Cablefax The Magazine - November 2017 - 39

Laura Molen
EVP, Lifestyle
& Hispanic
Advertising Sales
NBCUniversal
It's been a productive
year for Molen, who
Stefanie
Nimick
SVP, Affiliate Sales
& Marketing
Starz
When Nimick joined Starz
last year, she brought
continues to forge break-through, platform-agnostic
partnerships that help drive innovation within the
marketplace. Her unique, partnership-focused
ad sales strategy worked wonders for both the
Oxygen and Universal Kids rebrands this year,
driving double-digit percent volume growth for both
networks in upfront sales.
Diane Morse
Chief Counsel
ESPN
As a 21-year veteran
of ESPN, Morse's legal
expertise in league and
conference negotiations
and agreements is unmatched. In addition
to overseeing the company's entire legal function,
she now leads its business affairs efforts as well.
Despite the assumption that sports is a maledominated
field, Morse's rise to the top of ESPN's
legal team proves otherwise. That makes her
advice for reducing gender discrimination in the
cable industry worth heeding: " It's not enough to
give women high-level titles. They need to be in the
room and given real responsibility and decisionmaking
authority. "
Jen Neal
EVP, Marketing,
E!, & Executive
Producer, Live
Events
E! Entertainment
Neal's unique blend of
pop culture savvy and digital know-how renders
her one of E!'s best assets. Adding executive producer
to her other roles now has Neal overseeing
E!'s popular " Live from the Red Carpet " specials
and live coverage of couture events such as the
Met Gala and New York Fashion Week, in addition
to E!'s recent acquisition, the People's Choice
Awards. This year Neal also led successful marketing
campaigns for existing E! series including
" The Royals, " the Kardashians' 10th anniversary
special and the family's latest spinoff series, " Life
of Kylie. "
the premium channel a wealth of experience in
cable distribution from her two most recent roles
at Fuse Media and AMC Networks. She has applied
her understanding of the business in spearheading
partnerships with MVPDs, as well as OTT, SVOD
and mobile entities. With the company transitioning
into new corporate parent Lionsgate, Nimick
was critical in ensuring stability on the distribution
front. She forecasts more change on the horizon in
2018. Asked what will dominate the headlines in the
coming year, Nimick says, " Mergers and acquisitions
in the OTT space, creating leverage in mobile
streaming. "
Lisa
Nishimura
VP, Original
Documentary &
Comedy
Netflix
Netflix and compelling
docs have become synonymous. Nishimura
is the reason why. " Making a Murderer " proved a
watershed series for the service in 2015, and with
her knack for attracting diverse, powerful stories
and storytellers to the service, the company said
more than 73% of its subscribers watched one of
its documentaries last year. Its strong current lineup
includes a treatment on Lady Gaga. On the comedy
side, Nishimura continues to push boundaries and
draw big audiences and laughs for titles including
" Grace and Frankie " and " Master of None. "
Suzanne
Norman
SVP, Operations
CMT
Norman added both
programming and digital
to her areas of oversight.
Both areas have experienced exponential growth
driving CMT's best year since 2014. Coincidence?
We think not. Her recent moves include creating
a consistent schedule by designating Thursday
nights for CMT's original premieres, and replacing
expensive daytime movies with acquired series-
which led to a 49% rating increase with adults and
67% with women in weekdays 9-4pm. Norman also
transformed CMT's digital presence into a hub for
Cablefax: The Magazine
November 2017
country lifestyle. The team increased daily short
form video production, launched new social formats
to drive tune-in and developed long form video
franchises. " I think misconduct in the workplace
will continue to dominate industry headlines well
into 2018, " she says. " I think we'll see that it's a
workplace issue prevalent in all industries. "
Donna
Northington
EVP, Distribution
Planning & Strategy
Turner Content
Distribution
Northington is a change
agent at Turner, quickly adapting and driving her
team to think outside the box to tackle the latest
issues in the business. Having clocked 16 years in
the industry, Northington makes an impact on more
than just Turner's bottom line. How does she relieve
stress and stay fresh? " Mindfulness-the forgotten
art of focusing on what is present in your life at the
present time vs. fretting about the past and worrying
about the future, " she says.
Debra
O'Connell
EVP, Sales &
Marketing
Disney/ABC
Television Group
Since her February promotion,
O'Connell has turned her focus to maximizing
linear and digital agency advertising opportunities
across the company. The full-service in-house
creative agency allows her team to create and deploy
big, branded ideas for clients across multiple programming
assets. Just weeks into her new position,
O'Connell negotiated the company's first portfoliowide
upfront. Her favorite female TV character? Dr.
Rainbow 'Bow' Johnson from ABC's " Black-ish. "
" She's a powerful woman who has a family that she
works hard to nurture and protect while having a
high-profile career-It's almost biographical! "
Dawn
Parouse
Olmstead
EVP, Development
Universal Cable
Productions &
Wilshire Studios
With her recent promotion, Olmstead expanded her
duties as one of the industry's top developers. This year,
thanks to her efforts, several UCP and Wilshire series
were picked up, including the studios' first series for
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