Salaam Coleman Smith
Title: President, Style Media
Number of Years in Cable: 20
Education: BS, Industrial Engineering, Stanford University
Best Advice in 7 Words or Less: Lift as you climb.
 
Suzanne Kolb
Title: President, E! Entertainment
Number of Years in Cable: 9
Education: BA, Northwestern; MS, USC
Best Advice in 7 Words or Less: Few things are worth doing twice. Keep evolving.

Why Them? These ladies have Style and Entertainment, literally. As the head of E!, Kolb has upped the amount of original programming to more than 700 hours and expanded the brand to focus on the pop culture fan in everyone. The brand refresh included the relaunch of Website Eonline, which achieved its highest traffic quarter ever in Q1, with 15 million visitors. Up next? E!’s first original scripted series, which will bow next year. Over at Style, Coleman Smith is making her mark, with 2012 the net’s most-watched year ever. The year also included Style’s second Daytime Emmy win, which went to “Style Exposed: Baring it All.” And Coleman Smith makes sure to leverage the brand for doing good, including a partnership with non-profit Dress for Success (she’s also on the board) and a year-round skin cancer awareness initiative.

Coleman Smith

Apple or Samsung? Apple
 
Beatles or The Rolling Stones? The Rolling Stones
 
Appetizer or dessert? Dessert always.
 
Film fest or music festival? Film festival
 
Favorite decade? I love the 70s, both as an era of social change for women and as an era of influential style. Farrah Fawcett, Pam Grier and the Studio 54 crowd set trends that are still reflected in modern style; Diane Von Furstenberg revolutionized fashion with the creation of the wrap dress, an enduring staple found in the closets of many working women today.
 
Favorite vacation spot? Like the Style viewer, I like to escape to exotic locations. I recently traveled to Barbados, the home country of “Styled to Rock” executive producer Rihanna, and had an amazing time at one of my favorite spots of understated luxury… the Coral Reef Club.
 
Favorite business and/or motivational book: The Magic of Believing by Claude Bristol

Kolb

Apple or Samsung? Apple
 
Beatles or The Rolling Stones? Beatles
 
The one thing I’d do differently if I could go back to high school: Worry less
 
On a Saturday afternoon, you can find me… playing in the park with my daughter
 
This is the hobby I’ve been itching to try, but haven’t found time: race car driving
 
My peers would be surprised to learn that I… Don’t like to make decisions at home.
 
Appetizer or dessert? Dessert
 
Film fest or music festival?  Film fest
 
The other subject I wish I’d picked for my college major: philosophy 
 
Most embarrassing moment? Fell in a man hole
 
The best piece of business advice I’ve gotten this year: the more things change, the more new opportunities are created
 
I watch the majority of programming on this device: TV
 
The biggest lesson I learned from my kid(s) this year was… Don’t be ridiculous
 
The day we get multiplatform measurement is the day I… actually believe the future is secure
 
The TV show title that most resembles my life is…My So Called Life  ?

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