Some 800 guests convened at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in New York March 22 to honor Multichannel News's 2018 class of Wonder Women.

The 12 honorees comprise MCN's 20th anniversary class of accomplished and influential women from multichannel media industries. Nominated by their peers and selected by the MCN editorial team, they have demonstrated vision, commitment and leadership as they've fostered the success of their companies and driven growth and innovation across the industry.

Profiles of MCN's Wonder Women Honorees | Watch Their Speeches

In candid remarks that touched on both the professional and the personal, they demonstrated those qualities at the podium as they shared the experiences, insight and advice that landed them on the Ziegfeld's stage.

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MCN 2018 Woman of Influence: Hannah Storm

Beth Main of HBO offered a vivid look back at becoming a member of the Joffrey Ballet, describing it as her most "foundational" experience in a varied career, as it taught her that "it very much is possible to do impossible things if you really want it, and you work like hell for it." 

ESPN's Stephanie Druley had a wry perspective on being named a Wonder Women honoree, telling the crowd, "It's a lot to live up to. You know, personally, I'd prefer to be known as She Ra, Princess of Power."

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Turner's Jennifer Mirgorod delivered a message from her daughters: "This award has made their day. ... It helped them make a connection between the hard work they see me do and the rewards. I believe this award has inspired them to work a little harder." 

MCN's 2018 Women to Watch, 12 up-and-coming trailblazers, were also honored at the luncheon, and got a shout-out from Debra O'Connell.

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"I am so excited for the next generation of women," the NCTA's Loretta Polk said. "They are bold and assertive, confident and inventive, and plenty fearless."

Bookmark This: Complete Coverage of MCN's Wonder Women Honorees and Events

The proceedings came to a close with a call to look ahead from CBS's Josie Thomas, who spoke of creating an inclusive environment now and for the next generation of women.  

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The 20th anniversary Wonder Women luncheon takes place today in New York City, where 12 leading female executives in multichannel TV and related businesses will be celebrated, along with 12 Women to Watch and one Woman of Influence.

More than 800 are expected to attend: to track mentions from the event on Twitter, please monitor the #MCNWW2018 hashtag and follow @MultiNews and @MCNWonderWomen.

The 12 members of the 2018 class of Wonder Women are (alphabetically):

• Darcy Antonellis, CEO, Vubiquity
• Kerry Brockhage, Executive Vice President & Chief Counsel, Content Distribution, NBCUniversal
• Christa D'Alimonte, Executive Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary, Viacom
• Stephanie Druley, ESPN Senior Vice President, Event & Studio Production 
• Marianne Gambelli, President, Ad Sales, Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network
• Sarah Gitchell, Senior Vice President, Deputy General Counsel & Chief Counsel - Content Acquisition, Comcast Cable
• Beth Main, Senior Vice President, Domestic Network Distribution, HBO
• Jennifer Mirgorod, Executive Vice President of Content Distribution & Strategic Partnerships, Turner
• Debra O'Connell, Executive Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Disney|ABC Television Group
• Elaine Paul, Chief Financial Officer, Strategy & Business Development, Hulu
• Loretta Polk, Vice President & Associate General Counsel, NCTA - The Internet & Television Association
• Josie Thomas, Executive Vice President, Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer, CBS Corp.

Read More: MCN Names 2018 Women to Watch Class

Also set to be honored is ESPN SportsCenter anchor Hannah Storm, the 2018 Woman of Influence.

Showtime Networks executive Sara Clarke is set to receive the inaugural Career Catalyst Award from WICT New York, a co-sponsor of the event. 

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

For more information on the 2018 Wonder Women class and event, including registration information, visit http://mcnwonderwomen.com. 

For comprehensive editorial coverage of Wonder Women coverage over the years, click here.

New York City TV Week is coming up, starting with the 27th annual Broadcasting & CableHall of Fame on Monday, Oct. 16. For more about NYCTVWK, click here.

Hannah Storm, the ESPN SportsCenter anchor and award-winning journalist, producer and director, has been named the 2018 “Woman of Influence” by Multichannel News. She will be honored along with the 2018 classes of Wonder Women and Women to Watch at the upcoming 20th-annual Wonder Women luncheon on Thursday, March 22, at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in New York City.

Storm, who joined ESPN in 2008 and previously was an anchor and correspondent at NBC Sports, CNN and CBS News, is a pioneer in the field of sports broadcasting for women, an advocate for children’s issues and a published author.

In addition to anchoring various editions of SportsCenter, she has co-hosted many of the network’s marquee events including: Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, the NBA Finals, the New York Marathon, Veteran’s Day, the Super Bowl, the NCAA College Football Playoff National Championship and the Rose Parade on ABC.

Storm also has conducted sit-down interviews with many prominent figures in the sports world from the NBA, NFL, NASCAR, MLB, college football and many other sports both in prime-time specials and on SportsCenter. In 2012 she co-anchored daredevil Nik Wallenda’s unprecedented live Niagara Falls tightrope walk for ABC News. She has also served as a correspondent for ABC’s 20/20, where she’s done pieces with Shark Tank stars Robert Herjavec and Kevin O’Leary.

Prior to ESPN, Storm handled premier events during her time at NBC Sports (2002-2007) and CNN (1989-1992), where she was the first female host of CNN Sports Tonight.

MCNWW 2018: Celebrating Media’s Influential Women

At NBC Sports, in addition to hosting four Olympics and the “NBA on NBC,” Storm became the first woman in American television history to solo host a broadcast network’s sports series when she hosted NBC’s Major League Baseball coverage, including three World Series.

Taking a break from sports broadcasting, Storm spent five years (2002-2007) at CBS News as host of The Early Show, covering numerous major news events ranging from the 2004 Presidential election to the Iraqi War and Hurricane Katrina. While at CBS News, Storm also hosted shows for the award-winning CBS newsmagazine, 48 Hours, and served as co-host for the network’s coverage of the Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Following a passion to direct and produce films, in 2008 Storm created Brainstormin’ Productions. She has produced, executive produced and directed several projects for ESPN and espnW including: Unmatched, for ESPN’s Peabody Award-winning “30 for 30” film series; Shaq & Dale, for the SEC Network/ESPN/ABC; Love & Payne, the inaugural espnW “Nine for IX” series short film; Swoopes, for ESPN’s award-winning “Nine for IX” series; and Moving the Goal, for espnW’s “HERoics” series, part of the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup coverage. Storm has also produced branded content for ESPN, espnW, and ESPN.com including: Journeys & Victories; Beyond Reason; Stories of Will; The Drive series; and The Journey series.

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

For her work, she has received several Gracie Awards and, in 2017, The Marist College Center for Sports Communication presented Storm with its second Lifetime Excellence in Sports Communication Award.

Born with a port wine stain underneath her left eye, Storm has become an advocate for children and parents of children suffering from debilitating and disfiguring vascular birthmarks. In 2008 she founded the Hannah Storm Foundation to raise awareness, fund treatment and provide educational information for vascular malformations. To date, children from the United States, China, the Republic of Georgia and Slovenia have received surgery funding through her foundation.

Storm also has written two books: “Notre Dame Inspirations,” and “Go Girl!: Raising Healthy, Confident and Successful Daughters through Sports.” For her work as an author, Literacy Advance of Houston honored her as a Champion of Literacy. She has also contributed to a variety of other books and written extensively for several magazines, including Cosmopolitan, Nick Jr., Family Circle, Child and Notre Dame Magazine. She is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and the mother of three daughters with her husband, Dan Hicks of NBC Sports.

Read More: Complete Coverage of MCN's Wonder Women  

Hannah Storm is the second recipient of the Woman of Influence award, given to a prominent individual in the TV industry who continues to lead by example and action, inspiring others and helping to establish the next generation of women in prominent industry roles. The first honoree, in 2017, was Lesley Stahl of CBS News, the correspondent for 60 Minutes.

The Wonder Women luncheon honors prominent executives in multichannel TV and related businesses. Co-sponsored by the New York chapter of Women in Cable Telecommunications, this year’s luncheon also includes the inaugural Career Catalyst Award, presented by WICT New York. This year’s recipient is Showtime Networks senior vice president Sara Clarke.

For more about the luncheon and Wonder Women, please visit mcnwonderwomen.com.

Sara Clarke, a Showtime executive and active member of the New York chapter of Women in Cable Telecommunications, is the first named recipient of the WICT New York Career Catalyst Award. She will receive the award at the upcoming 20th anniversary Wonder Women luncheon in New York, the annual Multichannel News event that WICT New York co-sponsors. For more about the 2018 class of Wonder Women and the celebratory event on March 22 at the Ziegfeld Ballroom, visit mcnwonderwomen.com.

WICT New York created the award to salute a chapter member who has demonstrated exemplary mentorship in the industry and in the New York metro area. The honoree must have a history of mentoring individuals, participating in or leading organized mentoring programs and being a champion for mentorship. Clarke, who is senior vice president, corporate strategy, analysis and collaboration at Showtime Networks, has mentored more than a dozen women in WICT and she more than fulfills that criteria, according to chapter president Monica Bloom. 

READ MORE: Celebrating Media's Influential Women

"Sara Clarke, one of our most dedicated members, has demonstrated outstanding devotion to helping women recognize their potential and positioning them for success," Bloom told Multichannel News. "She has held leadership roles within our organization and has developed partnerships that allow us to pay it forward into the community as well. She is a true role model of effective mentoring and we are excited to honor her this year.”

Clarke, the chapter said, led its Prime Access Mentoring program from 2011 to 2014, created a new mentoring program for entry level members called Mentoring Circle in 2013, has been actively involved in the Young Women’s Leadership Network for 12 years and has coached eight women at the Grace Institute. Her philosophy on mentorship aligns with the WICT mission to empower others to reach their potential, the chapter said. Clarke describes her approach as being a "mentoring multiplier," directly assisting mentees and encouraging others to lend their expertise and time.

As part of the award, a donation will be made to Grace Institute on the honoree's behalf, WICT New York said. Grace Institute is an employment center that "empowers low-income women in the New York area to achieve employment and economic self-sufficiency by providing job-skills training, counseling, placement services and continuous learning opportunities that lead to upwardly mobile employment," according to its website.

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: 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.”

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

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: 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.

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.”

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

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?”

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.”

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

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: 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: 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.”

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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: 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.

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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: 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.

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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: 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

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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: 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: 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.”

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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.”

The editors of Multichannel News have named the 2018 class of Women to Watch, part of the annual Wonder Women celebration. These outstanding women, executives in media companies at the forefront of multichannel TV and related industries, will be honored at the 20th Anniversary Wonder Women Luncheon on Thursday, March 22, 2018, at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in New York City.

Multichannel News announced the 20th Anniversary class of Wonder Women in October. More information about the 2018 luncheon is available here.

RELATED: MCN Names 2018 Wonder Women Class

The Women to Watch Award is an honor bestowed upon industry professionals whose ongoing contributions are emblematic of the vital role they currently play, as well as their impact on the industry’s future. The 12 members of the 2018 Women to Watch class are:

• Friday Abernethy, Senior Vice President of Content Distribution, Univision Communications Inc.
• Janet Balis, Global Advisory Leader for Media & Entertainment, EY
• Johanna Fuentes, Executive Vice President, Corporate Communications, Showtime Networks Inc.
• Roz Ho, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Consumer and Metadata, TiVo
• Georgia Juvelis, Senior Vice President, and Co-Head, Corporate Communications, AMC Networks
• Jennifer Koester, Director of Telco and Video Distribution Partnerships, Google
• Colleen Moraghan, Senior Vice President, Data Solutions, 605
• Robyn Polashuk, Partner, Covington & Burling LLP
• Samantha Rose, Vice President, Director, Video Investment, Horizon Media
• Michelle Strong, Senior Vice President, Distribution, A+E Networks
• Michele Thornton Ghee, Senior Vice President Media Sales, BET Networks/BET Her, A Viacom Company
• Julie Unruh, Group Vice President, Programming Financial Operations & Analytics, Charter Communications

“This year’s group of Women to Watch is pushing the boundaries in both personal and professional achievements,” said Mark Robichaux, editorial director, Multichannel News. “It’s a distinct pleasure to honor these accomplished women along with our 2018 class of Wonder Women.”

RELATED: At Wonder Women event, Lesley Stahl Says Attacks on Media Could Backfire on Trump

Tickets for the luncheon, co-sponsored by the New York chapter of Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT), are on sale now at http://mcnwonderwomen.com. Wonder Women and Women to Watch profiles will appear in the Jan. 29 edition of Multichannel News. For sponsorship or advertising Information, please contact: Charlie Weiss at (212) 378-0478 or cweiss@nbmedia.com.

READ MORE: #MCNWW News and Profiles

Established in 1999, the annual Wonder Women awards celebration -- co-hosted by the New York chapter of Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT) and featuring prominent TV personalities as presenters -- has honored more than 200 women over the years, celebrating their accomplishments in the workplace and beyond. For more information, visit http://mcnwonderwomen.com or search for #MCNWW2018 on Twitter and Facebook. Wonder Women is produced by Multichannel News.

The editors of Multichannel News have announced the 2018 class of Wonder Women — the 20th anniversary class — ahead of a celebratory luncheon event on Thursday, March 22. The luncheon, co-sponsored by the New York chapter of Women in Cable Telecommunications, will be at the new Ziegfeld Ballroom in New York City.

Since 1999, MCN's Wonder Women has celebrated the accomplishments of industry decision-makers who have helped pave the way for younger generations of women in the evolving worlds of multichannel TV and related media businesses.

The 12 members of the 2018 class of Wonder Women are (alphabetically):

• Darcy Antonellis, CEO, Vubiquity
• Kerry Brockhage, Executive Vice President & Chief Counsel, Content Distribution, NBCUniversal
• Christa D'Alimonte, Executive Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary, Viacom
• Stephanie Druley, ESPN Senior Vice President, Event & Studio Production 
• Marianne Gambelli, President, Ad Sales, Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network
• Sarah Gitchell, Senior Vice President, Deputy General Counsel & Chief Counsel - Content Acquisition, Comcast Cable
• Beth Main, Senior Vice President, Domestic Network Distribution, HBO
• Jennifer Mirgorod, Executive Vice President of Content Distribution & Strategic Partnerships, Turner
• Debra O'Connell, Executive Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Disney|ABC Television Group
• Elaine Paul, Chief Financial Officer, Strategy & Business Development, Hulu
• Loretta Polk, Vice President & Associate General Counsel, NCTA - The Internet & Television Association
• Josie Thomas, Executive Vice President, Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer, CBS Corp.

The 2018 Class of Women to Watch will be announced separately.

For more information on the 2018 Wonder Women class and event, including registration information, visit http://mcnwonderwomen.com. 

For comprehensive editorial coverage of Wonder Women coverage over the years, click here.

New York City TV Week is coming up, starting with the 27th annual Broadcasting & CableHall of Fame on Monday, Oct. 16. For more about NYCTVWK, click here. 

NEW YORK — In her Univision office, Jessica Herrera-Flanigan keeps a “tattered and yellowed picture” of five generations of women — from her great-grandmother on down — each of whom she considers a Wonder Woman in her own right, complete with superpowers ranging from independence and pride to determination and love.

“I’m still coming to terms with my superpowers but know that they track back to the four other women in the picture,” Herrera-Flanigan, Univision’s executive vice president of government and corporate affairs, said last Thursday (March 23) on being named to the 2017 class of Multichannel News Wonder Women. “I see their superpower every day in my 4-year-old Ellie — and I have never been prouder to tell her that she comes from a family of women warriors.”

Herrera-Flanigan’s remarks, part of a celebratory Wonder Women luncheon in New York, were utterly personal. Yet they touched on themes that recurred as each one of this year’s 12 honorees (selected by the magazine) discussed the challenges and opportunities facing female executives in the television industry; the personal and professional role models who propelled their successes; their responsibility to the next generation of leaders; and what it takes to be a Wonder Woman.

Related:Lesley Stahl, MCN 'Woman of Influence' Honoree: Public Support for Media Might Backfire on Trump

TRAVELING THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD
The way Colleen Langner, Cox Communications senior vice president of marketing operations, sees it, for instance, being a leader isn’t just about having the smarts “but the thought that comes from reflection.” And even that doesn’t suffice if you don’t have heart and courage, she said, as “every yellow brick road has its challenges and obstacles.”

Susanne McAvoy, Crown Media Family Networks’s executive vice president of marketing, creative and communications, said learning from mistakes — the ones that seem so grave at the time — was a crucial step in her professional development, and she encouraged women to use mishaps to advance their knowledge and self-assuredness rather than recoiling from them.

“Don’t be afraid to take risks, ask questions, voice your ideas, to say you need help,” she told the room of 800-plus attendees. “Celebrate your wins but don’t take them for granted. And most of all, enjoy the ride.”

Sandra Stern, president of Lionsgate Television Group, put it this way: “The first quality of a Wonder Woman, for me, is integrity and a passion for excellence. This means never settling for less than your best.”

None of which is necessarily easy.

Jamie Power, Modi Media’s managing partner, used her turn at the mic to discuss her lifelong shyness and how she forced herself not to succumb to it. “No matter what, I will always have that shy, little blonde girl reminding me to pour myself a glass of Sauvigon blanc, speak up and keep taking chances,” she said.

Working in cybersecurity has created its own set of challenges for Myrna Soto, Comcast’s senior vice president and global chief information security officer, who said, she was “taken aback” as a technologist to be included among this year’s Wonder Women. “I’ll be honest, we — those of us in the security arena — are usually behind Internal Audit on the party invite list,” she said.

One overarching theme was that Wonder Women also have each other’s backs.

Lisa Williams-Fauntroy, Discovery Communications’ senior vice president of business and legal affairs, said Wonder Women are born of a range of circumstances — opportunity, sacrifice and hard work among them.

But equally important: Wonder Women do not walk alone, she said.

“As women in the workplace, we often thrive by seeing other women in the building leading the way,” she said. “It is critical that each of us, particularly those of us in leadership roles, create opportunities for others. We have to open the paths for more Wonder Women down the road.”

PUSHING FOR PROGRESS
Yet it is also the responsibility of today’s leaders to push for women’s continued progress in the workplace, as, despite the gains, they are still underrepresented among top-tier execs.

“We have talked about tomorrow. Endlessly,” said Sandra Dewey, president of TNT and TBS Productions, and head of Studio T business affairs. “So I have demanded of myself to lead change. Now. To challenge. To ask the questions: Where are the women? Where are the candidates?

“You cannot convince me that in these great companies of ours they are not out there. They are. We are. We are just not chosen,” she added, calling colleagues to action.

“Please join me in recognizing that it’s time. Now. Push for change. Be fearless. Lead,” she said. “If you are a woman in this room, you are a leader. Go be a Wonder Woman.”

For more about the 2017 Wonder Women, Women to Watch and the luncheon, go to mcnwonderwomen.com.

JANA BENNETT

TITLE: President and General Manager

COMPANY: History

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Has brought viewers everything from Escaping Polygamy to Sherlock. Successfully relaunched A+E Networks’ Bio channel as FYI and reprogrammed sibling movie network LMN. Oversaw A+E’s multichannel roadblock airing of Roots and is now leading History into high-profile documentaries and scripted series. Honored by Queen Elizabeth for her contributions to science broadcasting at BBC.

QUOTABLE: “[Finding hit shows] is just about having your antennae out about the way people are living their lives. You just have to keep tapping into different interests and not just think about what we’ve already done, that’s already been consumed. Audiences want to be surprised.”

Read More >Celebrating Media's Influential Women: The 'MCN' Wonder Women Class of 2017|Meet 2017's 12 'MCN' Women to Watch|The 'MCN' Wonder Women Online Archive

When Jana Bennett started her first stint as a U.S. cable executive in 1999, her mission was to lead Discovery-owned TLC into the then-new world of reality programming with the motto “Life Unscripted.”

Now that she has returned to New York after more than a decade as a top BBC executive, Bennett is leading A+E Networks-owned History in just the opposite direction: toward documentaries and scripted series that are defining the current era of “peak TV.’’

A journalist-turned-executive, Bennett has overseen a lengthy string of successful programs, from Trading Spaces for TLC to Walking With Dinosaurs and Doctor Who for the BBC, to Roots and Vikings for History. In 2013, she reinvented A+E’s Bio channel as FYI and pushed it and sibling LMN to double-digit ratings growth in her first year.

“Jana is an accomplished executive with an enviable track record of success. She possesses the rare combination of creative and business acumen that every business leader should strive for,” Paul Buccieri, president of A+E Studios and A+E Networks Portfolio Group, said.

ROSE THE RANKS AT BBC

Before and after her stint at Discovery, Bennett spent what many people would consider a full career in the U.K. at the BBC. She started as a trainee after college and rose to be the top content executive for the publicly funded and regulated television provider. Bennett oversaw six networks, including two children’s networks she introduced and BBC’s digital iPlayer service.

She also ran BBC Worldwide, the broadcaster’s commercial arm, from 2010 to 2012. She has even received an Order of the British Empire award from Queen Elizabeth for her contributions to science broadcasting.

That makes her sound thoroughly British — but Bennett actually is a Yank, born in Cooperstown, N.Y. Her educator parents moved the family to England just as Bennett became a teenager, so she went to high school there and then attended Oxford.

At first, she said, she was a “fish out of water’’ who never lost her American accent. But that turned out to be a useful perspective. “In my career that’s been true in moving companies or organizations or subject areas. I guess it helped me take a slightly oblique, sideways look at what I’m doing.”

She spent three years away from the BBC when she took over TLC in 1999. “I’d never run a channel, never worked as an adult in the U.S.,’’ she said. “I thrive by the cha l lenge of something being new and different.”

By the time she returned to New York in 2013 to launch FYI and oversee LMN, the reality and semi-scripted shows on U.S. cable networks had proliferated to the point of “things being a bit same-y,’’ she said. At FYI, she and programming head Gena McCarthy added “tiny house” shows and Married at First Sight.

Now, Bennett is not only putting “the history back in History,’’ as she has said, but broadening its offerings to include more recent events, such as Six, the scripted series based on the Navy SEAL team that captured Osama bin Laden, and timely interpretations, such as The Black Man’s Guide to History starring Kevin Hart.

Viewers want true stories, she said — regardless of whether the national political conversation is in a “post-fact” era. “There’s almost a craving for those essential stories. … The pace of change that people feel they’re experiencing right now, as we’re in a true technological revolution, makes you hanker after stories that tell you how we got here right now.’’

“History itself and History as a brand is a very powerful storytelling platform where there’s an infinite variety of stories to be told,” Bennett said. “The great thing about History as a brand is that it’s very trusted. … I think it’s a huge strength and a huge responsibility.”

Viewers are also responding to the skyrocketing standard for scripted dramas, born out of intense competition among cable and streaming networks, and the more prominent platform that streaming services give documentaries. “The special treatment of big documentary stories has made them have even more [appeal]. Instead of being ‘duty programing,’ as we might have called it 10 years ago, it’s vying with drama for epic big stories.”

She credited mentors both formal and informal for helping her steady ascent at the BBC and A+E. The informal network is a group of women journalists she has known since her days as a trainee, and with whom she still shares a regular “GNO” — girls’ night out — in London.

Early in her career, she recalled, she almost didn’t pursue the job of head of BBC science programming because she was about to have a second child. Luckily, she said, someone urged her on and she would give the same advice: “Just go for it. All the other things you’re worried about will get solved.”

Now that second baby, a son named Skomer (appropriately enough, it’s a Viking name), is 22 and a student at the University of Vermont. Alexandra, 25, works for a consumer research company in London. Bennett lives in Brooklyn, near the iconic bridge, with her husband, producer and former BBC executive Richard Clemmow, “a Brit who loves adventure.’’

HISTORY PASSION CAME EARLY

For fun, the amateur guitarist and singer takes in folk music at the nearby Jalopy Theater. And then there’s the thrill of American “big weather,” whether it’s near-hurricane winds or a blast of sunshine.

She began to fall in love with history as a child home sick from school — and as one of five sisters, enjoying the rare occasion of having her mother all to herself. She remembers her mother, a history teacher, reading books aloud with her about the California redwoods and the Egyptian pyramids. “That instilled in my bones a love of history and also a love of the international, the world at large.”

Several decades after that, Bennett and her mother, then 83, found themselves visiting Egypt during the Arab Spring protests. The melee in Tahrir Square led to looting and damage at the national archaeological museum, but the two women fought their way in regardless.

“Things that are interesting are worth fighting to discover,’’ Bennett said. “That was one of the things that has always motivated me. The media gives you great rewards if you remain curious.”

LINDA SCHUPACK

TITLE: Executive Vice President of Marketing

COMPANY: AMC and SundanceTV

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Started in TV at Children’s Television Workshop; held senior posts at Nickelodeon, including VP of marketing and programming for Nickelodeon International; served as senior VP, creative services at Rainbow Media Holdings (now AMC Networks).

QUOTABLE: “We feel very privileged to work on the shows that we’re working on, but these shows set a very high bar for us. We really want our marketing materials to be as distinctive as the shows themselves.”

Read More >Celebrating Media's Influential Women: The 'MCN' Wonder Women Class of 2017|Meet 2017's 12 'MCN' Women to Watch|The 'MCN' Wonder Women Online Archive

The TV shows that Linda Schupack markets for AMC have not exactly been easy sells, at least at the start. The eclectic programming has chronicled internal drama at a 1960s ad agency, a desperate teacher’s transformation into a vicious drug lord and a zombie apocalypse.

But Schupack, executive vice president of marketing for AMC and SundanceTV, said that challenges like finding ways to promote Mad Men, Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead are “the nature of the beast” of her job.

“I am never bored,” she said.

MARKETING MAVEN

There’s little doubt Schupack’s marketing savvy helped make those three AMC original dramas and other shows, such as Better Call Saul, major successes with both critics and audiences. In fact, through her work Schupack has helped herald what some journalists and executives claim is a new Golden Age of Television, marked by compelling, literate writing and complex, character-driven storytelling.

Schupack has played a critical role in AMC’s transformation from a commercial-free classic movie channel to an ad-supported leader in original programming, said Charlie Collier, president of AMC, SundanceTV and AMC Studios, all part of AMC Networks.

“Linda has spearheaded the development of iconic consumer marketing campaigns that have helped AMC achieve all-time highs, as well as securing AMC’s spot in the lexicon of pop culture,” Collier said. “Her work impacts daily conversation and has helped AMC make television history.”

Collier cited The Walking Dead for breaking ratings benchmarks not only for basic cable but for all of TV, and AMC is the only cable network ever to win the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series four years in a row for Mad Men.

Writer-producer Vince Gilligan, the creator and showrunner of Breaking Bad, gives Schupack a “great deal of credit for the success” of that dark drama.

“She worked her butt off to make people excited about a middle-aged drug dealer who drove a puke-green Pontiac Aztek,” he said. “If that’s not the sales job of the century, I don’t know what is!”

In her current role, Schupack is responsible for the management and implementation of brand identities; consumer, trade and digital marketing activities: and social media for AMC and SundanceTV.

She has been running marketing at AMC since 2005 and was promoted to executive vice president in 2012, assuming responsibility for marketing SundanceTV in 2015.

Schupack, who was an English major at Yale University, said that her love of books and writing dovetails nicely with her career at AMC.

“From my perspective, a lot of our shows are like literature,” she said.

Schupack entered the TV industry via her first job, which was at the Children’s Television Workshop. She moved on and held several senior positions at Nickelodeon, including vice president of marketing and programming for Nickelodeon International.

Schupack later came to AMC’s parent, then called Rainbow Media Holdings LLC, for four years as senior vice president of creative services, working on the evolution of the AMC, IFC and WE tv brands.

She said she “gravitated” toward marketing at Nickelodeon because of her fascination with consumer motivation, returning to Yale to get a master’s in business administration.

“Yale gave me a great framework for analysis and I think it is that way of thinking — being a bridge between creative and the business — that is really foundational to my job,” she said.

AMC’s and Schupack’s approach has been to work closely with show writers and producers to carefully craft the marketing for a TV series, whether for a program’s debut or its returning seasons.

“What is so singular about our shows is our creators’ vision, and we want to understand it as deeply as we can,” she said. “Our challenge is to translate or to execute against that; to develop a plan or creative materials that connect that show to an audience; and to do it in such a way that resonates with that audience, that is relevant and that is provocative to that audience.”

Gilligan, who is also co-showrunner for Better Call Saul, lauded Schupack for taking this collaborative approach, one he said worked well for launching Breaking Bad.

“Our biggest fear was that potential viewers might assume we were glorifying meth and meth dealers,” he said. “That would have been a disaster for us. Therefore, Linda and her team had quite a needle to thread. They had to create a nuanced campaign which spoke to the quality of the show’s storytelling and hinted at its quirky, leavening humor — but which also made clear that its heart was in the right place, so to speak.”

CREATIVE INPUT

This type of process at AMC, teaming up with showrunners on marketing, started with Mad Men and its creator, Matt Weiner, with conversations about the themes of that acclaimed drama, according to Schupack.

Gilligan said that in his experience, it is unusual for a network to work so closely with a showrunner on a program’s promotion.

“On most other movies and TV series I’ve had a hand in, I’ve never even met the folks in the marketing department,” he said. “Linda and AMC do things differently, to their everlasting credit.”

Schupack carefully devised tactics and strategies to salute the creators of Mad Men and Breaking Bad as those shows came to their end, according to Collier.

“Thanks to Linda and her teams, literally and figuratively, each of these programs ended up in the Smithsonian,” Collier said. “That is how big-thinking, how thoughtful and how effective Linda Schupack is: Archie Bunker’s chair; Dorothy’s ruby red slippers; Don Draper’s fedora; Heisenberg’s yellow Hazmat suit; Schupack’s genius.”

LAURA GENTILE

TITLE: Senior Vice President, espnW and Women’s Initiatives

COMPANY: ESPN

CAREE R HIGHLIGHTS: Before ESPN, Gentile was senior partner, management supervisor at Ogilvy & Mather. As part of ESPN’s office of the president (George Bodenheimer), she was instrumental in creating the “ESPN on ABC” brand, which is used on ABC for sports event and documentary programming. ESPN and ABC are both part of The Walt Disney Co.

QUOTABLE: “I’ve worked on espnW for seven or eight years, but the early years were about research, about just getting started and building a team. It really wasn’t until about four years ago that I felt like we were able to surround ourselves with really great, expert people. And that makes all the difference.”

Read More >Celebrating Media's Influential Women: The 'MCN' Wonder Women Class of 2017|Meet 2017's 12 'MCN' Women to Watch|The 'MCN' Wonder Women Online Archive

People used to snicker at Laura Gentile when she was a kid because she played sports with boys all the time. “People thought I was a little strange because I loved sports so much. And I remember feeling like an outcast at Brownies, because I just couldn’t relate to what they were doing,” she recalled with a laugh.

But life as a jock served her well, eventually leading her to create a series of properties at ESPN expressly for people like herself: women who have a passion for sports.

No one would think of her as an outcast anymore. “It’s funny how a lot of life experiences sometimes add up to the perfect job,” said Gentile, who’s senior vice president of espnW and women’s initiatives.

ATHLETE WITH HONORS

She was a star athlete in high school on Long Island and at Duke University, where she was a two-time field hockey captain and garnered All-America and All-ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference) honors.

After receiving an MBA in marketing and organizational behavior at Boston College, she had an early stint at Ogilvy & Mather. She jumped to ESPN in an advertising and marketing role and rose up through the ranks, eventually becoming the network’s vice president and chief of staff.

She then took the espnW ball and ran with it. “I’ve always felt women had to be a part of our future at ESPN in order for us to be relevant and continue to grow,” Gentile said. “Women are a super-powerful audience for us to serve. And it’s ultimately an opportunity for the entire industry, to serve women more equally.”

espnW started out as a blog about six years ago. Since then, it has stretched into a series of assets that include a website, radio, television, film and event brand extensions both in the States and internationally. Brazil was the first country to pick up on the espnW opportunity, and other overseas spinoffs are in the works.

espnW’s Women + Sports Summit, a two-day event that features top athletes, is now in its eighth year. About a year ago, the brand added a one-day spinoff summit in Chicago and a strand of campus conversations about women’s sports in seven to 10 universities.

Last July and August, espnW attracted about 12 million unique visitors per month, partly due to the Olympics. Its sports experts add their perspectives to programs on ESPN, including SportsCenter and Outside the Lines, garnering further awareness for the brand.

Said former U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team member Julie Foudy, now an ESPN analyst and espnW contributor: “Laura really has been a trailblazer in this space for women. She created a model that many people didn’t believe in. I’m sure there were a lot of people internally in the early stages that thought, ‘This is never going to make it.’ I think her greatest accomplishment is showing the value of [the female sports] market.”

“To me, Laura embodies espnW, and that’s what makes her such an effective executive,” John Kosner, ESPN’s executive vice president, digital and print media, added. “She willed it to happen and brings her passion to bear on it every day.”

When the huge issue of domestic violence and the National Football League became a focus of national attention, espnW talent became voices of authority on other channels as well, like CNN and MSNBC.

While all of that was going on, Gentile was helping to forge the Global Sports Mentoring Program with the U.S. State Department, which pairs emerging women leaders from around the world with top U.S. women executives. She also is a key influencer at Sports 4 Life, a grant program developed by espnW and the Women’s Sports Foundation that aims to increase the participation and retention of African-American and Hispanic girls in sports.

While the brand she created chronicles the feats of amazing sportswomen, Gentile has several important males in her life. There’s her husband, Tom Baggott, whom she met while working at Ogilvy & Mather. There’s her dad, who went to every game Gentile played in, became her softball coach and her “No. 1 golf partner.”

There are her two sons, Will and Beau. (She’s pregnant with a third child, on the way in April.) And then there’s her mentor, George Bodenheimer, a former president of both ESPN and ABC Sports.

“George demystified corporate leadership for me. He was a very relatable guy. He used his better judgment and sought out information and then he was decisive,” Gentile said.

Another mentor is Christine Driessen, executive vice president and CFO at ESPN. “She’s a mentor to many rising women at ESPN,” Gentile said. She noted the significant role Driessen has played during her 20-plus years at ESPN, making sure major decisions were truly right for the company. “She’s a truthsayer. She’s the backbone of what’s right and true at lot of times.”

FINDING FANS YEAR-ROUND

Gentile’s role in finding what’s “right and true” for espnW is far from done. One challenge involves a certain brainteaser: “Outside of the big events, like the U.S. Open and the Women’s World Cup, how do you draw people to the website?” Foudy said. “How do you get them interested in a women’s softball league or the women’s ice hockey team at the Olympics? There’s so much great content out there that’s not in the mainstream.”

Kosner notes another “to do” item: “Our goal is not just to create a great ESPN property for women, but rather to bring more women to ESPN. That’s relatively new behavior, so it’s a challenge.”

“We’ve built a strong foundation,” Gentile said, “but to really change the industry, and for the industry to truly be inclusive of women — as fans, as commentators, as journalists, as athletes — there’s still a long way to go.”

MYRNA SOTO

TITLE: Senior Vice President and Global Chief Information Security Officer

COMPANY: Comcast Corp.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Prior to joining Comcast, Soto held key information and security roles at MGM Resorts International, American Express, Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, Norwegian Cruise Lines and Kemper Insurance. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Florida International University, a Master of Science degree in Industrial Psychology, and a Master of Business Administration degree from Nova Southeastern University, as well as a Masters Certification in Project Management from George Washington University.

QUOTABLE: “You’re never done. You’re constantly tuning and constantly adding more things that you could protect or monitor or respond to.”

Read More >Celebrating Media's Influential Women: The 'MCN' Wonder Women Class of 2017|Meet 2017's 12 'MCN' Women to Watch|The 'MCN' Wonder Women Online Archive

Myrna Soto has been ensconced in high-level technology and cybersecurity circles for more than 25 years, but her successful career track wasn’t blazed in that direction by design, at least early on.

“The reality is that my interest in technology and security were both a little by accident,” Soto said. “They were not my prescribed educational tracks.”

But those tracks eventually led Soto to where she is today, serving in the important role at Comcast in which she’s not just in charge of protecting Comcast’s cable business, but all facets of the company, including NBCUniversal, Comcast Spectacor and Comcast Platform Services.

The knowledge, expertise and skill set Soto has accumulated during her career have enabled her to serve in leading roles across several different and diverse industries, including financial services, travel, hospitality/gaming and, now, for cable, media and entertainment at Comcast.

Soto’s leadership at Comcast — in her day-to-day role there as well as with other organizations within the company — is a key reason why Multichannel News is recognizing her in this year’s class of Wonder Women.

‘A FANTASTIC LEADER’

“Myrna is highly deserving of this honor,” Michael Cavanagh, senior executive VP and chief financial officer at Comcast, said. “She is a fantastic leader and has made significant contributions to Comcast, the industry, and the information security and technology community.”

Soto joined Comcast in 2009, initially focused on the company’s cable business. Her scope of responsibility has since broadened to include developing and implementing cyber security, network/infrastructure, and data security strategies that span Comcast.

It’s been Soto’s ability and desire to speak up, to learn and to pursue new challenges that have been the hallmarks of a career that didn’t initially focus on technology and security.

Soto’s college education centered on psychology and organizational psychology (the study of how psychology is applied to workplace issues), alongside an MBA focused on what was then referred to as management information systems.

That helped to set the stage for the early part of Soto’s career, when she ran a call center for a cruise line. Back then, cruise line companies had “underinvested in technology,” as they were instead laser-focused on other things like building ships alongside a “get it done” attitude with respect to getting customers ticketed and on board, she recalled.

That setup made it tough for Soto to achieve all of her goals without adding automation to the mix. “So I did something that I don’t advise my mentees to do today. … I was a really big, squeaky wheel about the need for technology,” she said.

Soto advocated strongly for new technologies and procedures that, she believed, would enable the call center to become more efficient and make significant contributions to the overall business.

The company gave her an opportunity, providing Soto support to manage a project on her own, but without much help from the company’s IT team. Soto then reached out to some partners who were pitching ideas to her, resulting in a small proof of concept for an interactive voice response (IVR) system that made way for more (and bigger) initiatives.

And, like technology and IT, her entry point into the world of cybersecurity came by way of an opportunity. When Soto later joined MGM Mirage, she was convinced by the CIO at the time to shift her responsibilities from software-enablement and other revenue-producing projects to those centered on cybersecurity.

Though Soto was a bit reluctant to take on such a specialized role, being urged to enter a new field and to run that team “was the best thing that ever happened in my career,”

Soto said. Soto said it’s a special challenge to keep Comcast’s businesses safe while also staying a step ahead of potential adversaries that have access to a broadening set of tools and techniques.

“There are things we are paying attention to that are happening out there in the greater world that may not necessarily look and feel like a concern for Comcast,” she said.

Cybersecurity, she explained, is more art than science in some ways. “It is an art, but it is an art that’s backed up with good data and a good understanding of your capabilities.”

Soto is also a leader in other ways at Comcast. For example, she’s an executive champion for Unidos, an affinity group focused on the company’s Hispanic employee base.

“There was an immediate gravitation for me to be part of Unidos because it represents our goals around diversity and opening up for people of diverse backgrounds, and an opportunity to build, mature and develop our Hispanic employee base into upper levels of the organization,” she said.

PINING FOR A VINEYARD

When Soto isn’t protecting Comcast from hackers, you might find her on the links, as golf is her number one interest outside of work. Her handicap’s been a “steady 13” for years.

She’s also a wine enthusiast — down to studying the wide array of regions and the wine-making process — and admits to having visions of retiring and running a vineyard.

“I’ll probably never do that because I’ll be bankrupt … because I’d drink all the profits,” she joked.

Among other passions, she’s also a self-proclaimed politico. And keeping tabs on that fiery arena is also a good fit with her career, given that security is so heavily regulated.

Though there’s been significant improvement in recent years, engineering and technology remains a male-dominated field. As a role model for other women who are interested in that sector, Soto’s advice is this: “Really stretch yourself … and take some big risks.”

Women, she said, should not automatically feel intimidated about a tech-facing career. “Don’t limit yourself,” Soto explained. “Sometimes it’s not a straight line. Sometimes it’s about getting into a business area that has a technology spin to it.”

JAMIE POWER

TITLE: Managing Partner

COMPANY: Modi Media

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: As the leader of Modi’s targeted television practice, Power uses data in new ways to advance consumer targeting for advertisers. Her career in strategic media planning with GroupM and TouchTunes prepared her to help launch Modi as a unit of GroupM in 2014.

QUOTABLE: “Ask as many questions as possible … the only way you’re going to learn is if you continue to question everything. With the business that we do I always want to streamline, make it more effective. So if I get a ‘no,’ I generally don’t just accept it, I want to understand if it’s ‘cannot’ or ‘will not’ so we can figure out a way to make it possible.”

Read More >Celebrating Media's Influential Women: The 'MCN' Wonder Women Class of 2017|Meet 2017's 12 'MCN' Women to Watch|The 'MCN' Wonder Women Online Archive

Things move fast in Jamie Power’s world, and she keeps pushing the young medium of addressable television to be smarter, faster and better. Power was on the three-person team that launched Modi Media in 2014 as a unit of advertising giant GroupM. The new organization was created to bring the potential of digital TV to advertisers, enabling greater targeting and engagement than had previously been possible. Modi draws on consumer data to create campaigns that serve tailored ads to select households via addressable set-top boxes. More than half of U.S. households are now addressable and growth continues.

HITTING ADVERTISER TARGETS

The deployment of addressability is accompanied by an explosion of ever more granular data. Initially, targeted television advertising was used to sell big-ticket items like luxury cars to high-income viewers. Today, Power uses the tool to sell a much wider range of products. “I think what’s been most exciting is in the last couple of years we’ve been able to work with different data sets to take [targeted television] beyond the categories that everybody thinks about. If I want to go after people who suffer with heart conditions, I can do that now. We can use credit-card data to go after heavy movie ticket users. There really isn’t any advertiser it doesn’t work for, and I think why we’re successful is because we’re creative — there really is a solution for any advertiser, it’s just thinking about the way to put the data together,” Power said.

Even when addressability is fully deployed, Power doesn’t expect Modi’s brand of targeted advertising to replace mass-media campaigns. Broad approaches will still be needed to build awareness. Addressable technology adds a powerful arrow to the media planner’s quiver, one whose results can be accurately measured. The value of the service to advertisers makes it important to multichannel video providers, as well.

Altice Media Solutions uses set-top technology as part of its value proposition, according to unit president Ed Renicker. He said Power’s talent at building a business case for advertisers “has brought in new clientele to our market and a far different approach, both qualitative as well as quantitative, that perhaps they haven’t thought of or used in the past.” Renicker said Power “really gets not just where the business is, but where it’s going. She sees it in a more visionary way.”

Power’s vision includes consumer benefits. “It’s about serving more relevant content to the consumer,” she said. “If you don’t have heart disease, you probably don’t need to see an ad for medicine at that time. Down the road, looking at things like skinny bundles, if content on the television is more relevant to the consumer, there’s no reason ads shouldn’t be more relevant as well.”

The confluence of data and technology was a natural destination for Power, who set her sights on advertising in college. Interviewing at both creative and media agencies, she was drawn to the media side of the business.

An early mentor gave Power two rules to live by: write everything down and volunteer for everything. She took the advice to heart. As a 23-year-old media planner with GroupM, she noticed the company’s planning toolkit on her boss’s desk one day and asked to borrow it.

“I taught myself every single tool, and every time a new pitch would come up, I’d just volunteer,” she recalled. Late nights and working weekends paid off. “All I was doing was the tactical tools, but it got me in a place where I could listen and learn” from senior executives.

Power applied the knowledge she gained to her work for such clients as LG Electronics and Pizza Hut. At 25, she made partner.

After four and a half years with GroupM, Power seized a new opportunity with Touchtunes, a “digital jukebox company that was making $400 million in revenue just from people putting money in jukeboxes.” As VP of advertising sales and marketing, Power’s mission was to build an ad model for the company. The work built up her knowledge of digital advertising.

In 2013, GroupM began laying the groundwork for Modi Media, with Michael Bologna at the helm as president. Bologna had worked with Power before, and hired her to help get the new business started.

“It was by far the best decision that I made,” he said. “She’s an incredibly hard worker; she’s an incredibly quick study. She’s helped develop Modi from essentially nothing all the way to a profitable business.”

UNAFRAID TO ASK ADVICE

Building on her knowledge of television, digital technology and product development, Power took advantage of every opportunity to ask colleagues for advice on the new business. “I was so fortunate to be able to learn from the best folks in the industry,” she said. Modi has grown 100% year over year since its January 2014 launch, the company said.

It is an indication of Power’s competence and drive that she sees nothing remarkable in the fact that she gestated two enormous projects at the same time: Modi launched just two months after her son was born. A lesser mortal might be daunted by that level of multitasking, but Power took it in stride.

“When you’re being a mom,” she said, “you just power through and get it done. And [Modi] was such an exciting opportunity. When my son was feeding, I’d just open up a spreadsheet. It was actually good timing.”

Power credits her mother as a model. “My brother was 2, I was 3 and my sister was 5. Her attitude was, ‘With a little bit of work ethic and some humor, anything’s possible.’ Just do it.”

SUSANNE MCAVOY

TITLE: Executive Vice President, Marketing, Creative and Communications

COMPANY: Crown Media Family Networks

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: From her beginnings with Turner International in Hong Kong, McAvoy was part of building such influential brands as Oxygen, Comcast Spotlight and Bravo.

QUOTABLE: “I feel like the people I mentor today can really teach me a lot about how they perceive the world, how they perceive technology, even down to what some of the [social media] acronyms are.”

Read More >Celebrating Media's Influential Women: The 'MCN' Wonder Women Class of 2017|Meet 2017's 12 'MCN' Women to Watch|The 'MCN' Wonder Women Online Archive

I look at the women over the years and it seems a little surreal to have my name be on that list,” Susanne McAvoy said of being honored among the 2017 Wonder Women. “There’s a lot more that I want to do, and then I think, ‘Wow, does that mean if I do more I’m all of a sudden a hall of famer?’”

If so, McAvoy just might have a spot. As executive vice president of marketing, creative and communications for Crown Media Family Networks, McAvoy has led the marketing and communications efforts for the company’s key entertainment channels, looking to keep them up to date while ensuring they stay in sync with the 106-year-old Hallmark brand.

Her first charge was the 2012 rebranding of Hallmark Channel. “For us, it was a repositioning in that we really needed to look at what we represented to the consumers,” McAvoy said. “We know that Hallmark represents this huge range of emotions — we know that from the brick-and-mortar brand [and] from what people say about Hallmark. So how do we in television contemporize the brand knowing we can’t change the logo, we can’t change our heritage and pedigree?”

GETTING TO THE ‘HEART’

After working through various taglines, she said, “It was kind of like this obvious duh! moment: We’re the heart of TV. We’re all about emotions. Then we went through the whole thing: Is ‘TV’ antiquated? And no, the word TV isn’t antiquated. People say ‘I watch TV on my iPad,’ or ‘I watch TV on my Android.’ We looked at other things like, ‘Hallmark Feels Right’ or ‘Hallmark Makes You Feel Good.’ No, we represent ‘The Heart of TV.’ ”

The rebranding of Hallmark Movie Channel to Hallmark Movies & Mysteries in 2014 proved a different challenge. For this, McAvoy liaised with the principals at Hallmark Cards — representing nearly 4,000 Hallmark Gold Crown retail stores — who were not thrilled with the prospects of including “Mysteries” in the brand title, despite whodunits carrying some of the channel’s highest-rated dayparts.

“They really felt like mysteries and Hallmark didn’t belong together,” she recalls of those exchanges. “It was like: What doesn’t belong? Cat. Dog. Squirrel. Apple. Hallmark and mysteries, in their mind, just didn’t go together.”

Along with Crown Media president and CEO Bill Abbott, McAvoy went through “a long exercise of explaining” the benefits to the brand, to advertisers and to distributors, she said.

Two and a half years later, HMM is another jewel in McAvoy’s rebranding crown. “Because we’re still Hallmark,” she said. “We’re very true to our viewer. We’re not trying to be edgier or younger, we’re just trying to be contemporary in the entertainment space today.”

Said Ian Karr of McAvoy: “She knows what the brand is and she understands how to build that brand with her audience.” Karr, founder, producer and director at IKA Collective, has worked with McAvoy to launch series promos, behind-scenes packages and programming stunts for Hallmark Channel and HMM. “Susanne is about growing the audience organically, not just by having the next Kardashians show, but by deepening our ties with our viewers because she’s representative of the audience.”

A career in communications had long been on McAvoy’s trajectory. While a senior at Vanderbilt University, the Mobile, Ala., native did a full-semester internship on the news desk during the 1992 Bush-Clinton presidential election, with dreams of becoming the next Katie Couric.

“But what I learned from that internship is that I didn’t want to be the next Katie Couric — the news doesn’t stop; the news doesn’t work 9 to 5 — but I did have this passion for the television business overall,” she said.

After a year touring Asia, she landed a job in international marketing with Turner International in Hong Kong before moving back to the headquarters in Atlanta. After that, McAvoy was director of affiliate marketing at Oxygen Media and senior manager of affiliate marketing for MTV. She then moved to Comcast Spotlight, where was director of corporate marketing, managing the company’s advertising agency, Cramer-Krasselt, and developing and creating consumer ad campaigns, on-air spots, direct mail campaigns and sales videos.

After years of corporate busyness, she left to forge out on her own. “I freelanced at a few different places. I got married during that time,” said McAvoy, who celebrates her 10-year anniversary this summer. The couple has 7-year-old twins. “It was a nice break from the full-time capacity that I had been operating at that point in my career. It got me in a place where I was really clear about where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do.”

A few months at Bravo helped solidify her decision. “That was the very beginning of Real Housewives; it was the first year, Top Chef was on fire and the beginning of branded entertainment and integrations,” she remembers. “That time spent at Bravo — seeing how the upfront and the ad sales worked — got me ready to come here.”

Said Abbott: “I could see right out of the gate that she was a star and was going to be with us for a very long time.”

‘HALL OF FAME’ WORK

Recently, McAvoy worked on the “brand refresh” for the 65th anniversary of the “Hallmark Hall of Fame” movie franchise. “That was almost like a rebrand in and of itself,” she said. Its most recent film, Love Locks, aired this month starring real-life couple Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O’Connell. McAvoy also led the ad campaign featuring Glenn Close as the voice for Hallmark Hall of Fame. “There are some other projects that Crown Media has in the works,” McAvoy said, “so there will definitely be more of the Hallmark brand out there in the press.”

And keeping Hallmark’s entertainment brand identity strong with viewers — whether via linear or streaming service — will continue to be McAvoy’s priority. “Strong network brands will potentially be in a more powerful position given all of the fragmentation because people are going to consume their content one way or another,” she said, “and they’re going to want know exactly what they’re going to get.”

COLLEEN LANGNER

NAME: Colleen Langner

TITLE: Senior Vice President, Marketing Operations

COMPANY: Cox Communications

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Helped launch cable’s first triple-play bundle while a Cox marketer in Orange County, Calif. Launched first Cox Solutions Stores (there are now more than 100). Steadily adding responsibilities, she now leads all marketing operations, including customer acquisition and retention teams, and media planning and buying, reporting to EVP Mark Greatrex.

QUOTABLE: “I always want to be in a role where I’m closest to the consumer. The consumer will tell you their wants and desires.”

Read More >Celebrating Media's Influential Women: The 'MCN' Wonder Women Class of 2017|Meet 2017's 12 'MCN' Women to Watch|The 'MCN' Wonder Women Online Archive

Colleen Langner got “the cable bug” with her first job out of college (Marquette University), working with the cable marketing council in her hometown of Chicago. The road to her current role as senior vice president of marketing operations for Cox Communications included milestones like helping the MSO launch broadband Internet service, digital telephone and digital cable in a groundbreaking three-service bundled offering in Orange County, Calif.

Her husband Dan’s job took them west, in 1990; her career rise at Cox brought them to Atlanta about four years ago. Along the way, they have raised three teenage sons who have grown up with the business.

“I had my oldest when digital cable launched, and I had my second when high-speed Internet came around and then, when I had my third, it was phone,” she said recently, referring to 19-year-old Jack, 16-year-old Corey and 14-year-old Ryan. “My husband said to me, ‘There’s no more products.’ So thank God we didn’t launch home security until recently.”

‘COOL AS A CUCUMBER’

That sense of humor is part of what makes Langner, in Cox chief operating officer Jill Campbell’s words, “an extremely positive, optimistic leader.”

Campbell gave an example. During a period last year when Cox was trying to increase its average revenue per customer and people were bombarding Langner with ideas, Langner remained “cool as a cucumber,” thanking everyone and praising their suggestions.

“She never, never says negative things,” Campbell said. “People really want to follow her and they will take the hill because of how she presents things.”

Mark Greatrex, Cox’s chief marketing and sales officer, credits her help as a key lieutenant in leading two big transformations of the marketing team, moving from state-by-state approaches to a centralized one with nationwide portfolios in categories such as customer acquisition and retention and digital outreach.

Among other attributes, she’s agile at tweaking campaigns on the fly and moving marketing resources around quickly as needed, Greatrex said. “In a very high change environment, that’s tremendously important.”

Change was certainly in the air in mid 1990s Orange County, when Cox began offering an alternative to the then-Pacific Bell phone monopoly and introduced high-speed Internet to consumers weary of dial-up modems. “We used to say with high-speed Internet, we all lived in Missouri, the show-me state. People had to see it to believe it, to see how fast it was.”

Digital cable, which upped the channel ante from 30 to hundreds and added an on-screen guide to sort through them, was another revelation marketers wanted consumers to experience first hand.

Kip Simonson, who was Langner’s boss at the Cox system back then (and now works at Mediacom Communications), said Langner was adept at helping branch out into this new realm of retail marketing. One weekend, Simonson said, Cox set up a 10,000-square-foot tent in the parking lot of a CompUSA store and, he recalled, more than 5,000 people showed up to try out the new products.

“She was a huge help in setting up big events,” he said.

The Mediacom marketer saw Langner at the recent CES in Las Vegas. In an interview shortly after the gadget-fest ended, Langner said highlights for her were “around smart home: home security, home innovation and how our products are now working together.”

Keeping up (or even staying ahead) of what consumers want nowadays leads Langner into marketing those home-monitoring and automation services in Cox Homelife, and clueing Cox consumers into the benefits of the new Contour video platform, with voice remote and enhanced search, and Gigabit Internet.

When Cox reintroduced Contour — now incorporating X1 technology developed by Comcast — she led an employee campaign within Cox to make everyone a knowledgeable ambassador for New Contour. “She has got tremendous collaboration and influencing skills,” Greatrex noted, both for communicating with her team of more than 100 employees and for dealing with her senior-management peers.

ALL ABOUT TEAM BUILDING

Langner said she gets a lot of satisfaction from watching the personal growth by members of her team as they learn new capabilities made possible by data and technology to get to new levels of marketing — “seeing how they’ve flourished and the accomplishments they’ve made not only at Cox but within the industry.”

“For me, it’s really around building teams that I can trust and know that people have your back,” she said. “That’s what I instill with my team members. And make sure they also stay close to the consumer. … I think that can lift and move the whole business forward.”

The youngest of six children, Langner’s dad (her pre-married surname was McKay) was a Chicago city policeman and her mom was a bank vice president.

In addition to Campbell and Greatrex and former Cox marketing chief Joe Rooney, Langner counts her mom, Pat, who is now 85, as a mentor “and a role model. Gosh, if she can do it with six kids. I only have three.”

Keeping up with her sons’ activities, including football and wrestling, keeps her busy outside of work. Since moving east from Southern California, the family maintains a love of the beach by visiting ones on the Gulf Coast, including Destin, Fla., and gets back to the Golden State at least a couple of times a year.

“I like to say there’s nothing that a good book and a walk on the beach can’t help.”

LISA WILLIAMS-FAUNTROY

TITLE: Senior Vice President for Business and Legal Affairs

COMPANY: Discovery Communications

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Jointly lead deal-making and legal production team for Discovery Channel’s Harley and the Davidsons; led deal-making and acquisition for Discovery’s global documentary Racing Extinction; served as key business and legal affairs executive on corporate joint-venture deals involving Hasbro, OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network and Travel Channel.

QUOTABLE: “A strong dedication to your values along with a commitment and belief in your personal and professional life goes a long way toward establishing yourself as a woman that can be recognized and appreciated.”

Read More >Celebrating Media's Influential Women: The 'MCN' Wonder Women Class of 2017|Meet 2017's 12 'MCN' Women to Watch|The 'MCN' Wonder Women Online Archive

Lisa Williams-Fauntroy has dutifully served as Discovery Communications’s legal warrior for nearly 20 years. Though she currently manages business and legal affairs matters for Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and Science Channel, Williams-Fauntroy during her career has worked behind the scenes for nearly every Discovery-owned network, negotiating complex deals relating to defamation, publicity, privacy and copyright issues.

In her formative years, though, Williams-Fauntroy wanted to be in front of the camera, the 2017 Wonder Women honoree said.

“I wanted to be a broadcast journalist,” she said. “I loved to write and I loved to talk ... my parents would cosign on that. I was news editor of my high school newspaper; I enjoyed photography; I was a news junkie.”

Growing up in Washington, D.C., with two brothers, Williams-Fauntroy said her parents — both professors at Howard University — were her biggest inspirations. Also serving as a role model to Williams-Fauntroy in the early 1980s was a then up-and-coming talk show host named Oprah Winfrey.

COMMUNICATIONS LAW BECKONED

“She was on the air in Baltimore when I grew up, so I feel like I had a chance to see her before she moved to Chicago and before she became as grand as she is,” she said. “For a young black girl, to see her on TV then was incredibly inspiring and encouraging.”

Smitten by the journalism bug, Williams-Fauntroy attended Syracuse University’s prestigious Newhouse School, majoring in broadcast journalism. But her studies would soon lead her to another calling.

“I loved my communications law class as a sophomore at Syracuse,” she fondly recalls. “Other people thought it was weird, but I geeked out over it and I decided to go to law school.”

Williams-Fauntroy would earn a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1994 before landing a job at the D.C. communications and entertainment law firm Roberts & Eckard (now Davis Wright Tremaine LLP).

“It was a great first start for me and I was very hand-son,” she said. “It wasn’t a big, shiny-floor corporate firm. It was more of a small, boutique firm where I got a lot of great experience.”

After two and a half years at the firm, she would take that experience to the legal department at Discovery Channel, then an emerging network.

“I think one of the benefits that I had was that there weren’t a lot of entertainment law firms in D.C., but my small firm had an entertainment law practice,” she said.

Williams-Fauntroy started at Discovery in 1997 as one of the most junior members of the legal department. It didn’t take her long to climb up the network’s corporate ladder. Marc Grab-off, Discovery Communications’s president of Global Business & Legal Affairs, PMD and Studios — to whom Williams-Fauntroy reports — called her a role model for people coming up within the organization and a future industry leader.

“Lisa is clearly the wonder woman of Discovery Channel as far as the business and legal affairs group is concerned,” Graboff said. “She’s a creative deal-maker — when she has deals in front of her that have difficulty being made, she comes up with creative solutions to get it done. That’s a skillset that not everyone has.”

Added Williams-Fauntroy: “I had the opportunity to grow within Discovery. I’ve had an amazing opportunity to grow and evolve with the business.”

She attributed much of her success to great mentors such as former Roberts & Eckard partner Linda Eckard, former Discovery executive Doug Coblens, and former BET executive Maurita Coley, all of whom nurtured her through positive career moments, as well as difficult times.

Williams-Fauntroy is now a very active mentor herself, becoming a leader in Discovery’s MentorNet, a structured program that allows employees to apply for an in-house company mentor.

“I think mentoring for me as a beneficiary and mentoring for me as someone who can mentor others is invaluable and critical for so many purposes and cannot be underestimated,” she said.

She also serves as co-chair and executive sponsor for Discovery’s Black Cultural Alliance, comprised of more than 80 employees within the company. Along with mentoring up-and-coming young executives, Williams-Fauntroy said the BCA over the years has developed events and projects within Discovery that “recognize the importance of diversity in our content and in our employee base.”

ON BOARD AT NAMIC

She’s also mentoring industry executives through the National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Communications and currently sits on the diversity organization’s board.

Despite her busy schedule, Williams-Fauntroy makes sure to spend quality time with her husband Michael and her 9-year-old twins, Brett and Logan. Every so often, she finds time to indulge in her guilty pleasures of photography and watching music videos.

“I have a robust life,” she said “It’s like a pie of pizza with lots of slices and you want to give 100% to all of those slices.”

Her ability to effectively balance her work and home life has impressed many executives around her, including Michelle Rice, NAMIC board of directors chair and executive VP of content distribution and marketing for TV One. “I truly admire how effortlessly she seems to keep all the balls in the air,” Rice said. “This is no easy task for Lisa, who manages a busy East Coast-West Coast travel schedule, a demanding career, a young family and serves on multiple committees on the NAMIC board.”

Despite her lengthy and impressive list of accomplishments, Williams-Fauntroy said she hasn’t quite given up on her on-air aspirations.

“I was able to marry the areas of law and media,” she said. “The only thing I need to do now is to have my own TV show and I’d be happy.”

The editors of Multichannel News are proud to introduce the 2017 class of Wonder Women, the 19th such 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. Additionally, MCN this year will honor CBS News veteran and 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl as the inaugural winner of the Woman of Influence award, honoring her career in electronic journalism.

This year’s Wonder Women class will be lauded March 23 at a gala luncheon at the New York Hilton, cohosted 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. To read profiles and other editorial coverage of previous Wonder Women classes, click here.

PROFILES
Jana Bennett, History
Sandra Dewey, Turner
Laura Gentile, ESPN
Jessica Herrera-Flanigan, Univision
Colleen Langner, Cox
Susanne McAvoy, Crown Media Family Networks
Jamie Power, Modi Media
Linda Schupack, AMC and SundanceTV
Myrna Soto, Comcast
Christina Spade, Showtime
Sandra Stern, Lionsgate
Lisa Williams-Fauntroy, Discovery

WOMAN OF INFLUENCE
Leslie Stahl, CBS News

WOMEN TO WATCH

CHRISTINA SPADE

TITLE: Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

COMPANY: Showtime Networks

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: After graduating from St. Joseph’s University in 1991, Spade started working at PricewaterhouseCoopers as an auditor. Showtime named her vice president, programming finance in 1997, promoting her to senior vice president of affiliate and finance operations in 2003, finding funding for the premium channel’s fledgling original programming slate. Spade became EVP and CFO in 2013, after predecessor Jerry Scro retired.

QUOTABLE: “I’ve always had a high threshold for stress. I guess I’ve been through enough stress that it doesn’t rattle me.”

Read More >Celebrating Media's Influential Women: The 'MCN' Wonder Women Class of 2017|Meet 2017's 12 'MCN' Women to Watch|The 'MCN' Wonder Women Online Archive

To make it in the finance world, it helps to have a little pit bull to go alongside the requisite financial acumen and people skills. Showtime Networks executive vice president and chief financial officer Christina Spade has a healthy dose of all three of those traits.

“She knows how to be tough,” said one of her bosses, Showtime Networks chairman Matt Blank. “But somehow she manages to maintain that and does it in a way that she never offends anybody. People know that Chris knows her stuff. And they better know their stuff, too.”

Spade has been at Showtime for nearly 20 years, but her relationship with the company goes back even further. She audited the company’s books for accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers for five years before joining the programmer in 1997 as vice president of programming finance. She was promoted to senior vice president of affiliate and financial operations in 2003, in charge of finding and allocating funds for Showtime’s fledgling original series endeavors.

STARTED OUT ACCOUNTING

After financing Showtime originals from Dexter to Homeland, Spade was named EVP and CFO in 2013, taking over for Jerry Scro, who retired that year after more than two decades with the company.

Television wasn’t Spade’s career plan when she graduated from St. Joseph’s University in 1991 with an accounting degree. She got a job at Big Six accounting firm PwC, auditing companies in its Philadelphia office. After auditing a Philadelphia publishing company for a week, PwC decided she was ready to move to the New York office and its entertainment and media division.

“Showtime was very small back then,” Spade recalled. “They were a one-week audit. But I saw the potential of them breaking out. And even though they were small, they were growing. They were very feisty, very go-get-’em. It was a fun, entrepreneurial environment to be a part of.”

Showtime was an established premium movie channel when such channels were mostly all about movies. That changed after rival HBO broke through with The Sopranos. Suddenly, linear series were the rage and Showtime dove in headfirst.

Starting with series like Stargate SG-1 in 1997 and later with the likes of Weeds (2005), Dexter (2006), Nurse Jackie (2009) and current hits Homeland, Ray Donovan and Shameless, Showtime has become a force in scripted series.

But finding the money to invest in those shows required some belt-tightening. After being named SVP of affiliate and financial operations, Spade realized she would have to make some changes. The sales group, headed by SVP Jeff Wade, had too many people and some streamlining was in order. That’s where the feistier side of Spade’s personality came in handy.

“Jeff was a famous character,” Spade said. “He was tough and he was brutal and he liked to yell, a very full-of-life type of guy. I was very pit-bullish: I didn’t take any crap from anybody. As an auditor, you develop a thick skin.”

Showtime reorganized the group from 45 workers down to about 20 people, she said, automating some functions and preparing for the next distribution technology, nationwide direct-broadcast satellite.

Wade, who died of brain cancer in 2004, became a close friend and mentor for Spade, joining Blank; David Nevins, who is Blank’s successor as CEO; Showtime chief operating officer Tom Christie; and Joe Ianiello, chief operating officer of Showtime parent company CBS Corp., as executives who have helped her pilot her career.

The biggest catalyst has been Spade’s own savvy, said Blank. Spade’s financial tutelage has helped push Showtime profit margins in the mid-40% range — one of the highest in the business — by keeping a keen eye on costs as well as allocating funds for new projects.

One of those new projects was the Showtime standalone over-the-top service launched last year.

Nevins said Spade’s ability to allocate funds to different units when needed was critical to the standalone Showtime service’s successful launch.

“The way she balanced that throughout the year, she threaded the needle brilliantly and we’ve built a nine-figure business without denting margins,” Nevins said. “That takes a lot of finesse and execution.”

Spade said part of what attracted her to Showtime was the sense of family that pervaded the corporate culture. At no time was that more evident than when Spade was confronted with every parent’s nightmare, the loss of a child.

In December 2010, Spade’s 21-month old daughter, Alexandra Tilly Rettler, died after suddenly going into cardiac arrest.

“She was perfectly healthy,” Spade said. “We still don’t even know what happened. When you go through something like that, you have to look at every day as a gift.”

BUILDING A FOUNDATION

Shortly after, Spade; her husband, Luke Rettler, who heads up the New York County District Attorney’s Public Corruption Unit, and his colleague Eric Snyder set up the Alexandra Tilly Rettler Children’s Foundation, a non-profit organization geared to helping children in need.

Starting with a goal of raising $50,000, the foundation has raised more than $200,000 to date. Spade said her Showtime family helped her through that horrific time. “The support here is just amazing,” she said.

Spade and Rettler have two sons — Lee, age 10, and Brady, age 5 — and Showtime has enabled her to devote as much time as possible to them.“If my son has a play, I’m going to go to it, and I’ll check in before and after,” she said. “It’s accepted and encouraged. There is a lot of flexibility.”

Blank noted Spade’s own perseverance, character and strength.

“She has had certain personal challenges of the toughest kind,” he said. “I think those challenges have made her stronger and given her great perspective in everything she does, in terms of how she relates to people, her professional and personal goals. She’s a great mom, with a fantastic family. She’s one of the hardest working people I know. She’s competitive, determined — she hates it when she can’t get something done — and she has great self-awareness. I think she has unlimited potential at Showtime and CBS.”

In November, 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl sat down with then-President-elect Donald Trump for his first interview since his surprising election win over Hillary Clinton. Being in front of a breaking story is nothing new for the 40-year broadcast news veteran.

From her prominent coverage of the Watergate affair as a CBS reporter in 1972; to her stint as a CBS White House correspondent during the Carter, Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations; to her stint as moderator of Sunday-morning staple Face the Nation from 1983-91; to her 26-year run on 60 Minutes, Stahl has set a standard for future women — and men — in journalism. She has earned 12 Emmy Awards and, in 2015, she received the Paul White Award for lifetime achievement from the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA).

Stahl, the recipient of the inaugural Multichannel News Woman of Influence award, reflected on her career in an interview with Multichannel News programming editor R. Thomas Umstead. Stahl — whose most recent book, Becoming Grandma, will be released in paperback form in advance of Mother’s Day — also opines on the challenges that women reporters have experienced over the last four decades, as well as what broadcast journalism might look like in the future.

Following is an edited excerpt of their wide-ranging conversation.

Read More >Celebrating Media's Influential Women: The 'MCN' Wonder Women Class of 2017|Meet 2017's 12 'MCN' Women to Watch|The 'MCN' Wonder Women Online Archive

MCN:When you started your career in broadcast journalism more than 40 years ago, did you ever think that you would have achieved as much as you have?

Lesley Stahl: When I started back in the very early ’70s, it was kind of a rule of thumb for some that women would not survive on television past the age of 40. It was just a given — women will not be able to age on television. Everybody believed it; I believed it. That’s just the way it was. So the answer to your question is you no, I never thought I’d survive. I thought I’d have to go and find something else to do after I turned 40.

MCN:What was the turning point that changed things so women journalists like yourself could have long and rewarding TV careers?

LS: The women’s rights movement was just beginning to bubble up when I started out in this profession. My timing was exquisite — when I was hired by CBS News In 1972, I was working at a local television station in Boston at that point. In 1972, the word went out that affirmative action was in effect, and all three network-television news organizations were literally scouring the country for women and minorities. I heard about this and applied, so I think my timing was excellent. The early ’70s was the first wave and there have been waves and waves ever since.

MCN:How do you think women newscasters are viewed today, by the industry and by the public in general?

LS: I think they’re pretty used to it now. If you go to virtually any local market in the country and turn on your television at around 5 or 6 o’clock at night you’re probably going to see a man and a woman sitting there together giving the news, and in some markets, it’s just a woman. The sea change is enormous. I think that people don’t even think about it anymore.

MCN:A lot of people will attribute much of the success of today’s female newscasters to trail you blazed over your career. Were there certain events or certain stories that you covered that really stand out in your mind?

LS: Well, I think there were some breaks that I got. When CBS first hired me in April of 1972, the Watergate burglary happened. Now nobody, I mean nobody, thought that was going to be a national story. I had only been there a couple months and they sent me off to cover Watergate. That was probably my major break, and because I was assigned to a story that lasted for years. I was able to learn how to develop sources, investigate and dig, which I think reporters in the beginning of their careers don’t get a chance to do because they’re shuttled from one story to the next story.

MCN:What advice would you give to a young woman journalist looking to get into the business today?

LS: I’d say start out on the Web. You have to learn how to be a different kind of correspondent than I was because you’re probably not going to have the kind of backup I did. As a broadcast reporter, I’ve always had a camera pool and a producer travel with me — this was true when I covered the White House; it’s true today at 60 Minutes. If you’re a reporter online, you’re basically by yourself — you’re shooting the story yourself, you’re editing the story yourself, you’re doing everything — you’re what we call a one-man band. Journalism will not work the way it looks today, and broadcast journalists will not go about getting their stories out the way we do and did. It’s changed already. I’m just very lucky that I’m still at one of the few outlets that does it the old-fashioned way.

MCN:What’s next in the career of Lesley Stahl?

LS: Well, you know, 60 Minutes is this precious, separate little entity but it’s still extremely popular. Our ratings are very strong and because of that we really do journalism the old-fashioned way in many ways. Because we’re still very popular I don’t think we’re going to be going away all that soon, so that’s all good for me personally, and good for the country too because I think there is a hunger for what we do.

I think that people who are considering what journalism will look like on the Web ought to keep in mind that there is a huge audience for long, well-informed, well-reported, story-telling stories.

Related > Celebrating Media's Influential Women: The 'MCN' Wonder Women Class of 2017

Kelly Abcarian

TITLE: Senior Vice President, Product Leadership, Nielsen

WHY WE’RE WATCHING: Rising in the media research ranks at Nielsen since 2005, Kelly Abcarian oversees the strategic vision and roadmap for the firm’s National TV Ratings and Total Audience products, focused on the convergence of devices and crossplatform audience measurement. She was responsible for developing and delivering the first on-demand platform for the company’s Buy business and was instrumental in the delivery of Nielsen’s Online Campaign Ratings and Mobile Measurement Platforms.

MAJOR MENTORS: “The first one is Megan Clarken, president of product leadership at Nielsen. I truly would not be the person I am today without her influence. She has helped me to shape and build my personal brand by teaching me to consistently show up. She has also inspired me to raise my awareness of the value of how I may be perceived by others. The second one is Jack Wakshlag, the former chief research officer at Turner and current advisory board member at Simulmedia. Jack has inspired and encouraged me to challenge the status quo. He gave me the confidence that my ideas had value and merit and that there was a place for new and innovative ideas in media research and measurement.”

LIKES MOST ABOUT HER JOB: “I like that I am always learning something new while getting the opportunity to solve really hard problems with really smart people. The outcomes of those results for Nielsen and the industry at large are always gratifying.”

BEST CAREER ADVICE: “You don’t have to have all the answers to take on a new opportunity or a new role in your career. The expression ‘fake it until you make it’ can work, and if you have the passion, work ethic and the commitment to do something, those three ingredients are enough.”

ENJOYS DURING DOWNTIME: “Spending time with friends and family is key to my relaxation. They are the lifeline of my existence, and I attribute all of my successes to the love and support that they give me. I also ensure that I get my own downtime, as I find it allows for my own personal reflection and rest enabling me to recharge my batteries to take on the next set of challenges.”

Pam Bertino

TITLE: Senior Vice President, Content Distribution, Pop TV

WHY WE’RE WATCHING: At Pop, a CBS-Lionsgate network seen in about 80 million homes, Pam Bertino leads content distribution and marketing as well as digital and international distribution, while overseeing content distribution and marketing teams based in Los Angeles. Since she joined Pop in 2014, she has helped the network secure new carriage agreements (along with key renewals) that added millions of homes in 2016. She reports to general counsel and COO David Mandell. Prior to Pop, she was senior VP of content distribution at Ovation in Los Angeles, after spending 15 years in distribution and affiliate roles at The Weather Channel. Earlier in her career, she served as VP, residential sales at Digital Music Express Inc. and worked on the Nissan Worldwide account at Chiat/Day/Mojo.

MAJOR MENTORS: “Decker Anstrom and Debora Wilson from The Weather Channel. Together we built the company to be the most-distributed cable network with more than 100 million subscribers — more than any other cable network at the time. These are two of the smartest and most people-oriented leaders I have ever known, who had the deep belief that great companies are made when the people running the company and doing the work are heavily invested in, listened to, supported, developed and well-compensated. This makes all the difference in the world.

LIKES MOST ABOUT HER JOB: “The smart, super-creative people I work with on a day-to-day basis! We spend so much time in our working lives, and it is very important to enjoy working with great teams to bring new ideas to fruition. Great teamwork is the foundation to making amazing things happen.”

BEST CAREER ADVICE: “Treat the people you work with the same way you’d like to be treated yourself, with respect, kindness and dignity. Seek out their ideas, listen to them, and give them space to grow, and they will go the extra mile for you and the company.”

ENJOYS DURING DOWNTIME: “My favorite thing to do is spend time with my 9-year-old son, Kasher — riding bikes, watching Cartoon Network, traveling with him and watching him grow!”

Read More > The 'MCN' Wonder Women Online Archive

Jocelyn Diaz

TITLE: Executive Vice President, Original Programming, EPIX

WHY WE’RE WATCHING: With bona fides established at ABC, HBO and elsewhere, Jocelyn Diaz joined EPIX in 2015, charged with building and creating the network’s first-ever foray and pipeline into original series. Less than a year and thousands of scripts later, EPIX launched not one but two scripted shows in 2016 with another (Get Shorty) slated for 2017. Filmed at different ends of the world (one, Graves, shot in New Mexico and the other, Berlin Station, on location in Berlin, Germany), Diaz regularly traveled to both sites, overseeing the direction and creation to make sure every detail was in place to be worthy of EPIX’s premiere shows. She came to EPIX from being vice president, Walt Disney Motion Picture Production, overseeing live-action feature development and production for the studio. Before taking on that role in 2011, she was vice president, HBO Entertainment, drama series, responsible for overseeing the development and production of dramatic series for the network, including such series as Boardwalk Empire and Big Love. She joined HBO from ABC Television where, over the course of several years, she worked on such award-winning series as Lost, Ugly Betty, Pushing Daisies, NYPD Blue, The Practice and The Drew Carey Show.

MAJOR MENTORS: “I have been blessed to have many mentors every step of my career from the beginning at ABC through today.”

LIKES MOST ABOUT HER JOB: “I like the breadth of things I get to work on — documentaries, comedies, scripted series, etc. And I love working closely with the creators of these projects to take ideas, develop them and turn them into stories and characters that connect with an audience.”

BEST CAREE RADVICE: “I would offer that working at something you love with a supportive work environment is the brass ring. I would focus on both of those aims and not lose sight of one or the other. If the work is great but the environment isn’t positive, the work and eventually one’s self will suffer.”

ENJOYS DURING DOWNTIME: “I love to hike, travel, read, cook and spend as much time with family and friends as possible.”

Carol Hinnant

TITLE: Senior Vice President, National Television, comScore

WHY WE’RE WATCHING: Carol Hinnant has been a driving force in Rentrak-comScore’s television measurement from day one, including playing an integral role in signing CNBC, the company’s first major broadcast network for the TVEssentials service, while also working with other “early day” clients such as Bloomberg Television and MTV. She continues to negotiate some of the company’s largest network deals, recently having taken on the additional role of selling digital and cross-platform services to the industry since the merger of Rentrak and comScore in early 2016. Prior to comScore, she worked for 16 years at Rentrak, lastly as senior vice president, National Television Sales. She entered the media business via HBO’s legal department.

MAJOR MENTORS: “It was my parents that instilled a love of learning and created an appreciation of work ethic that have propelled me in my career, so I would have to say they were my earliest mentors. John Redpath, Matthew Kasman and Cathy Hetzel have been the strongest influence in my media career. I feel very privileged to have received such great training during my tenure at HBO. Both the legal and sales operations experience positioned me well for every job I have had since my departure in 1998. Bill Livek and Chris Wilson have challenged me and pushed me to greater success and I deeply respect their talents, but I would have to say that Cathy Hetzel has been my greatest role model, mentor and friend over the last 10 years and I wouldn’t be here without her sage advice and leadership.”

LIKES MOST ABOUT HER JOB: “The variety of people, networks and challenges that are presented daily are what I enjoy most about my job, I am never bored. I love learning about my client’s business and challenges and using my experience and comScore’s measurement resources to find solutions.”

BEST CAREER ADVICE: “At any point in your career, if you approach each task or challenge with a mindset of learning something new, you will always find your work rewarding.’

ENJOYS DURING DOWNTIME: “I enjoy spending time with my children, extended family and good friends — whether that be on the golf course, beach, taking a walk or enjoying a great meal.”

Marva Johnson

TITLE: Vice President, State Government Affairs-South, Charter Communications

WHY WE’RE WATCHING: Marva Johnson, the former corporate vice president of government and industry affairs at Bright House Networks, now with Charter Communications, oversees state government affairs in nine Southern states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. She had joined Bright House (acquired by Charter last year) in 2006 and helped bring the company’s competitive local-exchange carrier (CLEC) forward from concept to operational reality, as Bright House became the second-largest wireline provider of voice services in Florida. Earlier, she had been general counsel at Supra Telecommunications and VP and senior counsel for KMC Telecommunications.

MAJOR MENTORS: “I have been fortunate to have had many mentors and coaches in my career, but there are two that stand out most prominently to me right now: Nomi Bergman and Roscoe Young. Both of these phenomenal individuals were excellent role models and demonstrated the power of leading with authenticity and a focus on excellence.”

LIKES MOST ABOUT HER JOB: “I love working in an industry that is rapidly improving the world we live in. With every upgrade on bandwidth and reliability we bring to the market, we open the door to more possibilities for new, more innovative, applications and services.”

BEST CAREE RADVICE: “While we should endeavor to always have a plan and a strategy, never be afraid to adjust your course to meet the changing landscape. Sometimes despite the vast wealth of educational, career and technical training we bring to the table, resiliency and flexibility are the skills that we need to conquer the new challenges in front of us.”

ENJOYS DURING DOWNTIME: “Spending time with my family tops the list every day. Raising a family and managing in a two career household has its challenges. We try to make sure that we never take the time that we spend together for granted.

Vicki Jones

TITLE: Senior Vice President, Customer Experience and Operations, AT&T Entertainment Group

WHY WE’RE WATCHING: Vicki Jones’s team is responsible for end-to-end Customer Experience strategy, investment and execution, and overall operations support for AT&T’s mobility and consumer businesses, including channels such as retail sales and distribution, sales and service centers, commercial and connected communities. Her team also supports the Apple relationship and the wireless reseller business — business units that generate more than $120 billion in annualized revenue. Her team also owns the delivery of FCC merger conditions associated with the DirecTV transaction and Entertainment Group compliance and audit support. Earlier, she held numerous leadership positions within AT&T and DirecTV.

MAJOR MENTORS: ”I have had many men and women who have served as mentors throughout my career. And I have learned from all of them. What is perhaps unique is that most of my mentors have been women. It is great that AT&T has had so many women in leadership positions who have supported the advancement of other women.“

LIKES MOST ABOUT HER JOB: “From the first day of my career I have loved serving customers. The products and services we provide are at the center of people’s lives, so finding ways to make their experiences effortless and inspiring are huge motivators for me. I have the privilege of leading the Customer Experience and Operations team for AT&T’s consumer businesses. We have the unique opportunity to deliver a set of integrated solutions for mobilized entertainment that customers can only get from AT&T. Our Chairman and CEO places Customer Experience as one of his top priorities which gives us support to make necessary investments to help achieve our objectives.”

BEST CAREER ADVICE: “Dream big and avoid limited thinking. Build a strong network of trusted partners. Be resilient and positive.”

ENJOYS DURING DOWNTIME: “My husband and I enjoy spending time with our family and friends and playing golf together.”

Jacki Kelley

TITLE: Chief Operating Officer, Bloomberg Media

WHY WE’RE WATCHING: Rising from intern to senior vice president of advertising at USA Today before working at other wellknown brands such as Yahoo!, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, UM WW and IPG Mediabrands, Jacki Kelley has made an indelible mark on each organization. At Bloomberg Media since 2014, she has formalized programs focused on the recruitment, development and retention of diverse employees, making her one of Bloomberg’s champions of inclusion. She spearheaded this year a six-part TV and video series “Big Problems, Big Thinkers,” targeting solutions to big threats facing humanity.

MAJOR MENTORS: “I have been fortunate to be mentored by many as I pick people first, then roles and companies! It’s one of the reaons I came to Bloomberg Media as our CEO, Justin Smith, is a proven visionary and a compassionate leader. One mentor that I often single out is Tom Curley, who was the president and publisher of USA Today before becoming the head of the Associated Press. While many people have believed in me and advocated for my growth, Tom pushed me at a time when I was certain I was not ready for the role. I was less experienced than my peers and lacked the confidence to believe I could do the job. He saw things in me that I did not yet see in myself and he pushed me to stretch. I am grateful that rather than seeing my hesitation as weakness, he pushed me to gain a new level of confidence.”

LIKES MOST ABOUT HER JOB: “In a world of growing populism and fake news, I could not be more excited about the important role that Bloomberg plays and the value we bring to our audience, advertisers and distribution partners. Also, most people don’t realize that a majority of Bloomberg profits go to Bloomberg Philanthropies, which is making the world a better and safer place on many levels. Knowing our efforts are creating lasting change is a real point of pride for all of us at Bloomberg.”

BEST CAREER ADVICE: “My career advice is to pick people. We all spend a lot of time at work and it has to be something that fills our souls and enhances our lives. At the essence of this is culture and leadership. Pick people that inspire you. Pick people that you can learn from. Pick people that have a track record of advocating for others. I would also offer to pick learning over climbing.”

Margaret Lazo

TITLE: Chief Human Relations Officer, Univision

WHY WE’RE WATCHING: At Univision Communications, the leading media company serving Hispanic America, Margaret Lazo leads human capital strategy, including leadership development, succession planning, advancing diversity and inclusion, organizational design, employee relations and compensation and benefits. In line with the organization, her goal is to attract the finest talent in the industry to UCI while retaining and empowering the team currently in place. Lazo joined UCI from GE Capital, where she lately served as human resources leader for the North American Commercial Lending and Leasing businesses. Earlier, she served in a number of human-resources leadership roles at NBCUniversal, including for the cable and broadcast entertainment and digital properties, for Telemundo Communications Group and for NBC’s owned television stations division. She began her career in human-resources management at retailer Macy’s.

MAJOR MENTORS: “I have been fortunate to work with a terrific cadre of professionals throughout my career, both in human resources and outside, whom I have learned from, who have pushed me to take on many challenges and helped me evolve my own leadership style and remain in my circle of trusted go-to advisers today.”

LIKES MOST ABOUT HER JOB: “Partnering with my colleagues to achieve strategic objectives through their teams keeps me energized. Identifying talent and coaching for success is very rewarding; I truly enjoy seeing people grow and flourish in their careers.”

BEST CAREER ADVICE: “Seek out opportunities to grow experientially. Raise your hand for the challenging assignment, whether it’s a business turnaround or a new venture, something that takes you out of your comfort zone, and make your mark. With high risk comes high reward. You will benefit tremendously from the experience and likely leap forward for doing so. I always say, the tough stuff makes you stronger!”

ENJOYS DURING DOWNTIME: “These days, it’s enjoying quality time with my family. My three-year-old twin daughters keep me busy!”

Lauren LoFrisco

TITLE: Executive Vice President, Distribution and Business Management, iN DEMAND

WHY WE’RE WATCHING: Lauren LoFrisco heads up the team that focuses on the transactional content distribution company’s distribution sales, research and public relations initiatives. Her team works closely with multi-video provider clients and programming partners to find product and marketing efficiencies and promotions to improve buys and revenue of video-on-demand, pay-perview and multi-platform services. Earlier, she was group VP of marketing for Time Warner Cable and before that helped launch the Road Runner High Speed Online broadband service as VP of marketing. She also was a distribution account director at HBO and started out in cable ad sales at Harron Communications.

MAJOR MENTORS: “Only after years of working in the industry and my participation in the Betsy Magness Leadership Institute did I truly understand the influence my family’s strong women had on me. My grandmothers were both very independent women whose unique core beliefs inspired multiple generations. And my mother’s tenacity and flexibility in managing major shifts is part of my DNA.”

LIKES MOST ABOUT HER JOB: “The thrill of identifying an opportunity and launching a plan to leverage iN DEMAND’s strengths to the benefit of our clients and programming partners. I love the dynamic change underway in the VOD universe, and the exponential growth in consumer video entertainment options.”

BEST CAREER ADVICE: “With Change Comes Opportunity. Learn from your mistakes. Create your own personal board of directors who can provide guidance and honest feedback. Spend thoughtful time to continuously learn. Present both challenges and positive encouragement to others.”

ENJOYS DURING DOWNTIME: “I appreciate the time I can spend with my husband, my family and my friends. With two teens, I am in a daily role of mentoring, only they don’t respond as positively as mentees that I have had the pleasure of working with!” I love to watch movies, hike, go boating and travel to new places.”

Kathy McMahon

TITLE: Vice President of Affiliate Sales, NBC Sports Regional Networks

WHY WE’RE WATCHING: Kathy McMahon, in a position she has held since 2007, oversees all aspects of affiliate sales, marketing and operations for NBC Sports Group’s eight regional sports networks, including CSN Philadelphia, CSN Bay Area, CSN Chicago, CSN Mid-Atlantic and SportsNet New York. She is responsible for the distribution of networks that televise more than 2,200 live sports events per year, along with award-winning news and analysis programming, to more than more than 43 million homes in the nation’s top markets. McMahon joined NBC Sports Regional Networks (then Comcast Sports Group) from CSN Mid-Atlantic and its predecessor, Home Team Sports (HTS). During her 12 years with the Washington, D.C./Baltimore-area network, she held a number of positions, including vice president of marketing and affiliate relations from 2002 to 2007. McMahon and her husband, Trent, reside in Brookeville, Md., with their three children. She is a Washington area native.

MAJOR MENTORS: “I have been fortunate to have several great mentors. One in particular is Dana Zimmer, who introduced me to the industry. She is very talented and always took the time and effort to share her knowledge and experience, while always maintaining a good sense of humor in the most challenging times. Dana remains a good friend and colleague.”

LIKES MOST ABOUT HER JOB: “Luckily, quite a lot. Working in sports and having the opportunity to learn from the industry’s best and brightest is inspiring, especially as we grow and adapt in this rapidly changing media landscape. I also enjoy that every day brings new and unique challenges and that my role allows me to work with many great colleagues across the company, our networks and our league and team partners.”

BEST CAREER ADVICE: “Ask a lot of questions and be curious. If you continue to learn and accept new challenges, great opportunities will follow.”

ENJOYS DURING DOWNTIME: “Spending time with my husband and three children and enjoying the Chesapeake Bay, especially its beautiful sunsets.”

Shereta Williams

TITLE: President, Videa

WHY WE’RE WATCHING: Shereta Williams brings two decades of professional and industry experience to Videa, the programmatic TV vendor owned by Cox Media Group. Videa partners with TV stations to deliver a live, supply-side marketplace for full schedule, forward reserve ad inventory that can be ordered weeks or quarters in advance. As president, she leads the organization’s overall strategic and product direction.

She has more than a decade of experience with Cox in various investment, strategy and development roles focused on digital media and broadcast television. Prior to Videa, she served as managing director at a financial start-up focused on algorithmic trading, and she began her career in mergers and acquisitions at Lazard.

Williams is passionate about developing products and services that solve large-scale problems. She has a degree in Electrical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she served as president of the National Society of Black Engineers. When she is not leading the team at Videa, she is most likely on a hiking trail or boating in north Florida.

MAJOR MENTORS: “Like most folks, my biggest mentors are people you’ve never heard of — my parents, my early teachers, and later in life some of my biggest mentors have been my classmates from MIT, many of whom are leading various organizations around the world.”

LIKES MOST ABOUT HER JOB: “The opportunity to solve a large-scale problem by building a team of really smart and fun people. I have been lucky to work for a great company for a very long time, so being able to create growth and contribute to the Cox story is also very rewarding.”

BEST CAREER ADVICE: “My career advice, and advice for life in general, can be boiled down to two things — be true to yourself and do what you love. These two things should lead you to a good path.”

ENJOYS DURING DOWNTIME: “Anything outdoors — hiking, kayaking, walking our dog, traveling somewhere beautiful or different, and of course spending time with family and friends — preferably over good food and drinks.”

Amy Winter

TITLE: Executive Vice President and General Manager, UP TV

WHY WE’RE WATCHING: Amy Winter oversees and offers creative guidance for UP TV’s brand and programming, including the development and production of movies, scripted series and unscripted series, as well as scheduling and acquisitions, marketing, public relations, digital and social media. Since joining the network, she has significantly re-energized its brand. Under the tagline “We Get Family,” UP increased its second-quarter ratings and saw its average audience age fall by almost 10 years. UP scored with a Gilmore Girls binge-a-thon that led up to the Netflix’s launch of new episodes of the series. Other originals and acquisitions include Growing Up McGhee; Small Town, Big Mayor; Bringing Up Bates and Parenthood. Winter joined UP in 2015 from Discovery Communications, where she was executive VP and general manager of TLC.

MAJOR MENTORS: “My mother, who taught me empathy and insight by constantly asking me ‘How would that make you feel?’ Eileen O’Neill, my former boss at Discovery, for her combination of competitive nature and compassion. Charley Humbard, CEO of UP, [who taught me] the fearlessness of being purpose-driven.”

LIKES MOST ABOUT HER JOB: “My favorite part of my job happens in two parts: the first is being in a room full of talented people as they get excited about an idea that we are bringing to life and watching as they take it on, own it and talk through how to make it even better. The second is when they return with the results of all their work — and it’s surprising and delightful and even better than you expected. The thing is, though, I expect to be delighted like that every time.”

BEST CAREER ADVICE: “I believe that the greatest creativity occurs in teams with trust. If you haven’t nurtured that environment even the most talented people can lose focus or play too safe or against each other and the work suffers because collaboration breaks down. It is a must to be competitive, but I’ll never understand why some environments turn that competition inwardly resulting in bad blood. We all want to win. Let’s win together.”

ENJOYS DURING DOWNTIME: “Now there’s a thought. What WOULD I do?”

SANDRA DEWEY

TITLE: President, TNT and TBS Productions and Business Affairs, Head of Studio T

COMPANY: Turner

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Early in her career, Dewey was an associate at the law firm Greenberg Glusker. She joined Turner in 1994. Prior to her last promotion in 2015, she was executive vice president, head of business affairs for Turner Entertainment Networks and Cartoon Network Originals.

QUOTABLE: “I have gone at my job, starting from when I was a junior person until now, in a way that is without artifice — in a way that doesn’t involve a lot of posturing, and is direct and truthful.”

Read More >Celebrating Media's Influential Women: The 'MCN' Wonder Women Class of 2017|Meet 2017's 12 'MCN' Women to Watch|The 'MCN' Wonder Women Online Archive

Sandra Dewey makes no bones about her “most pressing” personal and professional challenge right now.

“I’m absolutely determined to make every effort to help break through the obstacles that still prevent women from moving forward in our business in the way they should,” said Dewey, who is president of TNT and TBS productions and business affairs, as well as head of Turner’s original programming unit, Studio T.

“I’m really motivated to be an agent of force and change. That’s at the top of my agenda,” she added.

It’s an agenda with a whole lot of other responsibilities and challenges, not the least of which is raising two teenage girls as a single parent. One of her biggest at Turner is preparing TBS and TNT for the future, alongside Kevin Reilly, president of the two channels. “Our industry is extremely challenged to find out our next iteration of the entertainment model,” Dewey said. “I spend a lot of time thinking about that. It’s daunting but exciting.”

CULTURE SHIFT AHEAD

Part of that future-building involves Time Warner Inc.’s pending merger with AT&T, and how Turner’s parent will meld into the telecommunications giant, noted Brett Weitz, executive vice president of TBS original programming. Culturally, AT&T is quite different than Time Warner and its Turner programming unit.

“She’s got a lot on her plate, but when you sit down with her, you’d never know that any of that exists,” said Weitz, who has worked with Dewey for about eight years and admires her coaching skills.

“She’s an inspiring leader to everybody, from the receptionist, to the guy that restocks the toilet paper, to executive vice presidents in the company,” he added. “There’s a lot of superficial conversations that occur in this business, but every time you have a conversation with Sandra, it’s a real conversation. You’re left feeling moved, inspired and ready to roll.”

One of Dewey’s biggest accomplishments in recent years has been creating Studio T, which currently has 15 shows in production. “It’s become one of the most prolific studios in the entire business,” Weitz said. “Three or four years ago, TNT and TBS weren’t producing any of their own content.”

Sarah Aubrey, TNT’s executive vice president of original programming, described Dewey as an agitator. “She’s always pushing us to keep our eyes constantly on the horizon.”

There’s a running theme in how Dewey is described by agents and other people who do business with her, Aubrey said: “Sandra’s tough but fair, and always keeps the big picture in mind about what we want and need. She’s a hardnosed negotiator, but at the same time, she’s someone that people enjoy talking to.”

As Turner’s lead dealmaker, Dewey has created ongoing relationships with the likes of Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard and Conan O’Brien. She oversaw deals with Samantha Bee and Jason Jones for their two series, Full Frontal With Samantha Bee and The Detour, as well as for Steve and Nancy Carell’s Angie Tribeca, which is also produced by its star, Rashida Jones. Those shows, among cable’s top-ranked new comedies, are key to TBS’s rebranding.

On the TNT side of the house, Dewey oversaw deals for the series Animal Kingdom from John Wells Productions and an upcoming international coproduction with the U.K.’s Channel 4, Foreign Bodies.

Dewey said she doesn’t carry around any of those accomplishments as a “badge of honor.” But she’s particularly proud of her promotion to president, which occurred about two years ago — around 20 years after she joined Turner.

“I’m really keenly aware of what it takes to make that happen,” she said. “It is a really long and difficult road, particularly for women.

“I know that if I sit on that perch, I can talk to other people about what it means to be there. And I can think of it as a place where I can help and lead and encourage other people to be there too. And that means a lot to me.” One of her outlets for doing that is leading the Los Angeles division of a mentoring program called Turner Women Today.

The people aspect of running a business tends to get glossed over, Dewey said. Oftentimes, profits and losses, not exceptional staff members, are the focus of attention when measuring success. Dewey said she takes pride in getting the best people and encouraging them to do remarkable work.

“It takes a real eye and understanding to bring that out in people,” she said. “I pay a lot of attention to that. It’s a hugely satisfying part of my job.”

LEARNED FROM FIELDS

There was nothing about her childhood that suggested Dewey would become president of an entertainment company. She was raised in a small town in Northern California in the foothills below Lake Tahoe. But she ended up going to law school, and eventually worked for Bert Fields, the well-known entertainment lawyer.

Fields taught her some profound lessons. “He never was ill-mannered, under any circumstances,” Dewey said. “He won his cases and arguments by being well-prepared and well-spoken and presenting the right arguments.”

Women are often underestimated at the negotiating table, she noted, especially when they are well-mannered or gentle. She doesn’t do as much direct deal-making today as she once did, but in earlier years, “I could always tell when people were underestimating me. It was really easy for me to tease them along until the moment when I would be able to show my hand,” she said.

“You can’t confuse politeness with strength,” Dewey added. “But now I’ve been around a long time, and everyone knows me. There’s no mystery.”

SANDRA STERN

TITLE: President, Lionsgate Television Group

COMPANY: Lionsgate Entertainment

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: As part of senior management team for past 15 years, led efforts to triple Lionsgate’s TV slate, now comprising 90 shows on 40 networks. As head of business affairs at New World Entertainment, put together the first-ever international co-production for a U.S. broadcast network. Formerly head of business affairs for the Columbia TriStar Television Group; and founding COO of the Artists Television Group.

QUOTE: “I’m always looking for new and interesting ways to tell a story, and to get that story in front of a new audience.”

Read More >Celebrating Media's Influential Women: The 'MCN' Wonder Women Class of 2017|Meet 2017's 12 'MCN' Women to Watch|The 'MCN' Wonder Women Online Archive

There was a moment, early in her trailblazing career, when a visitor came to Sandra Stern’s office seeking information from the young lawyer.

When the man saw her younger, male assistant, the visitor, confused, introduced himself, then turned to Stern — and asked her to get them coffee.

The veteran Hollywood dealmaker laughs now at the slight — as she did back then — and turns on a confident smile and easy voice that has fueled her steady rise through sometimes prickly negotiations in Hollywood as president of the Lionsgate Television Group.

“I was fortunate enough to be raised by two parents who told me I could do anything I wanted to do,” said the Brooklyn, N.Y.- born Stern, the daughter of a civil servant and a bookkeeper, and the first woman in her family to get a college degree.

Fresh back from the Women’s March on Washington, D.C. (she brought her niece’s daughter), today Stern is at the white hot center of deal-making for one of the fastest growing entertainment companies in the United States: Lionsgate, a filmed entertainment powerhouse consistently breaking revenue records.

DEALS UPON DEALS

Lionsgate recently acquired Starz for $4.4 billion, and stakeholder John Malone called Lionsgate “the gravitational center of the consolidation of free radicals,” or small, independent content companies.

Stern has been a key player on the senior management team for the past 15 years, working alongside CEO Jon Feltheimer and TV Group chairman Kevin Beggs, instrumental in tripling the size of Lionsgate’s television slate, which includes 90 series on more than 40 U.S. networks. In particular, Stern is responsible for uniquely constructed international TV and streaming platform deals.

“I have worked with Sandra for over 30 years, and I’m proud to say that she is our Wonder Woman,” Feltheimer said. “She’s a game-changer, an innovator and a skilled negotiator who understands how to create win/win scenarios for Lionsgate and our partners.”

Stern led negotiations on Lionsgate’s most iconic series, including Mad Men (AMC), Weeds (Showtime), Orange is the New Black (Netflix), The Royals (E!), Casual (Hulu), Greenleaf (OWN) and Nashville (CMT, Hulu).

She also pioneered the deal structure for many of Lionsgate’s prized projects, including Step Up, the first original series for YouTube Red.

Her stature in the TV business is based on her ability to thrive in a period of disruption, and concoct distribution deals that work for all parties. “Every day is different and every deal is different,” she observed. “And what worked for Mad Men when we put it on AMC doesn’t necessarily work for Feed the Beast on AMC. Every deal is different. The pitch for Orange Is the New Black on Netflix is different than what we made for Dear White People on Netflix.”

“She is a force,” said Eric Tannenbaum at production company The Tannenbaum Co., who has known and worked with Stern for more than 15 years, first at Columbia TriStar and later at Artists Television Group. “My favorite thing about her is that she always figures out a way to make things work. It’s never ‘No.’ It’s, ‘How do we do it? Let’s figure it out.’ ”

“I like to collaborate,” Stern said. “I like to think that one plus one comes out to more than two.”

In negotiations with big studios and producers and networks, “she always has the philosophy ‘everybody should win,’ ” Tannenbaum said. “No one side should just take everything off the table. Make it work for everybody.”

Stern said she feels at home at an entertainment giant with a studio and distribution and pay channels, largely because of the philosophy of Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer. “Jon is a very unique executive,” said Stern. “He creates a culture where he believes you can be better than you believe you can be. And it’s really a culture of empowerment.”

With Feltheimer, Stern learned to take measured risk, based largely on her confidence. Together at a firm called New World Entertainment, they were having an issue trying to finance a TV series based on Zorro for a small cable network in the U.S. After many failed attempts, Stern got a bright idea: license the series to a production company in France that she knew.

Feltheimer put her on a plane to France. “I came home a week later with a check for $2.8 million,” she said. The money made it possible to finance the series, which was ultimately shot in Spain.

DON’T WORRY, BE FEARLESS

It was a very influential moment in her career. “It taught me to be fearless,” Stern said. “It caused me not to worry so much about what I don’t know — and focus on what I think I can do.” She never forgot the thrill of that victory, and long ago made a quiet promise to herself to help build that confidence in other young women coming up in the ranks.

The deal taught young Stern another thing about business — and the world of business. “The world is an international marketplace. Not a pin on a map. It was really a valuable lesson to not be so egocentric — and ethnocentric.”

Stern always wanted to be a writer; she loves the art of storytelling. “I’m always looking for new and interesting ways to tell a story,” said the former comparative literature major. “And to get that story in front of a new audience.”

A graduate of UCLA Law School, Stern began her career in the Columbia Pictures Television legal department. As head of business affairs and international development at New World Entertainment, she put together the first-ever international co-production for a U.S. broadcast network. She led business affairs for the Columbia TriStar Television Group before leaving to become founding COO of the ‘Artists Television Group. She joined Lionsgate in 2003.

Stern has directed much of her spare time on her passions: film, law and mentoring. She is a founding member of UCLA Law School’s Women’s LEAD program and serves on the boards of the UCLA School of Law Ziffren Center, the Saban Clinic, Women in Film and the Center Theatre Group. She is also prominent in Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Los Angeles, which recently honored her with its Excellence in Mentoring Award.

JESSICA HERRERA-FLANIGAN

TITLE: Executive Vice President of Government and Corporate Affairs

COMPANY: Univision Communications

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: As senior counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, she led the cybercrime investigation team and worked on cases such as the Melissa and Love Bug viruses; staff director and general counsel, Committee on Homeland Security, U.S. House of Representatives; partner, Monument Policy Group.

QUOTABLE: “To be a good leader, you have to be adaptive, but not abandon your beliefs, your personality and identity — and be nice to everybody.”

Read More >Celebrating Media's Influential Women: The 'MCN' Wonder Women Class of 2017|Meet 2017's 12 'MCN' Women to Watch|The 'MCN' Wonder Women Online Archive

When Jessica Herrera-Flanigan left her hometown of Port Arthur, Texas, to go to college, she dreamed of becoming a poet and a journalist. Despite her love of journalism and literature, her career goals evolved once she set foot at Yale University.

“I went to college to be a writer and I fell into law,” Herrera-Flanigan said. “I wanted to expand my horizons. I thought: How many different pieces can I put together in a world that keeps evolving?”

She never imagined where she would end up — as the head of the Washington, D.C., office of Spanish-language programmer and broadcaster Univision Communications — and the steps she’d take along the way. At Univision, her oversight includes government relations and public-policy functions, as well as the company’s community empowerment, philanthropy and corporate social responsibility (CSR) roles.

But as the driven person she is, the Yale and Harvard Law graduate knew she would achieve whatever she set her mind to.

“In each of the different things that I’ve done, I’ve always been really interested on building upon an opportunity,” she said. “It’s like connecting the lines between the dots in a maze. The biggest challenge is learning new aspects of each job.”

INTERESTS CONVERGE

The key pieces in her career maze are media, technology, law and public policy, and throughout the years, she’s managed to converge all of her interests.

“Media is what drove me … and I was fascinated with technology,” Herrera-Flanigan recalled. “When I came out of law school and came to D.C., I practiced communications until I was representing broadcasters. I also did intellectual property work and then focused on the convergence of the Internet. That’s when an opportunity came my way to join the Justice Department.”

Herrera-Flanigan emphasizes the point about opportunities — the ones we make for ourselves and the ones that come our way.

She was an associate at Crowell & Moring LLP in Washington, D.C., when she got the opportunity to work as senior counsel for the Department of Justice dealing with cybercrimes, online piracy, security and intellectual-property issues. On day 1, she was forced to deal with a major crisis: the Melissa virus.

“At that time, the office only had seven to eight attorneys and they came to me for help,” she recalled. “That became my first case at the Justice Department.”

The Melissa virus devastated government and private-sector networks, causing more than $80 million in damage to U.S. businesses.

“That shifted my career. I was focusing more on technology and cyber cases. I also became involved in looking for ways to engage businesses and encourage kids to use new technology. Then 9/11 happened and I worked in the online investigative part.”

Her next opportunity was in Congress, as staff director and general counsel for the Committee on Homeland Security. She worked with Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) on cybersecurity, privacy, civil rights and liberties and emerging technologies.

“She’s really an exceptional leader,” Lofgren said. “Her skill was such that she provided support not only for me, but also for the chairman of the committee, Rep. Mac Thornberry (RTexas), and achieved something very rare in the House: we actually had unanimous votes on issues and put out bipartisan reports on cybersecurity and other issues.”

Herrera-Flanigan has built a solid reputation as a hard-working professional, whose keen intellect, political acumen and conciliatory approach to tackling difficult and controversial issues are widely respected. “She’s super-smart, well-spoken, exceptionally well educated, politically astute and quite personable, which makes her easy to work with,” Lofgren said.

Those qualities attracted yet another opportunity, one that let her return to the private sector while keeping her D.C. ties. “Jess was being pursued by about everybody in town so we were lucky to get her,” said Stewart Verdery, who recruited her to join his government affairs and consulting firm, Monument Policy Group.

“Jess was the driving force creating the Reform Government Surveillance coalition of 10 or so major technology companies who pursued reforms to our surveillance laws and practices after the disclosures by Edward Snowden. Finding consensus between competitors with wildly different business models and then finding common ground with Congressional players and the law enforcement community to enact the USA Freedom Act in 2015, along with other reforms, was a signature achievement.”

After seven years in strategic consulting and advocacy work, Univision knocked on her door with an opportunity to return to her first passion, media.

Since she joined the Spanish-language media company in 2015, she has focused on building relationships with thought leaders and policy makers in D.C., while strengthening Univision’s community-engagement initiatives, corporate social responsibility and philanthropic work.

She also leads the company’s “Contigo” empowerment platform, which aims to create educational and career opportunities for Latinos through multiple media and technology initiatives.

ALWAYS ON THE GO

Herrera-Flanigan may be a big shot in D.C., but she has made her family a clear priority. A hands-on mother, she coaches her 6-year-old son’s little league team and will do the same for her 4-year-old daughter’s T-ball team in the spring, although she’s trying to convince her husband to help out.

“I’ve always been someone to overextend myself. I don’t sleep a lot. I’m always on the go,” she said. “In addition to balancing work life generally, it’s a challenge to balance all the other activities, prioritize and make it all work.”

“In my career I’ve always picked jobs that were interesting to me. When I went to Justice Department, it was because it was the cutting edge,” Herrera-Flanigan said. “It’s the startup mentality. When I went to the Hill, it was the startup of a new committee. Then, I left the Hill to start a new business. Coming to Univision, it’s the startup of building out this new capacity. That’s what intrigues me: it’s the building piece of things.”

“The decisions I made were great,” she added. “They gave me the experience and happiness in what I was doing. I would encourage people to follow what their passion is and not be afraid to take chances.”

The editors of Multichannel News have announced the 2017 class of Wonder Women, ahead of a celebratory luncheon event on March 23. The luncheon, co-sponsored by the New York chapter of Women in Cable Telecommunications, will be at the New York Hilton Midtown. Read more about Wonder Women, including profiles of previous honorees, at this news page and learn more about the luncheon at this link. Watch a video recap of the 2016 luncheon here.

The 12 members of the 2017 class of Wonder Women will be profiled in the Jan. 30 edition of Multichannel News; they are (in alphabetical order):

Jana Bennett, president and general manager, History.

Sandra Dewey, president, TNT and TBS production and business affairs, head of Studio T, Turner Broadcasting System Inc.

Laura Gentile, senior vice president, espnW and women’s initiatives, ESPN.

Jessica Herrera-Flanigan, executive vice president of government and corporate affairs, Univision Communications Inc.

Colleen Langner, senior vice president, marketing operations, Cox Communications Inc.

Susanne McAvoy, executive vice president, marketing, creative, and communications, Crown Media Family Networks

Jamie Power, managing partner, Modi Media.

Linda Schupack, executive vice president of marketing, AMC and SundanceTV.

Myrna Soto, senior vice president and global chief information security officer, Comcast Corp.

Christina Spade, executive vice president and chief financial officer, Showtime Networks Inc.

Sandra Stern, president, Lionsgate Television Group.

Lisa Williams-Fauntroy, senior vice president for business and legal affairs, Discovery Communications.

The 2017 class of Women to Watch will be announced separately.

Editor's note: this story was updated on Dec. 9 to reflect a change in the class members, including the addition of Jamie Power. 

NEW YORK — “Stick with the people, always go with the people,” AMC Networks president of national advertising sales Arlene Manos said when it was her turn to share life lessons, career advice and a funny story or two as a Multichannel News Wonder Woman.

Manos, one of 13 executives in the current class of Wonder Women (as chosen by the editors of this magazine), followed her own advice 25 years ago in accepting a job officer as an account executive at A&E Network. She turned down a higher-paying position at a magazine she discreetly didn’t identify during her remarks at the celebratory luncheon last Thursday (March 10).

Manos got a promotion to management a year later. And she didn’t need to threaten violence, as fellow Wonder Woman Karen Grinthal, the Scripps Networks Interactive senior vice president of national ad sales, said she did in the late 1980s.

Grinthal told 700-plus attendees at the Hilton New York that she had been passed over for promotion to management three times when she started out at “male bastion” Turner Broadcasting System. When a fourth opportunity arose, she put aside the presentation she had prepared and got a baseball bat from the sports department. She held it over her boss’s head and told him, “This e_ ng job is mine — give it to me.”

“And that’s how I became a manager in the cable industry,” Grinthal said, in one of the day’s better punchlines.

Megan Clarken, president of global product leadership at Nielsen, and Cindi Hook, senior vice president, general auditor and global risk officer at Comcast, became business leaders after injuries short-circuited planned careers as, respectively, a track-and-field athlete and a dancer.

Clarken — who had left school at 16 and became “a broken-down athlete” in her late 20s — found in herself “a determination to be the very best there was at something, a resilience to never give up, a curiosity to listen, ask and learn — and an acknowledgement that you cannot do it on your own.”

Hook said that when it came time to choose a new path “shockingly, ‘general auditor’ and ‘global risk officer’ wasn’t on the menu of career choices.”

But it turns out the jobs require similar skills, she said. A mantra for ballerinas is, “If it doesn’t hurt, you’re not doing it right,” she said, adding, “When we are doing our work as auditors and risk evaluators, if getting to the right answer doesn’t sometimes hurt a bit, you’re not doing it right.”

Fox Group executive vice president of litigation Jill Ratner was a skilled soccer player whose love of sports led to a career in the law. While on the University of California at Los Angeles soccer team, she helped found a group that threatened to sue the school over failure to provide equal opportunities for men and women athletes. She learned about “teamwork, standing up for what I believe in, perseverance and the power of the law.”

Stephanie McMahon, chief brand officer of WWE and daughter of the wrestling entertainment firm’s chairman, Vince McMahon, and former, CEO Linda McMahon, told a story about learning that women shouldn’t feel they have to “do it all” all the time, and “it’s OK to let go a little bit and rely on our support systems to help care for our children.”

Her daughter, Murphy, was sad that McMahon was unable to be at school to see Murphy’s second-grade project about endangered sea turtles because of the Wonder Women luncheon. McMahon’s husband, wrestler Paul “Triple H” Levesque, filled in admirably, and father and daughter had a great bonding experience. “And now I get to go home and show them proof that Mommy really is a Wonder Woman.”

“All working women, mothers or not, are going to have to make personal sacrifices,” McMahon said. “It will never be an even balance. You do the best you can to prioritize and make it work.”

Pam Kaufman, the chief marketing officer and president of consumer products at Nickelodeon Group, recalled starting at Nick 18 years ago when she was “a young, naïve executive” who was eight months’ pregnant with her daughter, Amanda. She questioned whether or not she could handle a new job, a new company, leading a new team and still have “something left” for her family. It all worked out — and along the way she learned it’s important to always be nice to everyone, to stay curious and “don’t be afraid of what you don’t know.”

ESPN senior vice president of multimedia sales Patricia Betron said her mom, who returned to being a nurse to support her family after divorce, relied on babysitters, friends and relatives to help look after her four young kids. That was stressful on everyone, especially Betron and her siblings.

Then, in 2005, Betron served on an ESPN task force studying work-life balance issues — which, with support from key executives, led the company to build an on-site childcare center.

“I share this story with you today because, as we celebrate these Wonder Women, we celebrate how having women in high-ranking positions changes the conversation in our companies,” she said.

More of these stories — and those of fellow Wonder Women Nicole Buie, vice president of marketing at Cox Media; Holly Jacobs, EVP of U.S. reality and syndicated programming at Sony Pictures Television; Michelle Rice, EVP of content distribution and marketing at TV One; Savalle Sims, EVP and deputy general counsel at Discovery Communications; and Ellen Stone, EVP of marketing at Bravo and Oxygen Media — will be available as videos soon on mcnwonderwomen.com. Click here for photos from the luncheon. For more Wonder Women coverage, visit multichannel.com/mcnww.

The Multichannel News Wonder Women Class of 2016 will gather with the 2016 Women to Watch, their colleagues, friends and family, and the magazine's editors and publishers at the New York Hilton today to celebrate their selection as influential voices in cable.

The annual event, co-sponsored by WICT New York, begins at 11 a.m., with Shark Tank's Lori Greiner, HGTV's Egypt Sherrod (Property Virgins) and ESPN reporter Shelley Smith co-hosting the proceedings.

The editors of Multichannel News last December selected 2016's 13 Wonder Women and 13 Women to Watch. The Wonder Women being honored today are (in alphabetical order): Patricia Betron, ESPN; Nicole Buie, Cox Media; Megan Clarken, Nielsen; Karen Grinthal, Scripps Networks Interactive; Cindi Hook, Comcast; Holly Jacobs, Sony Pictures Television; Pam Kaufman, Nickelodeon; Arlene Manos, AMC Networks; Stephanie McMahon, WWE; Jill Ratner, Fox Group; Michelle Rice, TV One; Savalle Sims, Discovery Communications; Ellen Stone, Oxygen and Bravo Media.

The 2016 Women to Watch are (in alphabetical order): Margarita Black, Azteca America; Mary Campbell, QVC; Nina Facini, Time Warner Cable; Julie Fitzgerald, NCC Media; Jana Henthorn, The Cable Center; Alison Hoffman, Starz; Charisse Lillie, Comcast/Comcast Foundation; Kate O’Brian, Al Jazeera America; Stephanie Plasse, A+E Networks; Kristen Roberts, Crown Media Family Networks; Kristi Salmon, Mediacom Communications; Mona Scott-Young, Monami Entertainment; Christina Spade, Showtime Networks

Browse profiles of this year's Wonder Women and Women to Watch at the #mcnWW page, which features current and archival Wonder Women coverage, including the 2015 honoree profiles, reports from past luncheons and other stories. (Bookmark the page to check for updates as newly found archival material continues to be added.)

For details about the luncheon and to register, visit the Wonder Women event site, where you can also get bios of this year's honorees and hosts, watch videos of last year's event and view the honor roll of all Wonder Women dating back to 1999. Follow the event on Twitter via the hashtag #mcnWW2016 and by following @MultiNews, @MCNWonderWomen and @WICTNY.

Multichannel News is pleased to announce that ESPN reporter Shelley Smith will co-host the March 10 Wonder Women luncheon event at the New York Hilton. The event, co-sponsored by the New York chapter of Women in Cable Telecommunications, will honor 13 Wonder Women and 13 Women to Watch, selected by the editors of the magazine in recognition of their leadership and contributions to companies and organizations in multichannel TV and related industries.

Read more about the 18th class of Wonder Women and Women to Watch at our editorial coverage page and at the event site: mcnwonderwomen.com.

Smith joins previously announced co-hosts Lori Greiner, the entrepreneur and co-host of ABC’s Shark Tank, and Egypt Sherrod, the real-estate expert and host of HGTV’s Property Virgins and Flipping Virgins.

Shelley Smith is a four-time Emmy-winning reporter for ESPN who joined the network in January 1997. She has covered just about every sporting event in existence, and has done many long-form features and investigative stories for a multitude of shows.

A former writer-reporter at Sports Illustrated, Smith has written extensively for ESPN.com and various ESPN in-house entities. She also has written three books – Just Give Me The Damn Ball, with former New York Jets and current ESPN analyst Keyshawn Johnson; You Play to Win The Game, with former head coach and current ESPN analyst Herm Edwards; and Games Girls Play: Lessons to Guiding and Understanding Young Female Athletes.

In May 2014, Smith was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent treatment, which ended June 2015. A recent mammogram showed no evidence of disease and she is considered cancer free.

In 2015, ESPN featured a story about Smith and her relationship with Jake Olson, whom she met as a 12-year-old about to lose his sight to cancer. Despite so many odds, Olson made his high school football team as a long snapper and this fall is a walk-on on the USC Trojans football team. Smith has documented his journey and, in the most recent feature, talked with him about their battle to beat cancer.

Smith has one daughter, Dylann Tharp, who was an All-Pac-12 Conference second team soccer player at the University of Oregon and is a freelance producer with NFL Network and other entities. In October 2015, Tharp and Smith teamed with Keyshawn Johnson to produce a 30 for 30 documentary, The Trojan War, about the 2005 USC Trojans and their appearance in the BCS national championship game against eventual victor Texas.

Smith (Twitter ID: @ShelleyESPN) continues to help spread the importance of early detection in breast and other kinds of cancers and has consulted with numerous charities, including the V Foundation, the American Cancer Society and the National Breast Cancer Foundation. In 2015, she teamed with InfiniteLimitsMedia, a production group out of Seattle, documenting her first post-treatment mammogram, done on state-of-the art 3D machinery. Entitled Triumphant, it, for the first time, gave doctors proof that the cancer is gone.

Follow Wonder Women news on Twitter (@MCNWonderWomen) and at www.multichannel.com/mcnww.

The editors of Multichannel News are proud to profile the 2016 class of Wonder Women, the 18th such class of accomplished and influential women from cable and its related 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.

The 2016 Wonder Women are: Patricia Betron, ESPN; Nicole Buie, Cox Media; Megan Clarken, Nielsen; Karen Grinthal, Scripps Networks Interactive; Cindi Hook, Comcast; Holly Jacobs, Sony Pictures Television; Pam Kaufman, Nickelodeon; Arlene Manos, AMC Networks; Stephanie McMahon, WWE; Jill Ratner, Fox Group; Michelle Rice, TV One; Savalle Sims, Discovery Communications; Ellen Stone, Oxygen and Bravo Media.

Multichannel News is also recognizing 13 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 10 at a gala luncheon at the New York Hilton, 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.

MEGAN CLARKEN

TITLE: Executive VP, Global Product Leadership, Nielsen

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Since joining Nielsen in 2004, Clarken has held such posts as managing director of media client services in APMEA (Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa), and managing director of Nielsen’s digital businesses in both Asia Pacific and Australia.

QUOTE: “The trick is to make sure you’re not introducing things too early. We’re often asked why did mobile only get introduced into our digital ratings 18 months or two years ago … If it was introduced any prior to that, we might have been measuring BlackBerrys. ”

— Megan Clarken

Ask people about Nielsen executive vice president of global product leadership Megan Clarken and a lot of words come up in the conversation — smart, no-nonsense, fearless, knowledgeable, confident, driven. Those qualities first came to the surface in what Clarken thought would be her first and only career as a world-class track and field athlete. But they’ve proven to be even more valuable in her current role as the point person for what is arguably the most anticipated measurement product since the People Meter: Total Audience Measurement.

A native of New Zealand, Clarken left school at 16 to pursue her track and field dreams. A long-jumper who once held New Zealand’s women’s national record at 6.52 meters, Clarken qualified for the New Zealand Olympic team and was preparing for the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul when she injured her ACL in an accident, effectively ending her career. For the next decade, she worked to get back into Olympic form before deciding in her 30s to finally abandon that career and focus on what had become her new passion — information technology.

“I fell into IT because I was interested in data entry and shiftwork so I could train during the day,” Clarken said, adding that her initial goal was to find another sport she could pursue at the Olympic level.

“It didn’t work out,” she said. “I could never get to the same standard with the knee that I was left with.”

DRIVEN TO SUCCEED IN TRACK, IT

Clarken said she then turned her focus on her business career, using the skills and determination she had developed through athletics.

After a stint at the Microsoft Network in Australia, where she said she “fell in love with digital media” while working on a joint venture between Australia’s Channel 9 and MSN, Clarken steadily moved through the digital ranks, consulting for News Corp. and holding leadership positions at several tech firms including Akamai Technologies. She was hired by Nielsen in 2004, taking roles in leading commercial and product development and later heading up Southeast Asia operations. That’s where she attracted the attention of Nielsen global president and chief operating officer Steve Hasker, who joined the company in 2010.

Hasker said he had tried for years to bring Clarken to New York to run Nielsen’s media operations, finally succeeding in 2013. Clarken’s deep understanding and appreciation of the media business, operational excellence, fearlessness and drive made her perfect for the job, he said. “A lot of people give great presentations,” Hasker said. “She’s the one who gets it done.”

He recalled a recent meeting of about 200 top Nielsen sales and media executives, where Clarken took the stage to the tune of Elvis Presley’s “A Little Less Conversation.”

“That really encapsulates Megan,” Hasker said. “She will talk it through, but she’s much more comfortable getting it done than she is talking about it, and much more comfortable moving on to the next program rather than celebrating the last one.”

LEARNING FROM ROCK STARS

“I look to learn something from everybody I work with,” Clarken said. “And I have been fortunate enough to have a team of people who are absolute rock stars and teach me something that will aid me every day. Both my direct manager and our CEO are both brilliant and bring a set of skills to me every day that I can learn from. There’s not one mentor, just everybody that I surround myself with. Where I can find nuggets, I’ll take them.”

Hasker, a former Australian track and field athlete himself, said Clarken’s sports background has given her confidence and a fierce competitive instinct that have helped her succeed.

That background convinced Hasker that Clarken was the right person to head up the TAM initiative, which will enable Nielsen to track audiences over multiple platforms and devices. Set for widespread launch later this year, TAM will be watched by every media buyer and network looking for a new currency to quantify TV’s evolving audience.

Nielsen plans to put digital content ratings into syndication (meaning they are no longer proprietary, everyone can see each other’s data) in late Q1 and total content ratings are scheduled for syndication in the second half of this year.

While Nielsen had mapped out the TAM strategy and a digital audience product before Clarken took over, the initiative needed the right executive to steer it, Hasker said. “We had the beginnings [of a TAM product], but we needed someone who was a world-class programming executive and a leader,” he said. “That’s a pretty rare skill set.”

TACKLING TAM CHALLENGE

Putting together a new ad currency isn’t something that gets done overnight, though, and Nielsen has had to deal with criticism on several fronts concerning the product.

Total Audience Measurement is not a simple concept to understand, Clarken acknowledged, but she believes people are beginning to get the idea that pairing panel data with big data will lead to more reliable measurement.

“We didn’t dream this up over the weekend,” she said. “It has been a vision we’ve been pursuing for some time. We’re getting better and better at articulating it, which is no mean thing; it’s complicated. But the trick has been to simplify it as much as possible.”

Clarken added that in order for TAM to be successful, it will require the backing of large and small industry players.

“Measurement is a team sport,” she said.

STEPHANIE McMAHON

TITLE: Chief Brand Officer, WWE

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: McMahon worked her way up the WWE ranks from an account executive position and was most recently executive VP of creative.

QUOTE: “One of the company values that’s been instilled in us by my father [Vince McMahon] is to treat each day like it’s the first day on the job. What that really means is to challenge the status quo.”

— Stephanie McMahon

Stephanie McMahon isn’t a villain. But she plays one on WWE Monday Night Raw, one of the highest-rated — and longest-running — cable shows.

McMahon’s evil persona on the USA Network series is a telltale sign that she is vastly different than your standard entertainment executive. She holds the title chief brand officer at World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), which was founded by her parents.

Bonnie Hammer, chairman of NBCUniversal Cable Enter tainment and one of McMahon’s mentors, describes her this way: “She is first and foremost the daughter of one of the most physically big and professionally big guys in the world.” She refers to Vince McMahon, the chairman and CEO of WWE.

COVERING EVERY PART OF THE FAMILY BUSINESS

She also has a very big mandate. McMahon works with WWE’s business units to support key growth initiatives and, as global brand ambassador, represents the company among vital entities including government, advertisers, media, business partners and investors. She’s the primary spokesperson for WWE’s social-responsibility initiatives. And she’s a member of the company’s board.

McMahon works with her husband, Paul “Triple H” Levesque, a WWE wrestling star who also plays a villainous on-air character. He serves as WWE’s executive vice president of talent, live events and creative and is also a member of the company’s board.

The duo are jointly known as “The Authority” on Raw, but off -air, they’ve created a charitable fund called Connor’s Cure, which focuses on pediatric brain and spinal cancer research. It was named after a young WWE fan, Connor Michalek, who passed away from brain cancer. So far, the fund has raised close to $1 million.

A ‘GIVER’ AND A ‘DOER’

As a result of her humanitarian efforts, McMahon was asked to join the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh Foundation’s board of trustees. Greg Barrett, president of the foundation, said that McMahon is not only a giver; she’s a doer.

Despite her heavy workload and travel schedule, “she can still find time to figure out how to publicize things for us — whether it’s fundraising or research findings. She’s able to fly at 30,000 feet and also be boots on the ground,” Barrett said.

“She’s an incredibly savvy, smart woman in a very, very male world, dealing with some of the nicest people in the world, but also some big, physical people. And she holds her own,” added Hammer in speaking of McMahon’s work at WWE.

FOLLOWING IN HER MOTHER’S FOOTSTEPS

The nickname that her brother, Shane McMahon, gave her — the Vincess — hints at which parent she most resembles. But she is proud to be following in the footsteps of another Wonder Woman, her mother, Linda McMahon. In fact, they are the first mother-daughter Wonder Woman combo in the history of the honors.

Linda, the one-time CEO of WWE, helped build the company into the powerhouse that it is today, with 11 offices around the world and annual revenue of over $540 million. She left WWE in 2009 to turn her attention to politics.

Stephanie McMahon said that she always wanted to have a role at WWE. “My parents were working round the clock. And one of the ways that I could relate to them, or even just spend time with them, was by being a part of what they did,” she said.

“I also happen to love the [wrestling] genre. It is storytelling. It is no different than a movie. It just also happens to incorporate incredible action, with conflicts that are settled inside a ring,” McMahon added.

She’s set some big goals moving forward. “I help support every line of business in our company. And our goals for 2016 are mainly focused on growing our [over-the-top] network,” she said. That effort includes transmissions of WWE’s live special events on the Web and via traditional PPV.

“Growing that subscriber base is game-changing for our company. We are already generating more revenue from our subscription service than we ever did, even in the greatest years of our pay-per-view business.”

GREAT TEAM ON THE ROAD AND AT HOME

She’s also focused on expanding the international business, with a special focus on India, China and South America. WWE reaches 650 million homes around the world in 25 different languages. However, “we’re looking to be more strategic in our approach and capitalize on all the different lines of business of WWE.”

While McMahon tackles all those goals, she and Levesque also are raising three daughters, currently aged 9, 7 and 5. Having a great team helps them to keep the home/work responsibilities manageable. She’s come to understand that “it’s never going to be an equal balance. There’s going to be sacrifices made, either on the business end or the personal end.”

She said her favorite times of day are when she’s taking the kids to school and putting them to bed. Around 10:30 p.m., she and her husband work out — sometimes until after midnight. That’s the way she relieves stress.

McMahon doesn’t take her own children’s future involvement in WWE as a given.

“They’re going to have to really, really want it,” she said. “I encourage them to pursue their dream no matter what it is. They just need to be willing to work hard for it.”

HOLLY JACOBS

TITLE: Executive VP, U.S. Reality and Syndicated Programming, Sony Pictures Television

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: After segueing from working as an art therapist and documentary filmmaker, Jacobs started producing commercial daytime TV for ABC Television and Buena Vista Productions. Prior to Sony, she oversaw development and production of unscripted series for Fox Television Studios.

QUOTE: “It’s great when you get to make quality shows where good things also happen to people.”

— Holly Jacobs

One of Holly Jacobs’s first projects when she became executive vice president of U.S. reality and syndicated programming for Sony Pictures Television nearly a decade ago was the launch of Shark Tank for ABC.

The series has become a flagship show for the network and is currently delivering 9.1 million viewers in the United States. Not only have the show’s investors — known as “Sharks” — become celebrities, but many of the businesses they’ve invested in have become multimillion-dollar companies, and reinvigorated the American dream for a younger generation now charged with entrepreneurial aspirations.

But when the show premiered in August 2009, it wasn’t the dreamy hit it would become.

“It started out in the first season, and even in the second season, it didn’t have good ratings, people weren’t aware of it, we fought very hard to keep it on the air,” Jacobs said from her office in Los Angeles. “We had really great partners in ABC who also believed in the vision of the show and the promise of the show and stuck with it to tremendous results.”

She’s since led the charge for the Emmy-winning show and its spinoff, Beyond the Tank (also for ABC), which premiered last May and gives viewers a first look at what happened after deals were made. The show ranked No. 1 in its time period among adults 18-49 and was second among Friday primetime programs in the demographic, behind Shark Tank.

“For eight years,” said Clay Newbill, producer of Shark Tank and Beyond the Tank, “she’s been, every step of the way with us, helping to hone and keep raising that bar, keeping the show fresh and exciting and helping to keep our machine working smoothly.”

TACKLING A ‘PYRAMID’ REBOOT

With these properties, Jacobs and her team have turned Sony’s Reality Programming division into one of the industry’s leading content providers, characterized by its high ratings and creative diversity. The group spearheads SPT’s Emmy-winning The Dr. Oz Show for first-run syndication and is overseeing the summer’s reboot of Sony’s hit property The $100,000 Pyramid, with host and executive producer Michael Strahan.

“Pyramid is really, truly the jewel in the Sony library format crown, and it’s certainly been on the air in many iterations,” Jacobs said. “We knew that the format was worthy of bringing back only if we found an incredible talent to go with it, and I can’t think of anyone more perfectly suited, and such a world-class talent as Michael Strahan — and as it turned out, this is a show he grew up watching and loving.”

Jacobs will also head up the spring launch of S.T.R.O.N.G. (Start to Realize Our Natural Greatness), a new fitness-focused aspirational reality series for NBC by Biggest Loser creator Dave Broome and executive produced by Broome and Sylvester Stallone.

“It’s not just about getting skinny,” she said, “it’s about being strong, psychically, physically, emotional and in every which way, and the show is a reflection of that experience.”

She added: “This is the privilege of my career … to have a national platform for television shows you’re creating, but to be able to have an impact beyond just the making of the show. I’m very mindful that we make television to impact the culture.”

FROM ART THERAPY TO TELEVISION

Jacobs really believes in the transformative power of television — even though a career in TV was not her first choice.

Growing up in New York, “painting was my world,” said Jacobs . Having earned her master’s degree from New York University, she got her first job as an art therapist at Florence Nightingale, a nursing home in New York City.

“When I was there,” she said, “I was so moved by the elders that I was working with. They had incredible stories and I thought, I’m going to make a documentary film for no other reason except that I thought I would do it to maybe make a film to show other graduate students at New York University: Here’s what happens when you’re an art therapist. Here’s what the work looks like.”

The film, Forget Me Not, was showcased at festivals and won awards — and Jacobs went on to more independent documentary filmmaking, eventually landing a job at the now-defunct New York City documentary house CEL Communications , where she worked on series for A&E, Disney Channel and others before moving into network TV.

“So that was really the switch,” she said. “When I talk to people about the journey of my career, it seems like a strange beginning. But the journey has made sense all the way through. I’m a visual person and I’m a storyteller, and I ended up working on everything from Oprah’s first primetime special, to producing daytime talk for Sally Jessy [Raphael ] and then seguing into the executive life.”

It was around then that she met Zack Van Amburg, now president of U.S. programming and production for Sony Pictures Television and her boss — although, at one time, she almost became his boss.

“I was in syndication here at Sony and she was running syndication and daytime stuff over at Buena Vista,” he said. “She called me one day, and we’d had a series of meetings and said, ‘Let’s make amazing television together.’ It was at a moment in time where Sony was expanding and I had an opportunity to launch a cable division, so I didn’t take the leap to work with Holly and I always regretted it. So the minute we had a chance to relaunch what nonscripted television was going to be at Sony, I came calling and begging and pleading and thank goodness, Holly decided to come over. She’s done a tremendous job since she’s been here.”

One of Jacobs’s goals this year is to do more to help bring more women into the executive suite — and part of why she signed up to mentor a 16-year-old girl through The Hollywood Reporter’s Big Sister program.

“I never take for granted the opportunities that have been presented to me,” she said. “They are beyond my wildest imagination, and I want to be able, in every which way that I can, pay it forward.”

PATRICIA BETRON

TITLE: Senior VP, Multimedia Sales, ESPN

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Joined ESPN as a director in customer marketing and sales in 1999, becoming the unit’s first female senior VP in 2005. Spent 10 years at ABC, in national sales and at local and regional sales positions, after working in research at NBC.

QUOTE: “I think we’ve done a better job of multiculturally hiring people in front of the camera and behind the camera that reflect our audience. It has been a really big focus and we see it paying off.”

— Patricia Betron

Patricia Betron wanted to be a broadcast journalist, so she enrolled at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications after graduating high school in her hometown of Stoughton, Mass.

Attending classes with the likes of talented future pro Mike Tirico — the Monday Night Football announcer who’s now her colleague at ESPN — helped persuade her to follow a different interest, in the business side of television.

That was a smart move, as was her later decision, while working at the ABC-owned WLS-TV in Chicago, to switch from research to sales. A sales manager at the station thought the passion and knowledge she shared while on sales calls appealed to clients and were bringing in business.

Betron also shrewdly became an advocate for ESPN’s efforts to make programming, hiring and marketing efforts aimed at Hispanic and multicultural audiences. She served on the Hispanic Priority Committee for ESPN as part of a Walt Disney Co.-wide initiative.

She helped develop an insights study on “The Bi- Cultural Hispanic Sports Fan Media Behaviors” and worked with National Basketball Association commissioner Adam Silver and the NBA to administer the NBA/ESPN Hispanic Priority Summit in 2013. Disney CEO Robert Iger has recognized her as a “Top 10 Diversity Change Agent” at the company.

Betron said multicultural outreach was an easy priority to support, because so many clients wanted help reaching those audiences. When speaking with chief marketing officers, she said, “it was one of the top things they brought up right out of the gate.”

FINDING THE RIGHT SOLUTIONS

Helping customers solve problems is what appeals to Betron most about sales.

Wendy’s, the fast-food chain, had if not a problem at least a desire to leverage its spending with ESPN more effectively than had been the case before Tim Sullivan became vice president of media there in 2010.

“That became a challenge to Trish and her team to come back to us with something that they believed was more in tune with what we were solving for,” Sullivan said.

Betron’s team’s solution was for Wendy’s to back the John R. Wooden Award, presented annually to college basketball’s best player. It has become “probably the single largest partnership Wendy’s has, from a media standpoint,” Sullivan said, and has given Wendy’s the kind of visibility it’s wanted since getting on board for the 2012-13 season.

Wendy’s found in the Wooden Award a prestigious prize that still has a ways to go before it has the prominence of the Heisman Award for college football’s best player, Sullivan said.

And ESPN astutely pointed out similarities between the legendary UCLA coach for whom the award is named and Wendy’s founder Dave Thomas, who’s known for introducing new products, for leadership and for emphasizing quality, he said.

“They really solved for our needs in a creative way,” said Sullivan, who counts Betron as a friend.

COUNSELING HER COLLEAGUES

In 2005, Betron became the first female senior vice president in ESPN’s Customer Marketing and Sales organizations, and she has steadily added responsibilities there. She oversees multimedia sales teams in Detroit, Chicago and New York. She also leads ESPN CMS’s Sales Communications team, positioning ESPN’s collection of audiences, rather than just sports properties.

Ed Erhardt, the president of ESPN’s global CMS operation, said she’s widely admired for the support and counsel she’s given to so many at the company — men and women alike — who ask for advice on how to excel in the business while also finding that ever-elusive balance of work and home life.

“I think Tricia is seen as a role model for women who work at ESPN,” Erhardt said.

Betron — who, after stints at NBC and ABC, joined ESPN in 1999 in a sales unit that targeted new business opportunities — and her husband, Cliff , have a son, Zachary, age 13, and a daughter, Hannah, who’s 12. Cliff is a stay-at-home dad. “Our family is very fortunate Cliff has taken on that role,” she said. “He is a great partner and wonderful father.”

But Betron has always tried to either be home for tuckins or, if traveling, to call at a predictable time, as such rituals are important. She also was able to take Hannah to the espnW Summit in California, which gave Hannah a different perspective on what her mom is like on the job.

‘NEVER A BORING DAY’

Betron’s mom was a single mother, she said, role-modeling for her four kids (Patricia is second oldest) how to be responsible and “striving.”

Among important business mentors, Betron cites Erhardt and ESPN executive vice president Eric Johnson, her direct boss, in addition to ESPN chief financial officer Christine Driessen, who’s “hugely supportive of women at ESPN and me in particular.”

Asked about how ESPN’s recent news — in which acknowledgement of subscriber losses helped prompt a selloff in media stocks — had affected her work, Betron said: “I’d rather be here than in any other place. The changes that are happening in the industry are exhilarating. What a time to be part of a company that is thinking ahead and has been planning ahead and has such great assets and brands that, no matter what happens, they’re always going to appeal to consumers and to businesses.

“It keeps it interesting, that’s for sure. There’s never a boring day.”

SAVALLE SIMS

TITLE: Executive VP, Deputy General Counsel, Discovery Communications

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Sims oversees Discovery’s global litigation, intellectual property, compliance and securities matters, which she initially handled as outside counsel at D.C. law firm Arent Fox.

QUOTE: “Working for [District Court] Judge Lee was my first opportunity to encounter litigation in a real-world environment, and I just loved it.”

— Savalle Sims

Flexibility marks much of the education and career of Wonder Woman Savalle Sims, executive vice president and deputy general counsel for Discovery Communications.

For example, Sims wanted to be a physician from a very young age, but let’s just say math and science weren’t her best subjects in high school in Maryland.

As an undergraduate at Syracuse University, she thought she might pursue a career in finance, but switched to a double major of marketing, as well as transportation and logistics.

Sims’s father, a general manager of a major insurance company, wasn’t too keen on his daughter working in marketing, which he considered “soft.” But he supported her decision to become a lawyer, and she went to Notre Dame University’s law school right after graduating from Syracuse.

Once a lawyer, Sims originally thought she’d go into mergers and acquisitions work, but switched her focus to regulatory and interned at the Food & Drug Administration after her first year of law school. It was a busy summer; she split her time between the FDA and working for a Fairfax County Circuit Court judge, for whom she clerked two years after graduating law school.

Her next job opportunity presented itself at downtown Washington, D.C., firm Feldesman Tucker, where she came under the wing of partner and divorce law specialist Rita Bank, a principal and co-founder of Ain & Bank. “Although I didn’t start out to be a domestic relations practitioner, it was a wonderful experience for me,” Sims said.

“Savalle worked harder than just about anyone else,” Bank recalled. “Even as a new attorney, Savalle provided invaluable assistance because she stuck with every assignment until she understood the issues completely and then applied that knowledge to the next case. It was clear from the start that Savalle was going to be a star at whatever she chose to do. She was tenacious, inquisitive and thoughtful.”

HARD WORK REWARDED

After practicing at Feldesman Tucker for three years, Sims had a yearning for commercial litigation and it was time to make the transition “because I was becoming more senior.” She joined Arent Fox as an associate, and later became a partner in its commercial litigation group.

Most of her Arent Fox cases initially were employment disputes. She typically represented companies and educational institutions against discrimination claims. She then handled breach of contract disputes in fashion, manufacturing and media, most notably a few cases for Discovery.

Sims was recognized among the “40 Top Lawyers Under 40” by Washingtonian magazine and in Washington Business Journal’s “Young Guns.”

A search to bolster Discovery’s in-house legal team identified Sims as a strong candidate after her work for the company and several Discovery executives. “The feedback across the board was that she was a top-notch litigator,” said Bruce Campbell, Discovery’s chief development, distribution and legal officer. “It was immediately apparent to me that she was an absolute professional and terrific [legal] partner for me.”

Campbell noted that Arent Fox still handles most of Discovery’s intellectual property protection work, so it wasn’t an awkward transition.

“At a law firm it always goes down a little easier when one of your partners transitions to working for one of your beloved clients than going from one law firm to another,” Sims agreed.

Working in-house, Sims learned “you have to have a deeper understanding of how the business works, the challenges, the industry. There’s also a greater need for practical legal advice that works in the real-world commercial environment.”

She said she also appreciates the international challenges her current job brings, considering Discovery’s global reach.

MENTORING THE NEXT GENERATION

Most of Discovery’s lawyers are women, according to Campbell, and Sims serves as an adviser to Discovery Women’s Leadership Network, an employee resource group dedicated to professional development and fostering female leadership. She also mentors a multiethnic group of attorneys within Discovery and throughout the cable industry.

“From my perspective, diversity and inclusion are very important in problem solving,” she said. “As a lawyer and a professional it’s important to have an environment that prides itself in being diverse and inclusive.”

Sims also places importance in balancing her professional and personal lives, especially raising three children with her husband Turnell Sims, an assistant principal at a middle school. They met at Syracuse, and married after her second year of law school; they will celebrate their 22nd wedding anniversary this July.

“I live vicariously through my kids (Justin, 11; Caitlin, 9; and Ryan, 7). It’s exciting to see them play sports and excel in areas that I never could,” Sims said.

Sims said she doesn’t have a problem working late or early during the week, but she devotes her weekends to the family “so I could be a more engaged and present parent. Weekends are precious to me.”

Her favorite TV show is Law & Order. “I watch a lot of [Discovery’s] ID,” she said, adding she’s a big fan of its show A Crime to Remember. Whereas her two younger kids and husband prefer to watch programming on mobile devices or laptops, Sims and Justin prefer viewing on the box.

When she first told her kids she was leaving Arent Fox for Discovery, “Justin asked, ‘So you’re not going to be a real lawyer anymore?’”

But when Justin realized Discovery owned the Military Channel (now known as American Heroes Channel), for which he wanted to narrate a show after he watched a program on the Civil War, he approved of his mom’s new job.

“Justin is a big fan of [The Discovery Channel’s] Alaskan Bush People.”

KAREN GRINTHAL

TITLE: Senior VP, National Ad Sales, Scripps Networks Interactive

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Spearheaded growth of Food Network, helped launch Cooking Channel, senior VP of marketing and communications for Turner Broadcasting Sales

QUOTE: “No one ever put a boundary in front of me and said, ‘This is your world, you’re ad sales.’ My ideas were always welcome.”

— Karen Grinthal

Karen Grinthal made a huge leap of faith nearly 19 years ago when she left a job at an established cable-programming giant to work for a fledgling programmer called Food Network.

At the time, Grinthal said that she held a prestigious position, as a senior vice president of marketing and communications at Turner Broadcasting Sales, where she had been for eight years. But she was looking for a smaller venue where she could make a real difference, a place that had the entrepreneurial spirit of a startup. Food Network fit the bill, although the career move raised eyebrows among her peers.

“I took a job that nobody could understand, because I went from being [a senior vice president] to being a sales manager, from a multi-hundred-million-dollar responsibility to a brand that had no revenue and no ratings,” said Grinthal, now senior vice president of national ad sales for Scripps Networks Interactive.

“It’s very tempting to go for the title, go for the most money, go for whatever will give you the most prestige,” she said. “And so basically, it was a question of making a decision to totally relinquish prestige and go for what I felt in my gut would make sense for me.”

TURNING FOOD INTO A POWERHOUSE

Her gamble paid off. This year Grinthal will celebrate almost two decades at Food Network. During her tenure, Food Network has evolved from a network with less than $15 million in ad revenue to one with more than $700 million in national ad billings.

The channel made celebrities of chefs — such as Mario Batali, Bobby Flay, Rachael Ray and Giada De Laurentiis — and turned food into a pop-culture programming genre.

“We have a star-making machine,” said Grinthal, who is credited with being smart, creative, passionate and ever-calm.

She pioneered innovative ways to integrate advertisers into Food Network programming, a change in strategy. And sponsors are offered cross-platform opportunities across TV, digital and print, via Food Network Magazine.

“I don’t know of any other ad sales executive who has meant more to a channel’s growth and success than what Karen Grinthal has meant to Food Network,” Jon Steinlauf, president of ad sales and marketing for Scripps Networks Interactive said, noting her tenure at Food began even before Scripps bought the network from Belo in 1997. “Karen’s passion, dedication, loyalty and tenure to a single TV network are unsurpassed in the annals of cable. She has literally built our ad sales business from its humble beginnings into a power brand in the ad market.”

Steinlauf said he has worked with Grinthal “side by side” for 24 years, first at Turner and then at Scripps. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, Grinthal joined Turner in 1988 as an account executive and rose through the ranks to become a senior vice president of ad sales for its entertainment division. She began her career as a media planner at Doyle Dane Bernbach and then spent several years in radio sales.

BUILDING THE RECIPE FOR COOKING CHANNEL

Grinthal’s career achievements aren’t limited to Food Network. She was also instrumental in the successful 2010 relaunch of Fine Living as the Cooking Channel, a flanker brand to Food Network. Steinlauf credited Grinthal with being part of a core Scripps management team, adding that her input is sought not only on advertising but programming and company strategy, such as Cooking Channel’s creation, as well.

“We sat in a room and strategized about what it could be, and from the day that we strategized about it until we put it on the air as a full-blown network was six months,” Grinthal said. “Quite amazing.”

Her long tenure at Scripps is also an amazing feat in the TV industry. Grinthal said she and her ad-sales team — where there is little turnover — don’t get stale at the company because of the constant demand to adapt to the changing media landscape.

“The biggest challenge has been the constant reinvention and refreshment of what the brand means to advertisers,” she said.

For example, for years Food Network had a policy of zero product integration in its programming. Grinthal said she walked away from “advertisers waving money in our faces” rather than risk tarnishing the brand in its early days. Now Food Network is doing innovative partnerships and brand integrations using the filter of whether it makes sense for the advertiser and the network, and whether it makes a show better, according to Grinthal.

LANDING PRODUCT PARTNERSHIPS

One of the greatest partnerships that Food Network ever did was about eight years ago with Red Lobster, engineered by Grinthal, according to Steinlauf. During an episode of Food Network Star, contestants competed in a challenge to create a seafood dish that would be served at Red Lobster restaurants across the country as a special the very next day. The winning recipe for white chocolate tilapia was on the menu.

Back then, Karen Chester was at Red Lobster and worked with Grinthal on that product integration, which she deemed a success. Chester is now vice president of media services for Bloomin’ Brands, whose restaurants include Outback Steakhouse. That chain’s projects with Food Network have included its executive chef serving as a judge on Chopped, Chester said.

Grinthal’s willingness to be open to new ideas, and come up with ideas, “makes it a partnership that works year after year, not one and done,” with Outback enjoying “a halo effect” through its alignment with Food Network, Chester said.

The network’s explosive success has given Grinthal great satisfaction.

“It has grown exponentially from a little tiny thing to a culture-changing icon,” she said. “So that’s one element of what’s kept me here.”