Tamara Franklin

Franklin oversees the company’s digital business units to coordinate overall strategy, focusing on an integrated company-wide approach to digital video production and distribution. Franklin earned her bachelor’s degree in English from Yale and her MBA from Harvard University. “I hope that my success is reflected in having raised two responsible, empathetic and contributing members of society,” Franklin says of her two children, Miles and Camille. “I hope that there will be professionally successful men and women who will want to say that my influence played some role in helping them to achieve.”

Best business advice you’ve received?

“Be relevant.” Well over a decade ago when I was in a strategic planning middle management position at Motorola, Jack Welch gave me this advice during a break at an off-site meeting that I had organized. I like it because it is specific, but can be broadly applied in both your personal and professional life. In fact, I use it today with my children as relates to their performance during sporting events.

What’s been the biggest story in cable this year?

In May, when The Cable Show became the Internet and Television Expo (INTX). This was more than just symbolic, but suggests a true change of mindset that our industry needs to embrace in order to be successful in the coming decades. It elevates the consumer, and serves as our public recognition that we exist to serve them on whatever platforms and services they deem worthy.

How do you define success?

I think about it through the lens of what my final thoughts will be as my life expires. I hope that my success is reflected in having raised two responsible, empathetic and contributing members of society. I hope that there will be professionally successful men and women who will want to say that my influence played some role in helping them to achieve. I would want someone to feel as though my having been here mattered.