VIDEO: Winning the Battle for People, Platforms & Profits

January 14, 2009 Tuck Campus • TECH@TUCK

VIDEO: Winning the Battle for People, Platforms & Profits Photo

America’s most respected entertainment and media industry executives visited Tuck on January 14, 2009 to discuss and debate: Video: Winning the Battle for People, Platforms & Profits. The panelists discussed how consumers are driving their companies to offer dynamic content on multiple platforms including mobile devices, conventional television and online. The panel was moderated by IBM’s Steven Abraham.

Tony Bates, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Service Provider Group, Cisco Systems
Tony Bates is the Senior Vice President/General Manager of Cisco’s Service Provider Group. He is a member of Chairman and CEO John Chambers’ senior staff and therefore contributes to Cisco’s overall strategy and direction. Additionally, he is the co-chair of a number of councils and initiatives, chief among them the Service Provider Business Council and the Cisco Development Council.

Glenn A. Britt, Chairman, President and CEO, Time Warner Cable
Britt was named President and CEO of Time Warner Cable in February 2006 and served as CEO since August 2001. He also serves as Chairman on the company’s board of directors. Britt has been the driving force behind the Company’s aggressive development of advanced video services, such as video-on-demand, high-definition television and digital video recorders.

Rich Ross, President, Disney Channels Worldwide
Rich Ross, is President, Disney Channels Worldwide, which is part of the Disney ABC-Television Group, a division of The Walt Disney Company. He was promoted to this role in April 2004. Ross manages the Company’s successful and burgeoning global kids’ TV business, a total of 67 channels and/or feeds around the world including 27 Disney Channels, nine Toon Disney channels, 10 Playhouse Disney channels and 19 Jetix channels, which in total reach more than 600 million viewers in over 100 countries in the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific, Latin America and South Africa.

Blair Westlake, Corporate Vice, President, Media and Entertainment Group, Microsoft Corporation
Blair Westlake serves as the liaison within Microsoft for the media and entertainment industries, including Hollywood, broadcasters, cable/satellite programmers and the music industry. He directs a cross-organizational group responsible for business development, policies and content licensing for services and products including Xbox Live Marketplace Video store, Windows Media Center Edition PCs and Zune. He joined Microsoft in August 2004 and is based at the Company’s Redmond, WA headquarters.

Steven Abraham, Global Leader Media & Entertainment, IBM
Panel Moderator
Steven Abraham has worldwide responsibility for IBM’s Global Business Services for the Media and Entertainment industry. GBS is the management consulting, systems integration and applications outsourcing arm of IBM. He is responsible for global sales nand profit. Under his leadership the M&E business has broadened to include filmed entertainment, television, media networks, games, music, publishing, information providers, advertising, consumer products, theme parks and sports – and online variants of all these businesses.