Nicki Fisher - Rise Chair

As an active leader and STEM Ambassador, Nicki Fisher was formerly, prior to her retirement, EMEA Sales Director for Clear-Com. She was responsible for sales and pre-sales teams, selling and supporting Clear-Com products and solutions across the entire EMEA region. Prior to joining Clear-Com in April 2014, Nicki was the Sales Director for the Tektronix EMEA Video Business for 8 years, where she was responsible for sales of Video Analysis and Monitoring equipment into the Broadcasting, Postproduction and Telco markets. Nicki spent 11 years working for Agilent (formerly Hewlett Packard) in a variety of senior management and individual contributor sales roles, where she was the first Female Account manager for the UK Aerospace and Defence business and also European Regional Sales Manager for the Communications Test Business. Nicki gained a B.Sc. Hons in Physics from Liverpool University in 1989 and began her career as a Product Training Engineer at Marconi Instruments.

Sadie Groom - Bubble Agency and Rise Founder

Sadie founded Bubble Agency a PR, marketing and events company focusing on the entertainment technology, sports and AV business, in 1999 and is still very much the driving force. Using her 20 years of PR and Marketing experience she not only looks after the business side of things and client strategy but also promotes the role of women in the industries she works in through her work with Rise, Women in Film & TV and SVG Women’s Initiative. A keen traveller, she is trying to go to 50 countries before she is 50 and would like to spend more time on the golf course.

Donna Smith - Rise Managing Director

Donna Smith has over two decades of success in blue-chip and multi-billion dollar companies, including NBC Universal and TiVO. Renowned for her entrepreneurial spirit and ability to lead teams towards strategic goals, she has been a driving force behind organisational and geographical growth. She has a proven track record in board-level decision-making and possesses diverse skills in sales, crisis management, start-ups, growth strategy, technology, leadership, fundraising, company culture and communication. Her pragmatism, creativity, and resourcefulness have consistently propelled businesses from concept to success and will drive her forward into her new role as managing director of Rise.

Lisa Lavender - The Traffic Bureau

Lisa Lavender is a business leader with over 25 years’ experience building and running businesses in the advertising industry at a local and global level. Having worked with numerous global brands, broadcasters, agencies and production companies, she has a deep understanding of business processes and the changes impacting the marketing supply chain. Lisa is the founder of The Traffic Bureau, the UK's largest outsourced specialist supplier of TV admin (Business Affairs) services. After selling TTB to Adstream, Lisa held a number of roles within the advertising distribution company. She is the former CEO of Adstream UK where she managed operations, account management and sales teams for Adstream's largest operating market outside of the USA.

Andy Beale - BT Sport

Andy is Chief Engineer for BT Sport, joining the innovative and disruptive British broadcaster at the beginning of its journey in 2012 to oversee the technology and construction of the landmark BT Sport Production Hub in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. He played a pivotal role in the development and launch of Europe’s first commercial live sports Ultra HD channel BT Sport Ultra HD, and its HDR successor: BT Sport Ultimate. He led BT Sport’s pioneering Dolby Atmos launch and ground breaking advances in live VR 360. Recently he has delivered world firsts in 8K and 5G remote production. Previously he was Head of Engineering for Sports Media House, Octagon, and before that delivered projects worldwide for respected system integrator IPK.

Mark Harrison - DPP

Mark began his career as an Historian at Cambridge University, before moving into the media industry. He spent many years as a Director, Producer and Executive Producer, and won numerous awards for his filmmaking, including an International Emmy and a BAFTA nomination. Mark has held senior roles within the independent production sector and the BBC. He was MD of an independent production company before being appointed BBC Head of Arts, and then Head of Multiplatform Production. He was subsequently Controller of Production for BBC North and leader of the BBC’s End-to-End Digital programme, before becoming Director of Transformation for BBC Design & Engineering. In 2015 Mark became CEO of the DPP – the media industry’s international business network, which he founded. Today the DPP has nearly 500 member companies from across the whole media supply chain – from global tech giants to start ups.

Anne-Louise Buick -Platform Comms

Anne-Louise is the Senior Vice President, Marketing for Telestream, leading the Telestream global marketing organization responsible for all the marketing elements of Telestream’s GTM activities. Previously Anne-Louise was Vice President, Global Revenue Marketing at Avid, overseeing Field, Channel and Demand Marketing, leading marketing campaigns to drive revenue as well as worldwide channel marketing engagement. Prior to joining Avid, Anne-Louise was Head of Media Marketing and Communications at Ericsson, establishing a go-to-market framework to ensure the successful launch of new products, services and solutions, designing marketing programs to support business objectives and ensuring consistent and effective communication of customer value for the Media Solutions business.

Lesley Johnson - BBC Studios

Lesley is Global Director of Home Entertainment at BBC Studios, where she is responsible for the Digital and DVD business worldwide. She is Vice Chair of the British Association for Screen Entertainment and a Rise Advisory Board member. At work Lesley leads on support for women’s reproductive health, which led to the BBC signing the Workplace Menopause pledge in April 2022. In a wide ranging broadcast career Lesley has held senior editorial and operational roles across the television industry. She founded the Westminster news facility Millbank Studios, which broadcast the first live pictures from the House of Commons Committees and launched the Parliamentary Channel. In the late Nineties Lesley was Head of Production for Lifestyle at LWT and Granada TV where she looked after This Morning and was on the launch team of Loose Women. Lesley is a very keen sailor and has two grown-up daughters.

Lisa Collins - IABM

Lisa has been building powerful networks and communities for over 25 years, ensuring the groups she works with thrive and grow. After a flourishing career working for a variety of associations, membership bodies and not for profit organisations, Lisa launched her own agency, Dovetail Creative Ltd, in 2021 and now supports a variety of organisations with all aspects of community, member and customer forum engagement, events, marketing strategy, and consultancy. Lisa has worked within the broadcast, media, and entertainment space for over 12 years, working most recently with membership organisations, The Circle Society and IABM. Lisa is a frequent speaker and moderator at industry events.

Jackie Howes - Discovery

Recently winning the 2020 IABM Award for Technology Leader of the year, Jackie is recognised as a person who is at the forefront of disruption and innovation within the broadcast and media industry. Through inspired leadership she has helped to deliver ground-breaking technology and business benefits. Jackie has over 20 years of experience working in the broadcast industry and has worked for a number of different companies, always working in a role that bridges the gap between traditional IT and broadcast engineers. Today, as the Director of Media Infrastructure Architecture at Discovery, Jackie is directly responsible for scoping, defining and coordinating both large and small Infrastructure systems that have a direct impact on the company’s technical capabilities and profitability. She works alongside global teams and external suppliers to architect infrastructure ecosystems that supports the technical and operational aspects of production and broadcast systems. Jackie is a strong believer in sharing knowledge and endeavors to create an environment where every individual is able to choose the path they wish to take.

Stephen Stewart - Media Consultant

A television and radio professional with over 40 years in the industry, Stephen has enjoyed roles as varied as commercial producer, gallery director for tv programmes ranging from Formula 1 to UK Parliament. As well as TV production, Stephen is experienced in TV playout and media services having worked for the BBC, Channel 4, Thames Television and Deluxe. The lure of AI and machine learning saw Stephen move into the advertising technology space with Mirriad Advertising before becoming COO at Take 1 where he was responsible for leading and restructuring the Operations, Product and Media Technology teams and launching Access Services and Localisation/Dubbing, delivering thousands of hours of content for some of the world’s largest production companies and networks. The resulting growth in revenue led to the successful acquisition of Take 1 by Verbit.ai Stephen is now an advisor to Media organisations, a Rise Advisory Board member & mentor, an active contributor to the Rise Up Academy, as well as being Vice Chair of the Royal Television Society’s Technology Centre.

Hilary Roschke - SDVI & Rise North America Chair

Hilary is the Vice President of Strategic Operations at SDVI. The Strategic Operations group is focused on keeping the company operating efficiently and effectively at scale while maintaining culture and sharp focus on customer success. Under Hilary’s leadership, the group operates at the nexus of people, technology and process to ensure optimal outcomes for SDVI, their customers, and their partners, Hilary received her degree in Electronic Media and Film and has worked in the Media Industry since 2004 in a variety of operational and strategic roles. Over her career she has optimized complex operational and technical ecosystems, working at the front of major cloud transformation initiatives at one major media company. Hilary also served in business management capacity, working in strategic roles for a fortune 500 company, helping navigate executives and organizations through major inflection points like re-branding, re-organization and large-scale company acquisitions. With her relentless focus on improvement, Hilary has helped drive organizational change, technological change, operational efficiency and increase business value/ROI in the media industry. She believes strongly in continuous change management, cross functional collaboration, and despises process for process’s sake. This continuous analysis and filtering of opportunities for improvement allows her to work with stakeholders to target the most meaningful efforts at the appropriate time.

ErinRose Widner - Verizon Business Group

ErinRose Widner has been a business development leader in the M&E and Technology space for over twenty years, creating transformational partnerships and innovative solutions for WB, Fox, Paramount, ViacomCBS, Google, Microsoft and Apple. She currently oversees Global Business Development for M&E, Studios and Emerging Technologies for Verizon. Widely recognized as an expert in her field, Widner has been involved in a number of industry groups that drive thought leadership and innovation including SMPTE, HPA, WICT, NAMIC, IEEE, The Sundance Institute, Film Independent, ETC and Women in Film. She is also incredibly passionate about improving gender and diversity representation in the M&E and Technology space, and is thrilled to now serve on the board of directors at Rise.

Anna Lockwood - Telstra

Anna is an experienced media industry executive specialising in broadcasting and sports. She started her career as a journalist and documentary film producer with a focus on natural history and wildlife programming. After ten years working in the wild she moved from India to London to join the media technology business as a consultant. Anna has since had global leadership roles across EMEA, APAC, and the Americas. She currently works at Telstra at the convergence of the traditional broadcast industry and leading edge telecommunications and digital platforms. In addition to her role at Telstra, Anna represents Telstra as a Director on the IABM (International Association of Broadcast Manufacturers) Board, and is an Advisory Board Member and Mentor at RISE, a group for women in broadcast. She brings her interests in innovation, sports, and women in technology to her board and industry engagement.

Christine Purse - ignite strategic communications

Christine launched ignite in 2005 after a decade as VP at Hollywood’s post production bastion LaserPacific. There she built a team of in-house producers that served high end studio and creative clients’ needs in an expanding technological environment. Her time at LaserPacific gave her hands-on experience in the powerful intersection between technology and creativity and the incredible role it plays in filmmaking. Christine began her media career at a Denver PBS station, and moved to an advertising agency as broadcast producer. In that role, she became a Regional Emmy winner and earned a fellowship at the American Film Institute. Upon graduation from AFI, she launched a production company that produced award winning music videos and independent films. It was then, shooting film and ¾” video, that she fell in love with the “how can we do that” which intrigued her almost as much as the stories she was telling. From agency days to the road that led to ignite, Christine sees herself as absolutely lucky to have worked closely with amazing talent, iconic and emerging companies, influential organizations and brilliant technologists. And in some cases she has even gotten to spread the word about game changing developments. ignite works closely with companies behind the lens as well as leading guilds and organizations including the American Society of Cinematographers, American Cinema Editors, Hollywood Professional Association, Association of Moving Image Archivists and others. She co-founded and produces ACE's EditFest Los Angeles and EditFest London events. The pandemic era added Digital Event Producer to her portfolio and she produced EditFest Global and the HPA Awards as online global events. She is at work on a slate of 2021 digital events. Christine holds a B.A. from the University of Colorado, and lives in Valley Village, California.

En Kelly - Apple, Inc.

Jill Porubovic - Jill Porubovic Consulting, LLC

Jill Porubovic has built a career of leadership success by delivering human-centered transformation across industries. Not one to sit by and wait for things to happen, she embraces technology and innovation, operational and service excellence strategies, organizational design, and communications to unlock opportunities for positive change. From startup businesses and divisions to Fortune 500 enterprises, Jill has earned the reputation as a difference maker and a builder of cultures where teams are inspired to deliver their best work—even during times of uncertainty and complexity. For these reasons, she is invited to speak about the areas of transformation, successful large-scale M&A migration, best-of-breed application and SaaS strategy, and the creation of customer change. The founder of Jill Porubovic Consulting, LLC., Jill draws upon more than 20 years of technology and operations leadership experience to guide client companies through their unique challenges. Her engagements have included work with gaming companies to structure communications and change management strategies. She is also a trusted advisor to companies across the evolving media and entertainment space with a focus on technology transformation and initiatives to leverage service as a differentiator.

Jane Sung - Cinedeck

Jane Sung is COO at Cinedeck, a position she has held since the company was founded in 2010. Jane has built up a wealth of experience helping customers improve their video production workflows. She believes the future of video technology is in distributed workflows and has guided Cinedeck towards creating software-only versions of its ingest tools, as well as cloud-based offerings.

Kate Fellion - Light Iron

Katie is Head of Business Development and Workflow Strategy at Light Iron. As one of Light Iron’s founders, she has been impacting the company’s evolution in workflow since 2009. She was instrumental in establishing Light Iron’s Outpost Mobile Post Systems, and she has produced a number of firsts in file-based finishing, including the first 6K DI (Gone Girl), the first studio feature cut on FCPX (Focus), and Amazon’s first HDR series (Transparent). Prior to launching Light Iron, Fellion worked at PlasterCITY Digital Post, where she played an integral role in the company’s first stereoscopic Digital Intermediate. Fellion is a member of the Producers Guild of America (PGA), Women In Film (WIF), and Women in Media, and is a past mentor for the Hollywood Professional Association (HPA). She is a graduate of Whittier College with a self-designed bachelor’s degree in Aspects of Contemporary Popular Culture and a minor in Film Studies. Fellion is also an avid equestrian and currently competes in Western Reining across the Southwest region.

Kathy-Anne McManus - CDK

Kathy-Anne “KAM” McManus is an executive with global experience leading, creating, growing, and managing profitable Software, Sales, and Services business units around the globe. She currently sits on CDK’s Executive Leadership Team (ELT) as EVP, Chief Customer Officer (CCO). In this newly created role, KAM will own the post-sales experience for all customers across Professional Services, Customer Success, Learning and Performance, Customer Care, and Consulting. KAM’s primary responsibility will be to drive customer satisfaction, retention, and loyalty—maximizing the value of CDK solutions while continuing to improve NPS and ensuring profitability and efficiency for the business. KAM joins CDK from Avid Technology where she served as the company’s first Chief Customer Experience Officer as it expanded its customer success strategy to enhance customer touchpoints and provide exceptional experiences. In a career that spans more than three decades, she also held senior leadership roles in the service and support organizations of technology providers including Adobe, Amdocs and Ericsson and telecommunications operator Telstra. Having lived and worked on three continents, KAM has extensive global experience implementing business process change, organizational effectiveness, and technical solutions in the ever-evolving world of software sales and delivery.

Meg Travis - Iron Mountain Entertainment Services (IMES)

Margaret ‘Meg’ Travis is the Director, Global Head of Marketing & Communications for Iron Mountain Entertainment Services (IMES). She leads industry and client engagement across North America, the United Kingdom and Europe. Travis is a Boston native who has spent the past two decades working with clients in B2B marketing, helping organizations to develop effective message and creative strategies from early conception to execution. With an A.B. in Vocal Performance from Stanford University, she began her career in 1993, working for the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. There she advised emerging classical and jazz artists on career opportunities, which sparked her interest in the business side of music. She holds an M.B.A in Marketing from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan and spent more than 12 years with global consulting firm Accenture, leading account-based and inbound marketing programs. Today, Travis is a fierce advocate for creators to prioritize preserving, protecting and archiving their assets. She is also passionate about the causes of music education and gender equality in the workplace, and volunteers on the boards of the Ipswich Music Art and Drama Association (her hometown arts education organization) and Rise North America.

Meghan Ross - Ateliere Creative Technologies

Meghan is a Chicago-based marketer that has been working in the Media, Entertainment and Technology sector for the majority of her career. Most of Meghan’s positions have been working with Partners - which she loves. A natural communicator, Meghan enjoys building and maintaining long-term relationships with her customers, vendors and partners. To this end, she is highly effective in working with diverse groups to successfully implement and execute programs that deliver results. Meghan’s extensive experience in marketing, sales and business development has given her a unique vantage point that allows her to more deeply understand the needs of her sales teams and create programs to best support their goals. Stakeholders appreciate her combination of “big picture” thinking and attention to detail. Meghan brings empathy, communication and organization to each position she holds. She has served on the board of Women in Film Chicago twice, helped launch the North American chapter of Rise and is proud to still be part of the board. Meghan has recently joined the team at Ateliere and is really excited to work with their industry leading partners. If you follow her on any social platform you will see she is a proud dog mom and features her fur kiddos frequently.

Michele Gauthier - Vice Media Group

Michele Gauthier is the Global Director of Production Transformation for Vice Media Group. The transformation unit is responsible for global strategic initiatives and operational alignment across the production business. Her background as a production executive lends to her ability to foster collaboration with cross-functional partners within production, post, and media technology. Michele previously held the role of Head of Production at Refinery29 in Toronto, Canada. She was brought on as a production expert to help translate the globally renowned brand into the Canadian market. Her priority was to continue delivering best-in-class content and high caliber service during this transition. Prior to Refinery29 she led the Integrated Production business at Vice Media in Canada where she successfully built an in-house branded production model. Michele continues to be inspired by the innovative work of her peers, colleagues, and the industry as a whole. Mentorship has played an integral role in her professional development and she is thrilled to be part of the Rise community to continue promoting knowledge sharing and connectivity.

Michelle Kelly - National Association of Broadcasters

Michelle Kelly is Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Global Connections and Events, at the National Association of Broadcasters. In her current capacity, she has strategic oversight and ultimate responsibility for all marketing and communications activities tied to NAB’s major events (NAB Show and NAB Show New York) as well as other programs and services managed by the GCE department. She is also responsible for championing data-driven decision making and leading insight activities across all programs, products and customer profiles to shape business strategy. Michelle first joined NAB in August 1999 as director of marketing and left in January 2004 to accompany her husband who was reassigned to Hickam Air Force Base. While in Hawaii, she served as a consultant for NAB and various associations supporting their convention marketing strategy and programs, including the Hawaii Dental Association; Telexpo, a Brazilian-based telecom event; a security industry tradeshow sponsored by ASIS International and the Joint Spouses’ Conference, an annual event for active duty and retired military spouses. She rejoined NAB in 2007. The bulk of her career has been spent marketing trade shows in the communications sector, including 11 years (1987-1998) with the Personal Communications Industry Association (PCIA), an organization that represents wireless communications service providers. Michelle holds a B.B.A. degree in marketing from James Madison University. She and her husband Rick reside in Leesburg, Virginia with their two shelties, Luna and Leo.

Sandy Nasseri - MelroseINC

Sandy is the President and Co-Founder of MelroseINC, a WOSB and WBENC certified woman-owned business. In 2003, Sandy opened MelroseMAC to meet the accelerating needs in the media, technology sector. She understood the business challenges facing the entertainment marketplace and launched a company that would meet those needs. In less than one year’s time, MelroseMAC’s second location was opened in Burbank to accommodate the immediate needs of major studios. Today, MelroseINC has three distinct divisions: MelroseMAC, our experience centers; MelroseSRC, our national procurement and distribution arm; and MelroseTEC, our systems integrations group that designs end-to-end technology solutions. Sandy’s passion, intuition, and commitment to excellence have fueled her success as a leader of a multi-million-dollar company that is respected by its partners and customers, loved by its employees, and seen as unique in an industry where standing out is nearly impossible. MelroseINC has been partnered with Apple since 2003, starting as an Apple Specialist. For 15 years, Sandy has been an integral member of the Apple Reseller community, serving on the board for nine years. In 2017, MelroseINC was initiated into Apple’s inaugural class of Apple’s Premier Partner Program, exhibiting the ever-growing relationship MelroseINC has with Apple. As years passed, many of MelroseMAC’s customers were asking to have Sandy and her team not only procure products and repair machines, but to help install and implement the systems they were purchasing. With that, MelroseTEC was born. MelroseTEC provides clients with customized, large-scale solutions to create their infrastructure, or improve upon an existing one. With a state-of-the-art proprietary lab, our engineers specialize in developing and configuring the best possible workflow, IP architectures, control rooms, machine rooms, distribution infrastructures and quality solutions to meet each customer’s business needs. Together with our esteemed partners, MelroseINC provides products and services to customers such as Disney, Netflix, Paramount Pictures, Fox, RedBull, Cedars-Sinai Hospital, Universal Music Group, Bad Robot, Viacom, NASA, Snapchat, and more… As a woman-in-business leader, working in a male dominated industry, Sandy strives to be a voice for women in her marketplace. She serves on the Apple Advisory Reseller Board; serves as the President and Chair of the AVID Customer Association for the Reseller Channel; and is active in the American Express Women’s Initiative. Privately, Sandy is dedicated to the concept of repairing the world. She serves on the board of The Book Foundation and actively supports Alexandria House in Los Angeles. As a veteran of the military, Sandy promotes veteran hiring in both her own company and that of her colleagues. Sandy earned her degree in Electronics and Electrical Engineering at ORT Technical Institute. She lives with her husband and two children in Los Angeles and is active in her neighborhood community and her children’s schools.

Kate Wendelboe - BT

A strategist and accredited executive coach, Kate is Co-Director of Strategy and Growth for BT Security and founder of Recalibration Coaching. She previously ran the strategy and proposition development of a portfolio of BT’s smaller businesses and has also been a Director of BT's Media & Broadcast business. Before joining BT, Kate was in marketing and then journalism at Reuters - she was one of the team that started Reuters Insider, Reuters’ OTT platform for financial professionals. Kate also has an MBA from Cambridge’s Judge Business School where she specialised in Culture, Arts and Media Management.

Shauna Purcell – Rise ANZ Chairwoman & Regional Sales Manager, RIEDEL Communications

Sam Yee - Rise ANZ Mentoring Program Lead & Product and Careers Advisor, Former Chief Product Officer & Head of Product

Sam Yee is a seasoned Product Management Leader with an extensive track record spanning over 20 years in the UK and Australia.  Her career has been defined by a relentless passion for consumer technology in sports and media particularly in SaaS/OTT subscription platforms. With a strong background in strategy, digital product development, personalisation, data analytics, and insights, Sam has held pivotal roles at industry giants like AFL, Kayo Sports, Seven West Media (Channel 7), Guardian Australia, and FOX SPORTS. More recently, Sam has been shaping the future of sports and health technology through her work with start-ups and visionary founders as Chief Product Officer/Advisor.  Whilst being a sports fanatic fuelled her professional journey, her natural energy and connections with people ignited the inspiration for career coaching and mentoring.

Tanya Rai – Rise ANZ Marketing/Events Lead & Marketing Manager, Telstra Broadcast Services

Tanya has worked in the broadcast and entertainment industry for over 15 years with a range of experience in marketing, events, project/account management and advocating diversity. She has worked with the BBC, Cheltenham Literature and Jazz Festivals, International Broadcasting Convention, Gritty Talent, British Arrows, Wildscreen and Icon Films. She also worked for Sundog Media Toolkit, managing projects to create automated cloud native tools for the versioning of packaged media (DCP & IMF) and building relationships with leading Hollywood Studios and UK broadcasters and as Marketing and Communications Manager at Pebble, who deliver automation, playout and management solutions for the broadcast community. Tanya currently works for Telstra Broadcast Services (TBS) as Marketing Manager to market their broadcast end to end solutions including a global media network, cloud-based media production, world-class satellite services and managed production and playout services. Tanya has hosted and produced many of the episodes featured in the ‘Rise In Conversation With’ webinar series, interviewing women in senior leadership roles from ITV, The Financial Times and the BBC. She also launched her own podcast in 2020, where she talks to diverse guests who work in the broadcast and creative industries about their top three ways of 'Keeping It Real'.

Monica Forlano - Rise ANZ Women’s Health Lead & Former Head of AFL Studios, Australian Football League

Monica Forlano is the Head of AFL Studios which is the production and in-house creative agency of the Australian Football League. Monica has over 20 years of media industry experience ranging from managing international operations of cable television in Europe, to leading broadcast channels and content production departments in Australia. Her key career achievements include developing marketing and business transformation plans around media creation and distribution, successful launch campaigns for major television programs and sports documentary production. Monica is also the Chair of Endometriosis Australia, the preeminent peak body for endometriosis and the largest non-government funder of research into this disease suffered by an estimated 830,000 Australians.

Pip Warren – Media Asset Management Professional Services Manager, Avid

Will Munkara-Kerr – Enterprise Sale Manager, Avid

Will Munkara-Kerr is the Enterprise Sales Manager for Australia and New Zealand at Avid. After beginning his career in the Media Technology sector as an Avid Enterprise Support role looking after Australian and New Zealand broadcasters and post production facilities, he spent the best part of a decade working in the wider Asia-Pacific region. Two years with Avid's Bid Management Team in Singapore was followed by six years in Hong Kong with EVS, where he started as a Technical Specialist before moving into a Sales Management role covering - at varying points - regions from India and Bangladesh; across to Japan and Korea; down to Australia and New Zealand; and everywhere in-between. He returned to Australia in 2016 as Technical Director for APAC with Ericsson Broadcast and Media Services, prior to running the Oceania business for French compression vendor Ateme. He rejoined Avid in 2022 to manage an awesome sales team and is based in Sydney.

Kahleah Webb – Head of Operations, Gravity Media  

Carlos Raso – Marketing Manager, Gravity Media  

Olivia Grimshaw – Head of Video and Product Operations, Nine

Olivia Grimshaw started her career in London in the theatre industry and transitioned into commercial television. After relocating to Sydney, Australia Olivia continued in broadcast operations for cable and commercial television. Upon returned from 3 years in the Netherland Olivia expanded into digital and online consulting for an Australian Sports Code. Olivia is currently providing content solutions to the media industry as the Presales and Customer Success Manager APAC at Grass Valley. 

Nina Walsh – Global Leader, Industry Business Development, AWS Media, Entertainment, Games & Sports Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Nina Walsh is the Head of Business Development, APJ & Americas for Media & Entertainment at AWS. She joined AWS in 2020 to lead M&E strategy for the region and is a global leader for Content Production, with over a decade of experience in visual effects (VFX) and animation. Prior to AWS Nina held senior leadership roles in business operations, strategy, commercial, creative, and technology. She led large-scale digital transformation and strategic growth programs for Tier 1 Film and Television production studios in the US, Canada, and Australia. Nina is an industry leader in her field, drawing from more than 18 years in M&E, spanning broadcast, radio, sports, and content production. She enjoys public speaking and presents regularly at global industry events. Nina has held production, technology, and leadership roles across some familiar industry brands including: Fox Sports, AFL, NHL, MLS, Bell Media, Deluxe, Company 3/Method, Encore Post & VFX, and Animal Logic. She is a passionate mentor and people leader who enjoys building inclusive and high-performing teams.  

Nina holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Sydney, and is a member of industry association, the Visual Effects Society (VES).  

Manda Hatter – Head of Operations, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)  

Tanya Kelly – Managing Director APAC, Xytech Systems 

Tanya is a highly experienced professional in the broadcast and media industry, having over a decade of experience at the senior management level. She began her career in London's Soho, working with major film distribution companies. Her operational roles included being a videotape operator, editor, and telecine colourist, where she worked on new documentaries and restored old films. Moving up, she joined the ABC in Australia, utilizing her skills for colour grading and restoration in their digital project. Later, she became Head of Studio Operations at Fox Sports, managing and developing the studio crew and facilities teams and facilitating their move to a new location while keeping broadcasting uninterrupted. In 2016, she founded her own consultancy, specializing in project management and technology solutions for the broadcast and media sector. She worked with numerous broadcasters and vendors, integrating resource management systems for automation and self-provisioning. Tanya's strong relationship with ScheduALL led to a partnership with Xytech in 2021. She helped deliver the Xytech Media Operations Platform to Australia and New Zealand, improving efficiency for large broadcasters and is now Xytech’s Managing Director in APAC. With an educational background in Psychology and English Language and Literature, Tanya is an innovative and collaborative leader. She excels at driving successful transformation projects, understanding processes, and engaging stakeholders for effective change. Her expertise in scheduling systems and workflows and her prioritisation of training and engagement ensures optimal technology utilization and smooth business operations.

Trupti Patel – Head of Program Management, Telstra Broadcast Services

Sean Curran – GM Partnerships & Buisness Development APJ, Eluvio  

Amanda Leighton - Executive Director - Oceania, Amagi Corporation

Chrysanthe Nikakis – Consultant