Learn From the Pros

Leading Women in Cable: Interesting Times

The origin of the phrase, "May you live in interesting times," remains a mystery. It might have been uttered first as a curse. Regardless, it seems apposite today.

WICT’s 30th anniversary year arrives with women on a political high. A woman was the Republicans’ VP choice. The Democrats nearly named a woman as their presidential candidate. Interesting.

Interesting and exciting describe the anticipation for WICT’s leadership conference keynote speaker, Olympic swimmer Dara Torres who, at 41 years young, demonstrates the success of a mature woman. With Torres and cable’s own Olympian, WICT Pres/CEO Benita Fitzgerald Mosley, owning 13 medals between them, including five golds, you could be excused for thinking this is WICT’s golden anniversary.

Jamming WICT, SCTE, NCTA, Kaitz, CableLabs, Cable Positive, NAMIC and CTAM events into seven days for the spring Cable Connection was certainly an interesting idea. As the interest on the country’s national debt rises and the economy falls, how many cable companies will have spent money to attend Cable Connection events? Also interesting will be the chatter about organizations like Cable in the Classroom and Cable Positive. What will they look like down the road?

So, with cable’s calendar being, yes, more interesting this year, we decided to augment our CableFAXIES Awards coverage with a tribute to women and WICT.

We begin our survey of some of the Leading Women in Cable with a look at men who mentor women. After that we discuss leadership issues and workplace trends with Food chief Brooke Johnson, jobs guru Ann Carlsen, Cox HR maven Mae Douglas and Hallmark distribution dynamo Janice Arouh.

Next is a profile of 15 Betsy Magness graduates, followed by profiles of 15 women in their thirties, in keeping with WICT’s 30th. The majority of these 30 highly accomplished women are rarely found in the pages of cable trade magazines. We’re glad we’ve changed that and we trust you’ll find them interesting.

Finally, we conclude with a roundtable on WICT’s history and future.

[View the digital edition of the 2009 CableFAXIES Awards/Leading Women in Cable issue]

Leading Women in Cable: Men Who Mentor & Women Who Benefit

• We look at three male mentors who’ve helped women rise in cable's executive ranks.

Leading Women in Cable: Leadership Training

• Food chief Brooke Johnson, jobs guru Ann Carlsen, Cox HR maven Mae Douglas and Hallmark distribution dynamo Janice Arouh bat around office politics and workplace trends.

Leading Women in Cable: Women on the Move

• The Betsy Grads: We profile 15 prominent graduates of WICT’s Betsy Magness Leadership Institute.
• Women on the Rise: We celebrate 30 years of WICT with profiles of 15 women in their thirties, and on their way up the ladder.

Leading Women in Cable: 30 Years of WICT and Beyond

• CableFAX's Seth Arenstein leads a roundtable with some of cable's leaders, as they look back at WICT's past, and at its future.