Speakers
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Julian Ankiah
Executive Head Of Technology Engineering & Support
Julian Ankiah is the Executive Head of Technology Engineering and Support at MultiChoice Group – a pioneering media broadcaster and platform business on the African continent. He is responsible for the company’s Media and Broadcast infrastructure and solutions. He has 20 years of experience in the industry, driving transformation, people readiness, and ensuring that media solutions are aligned to business needs and the competitive landscape. A key focus of his is digital transformation with Cloud, AI/ML, adoption of Dev Ops, and software defined solutions within the media technology space.
Prior to joining MultiChoice, he was Engineering Manager at Twofour54 (part of Abu Dhabi Media Zone) in the UAE. He was part of the core team that rolled out multiple studios, post-production, and playout facilities at the media zone.
He holds an MBA from Manchester Business School. The title of his thesis was “The Social TV Renaissance”- “A modernized perspective of the Broadcast Industry”. Julian also holds a Bachelor of Technology degree in Electronic Engineering, from the University of Johannesburg, for which he was awarded the IPET (Institute of Professional Engineering Technologist) Gold medal in recognition of the highest academic achievement (across all disciplines). He has also completed executive courses at MIT Management School and Insead Business School.
Raymundo Barros
Chief Technology Officer
As CTO at Globo, Raymundo Barros is responsible for overseeing engineering and technology operations.
He led and spearheaded major initiatives such as the transition to digital TV and the creation and distribution of 4K, 4K HDR and 8K content.
Before assuming his role as CTO, Barros worked as Engineering Manager at an affiliate, Director of Engineering at Globo Sao Paulo, and Director of Engineering for Entertainment, where he led projects for telenovelas, series and variety shows.
Gordon Brooks
Executive Chairman and CEO
Gordon Brooks brings more than 30-years of software and services technology leadership to Zixi. He has served as CEO for five different companies, founding, launching or turning around eight companies in total. Two of Gordon’s IPO’s and five private sales created over $13 billion in value.
Gordon not only leads Zixi’s strategic direction, but also oversees day-to-day execution of Zixi’s strategic plan.
Before joining Zixi, Gordon was President of C3 IoT, a big data, IoT and predictive analytics software platform company which provides the capability to design, development, deploy and operate complex large-scale AI applications. As CEO of Symphony Services, a commercial software product development services company, he grew the business from 100 to over 4,000 people, and sold it for $800 million. As the CEO and Co-Founder of Breakaway Solutions, a Full Service B2B Commerce solution provider, Gordon took the company public with a market cap of over $6 billion. At Cambridge Technology Partners (CTP), as Co-Founder he grew the company to over $850m in revenues and conducted a successful IPO with a market cap over $5b.
Gordon holds a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of New Hampshire. He has attended advanced graduate programs at Seton Hall University and Northwestern University.
Andrew Cross, Ph.D
Chief Executive Officer
Andrew Cross, CEO of Grass Valley, has been esteemed as the “most influential leader” in the media tech industry and chartered to lead the next phase of the company’s growth, empowering the digital transformation of its customers as they transition to the future of live media and entertainment.
A noted executive and speaker at key media industry events, Andrew pioneered the use of IP video for the industry and created NDI which was quickly adopted as the de-facto standard for IP video transmission. NDI has won numerous key industry awards from almost all major broadcast press and organizations and has been used by millions of users and thousands of companies.
Prior to Grass Valley, Cross served as an engineering manager and CEO of NewTek, where its products continued to disrupt the use of computers for video and audio production shipping products in almost category under Cross’s direction. Cross studied Computational Physics at University of Manchester Institute of Science Technology, followed by his Ph.D. in Computer Vision at the University of Manchester. While pursuing his Ph.D. he published over 20 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals on computer vision, graph theory and optimization.
Mauricio Felix
Senior Director: Cloud, Security and Media Supply Chain | Chief Information & Security Officer
Mauricio Felix is a Technology Director at Globo responsible for Media and Broadcast Solutions, Infrastructure, Telecom and Security. Has more than 20 years of experience in the industry participating in the most important technology and business transformations.
Mauricio oversee Media Supply Chain solutions from production to omni-channel distribution, and is the executive leader responsible for the Cloud Transformation inside Globo, bringing technology differentiation, digital culture and new business models to the Media Supply Chain.
As the head of Infrastructure and Telecom is responsible for the Content Delivery Network (CDN) built by Globo in Brazil to differentiate its customer experience on Globo´s digital products and services.
He also serves as Globo’s Chief Information and Security Officer (CISO), facilitating risk management as cyber risk is a business risk and enabling secure and agile products and services.
As a senior executive with a deep understanding of the media supply chain business and the digital products and services Mauricio actively participates inside Globo on the future of the TV and various initiatives to enable new advertising models. And leads an important business initiative inside Globo to sell its technology products and services to the market.
Cristina Gomila
Managing Director Content Technology & Innovation
Cristina Gomila joined Sky in 2019 as Managing Director Content Technology and Innovation, where she is responsible for all Broadcast engineering and operations teams and the transformation of the existing content supply chain.
She was previously with Technicolor, where she built a successful career for over 17 years. She started in 2002 as a Research Engineer contributing to several video coding standard activities (MPEG) and industry consortiums. She was promoted in 2014 to Head of Research & Innovation in recognition for her vision and leadership to finally become in 2016 Group Chief Technology Officer and member of Technicolor’s Executive Committee. She spent most of her career between USA and France managing one of the world’s leading research team in media technology at the origin of significant algorithmic advances in fields such as Light Fields, VR/MR and the optimization of the VFX workflows.
Cristina’s expertise includes technical strategy, leadership, R&D, innovation management, talent management, cultural change, international teams, standards and technology groups.
She holds an MS degree in Telecom Engineering from the UPC (Spain) and a PhD degree from Mines ParisTech (France). Additionally, she has authored more than 60 granted patents and many video coding standard contributions and publications. Through her career, she has been a beacon of achievement for women engineers and scientists.
Sinead Greenaway
Director, Broadcast & End User Technology
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Anthony Guarino
EVP, Global Production & Studio Technology
Tony has over 25 years of managerial experience in the entertainment industry leading various technical & studio operations, finance, and business development activities at Paramount and Technicolor.
Most recently, in 2022, he spearheaded the launch a global production technology innovation effort across Paramount Global to foster collaboration between production groups at the Company to focus on shared technology opportunities and pain points. Tony also oversees global content security, studio operations technology and technical services.
Prior to 2022, Tony led Worldwide Technical Operations for Paramount Pictures which included content security, mastering, archive, on-lot post-production services, global content distribution, and workflow automation activities.
Prior to that he was the divisional CFO for Paramount’s Studio Group which includes technical operations, production services, and facility operations. Tony’s business development accomplishments in this role also include development of the Studio Master Plan, long range alternative energy plan and development of a world-class sound services post-production facility on the lot.
Prior to Paramount, Tony held similar roles at Technicolor in cinema distribution, digital cinema, post-production services, and network operations, including leading several startups and acquisitions instrumental at the time to the Company’s migration into digital based services.
Mark Harrison
CEO
Mark Harrison is the CEO of the DPP. Mark spent many years as a Director, Producer and Executive Producer. He has won numerous awards including from the RTS and BFI, as well as gaining an International Emmy and BAFTA nomination. He has held senior roles within the independent sector and the BBC, including as Managing Director of Soul Purpose Productions, and BBC Head of Arts. He became Controller of Production for BBC North in 2010, and later Director of Transformation in the BBC’s Design and Engineering group. Mark has been Managing Director of the DPP since it became a not-for-profit company in 2015, and left the BBC early in 2017 to devote more time to leading the DPP.
Bob Hesskamp
EVP, Engineering
Bob Hesskamp is Executive Vice President of Engineering at Warner Bros. Discovery, and is based in Atlanta.
Prior to the merger between Warner Brothers and Discovery, Hesskamp was EVP Engineering at WarnerMedia since 2019 and reported to Jeremy Legg, Chief Technology Officer for WarnerMedia.
At WarnerMedia, he was responsible for live broadcast and file-based workflows for the company’s entertainment and news and sports business units. His day-to-day duties include leadership of engineering and broadcasting-related IT resources, technology installations, project management, software development, support and maintenance, and satellites and transmissions at WarnerMedia’s production centers in Atlanta, New York, Washington, Los Angeles, London, Hong Kong, and Abu Dhabi.
Previously, Hesskamp was the Head of Engineering for Turner. In that role, his teams were recognized innovators in the broadcast arena and led the company’s efforts to transition Master Control in Atlanta and CNN’s Hudson Yards production center in New York to IP, giving the company more flexibility to deliver across all platforms.
He also served as Senior Vice President of Broadcast Technology for CNN where his teams received industry recognition for their achievements, including an IBC Innovation Award (2011) for digital content management and a Broadcast Engineering Excellence Award (2011) for newsroom technology applications, such as CNN’s MediaSource, a critical newsroom tool that creates end-to-end production workflow and allows access to media footage from around the world. Hesskamp also directed the launch of CNN’s HD network, the first 24-hour news network in high definition. In 2008, Hesskamp was honored as a recipient of the 2008 Broadcasting & Cable Magazine’s Technology Leadership Award for his dedication and achievement in leading the CNN HD initiative.
Jeff Hughes
Chief Operating Officer
Jeff Hughes is Chief Operating Officer of NEP Group, responsible for helping all operating segments of the company share ideas across NEP’s businesses worldwide and for expanding NEP’s global capabilities as it embraces the future in a rapidly changing industry.
A well-respected executive with significant media industry experience, Jeff brings to NEP a proven track record of transforming businesses and a deep understanding of our clients, how audiences consume media, and how media businesses operate. He joined NEP in September 2020 from FOX Networks’ Digital Consumer Group, where he was President & COO. During his time at FOX, he led the complete re-development and modernization of digital streaming capabilities across all networks within 21st Century FOX. Jeff also developed the company’s first end-to-end commercial platform for direct to consumer (D2C) services across several FOX networks.
Prior to his role at FOX, Jeff was CEO of Omnifone, a B2B operator of music services in over 35 countries, where he helped transform the music industry from a transaction-based business to a subscription model. Under Hughes’ leadership, Omnifone became the industry leader and one of the fastest growing companies in the UK.
Earlier in his career, Jeff worked in consulting in Europe for some of the biggest media companies before moving to BSkyB (later renamed Sky UK) where he became Chief Technology Officer. At Sky, he led the company’s IT transformation, including the implementation of new CRM and customer care systems, and launched Sky’s Broadband service in the UK. While there, he took the company from a single-service broadcast business to a triple-play company with digital capabilities for the first time.
An accomplished industry speaker, Jeff received his Bachelor of Arts from Texas Christian University and an MBA from Clemson University.
After growing up just outside of Houston, Texas and spending nearly 20 years of his adult life in the UK and Europe he now calls Los Angeles, California home. He lives with his wife Maria and their two teenage daughters, along with a dog that likes to announce his presence in the background of Jeff’s video calls. In his spare time Jeff likes to read, swim, cycle and sail. He and his family enjoy spending time traveling and at the beach hanging out with friends.
Anil Jain
Global Managing Director – Media & Entertainment
Anil Jain is the Global Managing Director for the Media & Entertainment Industry Solutions team at Google Cloud. A 25-year veteran of the technology industry, Jain is focused on helping media organizations transform the way they run their businesses and leverage data-driven innovation to deliver new audience experiences.
Before joining Google, Jain was the Executive Vice President and General Manager of Brightcove’s global media business, where he oversaw the end-to-end business, spanning product strategy, solutions development, marketing, partnerships and sales. He has worked with broadcasters, publishers and OTT services in over 75 countries. Prior to Brightcove, Anil was the Senior Vice President of Corporate and Business Development for Unicorn Media, an innovative dynamic advertising and streaming technology startup. In this role, he negotiated key customer deals, established winning technology partnerships, raised capital and eventually architected the sale of the company to Brightcove in 2014.
Anil holds an M.S. Technology & Policy and an M.S. Materials Science & Engineering from M.I.T., and a B.S. Ceramic Engineering from Alfred University.
Srinivasan KA
Co-founder & CEO Americas
Srini is a technology entrepreneur with 23+ years of experience in establishing and successfully scaling businesses. Srini co-founded Amagi in 2008 and established it as a global leader in SaaS for broadcast and streaming TV on the cloud.
Before Amagi, Srini co-founded the wireless audio company, ImpulseSoft, which went on to become a market leader and was later acquired by the American semiconductor company, SiRF. Earlier, he started his career at Texas Instruments as a software engineer. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the Government College of Technology (GCT), Coimbatore, India.
Srini regularly speaks at global industry events, evangelizing the use of cloud for channel creation and monetization. In his free time, Srini loves to travel and read, and play arbitrator for his kids in their friendly sibling conquests.
Shaun Keeble
VP Digital
Shaun Keeble, VP Digital, Banijay Rights.
Shaun Keeble serves as VP Digital at Banijay Rights, where he oversees the global distributor’s digital self-publishing commercial activities.
Working alongside Senior Management and the local sales teams, Shaun is responsible for all revenue share business models in the digital, social media and FAST channel space, globally.
With a focus on clip monetisation, Shaun also oversees Banijay Rights’ content protection business across YouTube, Facebook and Daily Motion.
Previously, Shaun was Head of Audience Development at Endemol Shine Group. Prior to this role he worked across The Walt Disney Company’s digital marketing efforts for Disney Channels EMEA.
François Legrand
Senior Director, Capital Project Management, Governance & Engineering | Core Systems
François Legrand has been with CBC/Radio-Canada since 2004. He joined the Corporation as a designer of broadcast systems and became an electronic engineer in 2005. In this role, he has been involved in a wide range of projects and has had a variety of different responsibilities, such as the design of digital, television and radio systems, the preparation of plans and specifications as well as the financial management and supervision of large-scale projects.
From 2011 to 2016, he has held several management positions such as Operations Manager, Regions of Quebec, where he coordinated the technological development of Quebec’s regional stations and Senior Project Manager within the Transformation Unit of CBC/Radio-Canada’s French Services where he played a major role in the transition of all national news shows to automated production.
Since 2015, François has been Senior Director of Media Engineering where he manages the team of experts responsible for implementing projects related to CBC/Radio-Canada core and transmission infrastructure, including the “Nouvelle Maison de Radio-Canada” a state of the art, all ST2110 large scale broadcast facility that will go on-air in 2020.
François is frequently invited to present the initiatives and the technological vision of CBC/Radio-Canada at local, national and international conferences.
Lucy O’Brien
Group Chief Technology Officer
Lucy O’Brien is the Group CTO at EMG (formerly Euro Media Group), one of the world’s largest broadcast technology service providers.
She leads EMG’s technical strategy, develops its technological roadmap, manages its country CTOs across Europe and the U.S. and is responsible for recruiting the technical team at the group.
Lucy began her career as a broadcast engineer with the BBC 20 years ago. Since then, she has worked in all areas of the broadcast space. Lucy joins EMG from GBNews, where she built the channel from scratch in an empty basement into a fully functional newsroom, two control rooms, two equipment rooms, a broadcast chain, alongside hiring staff, in under three months. Prior to her time with GBNews, Lucy was Head of Field Operations at ITN and has also held engineering positions at Sky, Discovery and Arqiva, among others.
Marc Segar
Senior Vice President, Global Technology
Marc started his career at Channel Four in the U.K. in 1990, originally working on the projects team before moving to Formula One Management, overseeing the broadcast engineering side of one of the most comprehensive mobile broadcast facilities at the time.
His passion for technology led him to Australia, where he joined NEP. In early 2017, Marc was given the challenge of building two centralized broadcast facilities and new capture trucks. An IP laboratory and specialist team was set up in Sydney, and on 22nd May 2017, the first SMPTE 2110 flows were established. Construction of the world’s first native IP production facilities in Sydney and Melbourne, The Andrews Hubs, alongside four native IP outside broadcast trucks then began.
Manufacturer adoption of 2110 was low at the start and many products were designed around this project. He advocated for single flow 4K, simple PTP design, common SDP’s and was the enabler of NEP’s orchestration and broadcast control system.
On the 21st October 2017 (21.10), his team successfully covered a 20-camera remotely produced broadcast in Sydney from a venue in Brisbane (566 miles away) in native 2110 from camera to broadcaster. Today, the Andrews Hubs covers 1600 events each year.
Valerio Motti
VP FAST Channels
Valerio Motti is VP FAST Channels at Fremantle International, responsible for developing and managing Fremantle’s Free Ad-supported Streaming TV business.
Valerio most recently worked as EVP EMEA & LATAM, Business Development, Strategy and Global Head of Streaming at ShortsTV, where he led the international launch of all new FAST channels and OTT services on all major CTV and OTT platforms.
Prior to this role, Valerio was VP of Business Development, Digital Media and Content Distribution at ViacomCBS (later renamed Paramount), where he led multinational strategic projects, including the launches of new OTT streaming services and linear TV channels. He has also previously held roles at AOL-Time Warner (later renamed Yahoo), Mediaset and Telecom Italia.
Michelle Munson
Co-founder and CEO
Michelle Munson is the co-founder and CEO of Eluvio, the content blockchain for the creator economy, based in Berkeley, CA. Eluvio (https://live.eluv.io) is an eco-friendly blockchain platform that enables content creators and their communities to store, stream, ticket, mint NFTs, and trade digital content. It provides a simple-to-use, high-performance, and cost-effective platform to monetize concerts, films, digital albums, e-books, digital collectables, metaverse experiences, and more. Companies and creators whose content blockchain initiatives have been powered by Eluvio include FOX Entertainment’s Blockchain Creative Labs, MGM Studios, SONY Pictures, Black Eyed Peas, Dolly Parton, Rita Ora, and many others.
Michelle is an Emmy-award winning technologist who previously co-founded Aspera in 2004 and led the company as CEO until May 2017, including through acquisition by IBM in 2014. She co-invented the Aspera FASP™ transport technology used in the digital media supply chain for high-speed, low-cost secure digital content transport, replacing satellite and traditional tape-based delivery technologies.
Michelle is a recipient of the David Sarnoff Medal from the Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers (SMPTE); the Charles Swartz Award from the Hollywood Professional Association (HPA); IABM’s Woman Entrepreneur of the Year; and named one of the top 25 “People to Watch” by TV Technology. She currently serves as an SMPTE Fellow and on the board of Avid Corporation. Michelle is an inventor on fourteen U.S. patents and is a frequent speaker in the areas of content networking, machine learning, blockchain and cloud infrastructure.
Michelle was inducted into the College of Engineering Hall of Fame at Kansas State University in 2022. She was also the 2019 Kansas State University Commencement Speaker for the College of Arts and Sciences and the 2006 Alumnus of the Year for the College of Engineering. She holds dual B.Sc. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Physics from Kansas State University, where she was a Goldwater Scholar for achievement in Science and Mathematics. She was also a Fulbright Scholar at Cambridge University where she received a postgraduate diploma in Computer Science.
Michel Proulx
Media Consultant /
Aspiring Ski Bum
Michel Proulx is a Media Industry technologist and executive with over 35 years of experience working with leading manufacturers and broadcasters in the television industry.
Since retiring as CTO of Miranda technologies at the end of 2012 Michel has split his time between perfecting the art of being a ski bum and consulting for a number of broadcasters and broadcast industry vendors.
Michel’s current focus is helping broadcasters understand and navigate the rapidly evolving OTT distribution landscape and transitioning to IT and IP based infrastructures.
He is currently involved with a major project at Radio Canada / Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for the re-building of the Maison Radio Canada, the Canadian broadcaster’s flagship French Language Production and Playout facility in Montreal. Positioning the broadcaster to be able to adapt to rapidly changing production and distribution needs, the new facility will feature an all IP infrastructure and a combination of fixed function hardware, software defined hardware and virtualized software sub systems.
Michel holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Software from the University of Waterloo. Michel is an active member of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers.
Michael Senzon
President of Digital
Michael Senzon is a digital executive with a successful track record leading streaming, OTT, digital and social video teams at major media organizations.
He was named President of Digital at Allen Media Group (AMG) in 2022, and is responsible for developing and leading the AMG worldwide direct-to-consumer and streaming portfolio with a focus on providing greater content and product experiences for its users.
Previously at AMG, he served as SVP, Digital and General Manager of Local Now — the AMG free-streaming digital platform.
Over the past year, the AMG digital team launched several new products including The Weather Channel’s first direct-to-consumer product offering, providing users the ability to subscribe and watch The Weather Channel television network, the Sports.TV free-streaming service–which provides the most number of free sports channels found anywhere, and TheGrio, which expands the number one digital news/entertainment platform for Black America into a free-streaming service with the mission of creating and aggregating high-quality content. Earlier this year, AMG announced a long-term, comprehensive strategic partnership with Google. AMG will leverage Google’s technology to further bolster all AMG digital platforms, including HBCU GO and other AMG streaming services currently in development.
Before joining Allen Media Group, Michael spent his career in digital and streaming at major media and technology startups including ABC, CNN, and CNBC.
John Wastcoat
SVP Alliances
John Wastcoat has more than 20 year’s experience in senior management with industry-leading media and communications technology companies. Before joining Zixi John successfully ran the Aspera Business Development group, acquired by IBM in 2014, responsible for scaling the business across numerous channels around the world, and previously held the positions of VP of Global Business Development at Dexrex and VP Sales at Cantata Technology, which was acquired by Dialogic. At Zixi John is responsible for the OEM, technology alliance and reseller ecosystem as well as overall corporate messaging.
Serge Van Herck
Chief Executive Officer
Serge Van Herck brings more than 25 years of industry knowledge and extensive CEO and board experience to the position.
Before joining EVS in September 2019, Serge worked in various market-leading companies such as Newtec, Accenture and Belgacom (now Proximus), playing key roles in the strategic planning and growth of their business. At Newtec, Serge served as CEO, president and shareholder for over 10 years, successfully transforming the company from a regional niche player into a widely recognized industry leader, setting standards and providing complex satellite network solutions across the globe.
Serge is also an avid pilot and sailor—so it’s no wonder his motto is “Begin with the end in mind”!
Josh Stinehour
Principal Analyst
Josh Stinehour is a principal analyst with Devoncroft Partners, a provider of market research and strategic consulting services to a wide range of digital media clients and institutional investors. He is a frequent presenter at conferences and trade shows in the media technology sector.
Prior to joining Devoncroft, Mr. Stinehour was a managing director at Silverwood Partners in the firm’s Technology, Media and Telecommunications group. While at Silverwood, Mr. Stinehour executed a range of transactions including mergers and acquisitions, valuations, and private placements.
Before joining Silverwood, Mr. Stinehour worked in various positions at EMC Corporation including as a software programmer and later as an analyst on integration teams for EMC’s acquisitions of Documentum, Legato, and VMWare.
Josh loves NBA basketball (especially LeBron James) and college football.
He holds an MBA from the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College, an MS in computer science from Rochester Institute of Technology, and a BS in computer science from Union College. Mr. Stinehour is a CFA charterholder.
Joe Zaller
Founder & President
Joe is the founder of Devoncroft Partners, a leading provider of market intelligence in the media technology sector.
Devoncroft provides market research and strategic consulting services to a wide range of clients in the media technology sector. The company publishes a variety of syndicated market research reports, including the annual Big Broadcast Survey, the largest and most comprehensive study of the professional audio and video market.
In addition to syndicated research reports, Devoncroft is frequently retained for custom projects by some of the world’s leading brands including broadcasters and media companies. technology suppliers, large consulting firms, educational establishments, private equity firms, investment banks, and other financial institutions.
Devoncroft also produces a series of executive summits that bring together thought-leading speakers from across the media technology ecosystem. Since the initial conference in 2012, Devoncroft Executive Summits have grown to be one of the must-attend events in the media technology calendar.
Joe has a BSc in Business Administration and BA in Philosophy from Villanova University, where he developed a lifelong love of college basketball, and an M.B.A. from the University of California, Irvine. He also completed various executive courses at Stanford University and the Richard Ivey Business School at the University of Western Ontario.
Joe, his long-suffering wife, and their three daughters live in San Diego, CA.
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