London, United Kingdom, 13th June 2023 – Rise, the award-winning advocacy group for gender diversity in the broadcast media technology sector, is excited to announce the pairings for its sixth annual mentoring scheme in the UK.
This year’s mentoring programme caters to more UK participants than ever before and includes industry leaders from all areas of the media and entertainment technology industry, with a range of experience levels, ready to offer their expertise and guidance to 27 women.
This valuable scheme is made possible due the incredible support from industry sponsors for 2023/24 including BT Sport, Warner Brothers Discovery, ITV, AVID, BBC News, Black Magic Design, AE Live, Clear-Com, DPP, Deluxe, Grass Valley, Iron Mountain Entertainment Services, SKY, DAZN, Ross Video, SDVI, Gravity Media, Eluv.io, Calrec, Dalet, CVP, disguise, EVS, MOOV, Google Cloud, Red Bee, Vubiquity, netsight, Sony, Timeline TV, Pixotope, Brightcove, EMS Broadcast, ENVY, Broadfield, M2A Media, Pixelogic, Skyline, Tential and Splice.
Acceptance to the programme grants members entry to a range of exciting benefits including face-to-face networking events, workshops and seminars throughout the six-month programme. Additionally, each mentor-mentee pairing provides a minimum of 12 hours of one-to-one time and personalised guidance. This diverse group of mentees, from the UK were chosen from over 200 applications.
Donna Smith, Managing Director of Rise, said: “We are excited to announce the first instalment of this year’s Rise mentor and mentee pairings. We have received an astounding level of interest for the 2023 programme and are excited to reveal final pairings in the coming weeks.”
Smith added: “We would like to extend a special thanks to our sponsors and mentors for offering their investment and support for this year’s programme. The generosity of those that support the Rise programme is essential to allowing us to provide the work that we do.”
The mentor and mentee pairings for the 2023 UK programme are as follows:
UK Mentor and Mentees Pairings:
- Alice Rose, Events Marketing Assistant, Media Business Insights (MBI) will be mentored by Louise Wells, Managing Director, Bubble Agency
- Aoife Daly, Senior Media Coordinator, UKTV will be mentored by Sue Farrell, Technologist, Channel 4
- Chrissy Agius, Junior Broadcast Engineer, Limitless Broadcast will be mentored by Purminder Gandu, Lead for BBC Edge Forum, BBC
- Cloe Wood, Technical Operations Engineer, ITV Content Services will be mentored by Elaine Sampson, Broadcast Engineering Manager, Timeline TV
- Deanna O’Brien, Satellite Systems and IP Engineer, Arqiva will be mentored by Camilla James, Director, TechEx
- Emma Weeks, Senior Account Executive, Bubble Agency will be mentored by Amisa Saari-Stout, PR and External Comms Lead, Vizrt Group
- Hannah Wells, Bookings Coordinator, Timeline TV will be mentored by John Griffiths, Chief Commercial Officer, Spicy Mango
- Hitomi Hamaba, Head of Product, Sony will be mentored by Stephen Tallamy, CTO, EditShare
- Iwona Czardybon, Project Manager, base media cloud will be mentored by Catriona Tate, Sales Director, UK & MEA, Accedo TV
- Jessica Horst, Network Director (Broadcast Services – ITV), Red Bee Media will be mentored by Morwen Williams, Director of Operations, BBC News
- Kavita Dill, Head of Scale Programmes – EMEA License Manager, Adobe will be mentored by Laurissa Yeung Shea, Business Analyst, Warner Media
- Kerry Freeman, Head of Sales UKI, IMES will be mentored by Margaret Davies, Head of Market Area Operations UK, IE & APAC, Red Bee Media
- Leila Ghazzawi, Rental Coordinator, Gravity Media will be mentored by Liz Clarke, VP Client Operations, Mirriad
- Lorraine Panman, Programme Manager, Pulselive will be mentored by Rebecca Moore, Director of Technical Operations, Warner Media
- Louise Jones, Content Operations and Previewing Supervisor, WBD will be mentored by Charlotte Wheeler, Event Director, Media and Production Show (MPTS)
- Madeleine Chappell, Digital Marketing Assistant, Object Matrix will be mentored by Lauren Carter Jones, Marketing Manager, Media Business Insights (MBI)
- Marina Cantabrana, Head of Product Marketing, disguise will be mentored by Heidi Shakespeare, CEO, Memmon
- May Coughlan, Video Technician, Universal Pixel will be mentored by Stephen Stewart, Media Consultant
- Michelle Kegg, Sales Lead – Media, Endava will be mentored by Claire Butler, VP Marketing, Grabyo
- Rebecca Hodgson, Workflow Consultant, Avid Technology will be mentored by Kerry Shreeve, Vice President of Technology Operations, Discovery Inc
- Sam Stafford, Engineer, Evolutions Post Production will be mentored by Jackie Howes, Director Media Infrastructure Architect, Discovery Inc
- Sophie Glaas, Delivery Manager, Hawk-Eye Innovations will be mentored by Nic Kemp, Senior Workflow Consultant, Adobe
- Tazmin Ercen, Innovation Designer, Adobe will be mentored by Mike Ward, Head of Marketing, live
- Tia Shenton, Broadcast Engineer Apprentice, Channel 4 will be mentored by Carys Hughes, Senior PQ Engineer, Sky
- Toria Farrell, Operational Lead, DAZN will be mentored by Gabby Redfern, Group Content Services Director, Sky
- Zoe Mumba, Senior Manager, PR & Comms, Bitmovin will be mentored by Katie Tweedle, Head of Communications, Whisper TV
- Zoë Kennedy, Senior Business Analyst, BBC Studios will be mentored by Dee Davison, Director of Sustainability, Deluxe
Sponsorship opportunities for the mentoring schemes and other Rise activities are still available. To find out more and to discuss how you can get involved, please contact Donna Smith, Managing Director at Rise on donna@risewib.com.
About Rise
Rise was formed in 2017 to support and promote women working in the non-craft part of the broadcast media technology industry in operations, engineering, sales, marketing and business. Since its conception, Rise has grown to become a global network hosting events at Broadcast Asia, IBC and NAB. In Spring 2019, Rise won the National Women’s Mentoring Award at the National Mentoring Awards.
Rise’s six-month mentoring programme is designed to support women working in, or aspiring to work in, the UK’s broadcast technology sector. Its mission is to raise the profile of women within the sector, to encourage younger women to join or feel that they can progress and break the glass ceiling, to work with manufacturers to highlight the issues and help them to promote a diverse workforce, as well as to work with industry associations to gain traction and give credence, and to become a platform for smaller groups or individuals wanting to promote female diversity and to support groups promoting other diversities.
Follow Rise on Twitter at @Rise_WIB