The 2023 mentoring scheme has also been revealed

Headshot_Donna

Rise has appointed Donna Smith as its new managing director, with added responsibility for Rise Up activities.

In addition, Carla Maroussas has joined the advocacy group for gender diversity in broadcast tech as mentoring manager for the UK and Europe.

Smith arrives at Rise after over 25 years in the industry, including as senior national account manager at NBCUniversal and vice president of licencing at TiVo. Since 2018 she has worked as a consultant for a number of media companies, including DVD distributor Entertainment Alliance and OTT video company Flixforge.

Headshot_Carla

Meanwhile, Maroussas also has over 25 years’ experience in the media industry, including 12 years with Ascent Media, almost three years with Metropolis Group, and time working with Halo Post Production as a consultant. Since 2020 she has transistioned to life coaching and being an NLP practitioner.

Rise founder Sadie Groom said: “The goal of Rise has always been to help foster a diverse and gender balanced workforce in the media and entertainment technology space and we are delighted to have Donna and Carla working with us towards this future.”

In addition, Rise has also announced its 2023 mentors and mentees, which you can see below. Mentees receive entry to a range of exciting benefits including face-to-face networking events, workshops and seminars throughout the six-month programme, as well as a minimum of 12 hours of one-to-one time and personalised guidance with their mentor.

UK Pairings announced

Smith 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.”

She 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.”

2023 Rise mentors and mentees

 - Alice Rose, Events Marketing Assistant, Media Business Insight (MBI) will be mentored by Louise Wells, Managing Director, Bubble Agency
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Aoife Daly, Senior Media Coordinator, UKTV will be mentored by Sue Farrell, Technologist, Channel 4
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Chrissy Agius, Junior Broadcast Engineer, Limitless Broadcast will be mentored by Purminder Gandu, Lead for BBC Edge Forum, BBC
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Cloe Wood, Technical Operations Engineer, ITV Content Services will be mentored by Elaine Sampson, Broadcast Engineering Manager, Timeline TV
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Deanna O’Brien, Satellite Systems and IP Engineer, Arqiva will be mentored by Camilla James, Director, TechEx
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Emma Weeks, Senior Account Executive, Bubble Agency will be mentored by Amisa Saari-Stout, PR and External Comms Lead, Vizrt Group
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Hannah Wells, Bookings Coordinator, Timeline TV will be mentored by John Griffiths, Chief Commercial Officer, Spicy Mango
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Hitomi Hamaba, Head of Product, Sony will be mentored by Stephen Tallamy, CTO, EditShare
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Iwona Czardybon, Project Manager, base media cloud will be mentored by Catriona Tate, Sales Director, UK & MEA, Accedo TV
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Jessica Horst, Network Director (Broadcast Services - ITV), Red Bee Media will be mentored by Morwen Williams, Director of Operations, BBC News
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Kavita Dill, Head of Scale Programmes - EMEA License Manager, Adobe will be mentored by Laurissa Yeung Shea, Business Analyst, Warner Media
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Kerry Freeman, Head of Sales UKI, IMES will be mentored by Margaret Davies, Head of Market Area Operations UK, IE & APAC, Red Bee Media
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Leila Ghazzawi, Rental Coordinator, Gravity Media will be mentored by Liz Clarke, VP Client Operations, Mirriad
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Lorraine Panman, Programme Manager, Pulselive will be mentored by Rebecca Moore, Director of Technical Operations, Warner Media
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Louise Jones, Content Operations and Previewing Supervisor, WBD will be mentored by Charlotte Wheeler, Event Director, Media and Production Show (MPTS)
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Madeleine Chappell, Digital Marketing Assistant, Object Matrix will be mentored by Lauren Carter Jones, Marketing Manager, Media Business Insights (MBI)
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Marina Cantabrana, Head of Product Marketing, disguise will be mentored by Heidi Shakespeare, CEO, Memmon
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May Coughlan, Video Technician, Universal Pixel will be mentored by Stephen Stewart, Media Consultant
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Michelle Kegg, Sales Lead - Media, Endava will be mentored by Claire Butler, VP Marketing, Grabyo
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Rebecca Hodgson, Workflow Consultant, Avid Technology will be mentored by Kerry Shreeve, Vice President of Technology Operations, Discovery Inc
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Sam Stafford, Engineer, Evolutions Post Production will be mentored by Jackie Howes, Director Media Infrastructure Architect, Discovery Inc
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Sophie Glaas, Delivery Manager, Hawk-Eye Innovations will be mentored by Nic Kemp, Senior Workflow Consultant, Adobe
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Tazmin Ercen, Innovation Designer, Adobe will be mentored by Mike Ward, Head of Marketing, Singular.live
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Tia Shenton, Broadcast Engineer Apprentice, Channel 4 will be mentored by Carys Hughes, Senior PQ Engineer, Sky
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Toria Farrell, Operational Lead, DAZN will be mentored by Gabby Redfern, Group Content Services Director, Sky
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Zoe Mumba, Senior Manager, PR & Comms, Bitmovin will be mentored by Katie Tweedle, Head of Communications, Whisper TV
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Zoë Kennedy, Senior Business Analyst, BBC Studios will be mentored by Dee Davison, Director of Sustainability, Deluxe