Rise Mentees

Amy Brennan

Amy works in Technical Sales for Calrec Audio - one of the leading designers and manufacturers of broadcast audio mixing consoles, based in Hebden Bridge. Her role is varied and involves supporting the sales team in a range of technical tasks such as product demonstrations, management of demo and rental consoles, generation of network diagrams and responding to tenders. She enjoys the technical challenges of the job and is excited to develop her career further in this field. Prior to joining Calrec Audio in February 2018, Amy worked in arts organisation and hospitality after graduating from her art degree at the Slade School of Fine Art (UCL) in 2016. Amy discovered her love for audio whilst studying at the Slade through making sound-based art installations and DJing at parties. More specifically, her interest in broadcast was ignited after becoming involved in several radio shows with her co-founded music collective ATATA. Joining Calrec soon after marks her first official step into the broadcast industry. Outside of work she loves everything to do with techno music (DJing, going to club nights and playing on her synths and drum machines), running, enjoying the beautiful nature of the Calder Valley and spending time with her cat Bowie.

Amy Swallow

Amy is an Account Manager at Bubble Agency and has worked for the company for two years. Prior to joining Bubble, she spent three years in the Film and Television industry, working on productions including Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Spectre, Bladerunner 2049 and more recently, Channel 4’s ‘A Place in the Sun’. Amy has a degree in Journalism and Media, strong organisation skills and social media expertise.

Aneta Aniszewska

Aneta Aniszewska, works at Sky as Broadcast Design Engineer. Projects she gets involved in include Sky News, F1 and Sky Sports Racing. Her current role is to design systems and configure broadcast equipment mainly within IP domain. Previously worked in Production Support Engineering at Sky and as tester in rnd in audio. Aneta’s degree is in Media Technology at Southampton Solent University. During university She had opportunities to do a placement for Dolby Labs.

Charlotte Wearden

Charlotte grew up in France from the age of 11 before returning to the UK to study a BA Hons in Business Management at the University of Worcester. In her third year of university she embarked on a marketing internship at Atman, a business consultancy company. She was soon offered a permanent role as Marketing Manager when she graduated in July 2012. The company supported her through a Masters in Marketing Management. In 2013, she joined a technology manufacturing company, IA Technology, in Hereford as their Marketing Manager. After working there for a couple of years she was keen to move to London and joined Timeline Television in 2015 as their first Marketing and PR Coordinator. Timeline provide technical broadcast services on a variety of programmes including, Formula E, SailGP, FA Women’s Super League and more. In 2017 Charlotte was promoted to Marketing and PR Manager and the company is also supporting her through a CIM Diploma in Professional Marketing.

Elisabeth Wetchy

Elisabeth is a graduate of Bournemouth University with a degree in Computer Visualisation and Animation. She has since joined the software development side of the visual effects industry as a Customer Support Engineer at Foundry. As the lead of support for Katana, a tool used for look development and lighting in visual effects and animation, she provides technical support to users, assisting with workflow questions, feature requests or bug reports and cooperating with engineering teams to answer in-depth technical questions. To help streamline processes within her team she develops custom tools in Python and JavaScript and works with other team members to plan and implement improvements to Foundry's support website.

Jessica Dahan

Born and raised in Paris, Jessica has always strived to expand her horizon and embrace new opportunities. She first moved to London in 2005 after graduating with an MSc in Management, Business and Marketing, and started to develop her passion for international marketing and the fast-evolving digital world. She then spent a few years working in Paris and Sydney in various marketing and digital roles, before moving back to London three years ago. Her 15-year experience has spanned across a variety of industries and has been intrinsically global, involving multiple projects with a global scope, and the management of remote multi-cultural marketing teams – which she invariably thoroughly enjoys. Always up for a new challenge, Jessica joined the Tech company Imagen (video management platform) a year ago as a Head of Growth, and was tasked to create, develop and lead a high-performing Demand Generation team. She is passionate about technology and data, in particular how new technologies drive change within the industry, and how data yields invaluable insight on consumer behaviour. She is very eager to make an impact and contribute to Imagen’s growth and success. Jessica has a thirst for knowledge and is a keen traveller, feeling truly connected to the world when she can meet people and experience new cultures first hand. She is very grateful for the opportunity to be part of the Rise mentoring programme and is looking forward to meeting her mentor, the other mentees, and start this exciting journey.

Kelly Taylor

Born and raised in the USA, Kelly Taylor moved to the UK at 25 years old, having worked in the TV news industry since university. After a 6 month search, Kelly found work in shopping and gaming television before moving to post production. The excitement of live television eventually brought Kelly back into the gallery as a freelancer before taking a contract at the BBC, where she is currently employed as multi skilled technical operator in various London news studios. Kelly has worked a variety of roles including Sound Operator, EVS Operator, Technical Coordinator and Video Editor. In her spare time, Kelly is the president of the UK fan club for an NFL American football team.

Lauren Myers

Lauren has been part of the marketing team at Ross Video for just over one year and looks after the company’s partners and customers in the EMEA region. Ross powers video productions for billions of global viewers daily with the industry’s widest range of high impact, high efficiency production solutions. Alongside her role at Ross Video, Lauren is further developing her marketing knowledge by studying for a Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) Diploma at Oxford College of Marketing. Lauren graduated from Cardiff University in 2015 with a BA (Hons) in History and then subsequently spent 5 months travelling around Asia, Oceania and America. She also spent a month in Borneo helping local communities to build wells and houses, and taught English to the local children. Upon her return, she worked as a Marketing Executive with an education company, where she ran the company’s marketing strategy. Lauren loves travel and is also an avid netball player, playing C for a local Reading team in the regional league. Lauren is delighted to be part of the Rise Mentor Programme and is looking forward to meeting and working with successful and ambitious women within the industry.

Leanne Cole

Leanne was born in Macclesfield and moved to Glossop as a young child, where she still lives now. Whilst raising her three children she has always worked, either part time whilst studying or full time as her children got older. She started as a waitress at 14, once she turned 18 she turned her hand to bar work which she did for 11 years. In 2012, Leanne became a youth worker, whilst also working at local schools as a teaching assistant. Following this, she spent 18 months working in accounts before finding her calling at Holdan two years ago. She has progressed quickly at Holdan, from processing orders to running the demo department. She has enjoyed learning and developing her skills and technical knowledge and meeting other people within the industry. Now, with the help and support of a mentor she looks forward to expanding her networks and connections further and see how far she can really push herself within the broadcast industry. When she is not focussing on her career she likes to be on stage at her local theatre, spending time with her family and keeping fit.

Lila Maria Neto Lopez

Lila currently works as a Project Manager at Vubiquity, part of Amdocs Media, and is responsible for managing and implementing the delivery of projects across cutting edge technologies and Video on Demand. With a degree in International Business, Lila did not consider starting off her career in the Media industry until she came across a job opportunity as a service delivery coordinator at Vubiquity in 2011. Since then Lila has held a number of different roles allowing her to accumulate sufficient experience to make the move into the Technology industry. Working for Accenture as a Business Analyst provided her with the tools and opportunities to expand her knowledge base and become more technology savvy. Her passion for the Media industry continued and in 2015 she was offered the opportunity to rejoin Vubiquity as a Service Manager. This role involved managing an operational team responsible for processing and delivery of VOD content to clients. Lila holds a BA from Aveiro University (Portugal) and in her free time enjoys travelling, reading and walking in the countryside.

Lisa Jarman

Lisa decided to pursue a career in technology after learning to code through Sky's "Get into Tech" scheme and subsequently joined Sky as a software developer. She is currently an advertising technology business analyst at Sky, managing enhancements to Sky Media's advanced advertising tools - primarily systems for advertising sales and media delivery across Sky AdSmart (addressable TV), VoD, digital and broadcast linear. Before Sky, she successfully completed a PhD in History, and spent time working in academia and project management. She is tech lead for the Women@Sky employee network, and having benefitted from Sky's coding course, now teaches coding to women without a background in tech with Code First: Girls to help improve the gender balance in technology.

Lizzie Lawrence

Lizzie Lawrence began her career in communications over 15 years ago, working for what was then Carlton Television. Leaving London in 2005, she then travelled extensively, working for public relations agencies in Sydney, Doha and Amsterdam across a diverse range of media, non profit and corporate accounts, including; Skin Cancer Australia, Commonwealth Bank Australia, Qatar Foundation, Qatar Science & Technology Park, BBC Studios, Monte Carlo Television Festival, FremantleMedia and ITV Studios. Lizzie began working for M2A Media in the capacity of PR & Marketing Manager in November 2017, where she looks after the company’s marketing and communications activities, including its presence at key markets, such as NAB Show and IBC.

Markela Deverikou

Markela Deverikou is a guarantee vision engineer currently working in the broadcast industry for NEP UK. Markela graduated from University of Surrey in 2011 with a first class honours degree (BEng) in Electronic Engineering in Audio Media Engineering, completing placements in recording studios as an audio assistant. Her career began when she joined the small OB company, Racetech. She took her first steps as a trainee broadcast engineer, working across vision, sound and RF fields. Within a year she had finished her traineeship and started life on the road as broadcast engineer. Markela then quickly progressed to guaranteeing OB trucks covering events such as Royal Ascot and Epsom Derby. In 2017 she joined NEP in her current role working primarily on fly-pack systems for reality shows including Love Island, although she can still occasionally be found on OB trucks at various sporting events and light entertainment shows. Markela is part of the NEP student mentoring programme, offering help to university student mentees with their future career in the broadcast industry and in turn supporting the industry with potential new talent.

Megan Johnston

After a brief spell of touring the UK as an Audience Manager on shiny floor shows such as BGT and X Factor, Megan took a post production runner job to help pay the bills- and was immediately seduced by the fast-paced world of incomprehensible workflows, boggling acronyms and lightening fast problem solving. Some years down the line, with a PRINCE2 Practitioner qualification under her belt, problem solving in the nick of time has become one of the greatest pleasures of Megan's career in post production. For most of these years she has been working at a boutique facility called Silverglade Post, both here in London and abroad when needed. Megan has worked her way up from Post Production Coordinator through roles such as Client Account Manager and Post Producer, to her current position as Facilities Director. Megan's job involves everything from quoting, business development, recruitment, drafting workflows, and occasionally turning her hand back to managing projects. In the future Megan would like to progress further in Post, stepping up to General Manager level, with her sights set on one day becoming MD of a large, independent and well respected Post house.

Natasha Drew

Natasha Drew is a Business Management Degree Apprentice at BT Media and Broadcast. Since securing a place in October 2018 on BT’s competitive degree apprenticeship programme, Natasha is in her first rotation and is expected to explore various roles as part of this four year scheme. Starting in Sales Business Development, she supports the team to develop the future strategy, responding to the changing needs of the media and broadcast industry and providing global customer insights. With an opportunity to shadow account managers and gain involvement in major bids, Natasha has gained insight into key customers in the broadcasting industry, including Sky, ITV and the BBC. Albeit a short career path to date, Natasha has entered a fantastic environment to initiate a career in the media industry, and along with a quiet determination and ambition to achieve, she is excited to explore the industry in more depth, seeking further opportunity with the Rise mentoring scheme.

Natasha Larkin

Graduating from the University of Manchester in 2013 with a degree in Drama, Natasha knew she actually wanted to pursue a career in the camera department, working on TV Dramas and Feature Films. This interest came from a love of still photography coupled with the thrill of seeing how smoothly a seemingly chaotic production plan can fit together to produce a beautiful final product which, despite requiring hundreds of people to create, can have such a personal and private impact on viewers. In order to gain experience, she approached Picture Canning, a rental company based in her home territory, Newcastle upon Tyne, for any opportunity to work with the camera kit they stocked. After starting in 2014 as a Kit Room Technician and Driver, working alongside the MD, Jamie Hutchinson, opportunities were quickly presented to learn more about the company as well as the equipment and the industry itself. This meant that when Picture Canning opened a London branch in 2017, Natasha took on a new role as Bookings Manager and moved down from the North East to manage the day-to-day running of the new London office. Since then, Picture Canning has also opened in Manchester, expanding their team and regional services further. Natasha has successfully organised and helped to manage large bookings for big clients such as Britannia Series 2, Peaky Blinders Series 5, long-term SVoD productions as well as expanding and maintaining a loyal client-base for which she aims to ensure that every equipment need is met and every expectation is exceeded. In addition to rentals, a personal aim of Natasha’s has been to normalise technical aspirations for young women beginning their careers in order to hopefully address the gender imbalance amongst departments such as camera, grip and lighting. Since moving to London, her new role has allowed her to explore and extend that aim further by joining societies such as “Rise” and “Women in Film and TV”, making links with female-only DOP collectives such as the Illuminatrix Rising, and planning events for women that will give them the space to explore the technological side of production in greater detail. Although it’s been a short career so far, Natasha hopes her experience in the rentals side of the industry will give her a broad understanding and knowledge of some of the challenges facing production and technical teams alike in the hope that it will increase her problem solving capabilities, expand her network, and enable her to combine her interests in the technical and organisational sides of production.

Roberta Cambio

Roberta is Senior Account Director at Brightcove, the leading Online Video Platform provider. She brings to Brightcove over 15 years of international experience developed in pre-sales, product and sales roles working with a number of technology start-ups and large organisations in the fields of broadcasting, automotive, aerospace and defence. Prior to joining Brightcove, Roberta was Sales Regional Manager at V-Nova, a video compression start-up, covering the Dach region, Italy and Asia. Before then she worked as Product Manager at WRN Broadcast, now Encompass Digital Media, where she led the productisation of their playout, distribution and multi-platform services. Previously she was Product Specialist within the video compression team at Evertz Microsystems, where she developed strong relationships with key British and European broadcasters and introduced the first Evertz video compression products to the European market. Roberta holds multiple degrees, including a PhD in Low Power Digital Design from the University of Aberdeen, and a MS in Electronic Engineering from Universita` degli Studi di Padova, Italy, with a graduate exchange at University of Aberdeen (Erasmus grant). Roberta is a keen rower who can be found on the Thames at 6am before heading to work. However, she welcomes yoga on windy and rainy days.

Shannon Haddock

Shannon’s journey in media started when she graduated from Southampton Solent University with a degree in Sound to Film, Television and Games. The first step in her career was as a Post Production Technical Assistant at Perform Group where she was able to immerse herself in sport and production. Perform allowed Shannon to build a solid foundation of knowledge around technical workflows and fault finding in a creative, high paced environment. Shannon currently works as a Media Coordinator for Evoke Films where her primary responsibilities include D.I.T for international shoots, technical assistance for fast turnaround TVCs as well as developing new concepts to enhance current performance from a technical perspective. In the future Shannon wants to help bridge the gap between the technical and creative industries, implementing ideas for greater efficiency.

Stefi Popescu

Stefi started her professional career 5 years ago, at Sky, as a media operator and not long after, she discovered her passion for technology. She currently works as a System Engineer within the Broadcast Control and Monitoring team at Sky, developing tools for the broadcast teams to help them with identifying faults on the platform, prevent outages and control equipment remotely. Outside of this, she is actively working on initiatives to attract more women and young people into broadcast engineering.

Stephanie Wheeler

Stephanie Wheeler is a Key Account Manager for Warner Bros. at Deluxe Media. Focusing on distribution of pre-release and catalogue titles, she is well-versed in servicing high-security content to broadcasters and platforms whilst maintaining customer trust and satisfaction. In her spare time she is an active member of the London chapter of Junior League which works to develop the potential of women through training and leadership by volunteering with various community partners to fight poverty in London.

Tanya Rai

Tanya recently joined Sundog Media Toolkit as Project Management lead. Sundog is based in Bristol and they develop cutting edge software used by Hollywood studios, broadcasters, big name talent and up-and-coming film makers. Her role is to work with their specialist in-house developers to deliver client projects on time and on budget, understanding the technical scope and customer expectations of the product. Tanya has had various freelance roles within the broadcast tech/ media/ arts sector with a short period leading a team of event co-ordinators in the health sector. As a freelancer, she led large scale teams, providing full project management services to deliver memorable events for clients including the BBC, Cheltenham Festivals, International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) and Coventry University. Before freelancing, Tanya worked for the BBC on a full-time basis to deliver over 20 broadcast tech events per year with external partners including SMPTE, IET, WISE and WiE. Having returned to her passion for broadcast tech, Tanya is keen to champion those from ethnic minorities to take up a career in this sector and will use the Rise Mentoring Scheme to find meaningful ways to do this.

Victoria Stockdale

Victoria graduated from the University of Lincoln in 2015 with a First class BA in Marketing. She began her career in the technology sector, planning and executing marketing campaigns for a global IT reseller. Victoria joined Deluxe in 2017, achieving a life-long goal to break into Entertainment, and works as part of a global marketing team, supporting both the Creative and Distribution sides of Deluxe Entertainment Services Group. The diversity of her role means that no two days are the same, bringing a variety of opportunities and challenges.

Zoe Job

Zoe graduated from the University of Nottingham with a degree in Pharmaceutical Science, but decided to move into business rather than become a pharmacist. She started her career in a graduate role at IT reseller and solutions company Jigsaw24 as a Product Manager, and quickly progressed within her department, managing the post-production product portfolio and transitioning into the Media & Entertainment team. Her responsibilities continued to grow and in 2017 she took on the marketing for the sector. In 2018, Zoe was appointed as Business Manager for Media & Entertainment, with commercial and strategic responsibility for the line of business. Zoe is passionate about equality and making the Media & Entertainment and IT industries, and world in general, more accessible to women. She is therefore thrilled to be part of the Rise Mentoring Programme for 2019. She spends her free time reading about, cooking and eating great food, and attempting to pet other people’s dogs.

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