Monday, April 27th, 2015

10:00 AM - 11:15 AM

Track II: Poolside Tent I

Over the Top TV - Gateway to the New Hollywood of Streaming Content to TV, Tablets and PC

Albhy Galuten, VP of Media Technology Strategy, Sony Network Entertainment

Michael Alexander, Strategy & Growth Initiatives, IBM Global Telecommunications Industry

Garson Foos, President, General Manager & Co-Founder, Shout Factory

Todd Viegut, CEO, Kannuu

Chamli Tennakoon, Vice President and Global Chief Digital Officer of ABS-CBN Global

Rob Gill, VP of Media, Entertainment and Publishing, Acquia

Bruce Eisen, founder and president, Digital Advisors, Moderator

performed technical due diligence of software, hardware and business systems, invented technology and filed patents. Under Mr. Galuten, the group also managed standards participation, negotiated technology licenses and provided technical support for lobbying efforts and trade organizations. Before working at Universal, Mr. Galuten was a Vice President at ION where he created and developed the Enhanced CD. Prior to working in technology Mr. Galuten was a musician and record producer. In 1978 he won two Grammy awards including Producer of the Year. His original compositions and orchestrations for Film, Theatre and on record have won him a Dramalogue Award and two BMI Awards. During his music career which spanned more than 20 years, Mr. Galuten worked with numerous multi-platinum artists, produced eighteen No. 1 singles, and generated sales of more than 100 million records.

Garson Foos, President, General Manager & Co-Founder, Shout! Factory:  Garson Foos brings over twenty years of innovative marketing, product development and management experience to Shout! Factory.  He is the primary architect behind the recently launched Shout! Factory TV, a digital streaming video service for cult and classic television and film.  His strong leadership abilities along with his focus on revenue generation and maximization for retail, digital and licensing, as well as leading efficient processes for workflow and cost control, have taken Shout! Factory from its early days as a start-up business to its current role as a leading multi-platform video entertainment company.  As Shout! Factory’s President, Foos has oversight of the day-to-day operations of the company, including the expansion of Shout! Factory’s businesses in digital media, new product and business development, sales, marketing, production, acquisitions and human resources.  He is highly involved with many of SF’s key rights holders, as well as distributors—digital, physical, and television.  Previously, Foos joined Rhino Entertainment in 1984 and became Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing in 1997.  In addition to his involvement in the expansion of Rhino’s DVD business, he is also credited with initiating Rhino’s co-branded retail distribution projects with MTV, VH1, Martha Stewart, Soul Train, The Grammys and more.  He has a proven track record of initiating and developing Rhino’s TV-marketed products, including the highly successful PBS program Doo Wop at 50 and several direct-to-consumer opportunities.  He drove the advancement and refinement of the Rhino brand that is distinguished as perhaps the only cross-genre music brand in the industry.  A graduate of U.C. Berkeley, Foos lives in Brentwood, California with his family.

Chamli Tennakoon is Vice President and Global Chief Digital Officer of ABS-CBN Global, the largest Filipino media company in the world and parent company of Asian American cable network Myx TV. He is overall-in-charge of the digital strategy and operations of all ABS-CBN Global properties, including branding, promotional campaigns, web tests, social media strategy, content development, visual design, UX and UI development, and integrated campaigns. Chamli joined ABS-CBN from Beachbody LLC. where he served as Creative Director, Head of Digital. As Creative Director, Head of Digital for Beachbody, he significantly impacted return on investment (ROI) for the company through visual communications and interactive initiatives by increasing monthly unique visitors from 2 million to over 10 million within 1 year.

Todd Viegut is a well-known leader in the technology of online video content business, focusing on content discovery and user experience. As the CEO of Kannuu, Viegut is responsible for charting the company's product development initiatives and orchestrating Kannuu's aggressive growth strategy. A seasoned veteran and successful serial entrepreneur with a strong focus on disruptive technologies in emerging, high-growth markets, Viegut has a proven track record for growing small to midsize technology companies and leading numerous, successful acquisitions. Mr. Viegut is a distinguished speaker with experience presenting at TV Connect in London, Digital Entertainment World in L.A. and Parks & Associates: Connections Conference in Dallas, all in 2014.

Michael Alexander, Strategy & Growth Initiatives, IBM Global Telecommunications Industry: Michael Alexander has more than 30 years of systems development experience in all aspects of the information technology business. Currently, Alexander is global solutions architect for SPST (service provider strategic transformation) in IBM's global telecom solutions. He consults with clients globally as an NGN telco subject matter expert  (SME) and as a technical leader in VoIP solutions. In addition, Alexander is responsible for the development of telco technical NGN and specifically for VoIP solutions developed by IBM for U.S. clients AT&T, BellSouth, Qwest, SBC & Verizon. He was previously  the IT architect profession executive and enterprise architecture practice lead for business innovation services, Australia/New Zealand. Before joining IBM, Alexander was technical partner & chief architect in the solutions integration practice at AT&T Solutions. He was responsible for the development of solution architectures that ensured successful engagements with all clients. Previously, Alexander worked at Unisys for 22 years and was the chief architect for Unisys' global systems integration practice. He has previously spoken on digital media topics at TM Forum Americas and TM Forum Nice.

Rob Gil leads the Media, Entertainment and Publishing vertical for Acquia.  Acquia is a digital experience company powering many of the largest media brands globally.  In this role Rob partners with customers, vendors, and the Drupal community to continually push Acquia’s services and platforms to meet the needs of a rapidly evolving media digital landscape.  Prior to joining Acquia Rob spent 8 years at NBCUniversal where he was Vice President of Media Products. He managed digital consumer product development across NBCUniversal’s diverse portfolio of broadcast, cable and film brands. He built a team that developed central content management systems, search and identity services, and created video and social experiences. Prior to holding this position, Rob served as the Director of Online Product Operations where he enabled the rapid growth and maturation of NBCUniversal’s online content creation and delivery infrastructure. Within the enterprise, Rob is an advocate for open source frameworks and platforms powered by agile development methodologies.  He is also a member of the Board of Directors for the Drupal Association.

Bruce David Eisen is the founder and president of Digital Advisors, a digital distribution consulting firm advising a broad range of clients, ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies whose clients have included Twentieth Century Fox, Blockbuster, Technicolor, Zoran Corp. and Juniper Networks.  Most recently Eisen was the Vice President Online Content Development & Strategy for DISH Network where he was responsible for the strategy and implementation of the company’s on-demand, online and Internet based initiatives.  To that end, Eisen launched DISH’s TV Everywhere offering, making television content available to its subscribers on a variety of devices including computers, tablets and SmartPhones.  Eisen successfully negotiated license agreements with most of the major broadcast and cable television networks, licensing over 20,000 television shows for on-demand distribution on DishOnline.com and related iPad, iPhone and Android apps.  Eisen devised and implemented the company’s SVOD strategy to compete with Netflix, launching DISH's  Kids/Family SVOD offering which includes over 3,000 pieces of content including Thomas the Train, Barney, Heathcliff, Strawberry Shortcake, VeggieTales and Jim Henson property content.  Eisen was a key member of the executive team to develop and implement the company's movie SVOD offering, Blockbuster@Home which includes early window content from Sony, Disney and Paramount.  Eisen negotiated affiliation agreements with Starz, Showtime, Sony Movie Channel and other broadcast and cable networks for carriage of those linear and on-demand offerings on the DISH satellite system.  In addition, Eisen acquired on-demand rights from the major Hollywood studios including VOD/EST/SVOD rights for distribution across multiple platforms including set-top boxes, DishOnline.com, iPad, iPhone and Android devices.