wedu competitors

Chris Ripley is a President & Chief Executive Officer at SINCLAIR BROADCAST GROUP INC, Dir:Investor at hibu, and Member Board of Directors (Audit Committee Chair) at hibu and is based in Reading, Reading, United Kingdom. He has worked as Managing Director - Head of Los Angeles Investment Banking at UBS, Chief Financial Officer at SINCLAIR BROADCAST GROUP INC, and Mng Dir:Global Media Group at UBS Investment Bank. Chris attended University of Western Ontario/The and Ivey Business School.

Brandon Burgess is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of ION Media. Since taking the role as CEO, he orchestrated the company’s successful financial recapitalization and re-invented ION as a leading independent television company that has delivered consistent profitable growth under his watch. Burgess led the transformation of the ION Television flagship network into a household TV brand by building a portfolio of high-quality popular original series, made-for-TV films, as well as syndicated dramas and theatrical movies. This strategy has delivered sustained audience growth and made ION Television a top-rated national entertainment network in record time. Burgess expanded ION’s TV station portfolio through targeted acquisitions, giving it the largest U.S. UHF spectrum footprint, with 62 large-market stations, including ownership in each of the top 20 U.S. metropolitan areas. Burgess pioneered the U.S. multicast category with the nation’s first two national over-the-air special interest broadcast networks in 2007, incubating ION’s multi-network portfolio strategy. He has since been a thought leader on broadcast spectrum matters, advocating industry focus and R&D for wireless content delivery. Most recently he oversaw ION’s financially successful participation in the 600 MHz spectrum auction, while preserving ION’s full nationwide wireless footprint. Before joining ION, Burgess was the head of Business Development and Global Strategy for NBCUniversal, where he is credited with evolving the NBC broadcast network into a global multimedia company. He was the architect of NBC's acquisition of Universal Entertainment, leading to the creation of NBCUniversal. Burgess was also responsible for the acquisition of Bravo; NBC’s first entertainment cable channel, NBC’s entry into Hispanic broadcasting, and leading business strategy change for the NBC broadcast network. In prior positions, Burgess worked in Corporate Strategy for PepsiCo and in the Investment Banking Division at Goldman Sachs. Burgess was recognized in the World Economic Forum’s inaugural class of ''Young Global Leaders'' in 2005, and was honored with Broadcasting & Cable’s “Technology Leadership Award” in 2008 for his industry work in spectrum Research & Development. Burgess was named to the Paley Center for Media’s Board of Trustees in 2014, and also serves on the Board of the National Association of Broadcasters. Burgess is a graduate of the European Business School and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

As CEO and President, Lisa Henson oversees all television and feature film production, from early development through post-production. Lisa most recently executive produced the Emmy®-winning Netflix series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. Other credits include the Netflix Originals Word Party and Julie’s Greenroom, and the Emmy-nominated PBS® series Splash and Bubbles and Dinosaur Train. She is currently executive producing the upcoming Harriet the Spy and Fraggle Rock series for AppleTV+ and is in production on Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio for Netflix. She is also developing the highly anticipated sequel to the classic fantasy film Labyrinth. Lisa’s feature credits include Sony Pictures Animation’s The Star, Disney’s Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, as well as MirrorMask, The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz, Good Boy!, and Henson Alternative’s The Happytime Murders. Prior to her current position, Lisa was President of Columbia Pictures where she oversaw a string of critical and commercial successes including Little Women (1994), Immortal Beloved, and Ang Lee’s Oscar®-winning Sense and Sensibility. Before joining Columbia Pictures, Lisa served as an executive at Warner Bros. for ten years. Lisa graduated summa cum laude with a degree in Folklore and Mythology from Harvard University, where she was the first female president of The Harvard Lampoon.

Deborah Acklin is president and chief executive officer of WQED Multimedia, the nation’s first community-owned public media company, also known worldwide as “Mister Rogers’ station”.Ms. Acklin has served in multiple executive roles in public broadcasting, the cable television industry, and commercial broadcasting. At WQED Multimedia, she manages or has managed the operations, strategies, and fundraising to create original multi-platform content distributed across three television channels, three radio signals, an interactive Web-based learning channel, an interactive global media distribution portal, an education department, a publishing division, and PBS, NPR and their member stations.Her tenure includes many achievements, including four Mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards for Station and Overall Excellence, given by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences to a general manager of a commercial or public television station in Pennsylvania, Delaware, West Virginia and New Jersey.