As a participant in Cox’s LEAD program, April Smith gets an opportunity to rotate within the company to learn and contribute to a variety of initiatives in the role of project manager.

That’s a great fit for an industry up-and-comer with an insatiable passion for learning and for the technologies that are driving cable forward, including TV Everywhere to the new multi-Gigabit DOCSIS 3.1 platform.

She is also active with industry organizations, including the National Association of Multi-Ethnicity in Communications and Women in Cable & Telecommunications chapters in Atlanta.

Smith’s ability to learn and excel in a job that requires discipline, desire and a go-get-’em attitude, while engaging with the larger industry and still living a dynamic life outside of work make her Multichannel News’s pick for Tech Woman of the Year in the Rising Star category.

More WoT: Smith is one of five execs selected for MCN's 2016 Women of Tech list; read profiles of eachat multichannel.com/WomenOfTech.

MCN: What sparked your interest in the cable industry? 

April Smith: I knew I wanted to be in the TV industry in some shape or form, I just didn’t know in what capacity. Prior to starting college, I felt there was a lack of representation of African-Americans on TV, and I wanted to be part of the conversation to encourage more diversity on screen. 

I majored in Arts, Entertainment and Media Management with a minor in Television. My goal was to become a leader who influences key business decisions. I knew revenue would be a key driver, so I started working in advertising sales for HGTV and DIY networks.

MCN: What are your current priorities at Cox? 

AS: I just wrapped up one of my first project rotations, working on TV Everywhere for Cox video customers. I recently launched a major enhancement to the company’s new Contour app.  For the first time, Cox’s customers have the opportunity to watch linear programs outside of the home directly via the Contour app, available across Cox’s entire video subscriber base [estimated at 4 million].

I’ve just started a new rotation as a project manager in customer operations. I am serving on two Cox initiatives. The first is the Cox telephony initiative, which requires migrating 400,000 Cox voice customers from CS [circuit-switched] to PS [packet-switched] technology by the end of 2018; the goal is to ultimately migrate customers to an enhanced digital offering and provide a better service to our customers. 

The second project is a network-transformation initiative, DOCSIS 3.1. I’m looking at this project from the customer operations perspective. [I’m focused] on how this transformation will impact our sales, field services, customer care and marketing divisions and how we ensure all of these groups are aligned as we move forward with this initiative. 

MCN: Do you have any advice for women who are trying to break into this industry? 

AS: Be comfortable being uncomfortable. There are so many complexities to technology. Everyone is learning at the same time.

If you're in a business or an area you know really well — say, if you're in marketing — you know marketing in and out. But when it comes to technology, there are new devices that are coming out, new offerings, new regulations and laws. You have to continually learn and be up to speed...and be able to share [those learnings] with executives or someone on your team to help them understand it from a simplistic point of view. 

MCN:Are there any mentors you'd want to recognize that have helped you in your career? 

AS: There is one, in particular, Jennifer Dorian [currently general manager for Turner Classic Movies]. She really gave me a sense of what it means to be a female leader, being a mentor and guiding decisions. She’s someone who has inspired me from a business perspective. 

From the technology perspective, it’s Elizabeth Coffey [senior director, OSS/video portfolio delivery at Cox]. She’s someone who’s supporting me in my efforts and my interest in technology. Technology can be so tough … and there is a very small percentage of women who stay in the technology industry. To stay engaged in the industry, you have to find mentors that will help you and guide you along the way. 

MCN: What do you like to do outside of work? 

AS: I really enjoy playing flag football. It gives me that competitive spirit and it’s a great outlet. 

MCN: Favorite book? 

AS: I like Success Through Stillness by Russell Simmons. I like to meditate and his book is all about the value of meditation and self-awareness. A history book I really like is The Warmth Of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson. 

MCN :Favorite movie? 

AS: One I can watch a thousand times is called Brown Sugar … It's about the history of hip-hop, integrated with a really good love story. 

MCN: What's your favorite app or gizmo these days? 

AS: My favorite app has to be the new Contour app … since I helped launch it. [Laughs.] There's no other app to think about right now. 

Kathy Weidman loves metadata. She’s loved metadata for as long as she can remember, in fact, and almost fastidiously planned her 30-plus year career around it — including her move to Rovi (now TiVo) two years ago. It all started in the post-production landscape, working for Avid, where she saw how inextricably data is wound into production workflows. It struck her as the pipeline for content discovery.

These days, Weidman is mapping out TiVo’s development of what she calls “super-powered metadata,” which blends its “knowledge graph” with machine learning, to make metadata more searchable, semantic, and relevant. She’s a frequent speaker at industry events — she opened a “Metadata Madness” conference earlier this year — and says that a goal is to spend more time as an industry spokesperson on the topic of … you guessed it … metadata. She spoke about her role in technology with Multichannel News contributor Leslie Ellis.

More WoT: Weidman is one of five execs selected for MCN's 2016 Women of Tech list; read about the others in Setting the Pace for Innovation [subscription required] and watch for a daily profile of each Sept. 26-30at multichannel.com/WomenOfTech.

MCN: What did you want to be when you grew up?

Kathy Weidman: A psychologist, at first, and then an economist. I studied both in college, as well as English. It turned out to be great training for the world of media, which is somewhere in between.

MCN: First job?

KW: First jobs were babysitting and waitressing, starting when I was 15. First job in cable was RedBee (now Ericsson), in Europe. I was managing director for content discovery — I managed the content discovery business including metadata and search and recommendations.

MCN: What’s on top of your to-do list these days?

KW: Right now, I’m working on a five-year plan about the future of metadata. It’s not what people think it is. The world will change. We have to change, to grow. Metadata will be virtual, with machine learning concepts. That’s really high on my list.

MCN: When and where are you happiest?

KW: When I’m with my family, especially my kids and husband. I also came from a family of five (siblings), and we’re still best friends. This may sound corny, but, I’m also really happy when I’m working. I love doing what I do.

MCN: Most important quality for women in tech to possess?

KW: I do think you have to be tough. By that I mean fortitude and determination and passion. I think it’s also important to understand people and what motivates them. If you have a team of people who are happy doing what they’re doing, and love coming to work, you get 120% from them. So, develop a team that’s really passionate.

MCN: What do you like to do when you’re not at work?

KW: You’ll laugh, but I watch TV guides. I’m always looking for new ideas and thoughts. My husband complains, “Are we ever going to actually watch anything, or just look at the guide?” I also love to read, write, walk, and spend time with family [two sons and a daughter] doing high-energy things … we are passionate about life in general, and like to be active.

MCN: Best or worst advice you’ve ever received?

KW: Worst was, very early on, someone told me that I should use my “womanhood” to get ahead. I ignored it. Best was from my dad, who was a big believer in having fun at work. I take it to heart. We work super-hard here, but we play, too. Someday remind me to tell you about the April Fools’ joke we pulled off this year.

MCN: Favorite book of all time?

KW:Grapes of Wrath, hands down. That said, I used to collect and sell rare books. One day, I got an order (online) for a rare book about [Abraham] Lincoln, and saw that it was a local address. I called and offered to drop it off. Turns out it was one of my favorite authors who had bought it — Doris Kearns Goodwin. She was researching for what turned out to be Lincoln: Team of Rivals.

MCN: Favorite gadget or app?

KW: Uber, hands down. It’s changed the world in so many ways.

Sherry Brennan is the first to tell you about how many women at Fox Networks are “far more technical” than she is. But as Multichannel News’s choice for Woman of Tech in the Programmer category, it’s her rare and appreciable blend of industrial memory and technology communication that sets her apart

It’s perhaps not surprising that she counts the venerable and notoriously straight-to-the-point Wilt Hildenbrand (former CTO of Cablevision Systems) as the teacher who showed her how to navigate the seas of tech-talk. Along a 27-year (and counting) career, Brennan invented a way to automate royalty fees using then-new database techniques; helped launch Cablevision’s video-on-demand service; and today, negotiates beyond the “known” waters of linear licensing on deals far more technical in reach and in scope. As a frequent speaker at industry events, Brennan is consistently direct, clever, and accurate — whether the topic is headend IRD authorization, proposed FCC set top box rules, advanced advertising or the over-the-top video scene. She spoke with MCN technology correspondent Leslie Ellis.

More WoT: Brennan is one of five execs selected for MCN's 2016 Women of Tech list; read about the others in Setting the Pace for Innovation [subscription required] and watch for a daily profile of each Sept. 26-30at multichannel.com/WomenOfTech.

MCN: What did you want to be when you grew up?

Sherry Brennan: The first female president of the United States, a surgeon, a physicist and a writer. We didn’t have a TV, so I had no idea about careers in television until after grad school.

MCN: First job? First job in cable?

SB: My very first job was collecting tickets and turning on and off the “kiddie rides” at my grandparents’ amusement park in Iowa City. I was 10. The liability issues make me shudder, looking back on it now … but nothing bad happened on my watch!

First job in cable was with Falcon Cable TV in 1989, working for the COO, Frank Intiso. I went from budget data entry to creating their first licensee-fee payment and channel-lineup databases. Somewhere in there, I helped figure out how to restructure our tiering so we didn’t take a financial hit with the Cable Act regulations in ’92 and ’93.

Frank set me up with a private tutor to learn how to write macros in so I could try running various scenarios, and ultimately automate how the required forms were populated. We had nearly 1,000 different systems in about 40 states, and each scenario used half a box of continuous-roll paper — sometimes I’d come in at 8 a.m. to find it unspooled and out the printer room door (yes, we had whole rooms for printing back then). I dreamed in numbers and rate change structures for months!

MCN: What’s on top of your to-do list these days?

SB: The opportunities for taking our content, and new forms of our content, to a variety of traditional and emerging platforms. It’s so interesting to see how different companies view the business — from small startups to huge companies, there are dozens of people wanting to get into our business. When I hear people say “TV is dead,” I just laugh. Who knew a “dead” business could generate so much activity? The deals are challenging and circuitous, and I can’t wait to see how incumbents and new entrants change our business over the next few years.

MCN: When and where are you happiest?

SB: When my son is happy, and also when I’m outdoors. Cooking and eating with family and friends is high on the list, too.

MCN: Most important quality for women to possess?

SB: Confidence married to competence, as my friend Grace Killelea would say it (in her fabulous book, The Confidence Effect). You’ve simply got to be able to speak up, in a cheerfully confident — and accurate — way, or you’ll be relegated to the back row forever.

MCN: What technology word drives you batty?

SB: “Skinny bundles.” Don’t people realize that “broadcast basic” is the original “skinny bundle,” and it’s been around forever?

MCN: What do you like to do when you’re not at work?

SB: Spend time with my son, read, and take long walks by the ocean. I also like cooking “homey” foods — lasagna, soup, chicken cutlets — while watching PBS mysteries on my DVR. And baking pies: Apple pie, pear-cranberry tarte tatin, chicken pot pie with whole wheat crust … yes, you’re invited!

MCN: Best or worst advice you’ve ever received?

SB: My dad told me that if I worked hard, I could achieve anything. He encouraged me to be smart, to strive for my goals, and to go to college, which he hadn’t had the opportunity to do. Without that formative vote of confidence, I’m not sure any other advice would’ve mattered. Thanks, Dad!

MCN: Favorite book of all time?

SB:Dr. Zhivago Drove the Bus to Chicago because it’s the book I learned to read with — all in one very long day (for my mom). I was 4 years old, determined, and on my own timeframe. Foreshadowing my entire adult life!

MCN: Favorite gadget or app?

SB: Instacart. No more “bad mommy” moments, when I get home late and realize there’s no milk, no toilet paper, and nothing to put in my son’s lunch for the next day. Yes, I’ve been known to order milk and bread for delivery at 9 p.m.

As you’ll soon learn, mathematics and technology were a perfect pairing for Kalpa Subramanian, who has been key in injecting culture and collaboration for an organization of more than 300 people at Comcast’s California operations.

In addition to earlier work focused on voice, data and video traffic for residential and commercial customers in that region, she has also been a primary leader and contributor in several other key tech and product areas, including the operator’s implementation of IP Multimedia Subsystems, DOCSIS 3.0/3.1, Xfinity Home, and Xfinity WiFi, to name but a few.

And in addition to giving her all to Comcast’s big efforts, she also invests valuable time and guidance as a mentor to others in the organization looking to learn and continue to grow.

Subramanian’s leadership throughout the organization and her focus on the customer are among the reasons why she is our choice for Tech Woman of the Year in the MSO/Regional category.

More WoT: Subramanian is one of five execs selected for MCN's 2016 Women of Tech list; read about the others in Setting the Pace for Innovation [subscription required] and watch for a daily profile of each Sept. 26-30 at multichannel.com/WomenOfTech.

Multichannel News: What spawned your interest in technology? 

Kalpa Subramanian: My mom is a math teacher, so at dinnertime, our favorite thing to talk about around the table would be solving math problems. As an end result, I was always good at math and science. It was in my destiny to go down the engineering route. But when I did my undergrad, in India, the first few days were a little bit of a reality check with the few number of women who go into engineering school and graduate with an engineering degree.

Coming out of it, I was focused on the field of computing and field of technology and the field of instrumentation and networking. It was kind of organic to go into the technology space, which, in the late 1990s and the early 2000s, was the start of the boom period for technology.

By the time I was 25, I had already lived and worked in five different countries, so it gave me an understanding that languages might be different and cultures might be different, but humanity is the same and technology is the same. That kind of became a uniting factor. 

MCN: How did you break into the cable industry? 

KS: Out of college, one of my first jobs was at a networking-type of a company, Microtech-Tel. I'm dating myself here, but back then voice-over-IP was the newest, coolest thing. As I started getting more into the professional-type world, I found that I had a knack for leading people and organizing them toward a commonly shared goal. Comcast had this huge opportunity when we were migrating our telephone system back in Colorado. That was when I came on board.

Back in the day, Charlotte Field [formerly of Comcast and now with Charter Communications], who was a senior vice president in that organization, was one of the early folks who had taken me under her wing. I have had countless other folks who have supported and guided me along the way, one of the most prominent being Shane Portfolio, who leads Comcast’s West Division Engineering.

MCN: What's your focus now? 

KS: The highest priority is our customers — getting our customers the most reliable service that they can depend on and rely on. At the end of the day, that holistic experience is what we want to deliver. And happy customers are possible by happy employees. Employee well-being is a top-priority. I spend a lot of my [time] working on strategies for employee growth and morale.

In Colorado, we started a mentoring committee and group called QCII to Success [QCII is a reference to a Comcast facility in Greenwood Village]. The primary goal was to take engineers, front-line folks, who are really good at their job but need a little bit of advice and mentoring … We paired them up with mentors. The results were amazing. Folks in the program were blossoming and it was very fulfilling to see that progress.

Here [in California] mentoring is still important to me … so I joined the [Women In Cable & Telecommunications] board and helped with their programs to help the newer women coming in or those who have entered the workforce that are looking for options and paths to climb up the career ladder. 

For women, there’s a lot of competition and there’s a voice in our heads — and this happens to me as well — that questions and digs at their confidence a little bit. I help women talk through quelling that voice and getting their inner confidence out. 

MCN: What tech term or jargon drives you nuts? 

KS: Having been a coder before, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, RAD [Rapid Application Development] used to be a term that referred to the programming language. Now, when people say something is “rad,” it takes me back to the coding days, but that's not where that acronym came from! 

MCN: Favorite book? 

KS: I love Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In. There are portions of the book that she touches on that are so real and replicatable to so many different components of day-to-day life. Another that I’m thumbing through right now is Rising Strong by Brené Brown. She had done a TED Talk on vulnerability … so I started to look into what Brené Brown does; she’s a huge, very successful professor. When I looked into her books, Rising Strong was one that could absolutely pull anybody up through thick and thin … and leveraging strengths and focusing on the opportunities. I loved the messages she had behind it. 

MCN: Favorite movie? 

KS: I do have a guilty pleasure, and those are rom-coms. A movie that I’ve watched a few dozen times is The Notebook. That’s a movie we need a lot of tissues and bonbons for!

MCN: What’s your favorite gadget or app? 

KS: My favorite app for the past few years is called the SBT — the Stop, Breathe & Think app.

In the San Francisco area, one of the well-being movements is being self-aware and searching inside oneself. After having been through some classes and lectures, the concept of focus by reflection and meditation has really sunk in. My way of reflection is putting on some headphones and walking around the block, and the Stop, Breathe and Think app is just a cool, fun app to make you mindful … and get your brain wired to take on the day with this newfound energy and focus. 

Kim Keever loved her job as chief information security officer at The Coca-Cola Co.’s bottling operation. She loved it so much that when Cox came calling in the summer of 2014, she was friendly, but insistent: It just wasn’t going to happen.

Now, as vice president and chief information security officer for the Atlanta-based service provider, she cringes at the memory, commending Cox as the “best employer I’ve ever had.”

In her role overseeing companywide security and all “cross-technology” functions (which she defines as “anything everyone has to do”), Keever deals with a much higher and more complex threat profile than with the famous beverage. There, it was more about protecting the brand from “hacktivists”; at Cox, it’s about protecting much more sensitive information, across multiple (and often shifting) platforms. Keever, whose father careered at BellSouth, spoke with Multichannel News tech correspondent Leslie Ellis.

More WoT: Keever is one of five execs selected for MCN's 2016 Women of Tech list; read about the others in Setting the Pace for Innovation [subscription required] and watch for a daily profile of each Sept. 26-30at multichannel.com/WomenOfTech.

MCN: What did you want to be when you grew up?

Kim Keever: I didn’t know exactly, but I knew that scientific things interested me. I was one of those kids — I drove my mother crazy; I drive my husband and my kids crazy — I want to know how and why things work. This summer, my son was in a baseball tournament, and we’re driving by these big, smokestack reactors, and I say, “Let’s go look!” My kids were like, “OMG, Mom. Stop it.”

MCN: First job?

KK: My first real job was at Accenture. I had studied chemical engineering and industrial management (at Georgia Tech), but I wasn’t sure exactly what industry was right. There, I could experiment with different things. My very first job was at an ice cream store. I got fired because I wouldn’t serve hollow ice cream balls just to save money. I think of it as kind of a prelude.

MCN: What’s on top of your to-do list these days?

KK: At work, it’s driving the cybersecurity agenda, as well as the governance process of our cross-technology functions. At home, my to-do list is to manage all of my kids — I have a son, 16, a daughter, 15, and another daughter, 12. So, getting one to baseball, one to volleyball, one to the horse stables.

MCN: When and where are you happiest?

KK: This is a hard one, because as corny as it sounds, I believe that it’s everyone’s choice to be happy or not. I tell my kids this all the time: It’s your decision, whether you’re negative, or positive. I tell them: Figure out what makes you happy, and do whatever that is.

MCN: Most important quality for women to possess?

KK: Self-confidence. In this kind of job, I see it all — the dirty stuff, the bad stuff — and I’m often the only woman in the room. It doesn’t faze me. Also, I’m not sure if this characteristic has a name, but I realized early on that if you find something nobody else wants to do, and you do it well and you like doing it? That works regardless of gender.

MCN: What technology word drives you batty?

KK: “Hackathon.” It doesn’t say what it is. To me, a hack means you’re a bad person who wants to break things. What we call “hackathons” are really more like fun things for people to do. They’re not about breaking anything.

MCN: What do you like to do when you’re not at work?

KK: Anything that involves being outdoors with my family.

MCN: Best or worst advice you’ve ever received?

KK: Worst was, a woman once told me that if I wanted people to take me seriously, I had to cut my hair!

MCN: Favorite book of all time?

KK: I have very little time to read, but when I do, I read the books my brother-in-law writes — Bret Witter — he wrote The Monuments Men, Until Tuesday and Until I Say Goodbye, among others.

MCN: Favorite gadget or app?

KK: I love Waze. I’m not directionally challenged, but it gets you around all the traffic. That’s important here in Atlanta!

As the SCTE/ISBE Cable-Tec Expo gets rolling in Philadelphia this week, it’s apropos for Multichannel News to shine a spotlight on its annual group of women in technology-oriented roles at companies that are helping to define the industry’s next generation of products and services. This year, we recognize individuals in five categories for leading the technology charge for cable operators, programmers and key industry suppliers.

Get more Women of Tech coverage.

MVPD, National

Kim Keever

Vice President, Chief Information Security Officer, Cox Communications

From Beverages to Broadband

Kim Keever loved her job as chief information security officer at The Coca-Cola Co.’s bottling operation. She loved it so much that when Cox came calling in the summer of 2014, she was friendly, but insistent: It just wasn’t going to happen.

Now, as vice president and chief information security officer for the Atlanta-based service provider, she cringes at the memory, commending Cox as the “best employer I’ve ever had.”

In her role overseeing companywide security and all “cross-technology” functions (which she defines as “anything everyone has to do”), Keever deals with a much higher and more complex threat profile than with the famous beverage. There, it was more about protecting the brand from “hacktivists”; at Cox, it’s about protecting much more sensitive information, across multiple (and often shifting) platforms.

— Leslie Ellis

Read a longer version of this Q&A here.

Multichannel News:What did you want to be when you grew up?

Kim Keever: I didn’t know exactly, but I knew that scientific things interested me. I was one of those kids — I drove my mother crazy; I drive my husband and my kids crazy — I want to know how and why things work. This summer, my son was in a baseball tournament, and we’re driving by these big, smokestack reactors, and I say, “Let’s go look!” My kids were like, “OMG, Mom. Stop it.”

MCN:First job?

KK: My first real job was at Accenture. I had studied chemical engineering and industrial management (at Georgia Tech), but I wasn’t sure exactly what industry was right. There, I could experiment with different things. My very first job was at an ice cream store. I got fired because I wouldn’t serve hollow ice cream balls just to save money. I think of it as kind of a prelude.

MCN:What’s on top of your to-do list these days?

KK: At work, it’s driving the cybersecurity agenda, as well as the governance process of our cross-technology functions. At home, my to-do list is to manage all of my kids — I have a son, 16, a daughter, 15, and another daughter, 12. So, getting one to baseball, one to volleyball, one to the horse stables.

MCN:When and where are you happiest?

KK: This is a hard one, because as corny as it sounds, I believe that it’s everyone’s choice to be happy or not. I tell my kids this all the time: It’s your decision, whether you’re negative, or positive. I tell them: Figure out what makes you happy, and do whatever that is.

MCN:Most important quality for women to possess?

KK: Self-confidence. In this kind of job, I see it all — the dirty stuff, the bad stuff — and I’m often the only woman in the room. It doesn’t faze me. Also, I’m not sure if this characteristic has a name, but I realized early on that if you find something nobody else wants to do, and you do it well and you like doing it? That works regardless of gender.

MCN:What technology word drives you batty?

KK: “Hackathon.” It doesn’t say what it is. To me, a hack means you’re a bad person who wants to break things. What we call “hackathons” are really more like fun things for people to do. They’re not about breaking anything.

MCN:Best or worst advice you’ve ever received?

KK: Worst was, a woman once told me that if I wanted people to take me seriously, I had to cut my hair!

MCN:Favorite gadget or app?

KK: I love Waze. I’m not directionally challenged, but it gets you around all the traffic. That’s important here in Atlanta!

MVPD, Regional

Kalpa Subramanian

Vice President, Engineering, Comcast Cable, California

Born to Be an Engineer

Mathematics and technology were a perfect pairing for Kalpa Subramanian, who has been key in injecting culture and collaboration for an organization of more than 300 people at Comcast’s California operations. In addition to earlier work focused on voice, data and video traffic for residential and commercial customers in that region, she has been a primary leader and contributor in several other key tech and product areas, including the operator’s implementation of IP Multimedia Subsystems, DOCSIS 3.0/3.1, Xfinity Home, and Xfinity WiFi, to name but a few. She also invests valuable time and guidance as a mentor to others in the organization looking to learn and continue to grow.

— Jeff Baumgartner

Read a longer version of this Q&A here.

MCN:What spawned your interest in technology?

Kalpa Subramanian: My mom is a math teacher, so at dinnertime, our favorite thing to talk about around the table would be solving math problems. As an end result, I was always good at math and science. It was in my destiny to go down the engineering route. But when I did my undergrad, in India, the first few days were a little bit of a reality check with the few number of women who go into engineering school and graduate with an engineering degree.

Coming out of it, I was focused on the field of computing and field of technology and the field of instrumentation and networking. It was kind of organic to go into the technology space, which, in the late 1990s and the early 2000s, was the start of the boom period for technology.

By the time I was 25, I had already lived and worked in five different countries, so it gave me an understanding that languages might be different and cultures might be different, but humanity is the same and technology is the same. That kind of became a uniting factor.

MCN:How did you break into the cable industry?

KS: Out of college, one of my first jobs was at a networking-type of a company, Microtech-Tel. I’m dating myself here, but back then voice-over-IP was the newest, coolest thing. As I started getting more into the professional-type world, I found that I had a knack for leading people and organizing them toward a commonly shared goal. Comcast had this huge opportunity when we were migrating our telephone system back in Colorado. That was when I came on board.

Back in the day, Charlotte Field [formerly of Comcast and now with Charter Communications], who was a senior vice president in that organization, was one of the early folks who had taken me under her wing. I have had countless other folks who have supported and guided me along the way, one of the most prominent being Shane Portfolio, who leads Comcast’s West Division Engineering.

MCN:What’s your focus now?

KS: The highest priority is our customers — getting our customers the most reliable service that they can depend on and rely on. At the end of the day, that holistic experience is what we want to deliver. And happy customers are possible by happy employees. Employee well-being is a top-priority. I spend a lot of my [time] working on strategies for employee growth and morale.

In Colorado, we started a mentoring committee and group called QCII to Success [QCII is a reference to a Comcast facility in Greenwood Village]. The primary goal was to take engineers, front-line folks, who are really good at their job but need a little bit of advice and mentoring …

Here [in California] mentoring is still important to me … so I joined the [Women In Cable & Telecommunications] board and helped with their programs to help the newer women coming in or those who have entered the workforce that are looking for options and paths to climb up the career ladder.

For women, there’s a lot of competition and there’s a voice in our heads — and this happens to me as well — that questions and digs at their confidence a little bit. I help women talk through quelling that voice and getting their inner confidence out.

MCN:What tech term or jargon drives you nuts?

KS: Having been a coder before, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, RAD [Rapid Application Development] used to be a term that referred to the programming language. Now, when people say something is “rad,” it takes me back to the coding days, but that’s not where that acronym came from!

MCN:What’s your favorite gadget or app?

KS: My favorite app for the past few years is called the SBT — the Stop, Breathe & Think app. In the San Francisco area, one of the well-being movements is being self-aware and searching inside oneself. After having been through some classes and lectures, the concept of focus by reflection and meditation has really sunk in. My way of reflection is putting on some headphones and walking around the block, and the Stop, Breathe and Think app is just a cool, fun app to make you mindful … and get your brain wired to take on the day with this newfound energy and focus.

Programmer

Sherry Brennan

Senior Vice President, Distribution, Fox Networks Group

Fox’s Technology Bridge

Sherry Brennan is the first to tell you about how many women at Fox Networks are “far more technical” than she is. But as Multichannel News’s choice for Woman of Tech in the Programmer category, it’s her rare and appreciable blend of industrial memory and technology communication that sets her apart.

It’s perhaps not surprising that she counts the venerable and notoriously straight-to-the-point Wilt Hildenbrand (former CTO of Cablevision Systems) as the teacher who showed her how to navigate the seas of tech-talk. Along a 27-year (and counting) career, Brennan invented a way to automate royalty fees using then-new database techniques; helped launch Cablevision’s video-on-demand service; and today, negotiates beyond the “known” waters of linear licensing on deals far more technical in reach and in scope. As a frequent speaker at industry events, Brennan is consistently direct, clever, and accurate — whether the topic is headend IRD authorization, proposed FCC set-top box rules, advanced advertising or the over-the-top video scene.

— Leslie Ellis

MCN:What did you want to be when you grew up?

Sherry Brennan: The first female president of the United States, a surgeon, a physicist and a writer. We didn’t have a TV, so I had no idea about careers in television until after grad school.

MCN:First job? First job in cable?

SB: My very first job was collecting tickets and turning on and off the “kiddie rides” at my grandparents’ amusement park in Iowa City. I was 10. The liability issues make me shudder, looking back on it now … but nothing bad happened on my watch!

First job in cable was with Falcon Cable TV in 1989, working for the COO, Frank Intiso. I went from budget data entry to creating their first licensee-fee payment and channel-lineup databases. Somewhere in there, I helped figure out how to restructure our tiering so we didn’t take a financial hit with the Cable Act regulations in ’92 and ’93.

Frank set me up with a private tutor to learn how to write macros so I could try running various scenarios, and ultimately automate how the required forms were populated. We had nearly 1,000 different systems in about 40 states, and each scenario used half a box of continuous-roll paper — sometimes I’d come in at 8 a.m. to find it unspooled and out the printer room door (yes, we had whole rooms for printing back then). I dreamed in numbers and rate change structures for months!

MCN:What’s on top of your to-do list these days?

SB: The opportunities for taking our content, and new forms of our content, to a variety of traditional and emerging platforms. It’s so interesting to see how different companies view the business — from small startups to huge companies, there are dozens of people wanting to get into our business. When I hear people say, “TV is dead,” I just laugh. Who knew a “dead” business could generate so much activity?

MCN:Most important quality for women to possess?

SB: Confidence married to competence, as my friend Grace Killelea would say it (in her fabulous book, The Confidence Effect). You’ve simply got to be able to speak up, in a cheerfully confident — and accurate — way, or you’ll be relegated to the back row forever.

MCN:What technology word drives you batty?

SB: “Skinny bundles.” Don’t people realize that “broadcast basic” is the original “skinny bundle,” and it’s been around forever?

MCN:Best or worst advice you’ve ever received?

SB: My dad told me that if I worked hard, I could achieve anything. He encouraged me to be smart, to strive for my goals, and to go to college, which he hadn’t had the opportunity to do. Without that formative vote of confidence, I’m not sure any other advice would’ve mattered. Thanks, Dad!

MCN:Favorite gadget or app?

SB: Instacart. No more “bad mommy” moments, when I get home late and realize there’s no milk, no toilet paper, and nothing to put in my son’s lunch for the next day. Yes, I’ve been known to order milk and bread for delivery at 9 p.m.

Vendor/Supplier

Kathy Weidman

Senior Vice President/General Manager, Metadata, TiVo

Metadata Maven

Kathy Weidman loves metadata. She’s loved metadata for as long as she can remember, in fact, and almost fastidiously planned her 30-plus year career around it — including her move to Rovi (now TiVo) two years ago. It all started in the post-production landscape, working for Avid, where she saw how inextricably data is wound into production workflows. It struck her as the pipeline for content discovery.

These days, Weidman is mapping out TiVo’s development of what she calls “super-powered metadata,” which blends its “knowledge graph” with machine learning, to make metadata more searchable, semantic, and relevant. She’s a frequent speaker at industry events — she opened a “Metadata Madness” conference earlier this year — and says that a goal is to spend more time as an industry spokesperson on the topic of … you guessed it … metadata.

— Leslie Ellis

MCN:What did you want to be when you grew up?

Kathy Weidman: A psychologist, at first, and then an economist. I studied both in college, as well as English. It turned out to be great training for the world of media, which is somewhere in between.

MCN:First job?

KW: First jobs were babysitting and waitressing, starting when I was 15. First job in cable was RedBee (now Ericsson), in Europe. I was managing director for content discovery — I managed the content discovery business including metadata and search and recommendations.

MCN:What’s on top of your to-do list these days?

KW: Right now, I’m working on a five-year plan about the future of metadata. It’s not what people think it is. The world will change. We have to change, to grow. Metadata will be virtual, with machine learning concepts. That’s really high on my list.

MCN:Most important quality for women in tech to possess?

KW: I do think you have to be tough. By that I mean fortitude and determination and passion. I think it’s also important to understand people and what motivates them. If you have a team of people who are happy doing what they’re doing, and love coming to work, you get 120% from them. So, develop a team that’s really passionate.

MCN:What do you like to do when you’re not at work?

KW: You’ll laugh, but I watch TV guides. I’m always looking for new ideas and thoughts. My husband complains, “Are we ever going to actually watch anything, or just look at the guide?” I also love to read, write, walk, and spend time with family [two sons and a daughter] doing high-energy things … we are passionate about life in general, and like to be active.

MCN:Best or worst advice you’ve ever received?

KW: Worst was, very early on, someone told me that I should use my “womanhood” to get ahead. I ignored it. Best was from my dad, who was a big believer in having fun at work. I take it to heart. We work super-hard here, but we play, too. Someday remind me to tell you about the April Fools’ joke we pulled off this year.

MCN:Favorite gadget or app?

KW: Uber, hands down. It’s changed the world in so many ways.

Rising Star

April Smith

Technology Project Manager, Cox Communications

A Passion for Learning

As a participant in Cox’s LEAD program, April Smith gets an opportunity to rotate within the company to learn and contribute to a variety of initiatives in the role of project manager. That’s a great fit for an industry up-and-comer with an insatiable passion for learning and for the technologies that are driving cable forward, including TV Everywhere to the new multi-Gigabit DOCSIS 3.1 platform. She is also active with industry organizations, including the National Association of Multi-Ethnicity in Communications and Women in Cable & Telecommunications chapters in Atlanta. Smith’s ability to learn and excel in a job that requires discipline and desire and a go-get-’em attitude, while engaging with the larger industry and still living a dynamic life outside of work make her Multichannel News’s pick for Tech Woman of the Year in the Rising Star category.

— Jeff Baumgartner

MCN:What sparked your interest in the cable industry?

April Smith: I knew I wanted to be in the TV industry in some shape or form, I just didn’t know in what capacity. Prior to starting college, I felt there was a lack of representation of African-Americans on TV, and I wanted to be part of the conversation to encourage more diversity on screen.

I majored in Arts, Entertainment and Media Management with a minor in Television. My goal was to become a leader who influences key business decisions. I knew revenue would be a key driver, so I started working in advertising sales for HGTV and DIY networks.

MCN:What are your current priorities at Cox?

AS: I just wrapped up one of my first project rotations, working on TV Everywhere for Cox video customers. I recently launched a major enhancement to the company’s new Contour app. For the first time, Cox’s customers have the opportunity to watch linear programs outside of the home directly via the Contour app, available across Cox’s entire video subscriber base [estimated at 4 million].

I’ve just started a new rotation as a project manager in customer operations. I am serving on two Cox initiatives. The first is the Cox telephony initiative, which requires migrating 400,000 Cox voice customers from CS [circuit-switched] to PS [packet-switched] technology by the end of 2018; the goal is to ultimately migrate customers to an enhanced digital offering and provide a better service to our customers.

The second project is a network-transformation initiative, DOCSIS 3.1. I’m looking at this project from the customer operations perspective. [I’m focused] on how this transformation will impact our sales, field services, customer care and marketing divisions and how we ensure all of these groups are aligned as we move forward with this initiative.

MCN:Do you have any advice for women who are trying to break into this industry?

AS: Be comfortable being uncomfortable. There are so many complexities to technology. Everyone is learning at the same time. If you’re in a business or an area you know really well — say, if you’re in marketing — you know marketing in and out. But when it comes to technology, there are new devices that are coming out, new offerings, new regulations and laws. You have to continually learn and be up to speed … and be able to share [those learnings] with executives or someone on your team to help them understand it from a simplistic point of view.

MCN:What’s your favorite app or gizmo these days?

AS: My favorite app has to be the new Contour app … since I helped launch it. [Laughs.] There’s no other app to think about right now.

For Tal Laufer, director and product line manager for Arris’s line of bandwidth and capacity gear, it’s the middle of the high season for RFPs — requests for proposals. Multichannel video and broadband providers are always on the hunt for more network capacity, and especially more Internet-protocol bandwidth. Laufer works in the sweet spot of capacity-related technology, entrenched in the impressively nerdy world of CCAP (for Converged Cable Access Platform), passive optical networks (PONs), and the critically important components that will help operators worldwide deal with the sustained, 50-plus-percent per year growth in broadband service consumption. For those reasons, she’s MCN’s pick for Woman of Tech in the vendor/supplier category.

MCN: What did you want to be when you grew up?

Tal Laufer: Frankly, I didn’t really know what I wanted to be, which was a little bit surprising, as I normally know pretty well what I want! My attraction to technology started in high school, when I studied physics. I really enjoyed the practical work of building things in the lab.

MCN: First job in tech?

TL: During university, I started working as an intern doing chip design and verification at IBM Labs. I worked on their new generation of processors back then, and learned a lot. I came into our industry via BigBand Networks, which Arris acquired in 2011.

MCN: What’s the big thing for your organization in 2016?

TL: We’re focused on CCAP [Converged Cable Access Platform] enhancements, as video converges and DOCSIS 3.1 ramps up for our customers. We’re also dedicating a lot of time and effort into figuring out what will be the future network architecture that will fit the different cable operators around the world — centralized CCAP, distributed CCAP, PON evolution and beyond.

MCN: Favorite geek-out tech term(s)?

TL: My favorite is the first one I learned, coming into the industry: “To configure.” It sounds even weirder when you say it as a Hebrew word. I like how tech people use it for everything, from a hardware chip or router, to their chair, even their lunch!

MCN: Most important quality for women of tech to have?

TL: I think determination is very important, and also the ability to know your priorities — to differentiate between what’s important and what’s not. Those are good for men and women both, but for women, even more so.

MCN: Favorite book of all time?

TL: Atlas Shrugged at the moment, but it keeps changing!

MCN: Best advice you ever received?

TL: “You don’t always have to look at the highest peak you are trying to conquer. Sometimes it serves you better to just target the top of the nearest hill, and worry about the rest of the climb later.”

MCN: Favorite gadget/app?

TL: My phone, naturally, and my new Android watch. Though I can’t wait to see how the wearables technologies advance and provide even greater value to me.

She calls herself a creative data nerd — a “square peg in a round hole” — and it’s a state that’s served her quite well in her 14 years at Time Warner Cable. Buchanan is the glue that connects the company’s various technology divisions with creative and measurable ways to communicate what they do, and why it matters: webinars, surveys, internal websites, and data, data, data. For the Rocky Mountain chapter of WICT, she’s an indefatigable and multifaceted volunteer, cheerfully going the extra mile to get things done. For cableFIRST, the industrywide effort to encourage more industry people to mentor local FIRST Robotics teams, she’s a life force. And for those reasons, she’s our pick for Tech Woman of the year in the Rising Star category.

MCN: What did you want to be when you grew up?

Keely Buchanan: The voice of Disney animated musicals! But, then it got to be more about getting out of my really small town in Alaska, getting scholarships to get into a good college, and then working really hard in college to get a good job.

MCN: First job in tech?

KB: Time Warner Cable, actually. I graduated from [the University of Denver] with a degree in digital media studies, which is when I realized I’ve always gravitated to the intersection of creative and technology. I was the only person out of all of my friends who got a job right out of school, in the field they’d studied. I remember thinking, “Cable? Boring,” but I couldn’t have been more wrong.

MCN. What’s the big thing in tech for your organization in 2016?

KB: Well, that merger with Charter is certainly top of mind. I’m really interested to see how both companies will share and grow together. Big picture, we’re doing some 1-Gig broadband enhancements next year in L.A., and we’re doing some really cool stuff with sustainability — we just committed to a 30% carbon intensity reduction by the end of ’16, which ties into the SCTE Energy2020 initiative. And I’m really excited about our “Connect a Million Minds” STEM and FIRST Robotics programs.

MCN. Where and when are you happiest?

KB: With my boys, for sure [Arlo, 5, and Nelson, 3]. Laughing, playing on the playground, lots of reading, and doing fabulously nerdy stuff like passing on my love of board games. And libraries.

MCN: Favorite geek-out tech term(s)?

KB: Data Scientist. Who knew that would be a thing? I want to be one. With the white lab coat! Well, maybe mine would be teal.

MCN: What tech term drives you batty?

KB: It drives me bonkers when people call something an acronym, when it’s technically an initialism. If it’s an abbreviation based on the first letter of each term, and you can pronounce it, it’s an acronym. “RAM,” acronym. “DVR,” not an acronym.

MCN: Most important qualities for women of tech to have?

KB: A sense of humor. Thick skin. Determination, for sure. Having a big picture view, while still being able to get your point across quickly. None of these are specific to women, by the way.

MCN: Favorite book of all time?

KB: Modoc, the True Story of the Greatest Elephant That Ever Lived.

MCN: Best advice you ever received?

KB: It’s always better to fail than to never try; asking is free; always look at things from the other person’s point of view. And be your best self. I tell my boys that all the time: I don’t want you to be anybody else, I just want you to be your best self.

MCN: Favorite gadget/app?

KB: I’m all about the data, so for me it’s the wearables. Just by living, you can be collecting actionable data about yourself. Sleep habits and health and heart rate, all things that are non-invasive — for me, it seems like a huge value-add to your life.

Monica Williams, vice president of product development and strategy of NBCUniversal, and this year’s salute for Tech Woman of the Year in the Programmer/Network category, came back to work on Oct. 1 after being out for maternity leave (baby No. 2, a boy). On that first day back, her calendar was already full and shifting. “We solve problems all day long,” Williams says of her team — or, as she puts it, “team awesome.” There’s no such thing as a typical day when it comes to getting all of NBCU’s content out, on time, in different formats, to its distribution partners — cable, satellite, and over-the-top, and whatever comes next. Pile on some (Nielsen) C3 handling, and some DAI (dynamic ad insertion) gymnastics, with a side of continuous improvement and automation, and you’re looking at a typical, atypical day for this total digital dynamo.

MCN: What did you want to be when you grew up?

Monica Williams: I wanted to be an ophthalmologist. An “eye surgeon,” as I used to say when I was little. I wanted to help people see the world. Clearly that didn’t work out. My parents are both doctors and trained me to want to be a doctor, I think. I rebelled and got an engineering degree instead. I really wanted to explore what else was out there besides the world of medicine.

MCN: First job in tech?

MW: Manager of digital media operations for NBCUniversal. That’s when I learned all about digital and started to shift into more of a technical role. This was in 2008, when we launched with all the EST [electronic sell-through] partners. Amazon, iTunes, Hulu. It was a crazy time but I loved it! All the file formats, transfer rates, CDNs (Content Delivery Networks), thumbnails — I fell in love with all of it.

MCN: What’s the big thing in tech for your organization in 2016?

MW: Launching and enhancing clip distribution products with various partners. And what I consider my “baby” — an effort I’m leading to enhance search and recommendation of our content via metadata.

MCN: Where and when are you happiest?

MW: I’m happiest when I’m anywhere with my family. Whether it’s snowboarding in Mammoth, traveling to new places, fighting the crowds at Disneyland, or on the couch watching football — as long as I’m with them.

MCN: Favorite geek-out tech term(s)?

MW: How about a phrase? Mine is to make metadata sexy!

MCN: What tech term drives you batty?

MW: “Metadata” — because it is just so hard!

MCN: Most important quality for women of tech to have?

MW: I don’t think this makes a difference for men or women: The willingness to learn and be OK with not knowing everything. The willingness to ask questions. Especially in tech roles, where things change so rapidly. I’m constantly learning new things, always asking a ton of questions.

MCN: Favorite book of all time?

MW: Tuesdays With Morrie. And anything by John Grisham.

MCN: Best advice you ever received?

MW: A good friend and a former boss of mine once told me “don’t run away — run to something.” I’ve been sticking to it ever since.

MCN: If you could change one thing about the multichannel video industry, what would it be?

MW: User interface. I know there’s been significant improvement in the last couple of years, but we really need to make it where my 2-year-old son can navigate without assistance. He can with YouTube and Netflix!

MCN: Favorite gadget/app?

MW: Lately, it’s been Pinterest and the Food.com app. I’m trying to learn easy and fun things to make for my family.

Angela Rinaldo, senior director of video operations at Charter Communications, isn’t just helping to build the company’s new super-rich media guide, “Spectrum,” including all of the back-office hooks and infrastructure details. She’s also working on a team to continuously improve the app version of Spectrum, while improving the Charter video network by building in resiliency, redundancy and scalability — “because it’s all about the customer experience.” She’s also collaborating on how to scale aspects of the company’s cloud-based DVR platform. Colleagues throughout the industry describe Rinaldo as “absolutely fantastic,” “driven” and “energetic.” We salute her as the Multichannel News Tech Woman of the Year in the MVPD/regional category.

MCN: What did you want to be when you grew up?

Angela Rinaldo: When I was young, an astronaut. In my teens, a software developer. I got a taste of writing code in high school, and I liked it.

MCN: First job in tech?

AR: It was in Denver, programing telephony switches in C/C++ for a telephony service bureau that handled 800 and 900 numbers.

MCN: What’s the big thing in tech for your organization in 2016?

AR: Cloud infrastructures to support new video services — cloud-based DVR, software-based encoding, our cloud-based guide and applications. Also IP-delivered video, guide and apps, on our legacy/non-IP set-top boxes. That’s really cool.

MCN: Where and when are you happiest?

AR: Work-wise, I’m happiest in a room with my engineers, architecting out a complex infrastructure and figuring out how we are going to scale it and build in resiliency. At home, it’s being in the mountains and camping with my boys.

MCN. Which tech term drives you batty?

AR: I have two: Static and single-threaded.

MCN. Most important quality for women of tech to have?

AR: Logic, for one. Two, the ability to be articulate — and that’s not just for women, it’s for everyone. If you can’t explain it, you’ll be discounted there and then. And lastly, collaborative.

MCN: Favorite book of all time?

AR: The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho.

MCN: Best advice you ever received?

AR: Remember to pause.

MCN: If you could change one thing about the multichannel video industry, what would it be?

AR: An endless and bountiful vat of bandwidth and spectrum!

MCN. Favorite gadget/app?

AR: I’m not so much of a gadget person, but I really enjoy our Spectrum TV app. Granted, I work on it, but I’m also a single mom with two boys — so when they’re off watching what they want to watch, I can, too.

Everybody multitasks. Few multitask the technological gamut that is the Engineering & Platform Services group at Comcast. As senior vice president and group technical adviser, Hennesy is a masterclass team builder, connecting the cross-departmental teams that get stuff done — and that, in part, is why the editors of Multichannel News have named her as the 2015 Woman of Technology in the MSO/national category.

One moment, she’s aligning the people in the company’s advanced advertising plan, including the many ad platform acquisitions Comcast made this year. The next, she’s connecting the workflows within Energy2020, an industry-wide sustainability target. And, as a third-year mentor to an all-girls FIRST Robotics team, the Firebirds, Hennesy is a life force when it comes to attracting more young women to roles in technology. Categorically, Hennesy is an indefatigable sponsor of women in tech, of all ages. 

MCN: What did you want to be when you grew up?

Theresa Hennessy: I thought I’d be doing something in athletics and sports. Then, when I got into it, I didn’t like it at all! I realized that what I liked about sports is working in teams.

I also loved physics — I majored in it in college. I didn’t necessarily want to be a physicist, but, I appreciated how physics explains things at a very high conceptual level. I still do. That physics background often helps me to think strategically about ecosystems, dependencies and interoperabilities.

MCN: First job in tech?

TH: Software clerk at MCI, which meant I did the programming into the voice switches that allowed calls to be processed. I knew just about every area code around — give me your phone number, I could tell you where you lived, just about.

MCN: What’s the big thing in tech for your organization in 2016?

TH: It’s the continued evolution of everything hardware to everything software. Programmable networks, programmable data feeds, programmable apps. Everything programmable.

MCN: Where and when are you happiest?

TH: At home with my family and friends, hosting a gathering.

MCN: Favorite geek-out tech term(s)?

TH: The “Firm Order Commitment.” It’s abbreviated “FOC,” and telecom people tend to say it as a word. I’ll never forget the first moment I realized that it wasn’t exactly a mainstream acronym when I said it aloud — and with gusto — in a room full of lawyers and regulatory people. “We were FOC’d!” Whoops!

MCN: What tech term drives you batty?

TH: “It’s up!” Uh, OK, the green lights are on, but is it doing what it’s supposed to be doing? Sometimes just because it’s on doesn’t mean it isn’t a roach motel — packets come in, but they don’t come out!

MCN: Most important quality for women of tech to have?

TH: Persistence and confidence, together. Persistence, to follow through on ideas you know to be the right business solutions. Confidence, for when you don’t know how exactly to do it, but you know how to get the right people together to make it happen.

MCN: Favorite book of all time?

TH: The Glass Castle. It’s the memoir of Jeannette Walls. Just an incredibly inspiring story about overcoming adversities using street smarts, creativity, and self confidence.

MCN: Best advice you ever received?

TH: Make your own choices; don’t let your business make choices for you. You always have a choice. A choice to say yes, no, stop, go. You don’t always have to stay with what you know.

Back in high school, I was one of two girls who bucked the status quo — we signed up for shop instead of home ec. We already knew how to cook and sew! We wanted to build stuff. My sister still has this crazy, three-tier, ornate shelf I made.

MCN: Favorite gadget/app?

TH: My husband and I spend a lot of windshield time driving up and down I-95, so, this is easy: The WAZE app. We use it all the time, to navigate around traffic and accidents. It’s a collection of drivers entering real time information — collaboration for the benefit of all.

As the SCTE Cable-Tec Expo gets rolling in New Orleans this week, it’s apropos for Multichannel News to shine a spotlight on its annual group of women in technology-oriented roles at companies that are helping to define the industry’s next generation of products and services. This year, we recognize individuals in six categories for leading the technology charge for cable operators, programmers and key industry suppliers. All of the honorees spoke with MCN technology analyst Leslie Ellis.

Theresa Hennesy | Master Team-Builder

Everybody multitasks. Few multitask the technological gamut that is the Engineering & Platform Services group at Comcast. As senior vice president and group technical adviser, Hennesy is a masterclass team builder, connecting the cross-departmental teams that get stuff done — and that, in part, is why the editors of Multichannel News have named her as the 2015 Woman of Technology in the MSO/national category.

One moment, she’s aligning the people in the company’s advanced advertising plan, including the many ad platform acquisitions Comcast made this year. The next, she’s connecting the workflows within Energy2020, an industry-wide sustainability target. And, as a third-year mentor to an all-girls FIRST Robotics team, the Firebirds, Hennesy is a life force when it comes to attracting more young women to roles in technology. Categorically, Hennesy is an indefatigable sponsor of women in tech, of all ages. 

MCN: What did you want to be when you grew up?

Theresa Hennessy (pictured, top left): I thought I’d be doing something in athletics and sports. Then, when I got into it, I didn’t like it at all! I realized that what I liked about sports is working in teams.

I also loved physics — I majored in it in college. I didn’t necessarily want to be a physicist, but, I appreciated how physics explains things at a very high conceptual level. I still do. That physics background often helps me to think strategically about ecosystems, dependencies and interoperabilities.

MCN: First job in tech?

TH: Software clerk at MCI, which meant I did the programming into the voice switches that allowed calls to be processed. I knew just about every area code around — give me your phone number, I could tell you where you lived, just about.

MCN: What’s the big thing in tech for your organization in 2016?

TH: It’s the continued evolution of everything hardware to everything software. Programmable networks, programmable data feeds, programmable apps. Everything programmable.

MCN: Where and when are you happiest?

TH: At home with my family and friends, hosting a gathering.

MCN: Favorite geek-out tech term(s)?

TH: The “Firm Order Commitment.” It’s abbreviated “FOC,” and telecom people tend to say it as a word. I’ll never forget the first moment I realized that it wasn’t exactly a mainstream acronym when I said it aloud — and with gusto — in a room full of lawyers and regulatory people. “We were FOC’d!” Whoops!

MCN: What tech term drives you batty?

TH: “It’s up!” Uh, OK, the green lights are on, but is it doing what it’s supposed to be doing? Sometimes just because it’s on doesn’t mean it isn’t a roach motel — packets come in, but they don’t come out!

MCN: Most important quality for women of tech to have?

TH: Persistence and confidence, together. Persistence, to follow through on ideas you know to be the right business solutions. Confidence, for when you don’t know how exactly to do it, but you know how to get the right people together to make it happen.

MCN: Favorite book of all time?

TH:The Glass Castle. It’s the memoir of Jeannette Walls. Just an incredibly inspiring story about overcoming adversities using street smarts, creativity, and self confidence.

MCN: Best advice you ever received?

TH: Make your own choices; don’t let your business make choices for you. You always have a choice. A choice to say yes, no, stop, go. You don’t always have to stay with what you know.

Back in high school, I was one of two girls who bucked the status quo — we signed up for shop instead of home ec. We already knew how to cook and sew! We wanted to build stuff. My sister still has this crazy, three-tier, ornate shelf I made.

MCN: Favorite gadget/app?

TH: My husband and I spend a lot of windshield time driving up and down I-95, so, this is easy: The WAZE app. We use it all the time, to navigate around traffic and accidents. It’s a collection of drivers entering real time information — collaboration for the benefit of all.

Jeanie York | Spanning the Globe

It’s one thing (and a big thing, to be sure) to oversee network operations — on a national scale — for voice, video and data, and all constituent data centers and IT accoutrement. It’s quite another to do that for a company operating nationally in 12 European countries with multiple languages, vastly diverse cultures and an acquisition-accelerated patchwork of technological capabilities. That’s the work of Jeanie York, vice president of network operations for Liberty Global, and our 2015 honoree in the operator/international category. Because York’s charge is all of that — plus transforming how the company measures, and thus improves, every interaction with its customers. That’s a lotta lotta.

MCN: What did you want to be when you grew up?

Jeanie York (pictured, top center): A doctor. A good, old-fashioned doctor, who comes to your house and takes care of you when you’re sick. I worked in a hospital and in health care before I came to telecom. Too much blood and guts!

MCN: First job in tech?

JY: I started out in construction at Qwest, in Denver. We were building out our fiber-optic backbone. I was in quality control — I traveled all over the U.S., inspecting fiber-optic installations.

MCN: What’s the big thing in tech for your organization in 2016?

JY: Cracking the nut on service monitoring and being able to truly see the customer experience.

MCN: Where and when are you happiest?

JY: On a beach or under the water, diving.

MCN. What tech term drives you batty?

JY: I have two of them: “Cloud” and “big data.” What-ever!

MCN: What’s the most important quality for women of tech to have?

JY: Having strength and conviction in who you are, and the value you bring to both the team, and the company you work for.

MCN: Favorite book of all time?

JY: I can tell you the book I read most recently — the Steve Jobs book. He was the right blend of perfectionism and innovation and I’m not sure we’ll see something of his kind again for a while.

MCN: Best advice you ever received?

JY: Don’t define who you are by your job. Define who you are with your character. We have a tendency to make extreme personal sacrifices for our careers. If you’re not careful, you lose the balance and become a “workaholic.” Your job is one part of your character. Don’t make it the only part.

MCN: If you could change one thing about the multichannel video industry, what would it be?

JY: Simplify! Simplify the architecture. Our industry is extremely complex — especially video. If I could change one thing, I’d find the people who can find the way to simplify — our designs, and how we deliver technology to consumers. That’s what I’d change.

MCN: Favorite gadget or app?

JY: I have two favorite apps: WhatsApp, and CityMapper. CityMapper — it’s an awesome tool if you travel a lot.

Angela Rinaldo | Video Software Sage

Angela Rinaldo, senior director of video operations at Charter Communications, isn’t just helping to build the company’s new super-rich media guide, “Spectrum,” including all of the back-office hooks and infrastructure details. She’s also working on a team to continuously improve the app version of Spectrum, while improving the Charter video network by building in resiliency, redundancy and scalability — “because it’s all about the customer experience.” She’s also collaborating on how to scale aspects of the company’s cloud-based DVR platform. Colleagues throughout the industry describe Rinaldo as “absolutely fantastic,” “driven” and “energetic.” We salute her as the Multichannel News Tech Woman of the Year in the MVPD/regional category.

MCN: What did you want to be when you grew up?

Angela Rinaldo (pictured, top right): When I was young, an astronaut. In my teens, a software developer. I got a taste of writing code in high school, and I liked it.

MCN: First job in tech?

AR: It was in Denver, programing telephony switches in C/C++ for a telephony service bureau that handled 800 and 900 numbers.

MCN: What’s the big thing in tech for your organization in 2016?

AR: Cloud infrastructures to support new video services — cloud-based DVR, software-based encoding, our cloud-based guide and applications. Also IP-delivered video, guide and apps, on our legacy/non-IP set-top boxes. That’s really cool.

MCN: Where and when are you happiest?

AR: Work-wise, I’m happiest in a room with my engineers, architecting out a complex infrastructure and figuring out how we are going to scale it and build in resiliency. At home, it’s being in the mountains and camping with my boys.

MCN. Which tech term drives you batty?

AR: I have two: Static and single-threaded.

MCN. Most important quality for women of tech to have?

AR: Logic, for one. Two, the ability to be articulate — and that’s not just for women, it’s for everyone. If you can’t explain it, you’ll be discounted there and then. And lastly, collaborative.

MCN: Favorite book of all time?

AR:The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho.

MCN: Best advice you ever received?

AR: Remember to pause.

MCN: If you could change one thing about the multichannel video industry, what would it be?

AR: An endless and bountiful vat of bandwidth and spectrum!

MCN. Favorite gadget/app?

AR: I’m not so much of a gadget person, but I really enjoy our Spectrum TV app. Granted, I work on it, but I’m also a single mom with two boys — so when they’re off watching what they want to watch, I can, too.

Monica Williams | Digital Dynamo

Monica Williams, vice president of product development and strategy of NBCUniversal, and this year’s salute for Tech Woman of the Year in the Programmer/ Network category, came back to work on Oct. 1 after being out for maternity leave (baby No. 2, a boy). On that first day back, her calendar was already full and shifting. “We solve problems all day long,” Williams says of her team — or, as she puts it, “team awesome.” There’s no such thing as a typical day when it comes to getting all of NBCU’s content out, on time, in different formats, to its distribution partners — cable, satellite, and over-the-top, and whatever comes next. Pile on some (Nielsen) C3 handling, and some DAI (dynamic ad insertion) gymnastics, with a side of continuous improvement and automation, and you’re looking at a typical, atypical day for this total digital dynamo.

MCN: What did you want to be when you grew up?

Monica Williams (pictured, bottom left): I wanted to be an ophthalmologist. An “eye surgeon,” as I used to say when I was little. I wanted to help people see the world. Clearly that didn’t work out. My parents are both doctors and trained me to want to be a doctor, I think. I rebelled and got an engineering degree instead. I really wanted to explore what else was out there besides the world of medicine.

MCN: First job in tech?

MW: Manager of digital media operations for NBCUniversal. That’s when I learned all about digital and started to shift into more of a technical role. This was in 2008, when we launched with all the EST [electronic sell-through] partners. Amazon, iTunes, Hulu. It was a crazy time but I loved it! All the file formats, transfer rates, CDNs (Content Delivery Networks), thumbnails — I fell in love with all of it.

MCN: What’s the big thing in tech for your organization in 2016?

MW: Launching and enhancing clip distribution products with various partners. And what I consider my “baby” — an effort I’m leading to enhance search and recommendation of our content via metadata.

MCN: Where and when are you happiest?

MW: I’m happiest when I’m anywhere with my family. Whether it’s snowboarding in Mammoth, traveling to new places, fighting the crowds at Disneyland, or on the couch watching football — as long as I’m with them.

MCN: Favorite geek-out tech term(s)?

MW: How about a phrase? Mine is to make metadata sexy!

MCN: What tech term drives you batty?

MW: “Metadata” — because it is just so hard!

MCN: Most important quality for women of tech to have?

MW: I don’t think this makes a difference for men or women: The willingness to learn and be OK with not knowing everything. The willingness to ask questions. Especially in tech roles, where things change so rapidly. I’m constantly learning new things, always asking a ton of questions.

MCN: Favorite book of all time?

MW:Tuesdays With Morrie. And anything by John Grisham.

MCN: Best advice you ever received?

MW: A good friend and a former boss of mine once told me “don’t run away — run to something.” I’ve been sticking to it ever since.

MCN: If you could change one thing about the multichannel video industry, what would it be?

MW: User interface. I know there’s been significant improvement in the last couple of years, but we really need to make it where my 2-year-old son can navigate without assistance. He can with YouTube and Netflix!

MCN: Favorite gadget/app?

MW: Lately, it’s been Pinterest and the Food.com app. I’m trying to learn easy and fun things to make for my family.

Tal Laufer | Geared for Growth

For Tal Laufer, director and product line manager for Arris’s line of bandwidth and capacity gear, it’s the middle of the high season for RFPs — requests for proposals. Multichannel video and broadband providers are always on the hunt for more network capacity, and especially more Internet-protocol bandwidth. Laufer works in the sweet spot of capacity-related technology, entrenched in the impressively nerdy world of CCAP (for Converged Cable Access Platform), passive optical networks (PONs), and the critically important components that will help operators worldwide deal with the sustained, 50-plus-percent per year growth in broadband service consumption. For those reasons, she’s MCN’s pick for Woman of Tech in the vendor/supplier category.

MCN: What did you want to be when you grew up?

Tal Laufer(pictured, bottom center): Frankly, I didn’t really know what I wanted to be, which was a little bit surprising, as I normally know pretty well what I want! My attraction to technology started in high school, when I studied physics. I really enjoyed the practical work of building things in the lab.

MCN: First job in tech?

TL: During university, I started working as an intern doing chip design and verification at IBM Labs. I worked on their new generation of processors back then, and learned a lot. I came into our industry via BigBand Networks, which Arris acquired in 2011.

MCN: What’s the big thing for your organization in 2016?

TL: We’re focused on CCAP [Converged Cable Access Platform] enhancements, as video converges and DOCSIS 3.1 ramps up for our customers. We’re also dedicating a lot of time and effort into figuring out what will be the future network architecture that will fit the different cable operators around the world — centralized CCAP, distributed CCAP, PON evolution and beyond.

MCN: Favorite geek-out tech term(s)?

TL: My favorite is the first one I learned, coming into the industry: “To configure.” It sounds even weirder when you say it as a Hebrew word. I like how tech people use it for everything, from a hardware chip or router, to their chair, even their lunch!

MCN: Most important quality for women of tech to have?

TL: I think determination is very important, and also the ability to know your priorities — to differentiate between what’s important and what’s not. Those are good for men and women both, but for women, even more so.

MCN: Favorite book of all time?

TL:Atlas Shrugged at the moment, but it keeps changing!

MCN: Best advice you ever received?

TL: “You don’t always have to look at the highest peak you are trying to conquer. Sometimes it serves you better to just target the top of the nearest hill, and worry about the rest of the climb later.”

MCN: Favorite gadget/app?

TL: My phone, naturally, and my new Android watch. Though I can’t wait to see how the wearables technologies advance and provide even greater value to me.

Keely Buchanan | Creative Data Nerd

She calls herself a creative data nerd — a “square peg in a round hole” — and it’s a state that’s served her quite well in her 14 years at Time Warner Cable. Buchanan is the glue that connects the company’s various technology divisions with creative and measurable ways to communicate what they do, and why it matters: webinars, surveys, internal web sites, and data, data, data. For the Rocky Mountain chapter of WICT, she’s an indefatigable and multifaceted volunteer, cheerfully going the extra mile to get things done. For cableFIRST, the industrywide effort to encourage more industry people to mentor local FIRST Robotics teams, she’s a life force. And for those reasons, she’s our pick for Tech Woman of the year in the Rising Star category.

MCN: What did you want to be when you grew up?

Keely Buchanan (pictured, bottom right): The voice of Disney animated musicals! But, then it got to be more about getting out of my really small town in Alaska, getting scholarships to get into a good college, and then working really hard in college to get a good job.

MCN: First job in tech?

KB: Time Warner Cable, actually. I graduated from [the University of Denver] with a degree in digital media studies, which is when I realized I’ve always gravitated to the intersection of creative and technology. I was the only person out of all of my friends who got a job right out of school, in the field they’d studied. I remember thinking “cable? boring,” but I couldn’t have been more wrong.

MCN. What’s the big thing in tech for your organization in 2016?

KB: Well, that merger with Charter is certainly top of mind. I’m really interested to see how both companies will share and grow together. Big picture, we’re doing some 1-Gig broadband enhancements next year in L.A., and we’re doing some really cool stuff with sustainability — we just committed to a 30% carbon intensity reduction by the end of ’16, which ties into the SCTE Energy2020 initiative. And I’m really excited about our “Connect a Million Minds” STEM and FIRST Robotics programs.

MCN. Where and when are you happiest?

KB: With my boys, for sure. [Arlo, 5 and Nelson, 3.] Laughing, playing on the playground, lots of reading, and doing fabulously nerdy stuff like passing on my love of board games. And libraries.

MCN: Favorite geek-out tech term(s)?

KB:Data Scientist. Who knew that would be a thing? I want to be one. With the white lab coat! Well, maybe mine would be teal.

MCN: What tech term drives you batty?

KB: It drives me bonkers when people call something an acronym, when it’s technically an initialism. If it’s an abbreviation based on the first letter of each term, and you can pronounce it, it’s an acronym. “RAM,” acronym. “DVR,” not an acronym.

MCN: Most important qualities for women of tech to have?

KB: A sense of humor. Thick skin. Determination, for sure. Having a big picture view, while still being able to get your point across quickly. None of these are specific to women, by the way.

MCN: Favorite book of all time?

KB:Modoc, the True Story of the Greatest Elephant That Ever Lived.

MCN: Best advice you ever received?

KB: It’s always better to fail than to never try; asking is free; always look at things from the other person’s point of view. And be your best self. I tell my boys that all the time: I don’t want you to be anybody else, I just want you to be your best self.

MCN: Favorite gadget/app?

KB: I’m all about the data, so for me it’s the wearables. Just by living, you can be collecting actionable data about yourself. Sleep habits and health and heart rate, all things that are non-invasive — for me, it seems like a huge value-add to your life.