Speaker Profiles

Alex Blum, Chief Operating Officer, KIT Digital
As Chief Operating Officer, Alex Blum is responsible for the company’s end to end client solutions, including product strategy and innovation, corporate marketing, solution deployment and client services, network infrastructure, and research and development.Prior to joining KIT digital, Blum was the CEO of KickApps, one of the Web’s most innovative and fastest-growing social software companies, which has been recognized by numerous industry awards. He holds an MBA from Albers School of Business at Seattle University and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Colorado.

Irv Kalick, Principal in the Business Development Group, Google TV
Irv Kalick has spent over 25+ yrs in the Cable Industry and Silicon Valley in various executive positions. For the last 5+ years Irv has been at Google as a Principal in the Business Development Group focused on all things TV related including GoogleTV, TV Everywhere, GoogleTV Ads and YouTube. He is responsible for dealing with many of the major distribution and media companies. Prior to Google, he was President & CEO of MetaTV, a software development company in the interactive application and advertising space. MetaTV was responsible for developing the EBIF specification for the cable industry. MetaTV was purchased by Comcast and Cox where he became President of TV Works.

Christy King, VP Digital, Technology Research & Development, Ultimate Fighting Championship®
Christy King serves as the in-house technology consultant for all departments within UFC® (Ultimate Fighting Championship®), a division of Zuffa, LLC. She actively researches, tests and implements new and emerging methods to share content information among media partners in traditional television, gaming consoles, mobile technologies, OTT boxes, internet platforms and other emerging technologies for content distribution, worldwide. King is currently creating a Digital Asset Management system for UFC, using cutting edge technologies to receive, catalog, and store media; address metadata issues, closed-captioning, SAP information, scripts/transcripts, export formatting, QC processes, approval policy workflows, and other asset management issues.

Don Loheide, VP Advanced Video, Turner Broadcasting
A leader within the company’s Audience & Multi-Platform Technologies organization, Don Loheide is responsible for leading Turner’s research and development in the areas of automatic content recognition, video-on-demand services, connected TVs, over-the-top TV, delivery of 3D content to the home and various other enhanced interactive TV applications. He advises Turner senior management on these technologies and directs the resources of Turner's Emerging Technology Labs to provide simulation and testing of advanced video products. He is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Northern Kentucky University with a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering technology.

GW Shaw, Assistant VP of U-verse Marketing, AT&T
GW Shaw leads the product marketing, applications development, and product management for AT&T U-verse® TV. His team is responsible for driving U-verse customer growth, developing and rolling out new integrated applications that utilize the company’s IP platform, and differentiating the U-verse TV product and customer experience from the company’s cable competitors. Shaw has been with AT&T for more than 14 years, starting with SBC Communications, Inc. in 1998. His previous positions include product marketing roles for AT&T consumer services, including voice services, converged services and product development. Shaw has a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Kansas.

Hardie Tankersley, VP, Innovation, Fox Broadcasting Company
Hardie Tankersley manages the portfolio of social media properties and apps for the FOX broadcast network. He started creating online and interactive entertainment by building a local BBS on a 300 baud modem on an Apple II back in the 70s. In the intervening years he has managed the development of online entertainment products including internet access for Apple’s eWorld, the official backstage webcast of the Grammy Awards, the Moxi cable media center DVR, the online video portal for Real Networks, and Yahoo!’s TV and Movies properties. He thinks that conventional wisdom is almost always wrong.

Jim O'Neill, Editor, FierceOnlineVideo [MODERATOR]
Jim O'Neill is the editor of FierceOnlineVideo and FierceIPTV. He has more than 30 years of experience writing, editing and managing daily newspapers. He's also an entrepreneur, having founded an alternative weekly newspaper, a coffee roasting and distribution company and a strength and conditioning consultancy that uses online video to train athletes worldwide. He is based in Michigan and can be reached at jimo@fiercemarkets.com.