2023 Devoncroft Executive Summit | Las Vegas

Saturday | April 15, 2023

12PM – 6PM | NAB Main Stage

Speakers

 

This page is being continuously updated

Please check back for the latest speaker line-up.

 

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.

 

Gary Brantley

SVP & Chief Information Officer

Gary Brantley is an innovative technology strategist renowned for cultivating productive collaboration through organizational transformation, delegating resources toward increasing digital inclusion, and implementing an entirely remote workforce infrastructure. He brings more than 20 years of experience in the technology sector and 17 years of leadership to the NFL as the Chief Information Officer. In this role, Gary is responsible for day-to-day technology operations along with the innovation strategy for the league. Previously, Gary served as the CIO for Beazer Homes, which is one of the country’s largest public home builders.

As the former CIO for the City of Atlanta, Gary focused on organizational transformation by altering the department culture to achieve a competitive advantage and address future technology challenges. He developed and implemented a strategy centered on how impact and influence can peacefully collide to empower leaders to build effective teams, healthy workplace cultures, and thriving business ecosystems with organizational transformation. In this regard, he moved from present planning to future business continuity to refocus and re-energize the entire workforce, from talent acquisition and retention to repurposing staff into more vital roles to meet the City’s technology needs. Gary also created an Atlanta CIO Advisory Board to continue pushing the envelope with input from other CIOs, experts within the technology sector.

Gary has also led initiatives surrounding partnerships with companies and organizations such as AT&T, Verizon, Microsoft and the Atlanta Police Foundation to modernize the City of Atlanta’s 27 departments including Atlanta’s Hartsfield Jackson Airport. He also worked to secure funding for community training in STEM-based education for the Centers of Hope in Atlanta.

Before joining AIM, Gary was the CIO of one of the largest school districts in the United States. In that capacity, Gary spearheaded the district’s largest technology overhaul, Digital Dreamers, which included the distribution of over 70,000 end user devices to teachers as well as students.

Gary began his career with IBM before becoming the Regional Operations Director for MCIWorldCom. There, he continued to have an impact on technology and took that expertise to the Ohio State Department as the Director of Technology. He went on to become the CIO for the one of the largest urban school districts in Ohio.

Gary’s admirable professionalism and unyielding dedication have earned him numerous awards and accolades and has led him to write his first book, The Art of Organizational Transformation: 7 steps to Impact & Influence. Gary was featured in the list of Top 30 Technologists, Transformers and Trailblazers by the Center for Digital Education in 2015, ComputerWorld’s Premier Top 100 Technology Leaders for 2017. In addition, he was awarded with the Making IT Happen award from the International Society for Technology in Education. Gary was also a finalist for the 2017-2018 and 2020 Georgia CIO Leadership Association’s CIO of the Year ORBIE Award. He was also recognized as one of Government Tech Magazines 2020 Top Doers and Dreamers.

 

 

Laura Dames

Executive Consultant and Advisor

 

After three decades as a senior executive in corporate media, Laura Dames has founded LEDames, LLC and serves as an independent consultant and advisor with expertise in Business Transformation, Operations, Marketing and General Management. Laura is known as an authentic leader and an innovative senior executive with demonstrated success creating, transforming and operating complex, high functioning organizations across diverse corporate disciplines for global organizations. She has an extremely diverse background and enjoys taking on complex challenges.

Laura is skilled at leading Organizational Transformation, Change Management and Operations across a multitude of business functions. She has had proven success leading large multi-discipline teams overseeing Marketing, Operations, Production, and Content Creation as well as complex collaboration projects at the highest levels of a corporation.

Laura most recently served as the Executive Vice President of Ad Sales Marketing for Warner Bros. Discovery / Warner Media. Dames proactively stepped into the position to lead the restructure and stabilization of this critical division of Warner Media Sales during a very volatile organizational time through the transition and close of the Discovery acquisition of Warner Media. Dames brought thought leadership, rigor, insight, creativity, and media industry expertise to a newly combined structure of the the News, Entertainment, and Portfolio Marketing Brand Innovation teams for WarnerMedia Ad Sales all while overseeing marketing creative services and event marketing as the ad industry emerged from the pandemic. Dames also served as the as lead Executive Producer and Executive in Charge of the highly anticipated and positively reviewed Warner Bros Discovery Upfront Show – the first major public event for the combined company. She then served as a partner to the new sales leadership, IMO and McKenzie team in combining the two organizations.

Prior to that role Dames spent most of the past decade as the Executive Vice President and General Manager of WarnerMedia Studios where she led a facility and studio team with a broad range of creative and technical capabilities, including live broadcast production, post production, design, emerging media, social media monitoring, content generation, and live event production.

Under her leadership, WarnerMedia Studios was transformed into an innovative, central hub for media assets across the company, responsible for collaborating with more than 150 partners across 40-plus business units throughout all company divisions – including HBO Max, TBS, TNT, truTV, Bleacher Report, Cartoon Network, CNN, Turner Classic Movies (TCM), and Turner Sports.

While leading that Studios organization Laura also led the operations and transformations of several organizations within the company including the CNN Airport Network, Turner Sports Data and Insights and the Social Co/Op, the company’s social media COE.

Dames ascended to several leadership roles in the first two decades of her career within the Turner Entertainment Networks division (TNT, TBS, TCM, TruTv), excelling in business and marketing operations. She also previously worked on the ad sales team, where she created and implemented the Marketplace Image department and contributed to portfolio-wide sales strategy.

 

Liz Davis

President, Digital

Liz Davis has been reshaping the digital media landscape for over 15 years, driving innovation and education on the digital revolution. As the President of Diversified’s Workplace Solutions business unit, Liz and her team are focused on facilitating clients in the delivery of workplace and immersive experiences, leveraging the latest service offerings and providing unparalleled value. With an emphasis on developing new scalable IT centric offerings, the team is helping clients achieve the competitive edge and transform their operations.

Through her leadership at Diversified, JB&A, Magnet Media and AbelCine, Liz has continuously helped companies navigate emerging technologies to grow their business. Focusing on the intersection of technology and psychology, she has collaborated with leading companies to realize their growth potential—maximizing ROIs and enabling an AGILE creative workforce. Looking towards the future of client needs and technological possibilities, she is uniquely suited to drive the development of the digital future.

 

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.

 

Andrew Heimbold

Chief Executive Officer

 

Andrew co-founded RCS in 1997 and as President has led our Emmy award winning team across projects including multiple Super Bowls as well as work with clients including MLB, ESPN, CBS, DirecTV, F1, Sky, Bundesliga and many more. As our industry evolves so too has RCS encompassing work with clients including Facebook, Twitter and eSports giants like Blizzard and Riot.

Since January 2019, Andrew has also been CEO of Singular.live; a revolutionary startup that is transforming content delivery and viewer engagement. Singular delivers truly transformative user experiences using Intelligent Overlays and is democratizing live graphics by making them available for everyone.

 

Louis Hernandez Jr.

Executive Chairman & CEO 

Louis Hernandez Jr., is the founder, Managing Director, CEO and major investor of Black Dragon Capital. Mr. Hernandez is an award-winning entrepreneur, successful investor, philanthropist, advocate and recognized speaker and author. Mr. Hernandez is a proven growth-oriented technology executive and investor with expertise in operational execution and results-driven performance in a variety of complex technical fields, including content management, e-commerce, sports and media, and financial services.

His focus and passion is to advance technology initiatives that specifically enable the active collaboration and connection between individuals, teams, and businesses.

After years of successfully operating, advising, and investing in companies in all phases of development, completing all forms of financings in debt and equity in both private and public transactions, advising companies, board of directors, investors and entrepreneurs, he envisioned the next generation of private equity in forming Black Dragon Capital. The firm would more deeply engage with entrepreneurs capturing the energy and spirit that was a part of his successful technology ventures, while combining a sophisticated transaction and investing approach. This approach has been codified in the Black Dragon Toolkit℠.

He has served on various Board of Directors, from start-up to trillion-dollar for profit organizations to numerous non-profit organizations. He is the author of three books, Saving the American Dream, Too Small to Fail, and The Storyteller’s Dilemma, numerous articles, and has received many professional distinctions for his expertise in business and technology. He has been a featured guest on Fox Business, CNBC, ABC News, and Bloomberg TV, where he discusses technology, economics, strategic planning and globalization.

He has been inducted into the Innovators Hall of Fame by Banking Technology News, listed as the top 5 innovators in financial technology, won numerous entrepreneurial awards, and has been recognized by several entrepreneurial groups.

Through his philanthropic organization, For A Bright Future Foundation (www.forabrightfuturefoundation.org), Mr. Hernandez actively supports the equal access of underprivileged and underrepresented children to healthcare, education, the arts, and leadership development. The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation named Mr. Hernandez a Community Leader of the Year in honor of his many contributions to the community. He was the former Vice Chair of the Governor’s Council on Economic Competitiveness and Technology, former Chair to the Technology Transfer Advisory board for Connecticut, a board member for Berklee City Music Network, a member of the Board of the NAMM, past Chairman of the Connecticut Technology Council, and former Vice-Chair of the Commission for Educational Technology, among others

 

Rhonda Holt

Chief Technology Officer

Prior to joining PBS in 2016, Rhonda pursued an entrepreneurial career at the health technology start-up TrustedCare Inc., where she currently serves as a Board Member. Before that, she had a long tenure at Turner Broadcasting System, culminating in the role of Senior Vice President, Digital Media Technologies, where she oversaw the delivery of Turner’s web-based products, including website development, deployment and operations for Turner’s new media and mobile businesses in News, Sports and Entertainment. Previously, Rhonda held leadership positions at various organizations, including Sun Microsystems, Inc., Dell Computer, Inc. and IBM Corp.

She received a BS in Computer Science from the University of Florida and is graduate of the Betsy Magness Leadership Institute at the Center for Creative Leadership, as well as a graduate of the NAMIC Executive Leadership Development Program at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. Rhonda also serves as a Director and Executive Committee member for the University of Florida Foundation Board.

 

Ralf Jacob

EVP, Global Broadcast Engineering

 
 

Ralf Jacob is the Executive Vice President of Global Broadcast Engineering at TelevisaUnivision, reporting directly to Wade Davis, Chief Executive Officer of TelevisaUnivision, Alfonso de Angoitia, Executive Chairman of the Board of TelevisaUnivision and Co-CEO of TelevisaUnivision Mexico, and Bernardo Gómez, Co-CEO of TelevisaUnivision Mexico.

He is the key technology leader responsible for implementing the company’s global engineering transformation, by enabling cloud integration and other leading-edge technologies for the distribution of TelevisaUnivision’s content on all platforms.

Ralf also oversees the company’s strategic partnership with Google around all content supply-chain technology, focused on streamlining media infrastructure to ensure efficiencies, stability, and scalability globally.

 

Renard Jenkins

SVP, Production Integration & Creative Technology Services 

Renard Jenkins is an experienced contention creation and creative technology executive in the Film, Television and Radio industry. He is currently Warner Bros. Discovery’s Senior Vice President, Production Integration & Creative Technology Services where he oversees teams that support 23,500 plus cast/crew members, 8,500 plus content hours and hundreds of global feature film, animation, and syndicated television productions annually. He and his teams provide creative production technology solutions and strategy for film, animation, and television productions worldwide. They also provide application, IP, production pipeline support and workflows as well as work stream design and implementation. A portion of his team are also responsible for the exploration and successful implementation of emerging and creative technologies such as virtual production, multiplatform storytelling, virtual character and meta human development, neuro-technology and better images and sound for cinema and home entertainment.

Prior to joining WarnerMedia, Jenkins served as Vice President, Operations, Engineering & Distribution at PBS, where he was responsible for the strategic direction, technology development, engineering, and operational management of PBS’s entire media-supply chain. He and his teams were responsible for the successful simultaneous launch of the Live Linear and Cloud-based PBS Kids Channel plus Live Streaming App which also contained games and VOD. It remains as one of the most popular kid’s applications and destinations today. He also created PBS’s Advanced Format Center. He has also worked for TV One, Discovery, ESPN and Turner Broadcasting where he received multiple awards for his work in Film & Television Production, Post Production and R&D, including two national Emmys. Jenkins was also awarded the Innovator of the Year award in 2017 for his cutting-edge work and accomplishments in UHD, HDR, NGA and supply chain technology through the PBS Advanced Format Center and other industry activities.

Jenkins is a SMPTE Fellow and currently serves as President of SMPTE. He sits on the boards of MovieLabs, the Hollywood Professionals Association, the UltraHD Forum, the Content & Entertainment Council as well as the Microsoft and Oracle Advisory Boards. He is also a recipient of a Peabody, 2 Headliners and a 2020 Broadcasting and Cable Technology Leadership award to name a few others.

He is a champion and advocate for inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility in the technology and media industries. He is a Strategic Advisor to the Board of Directors of the Washington, DC Chapter of the National Association for Multi-Ethnicity In Communications (NAMIC), chairs the Warner Bros. Discovery Technology and Operations Equity and Inclusion Council, the SMPTE Global Inclusion Working Group and he also Co-Chairs, HPA ALL which advocates for and promotes diversity, better equity and increased inclusion and accessibility in the media and entertainment industry.

When he is not working, he enjoys spending time with his wife and best friend of over 30 years, his daughters, and his grandchildren. He loves travel photography / filmmaking and only has one more continent left to explore. He is also a certified sound engineer and is passionate about the visual arts. When time permits, he loves to provide pro bono location sound, live mixing, studio recording, post-production and finishing services for aspiring filmmakers, animators, and musicians. His family moto is “In all things integrity and integrity in all things.”

 

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.

 

Mike Kralec

SVP, Chief Technology Officer

 

Mike Kralec joined Sinclair Broadcast Group in 2000 and was named SVP and Chief Technology Officer in March 2022.

Previously, he was VP, Technical Operations and Deputy CTO. Prior to that, he served as Director, Data Systems Development, Systems Development Manager, and Software Developer.

Mr. Kralec received his Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Towson University and his Master of Business Administration from Loyola University Maryland. He is a veteran of the United States Navy.

 

Scott Lawrence

SVP, Global Solutions

Scott Lawrence is Senior Vice President for our VerizonBusiness Global Solutions organization within Verizon Business Group.He is accountable for delivering strategic and innovative business solutions to Enterprise and Government clients around the globe.He supports a revenue base of $15B+ and leads a team of over1,100Sales and Technology professionals globally. Scott’s team consists of Specialized Sellers, Complex Deal Executives, Global Technology Partners, Pre-Sales Solution Architects and Engineers.His current focus is on delivering business value to clients through Verizon’s best-in-class solutions such as 5G, Edge Computing, Software-Defined Services, Cyber Security and Digital Collaboration.

Previously, Scott was Group Vice President & General Manager, Global Enterprise, where he had P&L responsibility for VerizonBusiness Group’s International segment across Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Focused on delivering an exceptional customer experience for our Global Enterprise Clients across a full spectrum of the Verizon portfolio. Prior to his International assignment, Scott was Vice President, Verizon Business Group Advanced Solutions Sales & Engineering where he was responsible for an organization of Sales Specialists and Solution Architects across three solution practice towers: Cyber Security, Workplace Collaboration (Unified Communications & Collaboration) and Customer Experience (CX) supporting Global Enterprise, Federal and Public Sector.

In addition, Scott has held various senior leadership roles across Verizon’s Sales, Operations, Strategy and System Integrators channel. Prior to rejoining Verizon in 2004, Scott held Sales Leadership and Business Development roles at Allied Riser Communications and OpenReach.

Scott holds a Bachelor’s Degree inBusiness Administration from the University of Wisconsin and currently lives in Chicago, IL with his wife and three children where he is active in his community and coaching youth sports.

 

Roman Mackiewicz

Chief Information Officer

Bloomberg Media Group

Roman Mackiewicz is the Chief Information Officer at Bloomberg Media Group, where he is responsible for responsible for technology and operations.

Roman has been at Bloomberg LP since 2003, and has served in a variety of leadership roles including Director Broadcast Engineering and Software Development, Head of Media Technology, and VP Broadcast Operations. 

 

 

Brinton Miller

EVP, Media Technology & Operations

As Executive Vice President, Media Technology & Operations, Brinton Miller is responsible for WBD’s global engineering and operations functions supporting live production, post production, Broadcast, Distribution and Content publishing. Miller works closely with WBD’s News, Sports, Network and digital leadership teams to develop WBD’s strategic technology plans, investments, and implementations.

Warner Bros. Discovery, a premiere global media and entertainment company, was founded in April 2022, when Discover merged with WarnerMedia.
Previously, Miller was responsible for the Media Engineering and Operations teams at Discovery’s domestic production and broadcast facilities.

Miller holds a Master of Science from George Washington University’s School of Business and a Bachelor of Arts from Lehigh University. He is based at Warner Bros. Discovery’s CNN offices in Washington DC,

Nitin Mittal

President & Group CTO

At Zee, Nitin is driving digital transformation by embedding technology, automation, and a culture of innovation across the organization. He has extensive experience in media, financial services, and retail. He played a pivotal role in building and scaling public infrastructure in India for identify, payments and healthcare.

Nitin has acted as a game-changer in many of his past stints – working with NPCI technology team to build the UPI framework for the country, and working as the CTO of UIDAI on accelerating Aadhar coverage and launching DBT services. In addition to being a part of the team that has driven these social impact transformations, Nitin has worked with Standard Chartered; IBM, TESCO, BNY Mellon, Wipro and the Future Group. He has also founded and exited multiple companies like in deep tech, wealth tech, health tech and SME platform SOLV.

Nitin holds an Electronics & Telecommunication engineer from Nagpur University and an executive MBA from IIM Bangalore.

 

Matthew Newfield

President of Media Solutions

Mathew Newfield brings over 20 years’ experience to Diversified. He has held various leadership roles with several technology companies and has deep expertise in security and cloud solutions that complement Diversified’s sophisticated media and broadcast segments.

In addition to his business accomplishments, Mat is a skilled leader with a unique sales and operational mindset that inspires diverse thinking and teamwork. He is also a champion of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts, holding previous executive sponsorship roles in DEI councils and associate interest groups. Mat drives the Diversified Media Solutions team’s global strategic, operational, and commercial performance. He leverages his experience and leadership skills to deliver quality outcomes for clients.

 

Vijay Sajja

Founder& Chief Executive Officer

Vijay drives the product vision and customer experience for Evergent, personally overseeing our customer relationship, among other aspects of the business. He is business and technology leader with over two decades of experience in building business and operations support systems for leading service providers around the world. Prior to Evergent, he founded and led Infotech Solutions, a technology services company that delivered subscriber billing and customer care solutions for leading technology and service companies including Echostar, Lucent Technologies, TCI, and Qwest.

Vijay holds Master of Technology degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India.

 

Swati Karkun Sen

SVP, Product & Strategy

 

Swati Karkun Sen is Senior Vice President, Product & Strategy for NBCU News Group. In this role, Swati drives strategy, product vision, technology and innovation, and executes cross functional initiatives across the News Group, which includes NBC News, MSNBC and CNBC.

A transformational business leader, Swati has driven a portfolio of successes in enterprise-wide media strategy, technology and operations. She has also been recognized as a visionary and change leader, and has most recently been involved in implementing initiatives to support growth, streamlining, and efficiencies in a hybrid, collaborative and dynamic environment.

Prior to her current role, Swati was VP of Strategic Initiatives at NBC News, where she drove the restructuring of the News technology & engineering organizations, self-serve research for archives, artificial intelligence/machine learning in transcription and logging workflows, vendor image acquisition, and the DC bureau move.

Before that, Swati was Director, Digital Media Ingest Operations where she led a team of operators responsible for ingesting feed and tape content for News, and digitizing archives. Her team captured over 900 hours of feeds daily into multiple platforms 24*7, and digitized over 100,000 hours of rich NBC News archival footage. Swati has also led the PMO (Project Management Office) across her group.

Swati began her career at GE as part of the Information Management Leadership Program (IMLP). During this 2 year program, she assumed various leadership roles across GE Contractual Services, Wind Energy, Technology Services Group, and Capital, and ultimately joined NBC News in the summer of 2007.

Swati graduated from the Indian School of Business with a Master of Business Administration degree, double majoring in Finance and Information Technology. She also has an undergrad degree in Computer Science and Engineering.

Swati is passionate about mentoring and is currently a mentor at the New York Chapter of WICT (Women in Cable Telecommunications).

Originally from New Delhi, Swati now resides on the Upper East Side of Manhattan with her husband, 2 daughters, and 2 dogs.

 

David Sobel

VP, Media Management

David Sobel is the Vice President of Media Management at Fox Sports. In this role, he is responsible for overseeing the media asset management for Fox Sports. This includes managing the digital archive of Fox Sports, ensuring efficient delivery of content and optimizing workflows.

Sobel has been with Fox Sports for over 15 years, holding various positions in the company’s production, operations and technology divisions. He’s responsible for developing and implementing the company’s media asset management strategy and executing some of the company’s largest events including the World Cup and Super Bowl. Sobel’s experience in media and technology has made him an integral part of Fox Sports’ leadership team, helping the company to stay ahead of the curve in an ever-changing media landscape

 

Srividhya Srinivasan

Co-founder & Chief Customer Success Officer

 

Srividhya is one of the few women entrepreneurs in the broadcast technology industry to have successfully conceptualized and introduced pioneering products for global markets. She loves to create innovative product solutions to tackle complex engineering problems. At Amagi, Srividhya plays the critical role of advising global clients on suitable cloud deployment architecture, designing custom solutions, and ensuring that clients transition to cloud broadcast models smoothly.

Srividhya started her career as a software engineer at Texas Instruments. She spent most of her 23 years of professional experience as a technology entrepreneur. Before Amagi, she had co-founded ImpulseSoft, a wireless audio technology company that was later acquired by NASDAQ-listed SiRF.

She graduated from the Government College of Technology, Coimbatore, India. Engineering is her first love, and she firmly believes that engineering is her reason to be.

David Travis

Group Director of Content, Broadcast & Platforms

Dave Travis is Director of Content, Broadcast & Platforms for Sky. In his role, he leads the product and technology teams across production, news, playout, content supply chain, and distribution for all of the Sky businesses including Sky Sports, Sky News, Now TV, Sky Content, Sky Media, and Sky Creative. Within Dave’s team, he is responsible for Strategy, Design, Implementation, and Support across the on-prem and cloud estates.

Dave is a highly experienced broadcast executive with over 20 years’ experience working at board level for numerous companies with excellent technical and commercial skills. His passion is building platforms that deliver consistent and efficient working practices within technology organizations.

Dave previously was Chief Product & Technology Officer for Red Bee Media which was a broadcast managed services provider serving over 80 customers including companies like the BBC, ITV, Channel 5, BT Sport, TF1, Canal +, and Telia Media Group.

 

Phil Wiser

EVP & Chief Technology Officer

Phil Wiser is an industry-leading technology and digital media entrepreneur and executive. He serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Paramount, leading the global technology strategy, shared services, operations and transformation of the combined company. He reports to Naveen Chopra, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Paramount.

Prior to the merger of Viacom and CBS in December 2019, Wiser was the Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of CBS Corporation, where he oversaw the technology strategy and development across the company’s entire business portfolio. Before joining CBS, Wiser served as Chief Technology Officer at Hearst. In this role, he managed Hearst’s technology migration to the cloud, and established a data-driven, cloud-first media environment for its digital businesses. Wiser was also the Chief Technology Officer at Sony Corporation of America and Sony Music, responsible for creating the digital businesses at Sony Music, including the forging of the groundbreaking deal to launch iTunes.

Earlier in his career, Wiser was a key pioneer in the creation of the online digital music industry and the over-the-top TV market as founder of Liquid Audio and Sezmi. Both companies were the first to create commercial Internet-based media offerings in music and television. With numerous patents issued for these efforts, he broke new ground across the areas of IP based content delivery, machine recommendation systems, video delivery over the Internet and cybersecurity.

 

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 (and has an encyclopedic knowledge of) college football and NBA basketball (although he thinks college basketball is an inferior product).  His hobbies include monetary policy, civic planning, and adventure travel.

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 Devoncroft Media Technology Survey, the largest and most comprehensive study of the professional audio and video market, and comprehensive market sizing and forecasting reports of the media technology sector.

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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