all that makes her a great attorney.”

Brockhage was a tax attorney before retiring to take care of her small kids almost three decades ago. She wasn’t actively looking to get into the cable industry, but a friend suggested she would be the perfect fit for Viacom Cable, which was looking for a program acquisition attorney at the time.

She didn’t know much about the business beyond being a cable subscriber. But she took the job and picked up the basics. When Viacom Cable was sold in 1995, she again off-ramped the corporate world. A few years later, Charter Communications lured her back to do contract work on retransmission consent deals.

Eventually, Brockhage wanted to move to the other side of the negotiating table and took a position at Lifetime. “I found the whole business side of the networks fascinating and I have loved every minute of it,” she said. She worked at A+E Networks after it purchased Lifetime in 2009, then migrated to NBCU seven years ago. She was promoted to her current position last spring.

“This has to be the best job in the industry for a distribution lawyer,” Brockhage said, “because we do it all.” In addition to the fascination with the business in general, Brockhage finds delight in working with her team. “I work with some terrific colleagues who are experienced, collegial and excellent at what they do,” she said. “We work through problems and ideas together. It’s always rewarding. I always look forward to their input.”

She is also intent on making sure that a collaborative and inclusive environment remains vibrant and open. Brockhage sees the #MeToo movement as a watershed moment for change in the workplace and believes it will be good for women, their male co-workers and the companies in general.

Making the Workplace More Inclusive
“It’s a real issue and I think it has real change behind it,” she said. “We all react to the cultures around us and we can make [harassment] harder to get away with and easier for people to talk about. We have a very inclusive environment [at NBCU] but I need to make sure we’re maintaining and nurturing that positive culture. I want people to feel comfortable coming to me and be confident we’ll address whatever it is. It’s easy to say ‘Come forward.’ It’s harder to create an atmosphere where people can talk about it and then know it will be dealt with.”

Brockhage said she believes a harassment-free workplace is important to every employee, but she realizes it will likely be women that keep the issue front and center and it’ll be just one more detail to focus on going forward. “It’s an exciting time,” she said. “It’s an important moment. It behooves everyone — men and women — to realize our potential and work where our contributions are valued. Change is difficult, but I feel this is a moment to begin making progress.”

NAME: Christa D’Alimonte
TITLE: Executive VP, General Counsel and Secretary
COMPANY: Viacom

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Partner and deputy practice group leader at Shearman & Sterling’s Global M&A Group, advising media clients such as Viacom and NBCUniversal. Joining Viacom in 2012 and assuming her current role in 2017.

QUOTABLE: “My dad is a lawyer, my mom went to law school … although I don’t think it was what I always wanted to do. If I’m honest with myself, I probably went to college thinking I would be a doctor or a medical researcher of some sort. Then chemistry happened.”

When you ask folks about Viacom executive vice president, general counsel and secretary Christa D’Alimonte, the terms “creative,” “unflappable,” “collaborative” and “thoughtful” get used a lot. And in today’s topsy-turvy media environment, those are very good traits to have.

Creighton Condon, senior partner at Shearman & Sterling, the New York M&A law firm that was D’Alimonte’s first home after graduating from Georgetown University Law Center, would add a few more to the list.

“She just has exceptional judgment, especially under fire and under pressure,” Condon said. “She can really stay focused and keep that thoughtfulness even under intense pressure. She’s great with teams — she ran a number of really large, complicated transactions across multiple practice groups with 30, 40, 50 lawyers. She treats everyone with respect, is very good at training people and at keeping the team all pulling in the same direction.”

D’Alimonte credits her demeanor to mentors who have helped guide her in her career over the years.

“I could identify four or five people who have had the most influence,” D’Alimonte said. “They’ve all shown me how you remain calm and levelheaded in the face of what can feel like incredibly stressful and difficult decisions in the moment [and having] the perspective and judgment to appreciate that, for the most part, what I’m doing is not life-and-death decisions.”

Shaping Strategic Priorities for Future Growth
As Viacom’s chief lawyer, D’Alimonte not only steers the programmer’s legal strategy, she also plays a big role in shaping the company’s strategic priorities to revitalize its brands and position its key lines of business for future growth. D’Alimonte is more than up to the task, with over 20 years as a top dealmaker for Shearman & Sterling under her belt, where she worked transactions with major clients such as Viacom and NBCUniversal.

Watch MCN: 12 Takeaways From MCN's Wonder Women Class of 2018

D’Alimonte’s first media deal as an associate at Shearman & Sterling was representing Viacom in the sale of its publishing unit Simon & Schuster and included the sale of its Blockbuster arm in 2004 and the 2005 split of Viacom and CBS. She joined Viacom in 2012 as senior VP and assistant secretary under longtime Viacom general counsel Michael Fricklas. Five years later, when Fricklas announced his retirement, D’Alimonte was tapped to take his place.

For D’Alimonte, the job isn’t just the law; being a successful general counsel also requires great strategic expertise.

“An enormous part of my job is … bringing 25 years of business experience and legal experience and judgment to bear on all sorts of issues that face the company,” D’Alimonte said. “I obviously look at things from a legal perspective, but it’s not just walking into a room and providing a narrow legal answer to questions. I always have to be thinking of broader business considerations and practical considerations as well.”

D’Alimonte’s Viacom journey took her through the CBS split, a watershed moment for the media business that helped lead to other pureplay separations such as Time Warner Cable and Time Warner Inc. Now the industry itself is facing a crossroads: With an ad market in decline and new over-the-top players entering the market and disrupting the existing distribution model, pay TV networks, and Viacom in particular, have faced tough choices.

Viacom has been affected by the storm more than many — its younger-skewing demographic has quickly adopted new content distribution technologies that at times bypass traditional revenue streams. The result: Ratings declines and ad revenue erosion across the pay TV board. But D’Alimonte and Viacom aren’t throwing in the towel.

“I look at it as a time of great opportunity for us,” D’Alimonte said. “It’s led to some exciting partnerships and new business ideas here. While it may be a little bit unsettling at times to be in an industry that is changing, I think you have to embrace that disruption and the opportunities it presents.”

Embracing Viacom’s Shift in Focus
Viacom CEO Bob Bakish, who assumed that role in late 2016, took the bull by the horns quickly, embarking on a bold new path last year to concentrate on six core brands — Nickelodeon, Nickelodeon Jr., MTV, BET, Comedy Central and the Paramount Network (a rebranded Spike TV). While Viacom would continue to sell its 18 other networks to distributors, the focus would remain on the core and developing new revenue streams outside of traditional advertising and affiliate fees.

“Christa is an exceptional executive and a key member of the senior team guiding Viacom’s strategy to position our business for the future,” Bakish said. “Not only is she collaborative, creative and an incisive problem solver, she’s an absolute pleasure to work with. We’re incredibly fortunate to have her as our general counsel.”

D’Alimonte said Bakish enlisted the help and the input of all his divisional and corporate executives in developing the new plan.

“One of the great things about Bob is he’s an incredibly collaborative and transparent leader,” D’Alimonte said. “From the moment he started, even as acting CEO and president, he convened a broad group of leaders across the company. That’s continued now that he’s been permanent CEO. He has a broad senior leadership team of which I am a part, and we all contribute in different ways to where the company is going.”

NAME: Jennifer Mirgorod
TITLE: Executive VP of Content Distribution & Strategic Partnerships
COMPANY: Turner Content Distribution

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Named TCD senior VP of brand revenue and account management in 2005; later elevated to TCD executive VP of content distribution and strategic partnerships.

QUOTABLE: “Mentoring is so important … I like teaching and imparting what knowledge I have and have learned over the years. It’s something that I’ll continue to seek out and hopefully have the opportunity to do more of in the future.”

Looking at at the successful career of Turner Content Distribution executive Jennifer Mirgorod, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say she was destined for cable television excellence.

As executive vice president of content distribution and strategic partnerships for TCD — which encompasses cable networks TBS, CNN, HLN, TNT, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Turner Classic Movies (TCM), truTV, CNN International, CNN en Español and Boomerang — Mirgorod leads a team responsible for bringing in more than 50% of Turner’s annual revenue. That’s more than any other division, which says a great deal about her influence in a more than two-decade career at the company.

“Jennifer is an incredibly smart, talented and strategic executive,” Turner Content Distribution president Rich Warren said. “While she sets high standards for her team and holds them accountable, she also mentors and coaches them along the way, which is a trait of a true leader.”

Watch MCN: 12 Takeaways From MCN's Wonder Women Class of 2018

While growing up, though, a TV career was the furthest thing from the Charlotte, N.C., native’s mind. She had watched her father — veteran broadcast TV station executive Mark Keown — work long and hard hours in the industry, and decided after high school to major in foreign affairs at the University of Virginia with the hopes of landing a government job overseas.

Looking For a Job, Just Not In Television

“I did not want to follow in my father’s footsteps. I saw that and thought, ‘I don’t want to be like Dad; I don’t want to turn into a workaholic,’ ” she said. But a media-based internship eventually led to her first job at a local broadcast station in Charlotte.

“Even after that job I thought to myself, ‘I’ve got to get out of this — this is what my dad had done,’” she said. “But I kept finding it a little more interesting and getting better opportunities that moved me into something even more interesting, so here I am, 20-plus years later, still in television.”

After a year at the Charlotte station, Mirgorod would eventually move to Atlanta, where Turner is headquartered, but she wouldn’t actually begin with the company for another five years — in Hong Kong.

Mirgorod said she moved to Hong Kong without a job, but was again determined not to join the media industry, yet her work experience was so vested in the industry that she would eventually settle into an entry-level sales position at Turner in 1995. She thrived at Turner in Hong Kong, but soon realized her future growth in the business meant moving back to the States.

“I’d been gone for eight years and I had missed this whole period of cultural history in the U.S. There were shows I’d never even heard of, and there were things that didn’t make their way to Asia,” she said. “I knew I was hitting that point where — at least in what I was doing in television — it would be hard to move back in if I didn’t do it pretty quickly at that point; I’d been gone for so long.”

Mirgorod returned to Atlanta in 2003 and found a job at Turner Content Distribution in affiliate marketing. By 2005, she would transition into account management, negotiating carriage deals for Turner’s burgeoning stable of cable networks.

“I was experienced in sales and marketing, but I guess I liked to be a little bit closer to the money and the fire, so to speak, and I wasn’t really feeling that in marketing and strategy,” she said. “When the opportunity came up where I could start working on some distribution accounts, I took advantage of it, and that changed the course of my career once again.”

As TCD’s senior vice president of brand revenue and account management, she said negotiations with distributors in the mid-to-late-2000s were less difficult than they are today, given the evolution of technology over the past decade.

“We had some pretty difficult deals [then], but I think the difference now is that because of all the technological changes that have occurred over the last seven years or so, they’ve become much more complex, and that makes them harder,” she said.

Yet Mirgorod has risen to the challenge. In 2014, she was named TCD executive vice president of brand distribution, and three years later assumed the expanded role of TCD executive VP of content distribution and strategic partnerships, where she was instrumental in closing a number of major multiplatform negotiation deals with top distribution clients throughout 2016 and 2017.

Extending Influence as a Mentor

Her influence within Turner extends beyond the negotiating table. She is the executive sponsor of Turner Asia, a companywide business resource group aimed at leveraging the talents of Asian-Pacific American employees. She also mentors young professionals through the Turner Women Today Circle Mentoring program, and is an active member of Women in Cable Telecommunications.

“She is a fantastic colleague to many people throughout the company, and she cares deeply about helping others advance their careers,” Warren said. “She takes the time to listen, and provide feedback, no matter how busy she is.”

Mirgorod also said she has effectively balanced work and family life, spending quality time with her husband George and her two kids, Mary, 12, and Kate, 9. “I didn’t want to turn into a workaholic, and I don’t think I actually have,” she said. “So maybe that’s what I really wanted to avoid [instead of the industry].”

NAME: Elaine Paul
TITLE: Chief Financial Officer, Strategy & Business Development
COMPANY: Hulu

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Paul focused on mergers and acquisitions during 25 years at Disney, including the firm’s $800 million transaction to acquire India multimedia conglomerate UTV and make it private, establishing Disney’s position in India.

QUOTABLE: “Learning never ceases. I learn something new every day, in my job and my life. When one is in a dynamic, quickly changing space — and that’s where Hulu sits, [in] the white hot center — that’s a great environment in which to learn.”

After 25 years in corporate strategy at entertainment giant The Walt Disney Co., Elaine Paul had achieved the traditional hallmarks of success for a senior vice president: the corner office and the choice spot in the parking garage, “right there by the elevator.”

Then she went to Hulu, where she got a standup desk, a yoga ball as a chair, no walls and a staff of millennials called Hulugans.

“There are no entitlements, there is no parking space, there is no office,” Paul said. “My first three months people asked, ‘How’s the change?’ I’d say, ‘It’s Mars and Venus, that’s how big it is.’ ” Paul, Hulu’s new CFO, quickly adopted a personal mantra: “Evolve or die.”

In fact, evolution was too slow for what needed to happen, she said. “It was a revolution in how I needed to adapt my management style, my leadership style and my appreciation for a new media/tech/millennial company.”

Buying Into Different Corporate Culture
For one thing, she soon learned that her team wasn’t gunning for that choice parking spot.

When Paul came to Disney from Harvard Business School, “there was a very specific path one took: You wanted to please your boss and get the next promotion.” Hulu’s young team worked just as hard, but “what’s important to them is an intrinsic sense of knowing the impact and importance and context of their individual work, and a buy-in and belief in the culture of Hulu and that Hulu is doing the right thing for its employees and in the world.”

Watch MCN: 12 Takeaways From MCN's Wonder Women Class of 2018

Her companywide leadership role also meant being an “evangelist” for Hulu to the entire company — “from hourly workers to Ph.D.s in rocket science” — and explaining the vision of “what Hulu is all about, what’s our North Star, and what role we are playing in this super rapidly changing media ecosystem.” In other words, she’s “not just Elaine the CFO with the numbers. I’m proud that I think I’ve achieved that.”

Since Paul arrived, Hulu has won exclusive subscription streaming rights to Empire, The Golden Girls, Seinfeld and more, increased its subscriber base to 17 million, won awards for The Handmaid’s Tale, and developed a successful live-streaming platform. Paul established a strategic analytics group to exploit Hulu’s wealth of user data to the advantage of its business, from maximizing engagement of viewers, to pricing, to managing churn among subscribers. Acquisitions have included the Video Genome Project, which provides technology to improve recommendations for viewers.

On completion of its 21st Century Fox asset acquisition, Disney will own 60% of Hulu. Paul had worked for Disney corporate strategy almost since she graduated from Stanford, with a break to earn her MBA. She worked for now- CEO Robert Iger during his stint as head of Walt Disney International, and was mentored by Meg Whitman, later of eBay and Hewlett-Packard. Paul was involved in Disney’s initial investment into Hulu in 2009.

Then, Hulu was seen as a complementary platform for ABC network programming, “to start getting us a footprint into where consumer eyeballs and ad dollars were starting to migrate.” But by the time Paul threw her hat into the ring to be Hulu’s CFO, streaming and direct-to-consumer distribution were “driving every media company’s strategy.”

When Mike Hopkins became Hulu CEO in 2013, his first move was to bring Paul from Disney, calling her “one of the most tenacious, disciplined and passionate executives I’ve ever worked with.” Randy Freer, who came in as Hulu CEO in October following Hopkins’ departure for Sony Pictures Television, called Paul “incredibly intelligent, smart and curious,” and “a student of the business.”

“One of the things that I think is terrific — but also hard on her — is that she’s prolific,” Freer added. “Her ability to lead a group and get things done — while others may not be able to keep up, she just plows through it. That’s one of the things that on one level is awesome and on another level keeps her up too many nights.”

Leadership With Energy
A former marathoner, Paul definitely has the energy. “Thank God, I pretty much was born with it,” she said. “Supplemented with some serious lattes.” She is married to another CFO and Disney alum, Darren Seidel of Entertainment Partners, and they have three children: Will, age 14; Lauren, age 12; and Addie, age 9.

Four years after Paul’s arrival at Hulu, some of those young Hulugans are now marrying and becoming parents.

“I’m really enjoying that, and talking to them, [saying] don’t be intimidated about coming back” to work, she said. The keys for a working mother, she tells them, are a good boss, a good partner, and good childcare.

“Fortunately I’ve had all three all the way along,” she said. “The extreme organization that it requires to manage a household and children, I honestly think helps in the workplace. I think it sets a great example for the kids, and a necessary example for the kids. Stay in it, as long as you’re passionate about it.”

NAME: Beth Main
TITLE: Senior VP, Domestic Network Distribution
COMPANY: HBO

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Joined HBO in 2002 after careers in ballet, travel writing, Silicon Valley and marketing for cable operators. A member of the CTAM board of directors, she is also an executive member of WICT.

QUOTABLE: “The qualities that make me successful here are the ability to remain poised under pressure, to remain resilient — ‘that didn’t work, let’s try something new’ — perseverance, and teamwork. I do not give up. There’s always a way.”

A ballerina, a travel writer and a Silicon Valley pioneer: It sounds like a pitch for an HBO series, not the resume of one of the network’s executives. Beth Main has taken a circuitous path to her job as HBO’s senior vice president for domestic network distribution, but every experience was worth it.

“I have tried on many, many different hats — and shoes,” Main said. “I learned this industry quite by accident.”

Raised in San Francisco, Main devoted her early years to ballet study, including a summer at the Joffrey Ballet in New York. She was set on dancing professionally. Then her father sat her down at the kitchen table one night toward the end of high school and told her she had to try just a year of college, at least.

“‘You’re about to make a decision that’s going to impact the rest of your life before you know anything about life,’ ” Main’s father told her. “‘Before you’ve got your pointe shoes off and a burger in your body, I’m not going to let you make that decision.’ ”

“I hated him for it,” Main recalled. “But he was a wise man.” She loved college, and though she did dance professionally with a regional ballet company, “I was soon reminded that the world was bigger and the relentless focus that athleticism requires was not for me.”

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Main worked in marketing for Tele-Communications Inc. and Viacom cable systems. “I had great bosses that recognized quality in me that they appreciated: Discipline, poise, perseverance, communications skills. I just had people that pulled me right up.”

She did a stint with a Silicon Valley startup, Diva Systems, which she called “exhilarating” but unsatisfying. “Companies run by engineers — it was not for me.” So she took six months off to drive across the country, then cold-called travel publishers until she landed a gig writing the guide Karen Brown’s Pacific Northwest. In 2002, wanting to be part of a team, she came to HBO via the San Francisco office.

Classical Training Comes in Handy
“The most formative of all those experiences, though I didn’t know it at the time, was the training as a classical ballerina,” she said. “That experience, coupled with a liberal arts education, fostered in me attributes that serve me so well in a business environment. Especially this environment where it’s so chaotic right now, where it’s all unknown and we’re making it up together.”

Since 2014, Main has headed sales and distribution strategy for HBO and Cinemax through general management of all U.S. cable partnerships. Worth $2.4 billion, they represent half of HBO’s domestic subscription business.

That means she must nurture HBO’s relationships with cable operators at the same time as the network has launched HBO Go and made its content available through other streaming services.

Good thing diplomacy is one of Main’s strengths, said Shelley Brindle, a former HBO executive vice president who mentored Main. “You can imagine how much finesse is required in doing that.”

With the seismic shift in the cable industry, an easy reaction is “panic,” said Bernadette Aulestia, Main’s boss and HBO’s executive vice president for global distribution. But Main is “unflappable” and “takes everything in stride. She has incredible confidence not only in her own capabilities, but in the team she’s built and developed.”

Main’s diverse background is a plus, Aulestia said. “She’s actually one of the most interesting people to talk to because she has a variety of different experiences to draw from,” Aulestia said.

The result: Main has delivered consistent subscriber and revenue growth for HBO, Aulestia said. “That is not an easy feat over the last five years. That is really a feather in her cap.”

Like many Wonder Women, Main is also a “Betsy,” a Betsy Magness Leadership Institute graduate, through Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT).

Building Teamwork and Promoting Growth
In turn, she helps her team members grow, Brindle said. “Beth provides very clear direction to people and she is absolutely unafraid in giving people really direct feedback: the information people need to hear, even if they don’t want to. She can do it in a way that people understand she has their best interests at heart.”

The only casualty of Main’s HBO success has been the ability to indulge her wanderlust, though she makes a point to stay in “fabulous inns” on vacations, like her most recent trip to Norway. She still harbors plans to travel and write again, and to return to favorite destinations such as Ireland — her husband Donald’s home country — for longer stays.

Being named a Wonder Woman came just as Main celebrated a milestone birthday. She viewed it as both a birthday present and — “for all those people who said, ‘Oh, the ballet dancer will never amount to much”’ — a vindication of her unorthodox approach to forging a career.

At times, her changes in direction “met with more dissension and concern than with support,” she said. “But I follow my own star, for good and ill. I’m glad for every move I made.”

NAME: Josie Thomas
TITLE: Executive VP, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer
COMPANY: CBS Corp.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Was named CBS News director of business affairs in 1989, and became senior VP of diversity, CBS Television in 2000. Thomas has held her current title since 2010.

QUOTABLE: “[Diversity] has been a passion of mine forever. Where I am now is where I should be — it’s brought together all my various skill sets in a way that allows me to be very productive in this role.”

When CBS took its turn on stage for its Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour sessions in Pasadena, Calif., early in 2018, the network’s significant efforts to have more diverse series were there for all to see. There was a panel for new drama Instinct, a procedural with a gay character as the lead. And there was another panel titled “Politics & Social Issues on Television,” where the executive producers from a host of diverse shows, including The Good Fight, Superior Donuts and Star Trek: Discovery, talked about how their series tackle social topics.

Aaron Harberts, executive producer on CBS All Access series Star Trek: Discovery, spoke of Star Trek’s long history in addressing social matters, and Discovery’s willingness to continue the tradition. He mentioned the newer show’s diverse cast, including an African-American lead, and a gay couple.

Contrast CBS’s sessions with its executive address at TCA a year and a half before, when the network was blasted for a lack of diverse stars on both sides of the camera.

“It shows very conclusively what direction we are headed in,” said Josie Thomas, executive vice president and chief diversity and inclusion officer at CBS Corp. “It’s an incredibly positive direction.”

From the Legal Side to Diversity
Thomas has long focused on bringing more diversity to CBS. She came on board at the company on the legal side, as broadcast counsel for the law department of CBS, in 1987. She returned to CBS in 1989 as director of business affairs at CBS News, and took on a VP of business affairs title in 1995.

In 2000, Thomas, a Harvard grad, shifted to senior vice president of diversity at CBS. Leslie Moonves, CBS Corp. chairman and CEO, said Thomas had done “an extraordinary job” heading up business affairs, and was the easy choice to lead diversity. “She had a wonderful way about her,” Moonves said. “She’s very smart and knew how to handle people, and was a very concerned citizen.”

It was around then that she created the CBS Diversity Institute, which gives participants access to the network’s decision-making process. “We get our talent in the right room, to have the right conversations, with decision-makers in our company,” Thomas said. “We want to be your aunt or uncle in the business.”

Such a program, she added, is designed for those with the right skill sets, but who don’t get enough opportunities to share those skills with company brass.

Watch MCN: 12 Takeaways From MCN's Wonder Women Class of 2018

A more recent launch saw CBS and the Association of National Advertisers get behind the #SeeHer movement, which aims to accurately portray girls and women in the media. As part of the initiative, CBS will deliver on-air, online and behind-the-scenes opportunities to promote the #SeeHer mission, which is targeted toward women and girls seeing their true selves on TV by 2020, free of gender bias. CBS will produce PSAs toward that end as well.

CBS Sports Network show We Need to Talk, a talk show hosted by women, featured a #SeeHer-branded segment Dec. 19, with guests discussing how sports provides a platform to empower women. The show aired live, following a women’s college basketball game between UConn and Oklahoma.

The #SeeHer initiative was also discussed on the CBS daytime show The Talk, and #SeeHer figures have met with showrunners on CBS series.

“We’re constantly innovating in this area,” said Thomas. “What we need to do as a company is be ahead of the curve.”

Asked about her mentors, Thomas mentions her parents. Her mother, also named Josie, was very engaged in politics in Minnesota, where Thomas grew up, and is writing a book on her experience. Her late father Charles was a mathematician who worked for Honeywell. “My parents recognized the need to try to improve an environment or leave a legacy or have an impact,” she said.

When Thomas is not working, she enjoys traveling and the beach. “All those years in Minnesota really make you appreciate the warm weather,” she said.

Always Working Toward the Goal
CBS’s on-air offerings continue to show a more diverse network. Among the projects in development are drama Rosarito Beach, about a female attorney working with a Latino lawyer, and a romantic comedy called History of Them that has a multicultural couple at its core. CBS also signed an exclusive development deal with Cedric the Entertainer in September.

Moonves said diversity on the air is “always a work in progress” at CBS and Showtime, with plenty of room to get better. But he added, “it has improved a great deal the last few years.”

Thomas is also active outside of CBS, including being a board member at the Alliance For Women in Media, and working with Komen Race for the Cure on women’s health issues. “I try to get engaged externally as much as I can,” Thomas said, “in order to facilitate further CBS engagement.”

Moonves gives Thomas high marks for making diversity a priority at CBS Corp. “She’s helped make the CBS culture aware of the importance of diversity,” he said. “She’s brought up the awareness of it for virtually everybody in the organization.”

NAME: Stephanie Druley
TITLE: Senior VP, Event and Studio Production
COMPANY: ESPN

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Druley was the first woman to produce an NFL pregame show; she also launched two new ESPN networks and oversees remote production and studio shows for college sports, the NFL and MLB.

QUOTABLE: “When I got promoted to this role, a number of women reached out because they were so happy for me. It’s a groundbreaking position. I feel the weight of that.”

In 1998, John Elway made his famous “helicopter” dive into Super Bowl history, a moment forever captured by photographers covering the game. In the end zone, from one angle, you can see a woman’s face peering around a cameraman to get a better look at this epic play. That face belongs to Stephanie Druley, who grew up a die-hard football fan, always wanted to attend a Super Bowl and who still can’t believe her good fortune that day.

But it wasn’t luck that brought her to that game — and sixteen other Super Bowls. Druley, ESPN’s senior vice president of event and studio production, is one of this year’s Wonder Women, not because she finds herself in the right place at the right time but because she boldly takes the chances and seizes the opportunities that land her there.

Growing Up a Sports Fan
Druley grew up in Houston in a passionate sports household — the family had season tickets to Oilers games. Druley was at the University of Texas in 1986 when the Astros faced off against the New York Mets in a dramatic National League Championship Series and even “ran a wire up my sleeve” so she could secretly listen to Game 6 on the radio while attending class. (Ironically, the game lasted nearly five hours so she got to watch plenty of it after class ended.)

“At that age, I didn’t have a long-term career goal but I knew I wanted a job in sports and I wanted to work on the NFL,” she said. So, Druley took her first chance, leaving home, moving to Connecticut as a production assistant at ESPN. It was thrilling and a great entree but “it was hard being so far from my family.”

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After a few years, Druley took another good risk: She quit and moved back to Houston to freelance. Most of her freelance work was still with ESPN, field producing for Pam Oliver. “I got a ton of experience in the field,” she said.

She later returned to Bristol, Conn., as an associate producer on NFL Countdown, producing features every week. Had ESPN then had a feature producer position, her career might have followed a different path. Instead, Druley made her goal to become the first woman to produce an NFL pregame show. “I created a path for myself that was unusual,” she said. That’s an understatement: When Jay Levy was handling both the producer role and coordinating producer role, Druley offered her services “basically as an apprentice” so she could learn how to handle the position.

“I was blindly naïve and confident,” she said. Putting in the extra time paid off quickly. “By the middle of the season I was sometimes sitting in the producer’s chair and the next year I was producing the show.”

All of these experiences helped as she continued her rise. “I appreciate the fact that the foundation of her career is so similar to those that she leads — she has years of TV production chops — she knows who we are and what we need because it is the same ladder that she climbed,” said Lee Fitting, ESPN vice president of college sports production. Druley excels as a boss because “she is decisive,” he added, but also “a great listener.”

Druley said being a woman has never held her back, since she’d built “equity” with talent and executives over the years, demonstrating “my deep knowledge and love for the sport.” She said ESPN has always provided opportunities for women and other minorities. “If you are really good the possibilities are endless,” she said, acknowledging that she felt pushed to succeed because failing would reflect badly on all women in sports.

When ESPN was looking to partner with Druley’s alma mater and launch the Longhorn Network in 2011, she was tempted to take on the job, but wary until ESPN execs convinced Druley to take the plunge. “People said, ‘How often do you get the chance to start a network?’ ” she recalled. “I learned to deal with programming, sales and affiliate relations.”

The former pregame expert was suddenly responsible for 175 live events a year. There was, she said, something special about “flipping the switch” to start something brand new.

Winning With Teamwork
“Building and launching something new requires an immense amount of collaboration and Steph is the ultimate team player,” said Justin Connolly, executive vice president, Disney and ESPN affiliate sales and marketing. “She finds ways to get things done even in the most difficult situations.”

Druley was then tasked with launching the SEC Network three years later. In her current role she has taken responsibility for ESPN’s entire remote production portfolio and studio shows for college sports, the National Football League and Major League Baseball and this year, added international and Spanish-language production efforts to her busy schedule. “I’m still wrapping my arms around the scope of all that,” she said.

Druley said she has a “huge responsibility” as a woman to exceed expectations but also to reach back down the ladder to help others. “I make sure I’m putting other women in positions of power and responsibility.”

NAME: Loretta Polk
TITLE: VP and Associate General Counsel
COMPANY: NCTA – The Internet & Television Association

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Seeing the cable industry reinvent itself and being part of that arc of growth and change, as well as work with the Emma L. Bowen Foundation, D.C. Bar Technology Task Force and the Steering Committe for Arts, Entertainment and Sports Law section, and other philanthropic organizations.

QUOTABLE: “You have to demand excellence from yourself before you demand it from others.”

Loretta Polk had an early interest in communications while attending Rutgers University and later in graduate school at Columbia.

In fact, the native Washingtonian initially thought she would become a journalist. “The way it worked was that you spent the first year at the law school, then you went to the journalism school, then you went back to law school,” she said.

But once she had spent that first year at law school, she did not want to divert from the legal track. “So I decided to postpone it and continued on with my legal studies.” When the journalism school called to ask when she was coming, she decided to stick with law.

She is clearly happy with the path she took.

Polk cut her teeth at a law firm, and always had an interest in policy. “Growing up in Washington maybe had something to do with it,” she said. It was an interest that has been fueled by two former FCC chairmen, Bill Kennard and Michael Powell.

Between private practice and three decades at NCTA – The Internet & Television Association, there was a stint at the State Department. She called that “a little bit of a detour” from her communications track, but a great opportunity to travel, which was one of the big draws. But she said that even there she had an interest in communications and was looking for a way to get into those areas.

Working in an Industry Getting Off the Ground
Meanwhile, Kennard, a good friend and D.C. lawyer — and then-future FCC chairman — called and advised her to that the cable industry was new and different and just getting off the ground. She had done private practice and worked for the government, so it was something new, and in the area she had always been looking to.

“It was a great time to get in on the bottom floor of an industry,” she said.

Watch MCN: 12 Takeaways From MCN's Wonder Women Class of 2018

Now vice president and associate general counsel of NCTA, Polk spends a lot of time monitoring the federal agencies, then helps make cable’s case to those government officials, with the FCC being a primary focus. Another focus for Polk has been privacy and cybersecurity, which means she has to keep tabs on the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Trade Commission, White House and the Department of Commerce — among many others.

Polk does not like to talk about herself, but others do not share her reticence.

Michael Powell, NCTA president and CEO, said: “Loretta is the kind of person who has gone about her job for years never seeking recognition, but is always there for you and has always done a remarkable job. Loretta is one of the most thoughtful and thorough lawyers I have ever worked with and she tackles some of the most important and complex issues that our industry confronts, including cybersecurity and privacy.”

“Loretta is one of the most reliable and knowledgeable media experts in Washington,” added Adonis Hoffman, formerly chief of staff to FCC commissioner Mignon Clyburn. “She is always on top of the issues, and has the rare ability to flow easily from legalese to plain speak on complex matters.”

Polk said another important part of her job is building consensus among a range of companies, large and small.

“Loretta is a real life superhero — a courageous trailblazer for diversity in the cable and telecommunication industry, and an extraordinary regulatory lawyer in the halls of Washington, D.C.,” said Kathy Zachem, executive VP of regulatory and state legislative affairs for Comcast, NCTA’s largest member. “Her insight and skills as an advocate have had a resounding impact on countless policies.”

Asked who helped her along the way, Polk cited Kennard as well as Michael Schooler, NCTA’s VP and deputy general counsel, and BET’s Debra Lee, as well as former NCTA president Decker Anstrom and Powell.

But Polk suggests the door swings both ways. “I really value the opportunity to mentor younger people who want to come into the industry,” she said.

Asked about the role of diversity in the industry, she says that connections she made being on the board of the National Association of Multi-Ethnicity in Communications (NAMIC) gave her a deeper perspective on the business side, rather than the policy side, of the industry from programming to operations to marketing. “Folks in Washington need that perspective,” she said. And she shares Powell’s view that another key to diversity is “just giving people the opportunity to be at the table.”

Finding Role Models Who Set the Tone
Polk said gender has not been an issue in her career path, “in part because NCTA had so many women in leadership positions.” She was hired by Brenda Fox, then-head of legal and policy for NCTA, who Polk said cultivated the women attorneys. “I was fortunate in that regard in that we had women leaders who set the tone.”

Another woman also set the tone for Polk’s career, her mother, advised that there was no substitute for effort. “You can have all the great connections in the world and have gone to all the great schools,” quoted Polk, “but it still comes down to, have you done the hard work?”

The editors of Multichannel News are proud to introduce the 2018 class of Wonder Women, the 20th anniversary class of accomplished and influential women from multichannel media industries to be honored by the magazine. 

The vision, commitment and leadership shown by these executives have fostered the success of their companies while driving overall industry growth and innovation.

Multichannel News is also recognizing 12 Women to Watch, whose ongoing contributions are emblematic of the vital roles they’re likely to play in the industry’s future.

This year’s Wonder Women class will be lauded March 22 at a gala luncheon at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in midtown Manhattan, co-hosted by the New York chapter of Women in Cable Telecommunications. For much more on the event and on this year’s honorees, visit mcnwonderwomen.com.

MCN Wonder Women Class of 2018
Darcy Antonellis, Vubiquity

Kerry Brockhage, NBCUniversal

Christa D’Alimonte, Viacom

Stephanie Druley, ESPN

Marianne Gambelli, Fox News

Sarah Gitchell, Comcast Cable

Beth Main, HBO

Jennifer Mirgorod, Turner

Debra O’Connell, Disney-ABC Television

Elaine Paul, Hulu

Loretta Polk, NCTA

Josie Thomas, CBS Corp.

The Honor Roll: Wonder Women 1999-2017

Related: Celebrating Media's Influential Women

FRIDAY ABERNETHY
Senior Vice President of Content Distribution, Univision Communications Inc.

WHY WE’RE WATCHING: At Hispanic-consumer-focused Univision, Friday Abernethy directs content distribution sales and licensing efforts for television and digital platforms across multiple genres. She has executed deals under a variety of business models with all major linear and online distributors. Univision’s portfolio includes Univision, UniMás, Galavisión, Univision Deportes Network, Fusion TV and El Rey Network, plus direct-to-consumer service Univision NOW. Earlier, she was executive VP of distribution sales and marketing for Pop, where she was instrumental in the network’s repositioning. Before that, she was a Viacom content distribution executive for more than a decade, securing carriage for MTV Networks and BET Networks channels. Previously, she held posts at GE Capital and JP Morgan Chase and is involved with Camp Becket and Camp Chimney Corners, helping to send children from all economic backgrounds to summer camp.

MAJOR MENTORS: “My parents served as great role models for me. In addition to dedicating their free time to my brother and me, they have a tremendous work ethic. Further, my parents always supported me in my desire to have a career and instilled in me that I could do anything I wanted. Having grown up in a family with very traditional roles I reflect on this unwavering support with so much gratitude.”

LIKES MOST ABOUT HER JOB: “The diversity of the work that I do ensures that no day is like any other with the added bonus of being able to advocate for our community.”

CAREER ADVICE: “Force yourself to make time for strategic reflection. Going months or years without regular introspection can lead you down a path you may not have intended.”

ENJOYS DURING DOWNTIME: “Traveling and experiencing new cultures with family.”


JANET BALIS
Partner/Principal, Global Advisory Leader for Media & Entertainment, EY

WHY WE’RE WATCHING: A partner at EY and head of its media and entertainment advisory practice, Janet Balis has deep experience in cross-platform media. Before EY, she was a partner and led the Innovation Lab at Betaworks, a studio of digital startups and investments. Prior to that, she was publisher of the Huffington Post and led sales strategy and partnerships at AOL, including its participation in the first-ever Digital Content Newfronts. Before AOL, she was executive VP, media sales and marketing for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.

LIKES MOST ABOUT HER JOB: “I like that I get to work across the full industry ecosystem to solve the most pressing issues facing media companies — from broadcast and cable networks, to cable and satellite operators, to film and television studios, to agencies and beyond.”

MAJOR MENTORS: “In my days at AOL, just after the Time Warner merger — where I was at the time — I was fortunate to work for the then-president of AOL Media Networks, Mike Kelly, who went on to be the CEO of The Weather Channel. Mike empowered each of us to transform the business with his unequivocal support. Mike gave us all powerful lessons to shape our success, including the mantra of ‘assume best intent’ and ‘results lag effort.’ To this day, those words shape my thinking.”

CAREER ADVICE: “Great work and delivering what you promise is an ante to be in business — focusing on personal brand, networking and endorsement can be incredible differentiators.”

ENJOYS DURING DOWNTIME: “My downtime is precious and I spend it with my beautiful children and friends. Beyond enjoying everything New York has to offer, I love to exercise, so you’re likely to find me at the gym doing a CrossFit workout, running in Central Park, taking a Flywheel class, raising money for Cycle for Survival — an indoor cycling event raising money for cancer research — or trying to improve my tennis game.”


JOHANNA FUENTES
Executive Vice President, Corporate Communications, Showtime Networks

WHY WE’RE WATCHING: Johanna Fuentes is responsible for the strategic planning and execution of all global public and media relations initiatives for Showtime Networks and Smithsonian Channel, including programming publicity, media and talent relations, events, photography, awards, film festivals, philanthropy, sports and corporate branding. She supervises all press outreach, and is the communications liaison with parent CBS. Before joining Showtime in 2010, she was at Bravo and CBS.

LIKES MOST ABOUT HER JOB: “No day is the same. You walk in on any given day with a plan in place and breaking news and deadlines (and more recently social media) have a way of disrupting that order.”

MAJOR MENTORS: “After years working in PR, I got my first break in entertainment 18 years ago when I was hired by Gil Schwartz at CBS and back then reported to Chris Ender. It speaks to the stability of the company that they remain at the helm today. Though I have moved around over the years I have learned the most from them on how to remain cool during a crisis and how to be a great manager. In addition, I worked under Frances Berwick at Bravo who is one of the smartest (and classiest) executives in this industry.”

CAREER ADVICE: “Read every story and watch everything, especially the work of your competitors. It’s important to stay very current so I have prided myself on always staying on top of new technologies. Also, stay hungry. And most importantly, I have learned so much from my industry peers. They may be billed as the competition, but some of my best friends work for rival networks and studios. Make those connections.”

ENJOYS DURING DOWNTIME: “As a Caribbean girl nothing makes me happier than reading a good book while quietly sitting on a beach. My other favorite thing: live music.”


ROZ HO
Senior Vice President and General Manager, Consumer and Metadata, TiVo

WHY WE’RE WATCHING: Roz Ho, with more than 25 years of industry experience, holds numerous software and hardware patents and has extensive experience managing engineering teams and key product launches. Before joining TiVo in the spring of 2017, she was VP and head of product management at Ericsson. Earlier she worked at Microsoft, including roles in Microsoft Office, as GM of the Macintosh Business Unit and as corporate VP of premium mobile experiences.

LIKES MOST ABOUT HER JOB: “I get to work in TV! Seriously, this is a very exciting time in the entertainment industry. There are so many changes happening — the explosion of content, cord-cutting, instant on-demand, streaming services, to name a few. Plus new technology such as AI and machine learning that will transform the media and entertainment workflow … Just as important, though, is that I enjoy collaborating with people to brainstorm and build the best TV experiences — team members, customers and partners.”

MAJOR MENTORS: “Lisa Brummel, former executive VP at Microsoft, gave me an opportunity to become a general manager, and then taught me to go after jobs I didn’t think I was 100% qualified for. Another is J Allard, former chief experience officer and chief technology officer for the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft and one of the Xbox creators, who was truly inspirational and visionary.”

CAREER ADVICE: “This sounds so cliché: work on something you are passionate about, and work with people you can connect with. Don’t be afraid of change if you find yourself in a situation where those two conditions are not being met. Never stop learning.”

ENJOYS DURING DOWNTIME: “I like to explore remote corners of the globe (I’ve visited over 100 countries), ski the steep and deep, hike up mountains and dabble in archaeology.”


GEORGIA JUVELIS
Senior Vice President and Co-Head, Corporate Communications, AMC Networks

WHY WE’RE WATCHING: Georgia Juvelis oversees all financial and business communications strategy and media relations for AMC’s corporate strategic initiatives and business segments that include AMC Networks International; new digital businesses, including streaming services Sundance Now and Shudder; and IFC Films. She also oversees corporate marketing efforts and internal communications. She joined AMC Networks in 2007 with more than 15 years of experience. She was VP of communications for Gemstar-TV Guide and, before that, owned a PR consulting firm in New York and San Francisco, with clients including Hearst and PBS. She began her career managing publicity for Discovery Communications.

LIKES MOST ABOUT HER JOB: “Fortunately, many things. Since every day is different and the dynamics of the business are changing so fast, my job is never quotidian. There’s always something new coming at me but that’s the fun part and is what keeps me engaged. I also get to work with a group of very creative, thoughtful and smart people who don’t take themselves too seriously and are just fun to be around.”

MAJOR MENTORS: “I’ve been lucky to have worked alongside many mentors through the years who have inspired me, challenged me, even frustrated me. I had a few early on who were very supportive and encouraging, which was especially meaningful as I was just starting out. They not only taught me the foundational elements of great PR, also had a deep understanding of the business and always had each other’s back.”

CAREER ADVICE: “Be impatient with your unhappiness. It’s hard to be great at something you’re not enjoying, and it’s simply not worth staying in a role in which you’re no longer learning or that is stifling you.”

ENJOYS DURING DOWNTIME: “There never seems to be much of it! But I devote most of my free time to my kids, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”


JENNIFER KOESTER
Director of Telco and Video Distribution Partnerships, Google

WHY WE’RE WATCHING: Jennifer Koester began her career as an attorney and joined Cablevision Systems in 2005 as vice president of privacy, product management and subpoena compliance. She became senior VP of advanced advertising products and data analytics at Cablevision Media Sales in 2014 before heading to her non-legal role at Google in 2016. Her knowledge and perspective of the television ecosystem helps her increase engagement with Google video distributor partners and drive strategy for future growth opportunities.

LIKES MOST ABOUT HER JOB: “I love the multifaceted dimension of my role at Google. Being in the cross-section of technology, media, data and consumer experience creates both new opportunities and new challenges every day.”

MAJOR MENTORS: “My parents provided me with a solid foundation to balance a strong professional work ethic while being committed to family. Amazing female leaders at Cablevision like Kristin Dolan, Kim Norris and Karen Au Claro inspired me to bring my voice to an industry where women leaders were the minority. Industry icons like Tad Smith and Bonita Stewart saw strength and potential in me.”

CAREER ADVICE: “Understanding that there’s not always one defined path to achieve your aspirations gives you the power to take informed risks, try new roles or explore new industries that will ultimately lead you to realize your full professional potential.”

ENJOYS DURING DOWNTIME: “My downtime is focused on our very active children with snippets of tranquility in the yoga studio or fishing with my husband. Understanding that children grow up quickly, most of my free time is spent on the sidelines of the baseball, soccer and volleyball fields supporting our son and daughter. And we always cook Sunday meals together as a family.”


COLLEEN MORAGHAN
Senior Vice President, Data Solutions, 605

WHY WE’RE WATCHING: Colleen Moraghan brings more than 30 years of advertising experience to her new firm, 605. She is responsible for the design, development and delivery of unique and effective technology- driven solutions that increase sales by using set-top box data for audience discovery, media planning and measurement. Earlier, she was VP of audience measurement at Cablevision Systems.

LIKES MOST ABOUT HER JOB: “I love the people. Getting up and coming to work to lead a team of committed and talented people is what inspires me. We are like a family; we all share a passion for the data business and we all support each other as we learn and grow. We have achieved so much already after only one year at 605. The future is very bright and I love working in an environment where the team is passionate and can celebrate our achievements.”

MAJOR MENTORS: “It’s hard to choose. Jim and Kristin Dolan certainly are the easiest choices as Jim hired me way back in 1983 [at Cablevision]. I hadn’t yet graduated from college and I was given the amazing opportunity in ad sales under Jim. We worked very hard and established the foundations of local cable ad sales.”

CAREER ADVICE: “Life will bring you many twists and turns that you can never plan for, so surround yourself with good people who have your best interests in mind. Look for those good mentors: they will change your life.”

ENJOYS DURING DOWNTIME: “What downtime? My waking hours are spent on 605, two almost-adult children, an aging father, my life partner Stephen Densen, as well as many beloved friends. I enjoy going to the gym and regenerating with nature by biking or hiking. Stephen is a foot surgeon and we enjoy being involved in the Doctors Without Borders events in the town of Southampton, L.I., where we have a home.”


ROBYN POLASHUK
Partner, Covington & Burling LLP

WHY WE’RE WATCHING: Robyn Polashuk focuses her practice at Covington & Burling on the licensing and distribution of programming content across a variety of platforms (including cable and satellite, IPTV, mobile and internet) and business models (from linear to subscription and transactional VOD, electronic sell-through and interactive applications). Her work also includes negotiating retransmission-consent agreements. Clients have included The Walt Disney Co. and ABC, El Rey Network, Fox Cable Networks, Hulu, Ovation, NFL Network, PBS, Pluto TV, Tennis Channel, TV One, Univision and Viacom. She’s negotiated on behalf of content providers with all the traditional TV distributors, including AT&T-DirecTV, Charter, Comcast, Dish Network, Time Warner Cable and Verizon FiOS, as well as the emerging streaming distributors, such as PlayStation Vue, Sling TV and Verizon Go90. Earlier in her career, she served as VP, distribution legal affairs, at Lifetime, and as senior counsel, new technology law group, at Disney.

LIKES MOST ABOUT HER JOB: “I love the diversity of the clients and projects, and the interesting new issues I am asked to address nearly every day in our evolving industry.”

MAJOR MENTORS: “My greatest mentors have been colleagues who I’ve met later in my career and have pushed me to think about my role in new ways. Every person we know has things to teach us if we are open to the lesson.”

CAREER ADVICE: “Law school teaches us that hard work is how we provide value. But it is our relationships, earned trust and integrity that are our greatest assets. Grow your relationships and support those around you with quality — that is how we can offer the most value to the industry and ourselves.”

ENJOYS DURING DOWNTIME: “Turns out that I have a bit of a green thumb, so when I have a free hour or two, I enjoy roaming plant nurseries for a specimen not yet in my garden.”


SAMANTHA ROSE
VP Director, Video Investment, Horizon Media

WHY WE’RE WATCHING: Samantha Rose is a leader at Horizon Media, overseeing national video buying for clients such as Capital One, Sleep Number, A+E Networks, Publishers Clearing House and Stanley Steemer. An 11-year veteran, she previously worked on accounts spanning multiple verticals, including Geico, HGTV and David’s Bridal. Currently, she is responsible for overseeing both upfront and scatter negotiations for her client roster. Rose also spearheads the Horizon Advanced group, which seeks to address and highlight best practices for enabling and infusing data into video activations. She works to identify best practices for the future of data-infused TV activation and vets the value of nontraditional prospective partners with programmatic or addressable TV solutions.

LIKES MOST ABOUT HER JOB: “The community and diversity of personalities make it so that I am excited to come into work every day. I’m consistently overwhelmed by how clever and engaged my colleagues are.”

MAJOR MENTORS: “Dave Campanelli, who I have worked for my entire career, is unbelievably smart but has also demonstrated the unique skill of how to tell a clear and concise story surrounding the most complicated of areas. And Marianne Gambelli, who epitomizes what it means to be a strong leader.”

CAREER ADVICE: “It’s all a balancing act — of course, personal and professional life balance, but also being able to balance what you know and don’t know, and actually listening to others and retaining that information.”

ENJOYS DURING DOWNTIME: “I have two young children so most of my ‘downtime’ is spent enjoying them and marveling at everything they do! But I also love to cook, travel and read fiction.”


MICHELLE STRONG
Senior Vice President, Distribution, A+E Networks

WHY WE’RE WATCHING: Michelle Strong co-leads the distribution sales team at A+E Networks. Her career includes four years in distribution with Disney and ESPN Media Networks, six years with BET in affiliate sales and marketing and four years with Comcast in local ad sales.

LIKES MOST ABOUT HER JOB: “I am truly living my dream by working in television. Content Distribution is such a crucial part of the ecosystem and I’m excited to see how the work we do reaches so many people. Those who know me know that I am a passionate champion of diversity and I get tremendous satisfaction from co-leading, with Marcela Tabares, the Multicultural Insights team at A+E Networks. The work we do to impact our business is extremely rewarding.”

MAJOR MENTORS: “My parents provided a great foundation. Professionally, I’ve been lucky to seek advice from some of the best in the business, starting with my current boss, David Zagin, along with my former bosses, Lori Conkling, Justin Connolly and Jane Rice. I’m extremely fortunate to be a part of the A+E Networks Executive Women’s Forum led by Abbe Raven. To be personally mentored by Abbe has been a gift.”

CAREER ADVICE: “Nancy Dubuc has created an inclusive culture at A+E Networks where there is value in being yourself. Throughout my career, I’d see successful people in certain roles and at times felt that unless I led like them I wouldn’t be a fit for that role or obtain their level of success. Somewhere down the road I realized that I was enough. There is such freedom in being yourself. So I’d say, find ways to ‘be you!’ ”

ENJOYS DURING DOWNTIME: “I enjoy being a mom to very active twin daughters, traveling with my husband and threatening to learn to play the guitar.”


MICHELE THORNTON GHEE
Senior Vice President Media Sales, BET Networks/BET Her, A Viacom Company

WHY WE’RE WATCHING: Michele Thornton Ghee, who joined what was then Centric TV in 2012, was instrumental in branding it as “The First Network Designed for Black Women” and then into BET Her. Her team is charged with growing the network’s revenue base. Thornton Ghee has worked for CNN, A&E, History and The Weather Channel. She began her career at SBC Communications (Pacific Bell) in Oakland, Calif. She has written two books: Stratechic: Life and Career Winning Strategies for Women and Stratechic 2.0: Her Plan, Her Power, Her Purpose.

LIKES MOST ABOUT HER JOB: “What I love is that it’s not a job but a movement. I get to fight for black women every day of the week; 24 hours a day.”

MAJOR MENTORS: “I’ve had two mentors in my life and 100 advocates. The mentors have been a huge influence but so have my advocates. We live in a time where everyone is busy and it’s difficult for people to commit to the time necessary to build a mentee-mentor relationship. Advocacy has opened doors for me, helped me get promoted, paved the way to write and self-publish a book — you get the picture. I’ve learned not to wait on mentors but built an incredible circle of advocates.”

CAREER ADVICE: “If women build a plan and take the time to execute it then we have an opportunity to walk in our destiny. So what’s my career advice? I don’t have any. I have life advice. Get time back from people and things that aren’t worthy; activate your self-awareness; don’t attend events without a plan or purpose; know that follow-up and preparation are the most important aspects of building relationships; ask for what you’ve earned and know your brand better than the brand you work for! Do these things and you will have the career that leaves a legacy.”

ENJOYS DURING DOWNTIME: “Other than spending time with my husband and kids — I’m still figuring that one out!”


JULIE UNRUH
Group Vice President, Programming Financial Operations & Analytics, Charter Communications

WHY WE’RE WATCHING: Julie Unruh, who joined Charter in 2004, oversees the Programming Financial Operations, Data Analytics and Contract Management & Compliance groups. She is responsible for providing financial and analytical insights inform content acquisition decisions, including original content. She previously served as VP of Revenue Assurance, a business unit she was hired to build. Prior to joining Charter, she was a manager in the PwC advisory practice, delivering revenue assurance solutions to cable industry clients.

LIKES MOST ABOUT HER JOB: “I love that every day is a new challenge and provides me an opportunity to learn and grow alongside some really talented people. I enjoy providing financial and analytical insights for video strategy decisions and working to better understand the value of programming.”

MAJOR MENTORS: “I have been influenced by many great mentors throughout life. In my early years, it was my parents and sisters who taught me values, work ethic and to dream big. Growing up, I played sports and experienced lessons in teamwork, success, adversity and leadership from great coaches and teammates. In my professional career, I have been fortunate to work with and learn from some dynamic leaders that have challenged me to grow. In life, I am lucky to have amazing supporters that have encouraged and pushed me.”

CAREER ADVICE: “Surround yourself with talented people who are passionate about what they do and inspire others to follow — it’s contagious!”

ENJOYS DURING DOWNTIME: “I enjoy spending time with my family. My husband and I have two sons that keep us on the go. On weekends, it is a pretty safe bet that you can find us at a soccer field. When we have a chance to escape, we enjoy trips to the mountains and beach.”

NAME: Sarah Gitchell
TITLE: SVP, Deputy General Counsel and Chief Counsel, Content Acquisition
COMPANY: Comcast Cable

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Has counseled Comcast on hundreds of programming deals since joining in 2005, from multibillion-dollar contracts with media giants and multiplatform agreements to retransmission consent pacts with single TV stations.

QUOTABLE: “We do a lot of things here that other companies in our industry aren’t even doing yet, and I get to do it living in Philadelphia, which to me is the best of all worlds.”

As lead attorney for Comcast’s Content Acquisition Group, Sarah Gitchell has played a key role in the company’s Xfinity TV cable operation being able to offer programming live on TV, on demand and on mobile apps.

On landmark deals like the 10-year pact struck with The Walt Disney Co. in 2012, which included out-of-home viewing on a variety of devices, and with Fox Networks the following year, she either helped lead negotiations or was right in the middle of things, company officials say.

Gitchell, who came to Comcast in 2005, mentions the renewal with CBS in 2013 that secured free on-demand access to big shows from the network’s primetime lineup when asked about memorable deals she’s worked on.

She also makes note of Comcast efforts like Streampix, the multiscreen subscription video-on-demand service launched to Xfinity TV subscribers in 2012, long before the launch of the X1 platform embraced rival streaming services such as Netflix and Sling TV. Pacts to offer movies and TV shows for sale via electronic sell-through, or EST, also broke new ground for the nation’s biggest cable operator, and the overall industry.

“That’s one of the things I love about working here,” she said in a recent chat in a conference room on the 45th floor of the Comcast Center in Philadelphia. “We’re always thinking about, ‘How do people want to consume this content? And if we have the technology to provide it other ways, why aren’t we doing that if that’s the direction people are going?’ ”

Finds Lots of Positives at Comcast
Gitchell said she finds a lot to love about the company she joined after working as an associate at local law firm Dechert LLP. One plus mark she cites is the encouragement to take on new responsibilities.

“If you can do what the company is asking you to do and do it in the right way, those are the people that get to succeed and continue on and get new responsibilities and more things to do,” she said. “It’s very much not what you look like, not who you are, we just need this done. And if you’re great at making that happen, we’ll give you more to do.”

Watch MCN: 12 Takeaways From MCN's Wonder Women Class of 2018

Also, her boss (Lynn Charytan, the 2015 Wonder Woman whose titles include Comcast Cable general counsel) and Comcast’s Content Acquisition team, led by executive VP Greg Rigdon and including Jen Gaiski, Justin Smith and Mike Nisenblatt. “They’re fantastic. I can’t say enough,” she said. “I think they’re the best at what they do in the industry and also just super nice, super fun people to work with.”

And guess who is a big fan of Philadelphia? Gitchell grew up in Ames, Iowa, and when she decided to come east and had the choice of Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania, she chose Penn and the big city.

“I loved Penn and I stayed here,” she said, obtaining her law doctorate at Temple University Beasley School of Law before joining Dechert in the Corporate and Securities group.

An art history major at Penn, Gitchell had worked at Freeman’s Auction House while attending law school at night (and finishing her studies in three and a half years).

She also taught aerobics for years, until suffering an ankle break after slipping on a patch of ice. While recovering, she met her future husband, Gary Dorfman, at the gym. “My dad always called it my lucky break,” she said.

Dorfman has his own business. He owns two sandwich shops in Philly: Jake’s Sandwich Board, on 12th and Samson, and Hatch & Coop, a chicken joint in University City. He used to be a health-care consultant before going into restaurants. “We eat very well at my house,” Gitchell said.

They have two young daughters, Rose, who is 13, and Lily, who is 10 and a half. They enjoy going back to Iowa for the Iowa State Fair, where the girls get to see “kids their age showing animals and being responsible for things, which is nice for them to see.” Depending on the year, they might see lots of politicians there, too. Gitchell has pictures of John McCain walking by with a pork chop on a stick.

Higher-Ups Call Her ‘A Hidden Jewel’
In nominating Gitchell to be a Wonder Woman, Rigdon and Comcast senior executive VP David Cohen called her a “hidden jewel” at the company and said “her influence in the industry, and within Comcast, is extensive and significant.”

Content providers she deals with respect her legal opinions, they said, and Comcast Cable leaders trust her advice, “not only for her legal expertise, but also for her knowledge about the television industry and the changing dynamics of the programming landscape.” They also praise her diverse and inclusive hiring, and her mentoring activities.

Asked what the next big thing Comcast wants to prepare for in terms of content distribution, Gitchell said essentially the aim is to be as ready as possible when the next unanticipated new thing comes along. She said, for example, Comcast was doing TV everywhere deals — to let subscribers view content on outside devices — back before iPad tablets existed and thus weren’t specifically mentioned in contracts.

“Just try to get a rights profile that’s broad, because you don’t actually know,” she said.