Tell us what you're currently doing and what's involved with the position.

I recently joined Infinitive as Director of Ad Operations and Technology in the Media, Sports, and Entertainment consulting practice.  I act as a subject matter expert in the areas of Digital, Linear, and converged monetization, systems, and trends for media companies and the general media advertising supply chain at large.

Can you share your path since graduation that led you to your current gig?

I thought I’d be a TV line producer in LA when I left Drexel.  I wound up leading Advertising Operations teams for Broadcast, Cable, and Streaming companies in New York City and have since returned to Philadelphia.  Having started in undergrad working in radio, I transitioned to TV as my focus when I got to Drexel in late 2005.  I was an intern at CBS 3 KYW-TV and WPSG through Drexel.  I was hired out of my Drexel internship into the business office.  After working in the CBS 3 Business Office in HR and Accounting and then Digital Sales, I moved on to PHL17 where I worked in Traffic, Creative Services, and Promotions.  I’ve done just about every entry-level local TV or radio station job you could do outside the newsroom. 

In 2010, a colleague from CBS pulled me up to New York to join CBS Television Stations at the corporate offices.  This eventually became CBS Local, the convergence of CBS Radio’s and CBS Television Stations’ Digital at the time.  I led Digital Ad Operations there with team members in NYC and across the country from 2010-2014.  Later, I went on to Worldnow, now known as Frankly Media, a Content Management System and Video Solution for Local Broadcasters, managing Ad Operations and other monetization functions.  Since then I’ve been at NBC Universal in the News Sales Operations department, ran Ad Operations at Premion - a TEGNA company, was Senior Director of Corporate Strategy at Telaria, now known as Magnite, and ran Ad Technology and Operations for LocalNow, a vMVPD under the Weather Group and Allen Media umbrella.  I recently left IRIS.TV, a Contextual Video Data Platform, where I ran Platform Operations and have since moved into Consulting, first by myself and now as a member of the Infinitive team.  While I’ve had several moves across the industry over the last 15 years, each was a natural progression and no matter the duration, has been a selling point to many of my employers. 

How did you break into this particular part of the industry?

After 15+ years of working across the Media Advertising Supply Chain, I decided I wanted to make a difference and help companies transform their business, be it through operations enhancements or transformations.  I wanted to flex muscles outside of strictly Ad Operations Management for a single company.

What are the key skills required to handle your job?

First and foremost, a comfort with ambiguity.  Next is diplomacy.  With the level of ambiguity in ad tech and media at times, you have to be comfortable with asking what might seem like dumb questions and then have the diplomacy to manage through that discomfort to get to a solution.  You can’t know everything and never assume anyone else knows what you know.  Other key skills include operational and organizational design, data analysis, system adoption nimbleness, a high drive for problem-solving and teamwork, as well as the ability to synthesize complex information for various audiences.  I could be talking about sales strategy conflicts with a COO one moment and the next call be in a discussion about how an ad ops manager at a streaming publisher or platform needs to set up their ad tech stack for the best yield options.

Are you working with other Drexel alumni? How has that network paid off for you?.

Not currently working with Drexel Alumni.  My Drexel network has been helpful to lean against at different points in my career, acting as a soundboard as I made different decisions throughout the years.  Shout out to Chris Palo, Dave Culver, Larry Epstein, Howard Homonoff, Al Tedesco, and now Michelle McHugh for always having an open door (or Zoom window).

As an alumni yourself, have you had an opportunity to work with or hire any current Drexel students? What was that experience like?

Not yet, but looking forward to doing so in the future.  Let’s connect on LinkedIn!  Linkedin.com/in/digitalcj

How did Drexel prepare you for getting to this point in your career?

Drexel helped me build up advanced knowledge in both business in general and across the media landscape.  I secured my role with CBS through a Drexel Graduate Internship and that was the launchpad that continues to weave into my everyday life even now.  My manager now also brought me into NBCU and CBS Local.  When I look back, I can see the well-connected path I’ve laid and every paver leads back to Drexel.

What advice would like to go back and give your graduate self?

Relax.  Focus more time on yourself.  You don’t need to know all the answers, you just need to know how to find them.  Networking isn’t scary or superficial; its relationship building for a lifetime. Everything will come together and if it didn’t, take the lesson and probably be happy it didn’t happen how you wanted it (I’ve dodged a lot of bullets when I look back.)