Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT) Thursday named Scripps Network Interactive executive Kathleen Finch as its “Woman of the Year,” the organization’s highest individual accolade.

Finch, chief programming content & brand officer for Scripps, will receive the "Woman of the Year" award – given to a leader who has made increasingly significant contributions throughout her career to her company and the overall cable telecommunications industry – during WICT’s  Sept. 19 Touchstones Luncheon in New York in conjunction with the annual WICT Leadership Conference that's part of Cable's Diversity Week.

Also at the luncheon WICT will honor Laura Gentile, senior vice president, espnW and Women's Initiatives at ESPN and Mary McLaughlin, senior vice president, Beltway Region for Comcast Cable, with its "Women to Watch" award, which recognizes leaders who show tremendous promise for transforming the industry through her professional accomplishments.

"WICT is proud to recognize and honor these three highly accomplished professionals," said Maria Brennan, CAE, president & CEO, WICT in a statement. "All of our honorees exemplify the WICT Touchstones of Leadership and offer other women compelling role models to emulate. We look forward to showcasing their achievements during this year's Touchstones Luncheon as part of Diversity Week 2016."

Starz has promoted Alison Hoffman to the newly created position of chief marketing officer from executive vice president of marketing. It's one of a number of top executive promotions, under recently-renewed CEO Chris Albrecht, in the last few weeks at the premium programmer, which is in the process of being acquired by Lionsgate for $4.4 billion in cash and stock. 

“Alison’s vision and execution has helped reposition Starz as a destination for acclaimed and diverse original programming and build a brand that reflects the strength of our unmatched content offerings,” Jeffrey Hirsch, chief operating officer (a recent promotion) at Starz, said in a release. “She led the way earlier this year with the Starz brand transformation, launching a masterbrand strategy for the network which involved integrating the Encore services into the new Starz, as well as the highly successful launch of the new Starz App.”

Hoffman joined Starz in 2012 after being VP of creative and brand strategy at AMC Networks, key architect for notable campaigns for The Walking Dead, Mad Men and Breaking Bad among others. She had been senior VP of originals marketing at Starz before being promoted to EVP of marketing in February 2015.