Rise, the advocacy group for gender diversity in broadcast media technology has announced the appointment of Donna Smith as its new managing director.
Smith takes over from Carrie Wootten, and has over two decades of success in multi-billion dollar companies, including NBC Universal and TiVO.
Rise has also welcomed Carla Maroussas as mentoring manager for UK and Europe.
“The goal of Rise has always been to help foster a diverse and gender balanced workforce in the media and entertainment technology space and we are delighted to have Donna and Carla working with us towards this future.” said Sadie Groom, founder of Rise.
Rise has also announced the UK mentorship pairings for 2023:
- Alice Rose, Events Marketing Assistant, Media Business Insights (MBI) will be mentored by Louise Wells, Managing Director, Bubble Agency
- Aoife Daly, Senior Media Coordinator, UKTV will be mentored by Sue Farrell, Technologist, Channel 4
- Chrissy Agius, Junior Broadcast Engineer, Limitless Broadcast will be mentored by Purminder Gandu, Lead for BBC Edge Forum, BBC
- Cloe Wood, Technical Operations Engineer, ITV Content Services will be mentored by Elaine Sampson, Broadcast Engineering Manager, Timeline TV
- Deanna O’Brien, Satellite Systems and IP Engineer, Arqiva will be mentored by Camilla James, Director, TechEx
- Emma Weeks, Senior Account Executive, Bubble Agency will be mentored by Amisa Saari-Stout, PR and External Comms Lead, Vizrt Group
- Hannah Wells, Bookings Coordinator, Timeline TV will be mentored by John Griffiths, Chief Commercial Officer, Spicy Mango
- Hitomi Hamaba, Head of Product, Sony will be mentored by Stephen Tallamy, CTO, EditShare
- Iwona Czardybon, Project Manager, base media cloud will be mentored by Catriona Tate, Sales Director, UK & MEA, Accedo TV
- Jessica Horst, Network Director (Broadcast Services – ITV), Red Bee Media will be mentored by Morwen Williams, Director of Operations, BBC News
- Kavita Dill, Head of Scale Programmes – EMEA License Manager, Adobe will be mentored by Laurissa Yeung Shea, Business Analyst, Warner Media
- Kerry Freeman, Head of Sales UKI, IMES will be mentored by Margaret Davies, Head of Market Area Operations UK, IE & APAC, Red Bee Media
- Leila Ghazzawi, Rental Coordinator, Gravity Media will be mentored by Liz Clarke, VP Client Operations, Mirriad
- Lorraine Panman, Programme Manager, Pulselive will be mentored by Rebecca Moore, Director of Technical Operations, Warner Media
- Louise Jones, Content Operations and Previewing Supervisor, WBD will be mentored by Charlotte Wheeler, Event Director, Media and Production Show (MPTS)
- Madeleine Chappell, Digital Marketing Assistant, Object Matrix will be mentored by Lauren Carter Jones, Marketing Manager, Media Business Insights (MBI)
- Marina Cantabrana, Head of Product Marketing, disguise will be mentored by Heidi Shakespeare, CEO, Memmon
- May Coughlan, Video Technician, Universal Pixel will be mentored by Stephen Stewart, Media Consultant
- Michelle Kegg, Sales Lead – Media, Endava will be mentored by Claire Butler, VP Marketing, Grabyo
- Rebecca Hodgson, Workflow Consultant, Avid Technology will be mentored by Kerry Shreeve, Vice President of Technology Operations, Discovery Inc
- Sam Stafford, Engineer, Evolutions Post Production will be mentored by Jackie Howes, Director Media Infrastructure Architect, Discovery Inc
- Sophie Glaas, Delivery Manager, Hawk-Eye Innovations will be mentored by Nic Kemp, Senior Workflow Consultant, Adobe
- Tazmin Ercen, Innovation Designer, Adobe will be mentored by Mike Ward, Head of Marketing, Singular.live
- Tia Shenton, Broadcast Engineer Apprentice, Channel 4 will be mentored by Carys Hughes, Senior PQ Engineer, Sky
- Toria Farrell, Operational Lead, DAZN will be mentored by Gabby Redfern, Group Content Services Director, Sky
- Zoe Mumba, Senior Manager, PR & Comms, Bitmovin will be mentored by Katie Tweedle, Head of Communications, Whisper TV
- Zoë Kennedy, Senior Business Analyst, BBC Studios will be mentored by Dee Davison, Director of Sustainability, Deluxe
