IC 2010 NYC Attendee Lists

ATTENDEES
[A - E] [F - L] [M - R] [S - Z]

Rich Sabreen

Managing Director
Institute for Media and Entertainment (IME)

Rich Sabreen is managing director of the Institute for Media and Entertainment (IME) of IESE Business School, Barcelona, Spain. IME is based in New York City and provides executive education programs for professionals in the media and entertainment. IME recently announced an industry “first” Advanced Management Program in Media and Entertainment presented jointly with The Paley Center for Media. Prior to joining IME, Sabreen served as president of Rich Sabreen Enterprises, LLC, a media content producer and strategic consulting firm for the media industry.

Geoffrey K. Sands

Director and Head of Global Media, Entertainment and Information Practice
McKinsey & Company

Geoffrey Sands has over twenty years of experience working with many of the leading marketing, media, and entertainment companies. His clients span a wide range of businesses that include: newspaper, magazine and book publishing; broadcast and cable television; Internet service providers; recorded music; filmed entertainment; professional publishing; business information services; education; marketing services; video games; consumer electronics; and sports.

Markus Schächter

Director General
Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF)

Markus Schächter became director-general of Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF) in March 2002. Germany’s national public television broadcaster, ZDF is an independent nonprofit corporation under the authority of the Länder, the sixteen states making up the Federal Republic of Germany. The core operation of ZDF is its nationwide television channel that went on air in 1963 and today reaches its viewers by cable, satellite, or terrestrial antenna, both in analog and digital format. Schächter leads a team of 3600 employees plus a similar number of freelancers. ZDF German Television is a strong player in the international field.

Stephen Scharf

Partner
O'Melveny & Myers LLP

Steve Scharf is a partner in O’Melveny’s Century City office and a member of the entertainment, sports and media practice. He focuses on entertainment and media finance, production and distribution of motion pictures, the purchase and sale of entertainment companies, and the formation and capitalization of entertainment companies. A substantial part of his practice involves motion picture financing transactions including banking transactions, joint ventures, securitizations, structured financings, tax shelter financings, and equity investments.

Robert M. Schwartz

Partner
O'Melveny & Myers LLP

Robert M. Schwartz is a partner in O'Melveny's Century City office, chairman of the entertainment and media litigation practice, and a member of the business trial and litigation practice. He is named in the Best Lawyers In America, Chambers, and Law Dragon guides to leading attorneys. During his twenty-five years at the firm, his entertainment litigation practice has involved significant representations in the following substantive areas, at the trial, regulatory, and appellate levels.

Fabrice Sergent

Chief Executive Officer
Cellfish Media LLC

Fabrice Sergent is a media and Internet entrepreneur who founded Cellfish Media LLC in 2004, led multi-branded properties to market and launched the world’s first wireless record label, Blingtones (2005), all while generating over nine-figure revenue marks annually for the company. He is also a member of the board of the Mobile Giving Foundation, the first foundation enabling text to give programs in the US. He founded in 1994 one of the first web agencies in France, Studio Grolier and then launched Club-Internet, one of the very first consumer Internet Service Provider (ISP) ever launched in France, which he lead for seven years as chairman and chief executive officer, enrolling over one million subscribers and becoming the second largest Internet audience and second largest Internet company in revenue size in France by 2001. From 1995 to 2001, he served as chairman and chief executive officer of Club-Internet, which was later purchased by Deutsche Telecom’s T-Online for an historical 1.2 B€ transaction, a landmark deal in the European new media space for its time. From 2001 to 2006, Sergent served as the chief executive officer of Lagardere Active Broadband, the digital arm of Lagardere Group, one of the largest media groups of the world, with properties in books, magazines, Internet, television and radio. He also served as a member of the supervisory board of T-Online International, Deutsche Telekom group (2001-2006), the largest European ISP. He also was a director of Europe1 Interactive and Le Monde Interactive, France’s leading national newspaper’s new media subsidiary.

Kenneth Sharkey

US Leader of Entertainment, Media and Communications
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

With over twenty-four years of experience with the firm, Kenneth Sharkey has developed a broad base of business knowledge, including business advisory, transaction, and internal and external audit experience. He assists clients in improving their operational, financial, and compliance processes as well as the effectiveness and efficiency of their businesses. Some of his notable clients include: AT&T, Tyco, Dun & Bradstreet, Sharp, Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, Global Crossing, Avaya, Cognizant Technologies, Virgin Mobile, and Verizon Communications.

Janine Shelffo

Managing Director in the Media & Communications Group
UBS

Janine Shelffo has twenty years of investment banking experience, with an exclusive focus on the media and internet industries for more than a decade. She has advised a broad range of media clients in the television, radio, newspaper, magazine, music, entertainment, cable, outdoor advertising, and Internet sectors on strategic and capital markets transactions. She currently heads UBS’s digital media sector in addition to covering a broad range of traditional media companies. She has also worked in the media groups of Lehman Brothers and Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette/Credit Suisse First Boston.

Stanley S. Shuman

Managing Director
Allen & Company LLC

Stanley Shuman is managing director of Allen & Company LLC, where he has been associated since 1961. In this capacity he has concentrated on the areas of corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, and principal transactions. He serves, or has served, as a director of numerous private and public companies, which currently include, News America, The News Corporation Limited (Emeritus), and SESAC, Inc. He is also the chairman of the Advisory Board and a member of the Board of Advisors of Palamon Capital Partners, a London-based pan-European private equity fund.

Darin Snyder

Partner
O’Melveny & Myers LLP

Darin Snyder is a partner in O’Melveny’s San Francisco office and chair of the intellectual property and technology practice within the litigation department. He has extensive experience in major civil and criminal litigation matters involving intellectual property and technology-intensive business sectors. The trial victory for client NDS Group, in which he served as lead counsel, was named by the Daily Journal as one of the top ten defense verdicts of 2008. In 2010, the Daily Journal named him amongst the top seventy-five intellectual property litigators in California.

Adrian Steckel

Chief Executive Officer, Azteca America;
Chief Executive Officer, Grupo Iusacell

Adrian Steckel is chief executive officer of Grupo Iusacell. He is also Azteca America’s chief executive officer, a post he assumed in November 2005. Previously, he was chief executive officer of Unefon for six years. Under his leadership, Unefon consolidated as one of the main wireless telephone companies in Mexico. Prior to joining Unefon, he worked as chief financial officer of TV Azteca as well as a member of the board of the company. While working at TV Azteca, the company began trading in public stock markets in 1997, and he played a key role in one the largest IPO’s in Latin America after Telmex.

Alexander Strakhov

President, Guild of Press Publishers
Chief Executive Officer, United Media Holding

Alexander Strakhov started his career at the Komsomolskaya Pravda publishing house in 2000. In November 2004, he was named deputy general director and head of advertising of Komsomolskaya Pravda publishing house. Strakhov was nominated chief executive officer of Argumenti y Fakti publishing house in February 2007 and chief executive officer of Media3 in May 2007. In May 2010 he was nominated chief executive officer of United Media Holding. He was appointed president of National Guild of Press Publishers in March 2009.

Darin Snyder

Partner
O’Melveny & Myers LLP

Adam Sullins

Counsel
O’Melveny & Myers LLP

Adam Sullins is a counsel in O’Melveny’s Century City office and a member of the entertainment, sports, and media practice. His practice focuses on representing clients in the sports industry, including professional leagues and organizations, team owners and investors, teams, athletes, and other companies that operate within the industry. His first five years with O’Melveny were spent in the transactions department developing a general corporate practice focusing on mergers and acquisitions.

Tadashi Suzuki

Sub Leader, Media Strategy
WOWOW INC.

In Tadashi Suzuki current role, he is in charge of research and strategy of diversified media and media technology. Previously, he worked within the company's promotional department as the leader for media promotion using diversified media such as Internet and mobile devices. He joined WOWOW Inc. in 1996 (then, Japan Satellite Broadcasting, Inc.) in the master control and transmission department under the engineering division.

Helmut Thoma

Chairman
Freenet/Debitel AG

Helmut Thoma has more than forty years of media experience. He founded RTL Television in Germany and was chairman until 1999. During his tenure RTL Television became the leading TV station in Germany and the most successful in Europe. For this he was awarded in 1994 with the Directorate Emmy Award. Today he sits on various boards of international cable, television, Internet, and telecommunication companies and he is the chairman of the supervisory board of Freenet/Debitel AG and media advisor for Springer AG.

Dave Thomas

President, Global Media Client Services
The Nielsen Company

Dave Thomas is president of global media client services for The Nielsen Company. In this role, he is responsible for establishing Nielsen’s “one voice” relationship for all of its media clients, and overseeing all client service leaders for Nielsen’s North America and international media businesses. Previously, Thomas was president of media client services with responsibility for all of Nielsen’s North America media client service efforts. Prior to that role, he was senior vice president of strategy and business development for Nielsen Media Research.

Charlie Thurston

President
Comcast Spotlight

Charlie Thurston has more than twenty-nine years experience in the cable industry. He joined Comcast Spotlight in 2002 and is responsible for leading a team of 3300 employees in local, regional, and national advertising sales operations. Comcast Spotlight is in ninety TV markets across the US including twenty of the top twenty-five markets. It sells the local advertising slots on over fifty cable networks (ESPN, CNN, CNBC, History Channel, etc), as well as banners/videos on Internet sites (Comcast.net, Vehix.com, Yahoo, etc).

Yossi Vardi

Chairman
International Technologies

Yossi Vardi is one of Israel’s early entrepreneurs. For the past forty years he has cofounded, led, and helped build over seventy high-tech companies. Among them: Tekem (1969), one of Israel’s first software houses, Israel Chemicals , Alon Energy, Granite Hacarmel, and International lasers Technologies. In addition, he copioneered the development of instant messaging, as founding investor and chairman of Mirabilis Ltd, the creator of ICQ, (sold to AOL). In addition, he had an extensive government and public career in Israel.

Suna Vidinli

Chief Communications Officer
Calik Group

Suna Vidinli is chief communications officer for Calik Group in Turkey. She is in charge of communication strategy and relations with international and national organizations, the World Economic Forum, the US Congress, the European Union, and its related bodies. She received an MA from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Arts & Sciences in 2002 and a BA from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in 2000.

Tony Vinciquerra

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Fox Networks Group

Tony Vinciquerra supervises all aspects of the top-rated Fox Broadcasting Company, including program development, marketing, finance, advertising sales, affiliate relations, administration, and human resources. He also manages the business activities of FOX sports media group, technological support entity Fox Networks engineering and operations, oversees Fox Cable Networks’ expanding portfolio of national and regional programming services, as well as the growing Fox International Channels.

Piotr Walter

Vice President of the Management Board
TVN Group

Piotr Walter has been TVN Group’s vice president of the management board and head of television broadcasting since August 2009. From 1991 to 2000 he worked in ITI Group companies, where he started his career as video editor, subsequently becoming producer and vice president of ITI Film Studio’s Management Board. In 1999 he was appointed vice president of the management board in charge of marketing, and on-air promotion. In July 2001 he succeeded his father Mariusz Walter to become the president of the management board and general director of TVN.

Rosalind P. Walter

Recently recognized by NATAS for her role as Executive Producer of PBS’s Worldfocus “Haiti: Mud Cookies,” Rosalind Walter maintains a legacy of launching and fostering important programming, such as PBS’s American Masters, Charlie Rose, SundayArts, and At the Paley Center. Walter supports the advancement of journalism through her board positions at The Paley Center for Media and Long Island University, where she created a journalism scholarship and is instrumental to the George Polk Awards, honoring excellence in journalism. During World War II, Walter worked the night shift as a riveter on the Corsair, inspiring the song “Rosie the Riveter.”

Roger Williams

Principal
Roger Wilco Productions

During the past thirty years, Roger Williams has been involved in the successful creation, launch, branding, development, sales, and general management of a variety of innovative and successful television networks and media ventures. His career has included key executive management positions at Turner Broadcasting Systems, ESPN, Travel Channel, Speedvision, and Outdoor Life Network. He is the principal of Roger Wilco Productions, a media services company involved in both providing consulting services and developing/producing high definition television programs for cross media platforms including cable networks (ESPN, Discovery and others), broadband, and mobile devices.

Benoit Wirz

Director of Business Consulting
James S. and James L. Knight Foundation

Ben Wirz joined Knight Foundation as director of business consulting in 2010. He works with Knight Foundation staff to develop programs based on realistic business plans. He also consults with select Knight grantees to address issues surrounding start-up, sustainability, and growth. He is a founder of US Global, a private equity company, where he helped take businesses from start-up to profitability. There, Wirz identified, evaluated and managed investments ranging from $500,000 to $10 million.

Dick Wolf

Executive Producer
Wolf Films Inc.

Two time Emmy-winner Dick Wolf, one of television’s most respected drama series creator/producers, is the architect of one of the most successful brands in the history of television – Law & Order. He has been a creative force in television for more than twenty-five years, with an illustrious career as a top advertising executive and continuing as one of television’s most prolific producer/writers with such series as Conviction, L.A. Dragnet, Hill Street Blues, Miami Vice, New York Undercover, Arrest & Trial, South Beach, Feds, and Players. Among his feature film credits is the screenplay for the hit Paramount release School Ties.

Arzuhan Dogan Yalçindag

President and Chief Executive Officer
Dogan Media Group

Arzuhan Doan Yalçndag is the acting chairperson of Kanal D. On January 1, 2010, she became the president of the Doan Holding as her father stepped down. She is the current head of the Turkish Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association (TÜSAD), the top association of businesspeople in Turkey. She was elected on January 25, 2007. Since 1996, she has been in the broadcast media business and has initiated the joint venture with AOL Time Warner in establishing CNN Türk. Prior to that, she served in the Milliyet Group, where she was responsible for finance, and worked in the establishment of Alternatif Bank, where she later became a board member.

Fehmi Zeko

Vice Chairman
Foros

Fehmi Zeko has over twenty years of investment banking experience advising clients in the media and telecom industries. Prior to Foros, he was vice chairman of Deutsche Bank's Global Investment Bank and chairman of the bank's Media Telecom Group. Before joining Deutsche Bank in early 2006, he was global group head of media investment banking at Citigroup global markets and a member of the Citigroup Investment Bank Global Management Committee. Prior to joining Citigroup's predecessor Salomon Brothers in 1996, he was a managing director at Bear Stearns & Co.