2025 Panels & speakers

As President and Chief Executive Officer of Paramount, Bob Bakish oversaw one of the world’s leading producers of media and entertainment content, driven by a global portfolio of powerful consumer brands and flagship streaming platforms, including CBS, Showtime Networks, Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, BET, Paramount+ and Pluto TV, among others.

Bakish was responsible for growing the company’s creative assets, content capabilities and streaming services to serve important and diverse audiences, which consume over 30 billion hours of Paramount content globally across more than 180 countries.

Bakish’s leadership was integral to the successful merger of Viacom and CBS. He led efforts within the new company to transform and combine two great cultures, formalize a best-in-class leadership team and align the business around strategic growth priorities centered on streaming. Bakish also created a new, unified global streaming organization and strategy to maximize ViacomCBS content across pay, free and premium streaming services.

Prior to the merger, Bakish was President and CEO of Viacom since December 2016. He led the revitalization of Viacom’s core businesses, returning the company to growth, and extending its leadership across multiplatform entertainment content, next-generation distribution and advertising. Through a strategy to expand Viacom’s presence in digital and live experiences, Bakish also stewarded the key acquisitions of free streaming television service Pluto TV, Gen-Z focused brand Awesomeness and VidCon.

Bakish previously headed the company’s international business as President and CEO of Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) since 2007. Under his leadership, VIMN more than doubled revenues and broadened its portfolio with new pay-TV networks, including Spike and the Paramount Channel, as well as broadcast networks Channel 5 in the U.K., Telefe in Argentina and Colors in India. He also guided the company to launch Viacom Play Plex and other innovative mobile streaming offerings that introduced new young audiences to Viacom’s brands and IP.

Bakish joined Viacom in 1997, and held a series of senior corporate, sales and development positions at the company. He previously worked as a partner with Booz Allen in its Media & Entertainment practice.

Bakish has an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School and a B.S. in Operations Research from Columbia’s School of Engineering and Applied Science. He serves on the boards of both schools and is a Board Director of AVID Technologies, a NASDAQ-listed company.

Sean Gupta is SVP, Corporate Development at TEGNA. Previously, Sean served as SVP of Streaming Strategy for the Paramount Streaming Organization that incudes Paramount+ and PlutoTV.  Prior to Paramount Streaming, Gupta was the SVP of Strategy & Business Operations at Paramount’s BET Networks and a Board of Director of BET+ (BET’s OTT streaming service).  He led network-wide strategy, business development and expansion initiatives for the network and co-led the executive team that conceived of, planned and launched the BET+ premium streaming service, which launched in 2019. He was also a member of the deal team that negotiated and structured the joint venture with Tyler Perry Studios. In 2021 he co-led the operations of BET’s digital division.

Before Paramount (previously known as ViacomCBS), Gupta held executive positions at Time Warner Cable and was a media investment banker at Deutsche Bank on Wall Street.

Gupta is an Emmy voter, was featured in a 2018 HBS case study, and was a national BOD member for T-Howard and NAMIC (which champion diversity across the media industry). In 2020, Gupta was recognized by the industry publication, CableFax, as one of the Most Influential Multi-Ethnic Media Executives.  In 2022, Gupta was recognized by The Asia Society as the “Most Innovative APA Leader” and a “Driver for Diversity.”

Anjali Sud is CEO of Tubi, America’s most watched free TV and movie streaming service. Under Sud’s leadership the company has exhibited exciting growth and momentum, scaling to over 80 million monthly active viewers, expanding globally and solidifying its position as a major entertainment destination. 

Prior to Tubi, Anjali served as CEO of Vimeo (NASDAQ:VMEO), the global online video platform. During her six year tenure she took the company public and established Vimeo as the home for video creators and professionals worldwide, building a community of over 300 million users. Before that, she held various positions in e-commerce and media at Amazon and Time Warner. 

Anjali has been featured in Fortune's 40 under 40, Crain’s 40 under 40, Adweek's Power List, Variety’s Power of Women, and The Hollywood Reporter's Next Gen Under 35. She is a designated Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum and a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute. She serves on the board of directors of Dolby Laboratories (NYSE:DLB) and as Chair of the board of Change.org. Anjali grew up in Flint, Michigan, and lives in New York City with her husband and two young sons.

Evan Shapiro has run IFC, Sundance Channel, Pivot and Seeso. He has overseen, produced or co-created series such as "Portlandia" (Peabody Award), "Take My Wife," "Please Like Me," "Dinner for Five"(Emmy nomination), "Trapped in the Closet," "There's Johnny!," "My Brother My Brother and Me," "HitRecord" (Emmy Award), "Bajillion Dollar Propertie$," "Brick City" (Peabody Award, Emmy nomination), and documentaries such as "This Film Is Not Yet Rated" and "At the Death House Door." Under his shingle eshapTV, Shapiro is executive producer of the streaming comedy, “Bartlett,” currently available on Amazon Prime Video and Vimeo on Demand. He is currently producing the Pop pilot "Sebastian Wakes Up” and a new talk show to premiere in 2018.

Rebecca Grossman-Cohen is the chief of staff to Meredith Kopit Levien, C.E.O. of The New York Times. She has been at The Times since 2014 as a leader across various departments, helping to build and accelerate the success of our business. As chief of staff she runs the office of the C.E.O., enterprise operations, and leads relationships and strategic partnerships with large tech partners. Prior to her current role, Rebecca led digital subscriptions growth.

Rebecca is the co-chair of the Black@NYT ERG, and previously served as the chair of the Women’s Network E.R.G. at The Times. She serves on the executive boards of Digital Content Next and the News/Media Alliance, two media trade associations.

Previous to The Times, Rebecca was a vice president in various roles at News Corp and executive director of marketing at The New Republic. She has also worked in strategy and fundraising roles for The Associated Press and NPR. Rebecca has an M.B.A. from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

She lives with her husband and their two daughters in Brooklyn.

Max Tani is a journalist with Semafor, where he writes about the evolving media landscape and co-authors the Semafor media newsletter. He previously was a member of the White House team at POLITICO, where he co-authored the daily West Wing Playbook newsletter. He has also written about media and politics for the Daily Beast and Business Insider and produced podcasts for Slate.

Scott Shooman is the Head of AMC Networks. Previously he served as Executive Vice President of Acquisitions and Co-Productions for CBS Films. During his time at CBS Films he oversaw numerous productions including Seven Psychopaths, Love the Coopers, and The Woman in Black. During that time he has also acquired films such as Hell or High Water, The Kings of Summer, and The Sense of an Ending, as well as Golden Globe best picture nominees Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Inside Llewyn Davis, and Pride. Prior to his time at CBS Films, Scott spent a decade at Sony Pictures Entertainment. He began as an assistant at the studio’s Screen Gems division where he helped originate Stomp the Yard and The Gospel, before moving on to help brand the newly formed Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group in 2006. At SPWAG Scott was responsible for the acquisition and/or production of more than a dozen titles including We Own the Night, Black Dynamite, The Boondock Saints II, and Insidious. He was also instrumental in the acquisition of international rights for Book of Eli, Machete, Hanna, and The Men Who Stare at Goats.

Shooman graduated from USC’s School of Cinema Television with a bachelor’s degree in Critical Studies in 2000. In 2013, he received his MBA from USC’s Marshall School of Business. In addition to serving on a number of festival juries, including Fantastic Fest and Urbanworld, Scott has lectured as an Adjunct professor at Carnegie Melon’s Masters in Entertainment Industry Management since 2007. In 2015, he also began teaching at USC’s Annenberg School of Communication. Additionally, he has guest lectured or mentored at UCLA, North Carolina School of the Arts, SXSW, The American Pavilion, Syracuse and AFIFest.

Shruti Ganguly is an award-winning filmmaker and writer based in Oslo and New York City. Shruti was a member of Obama’s ECCO committee of 30 leaders and creators in entertainment, chairing its Asian Caucus, and is on the Creative Council for Emily's List. She has made videos for Google, Unilever, Nike, Conde Nast, Chanel, and crafted the #MySentence series on prison reform for the Obama Administration. She has produced several films that have gone to Sundance, Venice, Tribeca and Berlin such as the award-winning Iniciales SG and H.

In late 2017, Shruti started honto88, a production company that works in a variety of formats - from narrative and doc features to series, and branded content. She launched it with a narrative feature, Green Dolphin, by director Chris Kenneally and EP Keanu Reeves. Shruti worked for several years with James Franco on films, and produced an experimental art performance with him and Marina Abramovic, called Bird Shit, which premiered at the MoMA. Previously, Shruti worked at NYLON, MTV, and Conde Nast, producing the CLIO-winning 73 Questions series. Shruti is currently writing a genre film for Sony, and coproducing a series about the Harlem Renaissance with Killer Films.

She is a co-founder of the Resistance Revival Chorus and a Contributing Editor for Vogue India. Shruti received her Bachelor's degree from Northwestern University, and went to NYU's dual MFA/MBA program at Tisch and Stern. She hails from India, by way of Oman.

Ryan Heller is Vice President, Film and Acquisitions at Topic Studios, the entertainment unit of First Look Media, where he is responsible for overseeing the company’s narrative feature film slate across development, financing, production and distribution as well as seeking out key acquisitions in film (narrative and documentary), television and short form that complement and fortify original studio productions.

Feature films from Topic include Spotlight (2016), Roman J. Israel Esquire (2017) and Leave No Trace (Sundance 2018). Upcoming film projects include The Climb, the debut feature film filmmaking team Michael Covino and Kyle Marvin; The Laundromat from director Steven Soderbergh and starring Meryl Streep, Antonio Banderas and Gary Oldman; On the Other Side starring and produced by Carey Mulligan; and Bastard, the directorial debut of acclaimed cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto from Executive Producer Martin Scorsese.

Ryan was previously at Starz Entertainment where he led the buying and releasing of feature films for the Starz Digital banner including: Amy Berg’s Every Secret Thing starring Diane Lane, Dakota Fanning and Elizabeth Banks; Jason Bateman’s The Family Fang starring Bateman, Nicole Kidman and Christopher Walken; Sophie Goodhart’s My Blind Brother starring Adam Scott, Nick Kroll and Jenny Slate; and two-time Academy Award-winning director Barbara Kopple’s Miss Sharon Jones!

Ryan holds a BA from Boston College and is a graduate of New York University’s M.B.A./M.F.A. dual degree program. In a former life, Ryan was a founding member of rock band Aberdeen City. He is based out of First Look Media’s headquarters in New York.

Ira Deutchman has been making, marketing, and distributing films since 1975, having worked on over 150 films including some of the most successful independent films of all time. He was one of the founders of Cinecom and later created Fine Line Features—two companies that were created from scratch and, in their respective times, helped define the independent film business. He was also a co-founder of Emerging Pictures, the first digital projection network in the United States and a pioneer in delivering live cultural events into movie theaters. In 2017, Deutchman was awarded the Spotlight Lifetime Achievement Award by the Sundance Art House Convergence for his service to independent film marketing and distribution.

Currently Deutchman is an independent producer, director, and a consultant in marketing and distribution of independent films. Among his clients is Cinecitta, for which he promotes Italian cinema in the U.S. He is also Professor Emeritus in the School of the Arts at Columbia University, where he has taught since 1987 and was the Chair of the Film Program from 2011–2015. His current projects include serving as director/producer of the feature documentary “Searching for Mr. Rugoff” (opened in theaters in August, 2021, currently available on the Criterion Channel and other VOD platforms), producer of the stage adaptation of Joan Micklin Silver’s “Hester Street” (opened in April, 2024), producer of “Nickel & Dimed,” based on the book by Barbara Ehrenreich and directed by Debra Granik (in pre-production) and executive producer of the mini-series based on the novel “Radio Girls” by Sarah-Jane Stratford (in development).

Among the over 60 films he acquired and released at Fine Line were Jane Campion’s “An Angel at My Table,” Gus van Sant’s “My Own Private Idaho,” Jim Jarmusch’s “Night on Earth,” Robert Altman’s “The Player” and “Short Cuts,” Roman Polanski’s “Bitter Moon” and “Death and the Maiden,” Alan Rudolph’s “Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle,” Mike Leigh’s “Naked,” and the award-winning “Hoop Dreams,” which in its time was the highest grossing non-music documentary in history.

Prior to Fine Line, as President of The Deutchman Company, he provided marketing consulting services for such films as Steven Soderbergh’s “sex, lies, and videotape” for Miramax, Charles Burnett’s “To Sleep With Anger” for The Samuel Goldwyn Company and Whit Stillman’s “Metropolitan” for New Line Cinema.

Previously, Deutchman was one of the founding partners and President of Marketing and Distribution for Cinecom Entertainment Group, the film distribution company known for such diverse releases as Merchant/Ivory’s “A Room with a View,” Jonathan Demme’s “Stop Making Sense,” Gregory Nava’s “El Norte” and John Sayles’ “The Brother From Another Planet.”

While at United Artists Classics, Films Incorporated and Cinema 5 Ltd., highlights included Lina Wertmuller’s “Seven Beauties” and “Swept Away,” Barbara Koppel’s “Harlan County, USA,” Jean-Jacques Beineix’s “Diva,” and Francois Truffaut’s “The Last Metro.” While still in college, he organized and marketed the Midwest premiere of John Cassavetes’ “A Woman Under the Influence.”

Deutchman is a graduate of Northwestern University, where he majored in film. His personal archive is part of the University of Michigan Screen Arts Mavericks and Makers Collection, which also includes the archives of Orson Welles, Robert Altman, Jonathan Demme and John Sayles.

Devorah Bertucci is a seasoned corporate development professional with a strong background in strategic planning and mergers and acquisitions. Currently serving as Vice President of Corporate Development at Netflix, Devorah has previously held key positions including Director of Corporate Development at Microsoft and Associate in Media & Communications M&A at Barclays Capital.

Additional experience includes a role as Summer Associate in Business Development and Strategic Planning at Universal Pictures and as an Associate in Commercial and Intellectual Property Litigation at Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell LLP.

Devorah's educational credentials include degrees from the MIT Sloan School of Management and the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.

Sheila Spence is the Vice President of Corporate Development at Spotify. She joined Spotify in 2017 to establish and lead the Global Corporate Development Group, responsible for acquisitions and other strategic corporate transactions. She has lead Spotify’s M&A efforts, including the acquisitions that have been foundational for Spotify’s entry into podcasts and audiobooks and has been named on Variety’s Dealmakers Impact Report and The Hollywood Reporter’s Top 20 Dealmaker list. Spotify is the world’s most popular audio streaming subscription service with 500 million users, including 200 million subscribers in 183 markets globally.

Sheila joined Spotify from WPP Group where she was Senior Vice President, and Co- head of Corporate Development for North America. While at WPP, she lead well over 50 acquisitions/investments across various marketing services, data, and digital media businesses.

Before WPP, Sheila was the Senior Vice President and head of Corporate Development for PRIMEDIA Inc., a publicly-traded portfolio company of KKR and a leader in targeted media and content. Before PRIMEDIA, Sheila worked at Salomon Brothers (now Citigroup) in Investment Banking.

She has an MBA from Harvard Business School and an HBA from The University of Western Ontario.

Alex Berkett is Executive Vice President, Chief Corporate Development and Strategy Officer. In this role, Berkett leads Paramount’s efforts to identify, pursue and execute strategic growth opportunities, including acquisitions, partnerships, investments and joint ventures, across all of the company’s businesses and geographies.

Berkett joined Viacom in August 2015 and most recently served as Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and Strategy, leading the company’s global activities related to corporate development, mergers and acquisitions and strategy. In this role, he worked closely with senior executives across the company to advise on and lead transaction negotiations. Berkett also launched and oversaw the Global Emerging Opportunities Group to coordinate Viacom’s company-wide activities related to new technologies, platforms and business models.

Before Viacom, Berkett served as Co-Founder and Executive Vice President of Townsquare Media (NYSE: TSQ), where he was responsible for corporate development, mergers and acquisitions, investor relations, legal affairs, business development, corporate communications and all capital raising activities, including the company’s 2014 IPO. Berkett co-founded Townsquare in 2010 with his partners from FiveWire Media, an investment firm he co-founded. In 2009, Berkett joined FiveWire from J.P. Morgan’s Technology, Media & Telecom Investment Banking Group, which he joined following J.P. Morgan’s acquisition of Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. in 2008.

Berkett spent 11 years in the investment banking division of Bear Stearns, principally focused on media and technology mergers and acquisitions, ultimately rising to the level of Managing Director. During the course of his career, Berkett has been involved, as a principal or an advisor, in over 100 M&A and capital raising transactions totaling over $250 billion in aggregate value.

Berkett received a B.A. summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania and is a graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy. He serves on the board of directors of Viacom18 in in India, among others, as well as the Fresh Air Fund’s Council.

Jonathan Knee is a Michael T. Fries Professor of Professional Practice in Media and Technology and Co-Director of the Media and Technology Program at Columbia Business School where he has taught Media Mergers and Acquisitions and Strategic Management of Media. He also co-teaches Digital Investing with Jeremy Philips of Spark Capital, The Business of Sports with Sunil Gulati of the Columbia Economics Department, The Media Industries: Public Policy and Business Strategy with Professor Tim Wu of Columbia Law School and a Business Journalism seminar at the Columbia Journalism School with Professor James B. Stewart.  Professor Knee serves as a Senior Advisor at Evercore. Before joining Evercore as a Senior Managing Director in 2003, he was a Managing Director and Co-head of Morgan Stanley’s Media Group and was previously Publishing Sector Head in the Communications, Media and Entertainment Group at Goldman Sachs. 

His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and The Atlantic. He writes the Book Entry column for the New York Times DealBook. Professor Knee is the author of Class Clowns: How the Smartest Investors Lost Billions in Education (Columbia: 2016) and The Accidental Investment Banker: Inside the Decade that Transformed Wall Street (Oxford: 2006) and co-author of The Curse of The Mogul: What’s Wrong With the World’s Leading Media Companies? (Portfolio: 2009). His next book, The Platform Delusion: Who Wins and Who Loses In the Age of Tech Titans will be released in September. Professor Knee serves on the boards of New Alternatives for Children, the National Women’s Law Center, and the Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York and is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Andy is FanDuel Group’s Chief Operating Officer, with responsibility for driving the company’s technology platform and retail operations across its Sportsbook, Fantasy, Racing and Casino units. Giancamilli also has oversight of the company’s security, fraud and data infrastructures that support its operations.

Prior to joining FanDuel, Andy was Vice President, Pricing at Toys R Us. In this capacity, Andy oversaw pricing strategies and inventory management to ensure the company hit margin and gross profit goals. Before joining Toys R Us, Giancamilli was a Director at Ross Stores, where he was responsible for the implementation of cross-functional projects across the organization. He began his career as a consultant at McKinsey & Company.

Giancamilli earned his MBA from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and holds a BBA from the University of Michigan.

Blake Stuchin is the President and Co-Founder of a stealth startup. Previously, he served as Vice President and Head of Digital Media Business Development at the National Football League, where he led the league’s digital and social media licensing and distribution strategy. This includes its partnerships with YouTube, Skydance, TikTok, Twitter / X, Snapchat, TikTok, Meta, Reddit, and others.

He has served as a member of Hashtag Sports’ Diversity & Inclusion Council and as an Industry Mentor in the Strive Mentorship Program, which connects young people from HBCUs and other Minority Serving Institutions with professionals in the sports, media, and technology industries. For his work in the industry, Blake was honored as a member of Ad Age’s 2021 “40 Under 40” and The Athletic’s 2021 “NFL 40 Under 40” Classes.

Prior to the NFL, Blake was a member of the Media Investment Banking group at Jefferies, where he worked on mergers and acquisitions and capital raising. Prior to Jefferies, Blake was an Analyst at Access Capital, the nation’s leading independent lender to the staffing industry. He started his career at Digitas, where as a marketer he worked on campaigns for Turner Broadcasting and Pfizer.

Outside of work, Blake is a board member of Access Capital, and the Managing Member of Pine Brook Fitness, a tennis and rock climbing gym in Westchester, New York.

Blake holds a B.A. in Communication from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A from New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business. He lives in New York City with his wife Stephanie and their two children.

A native of Florida, Nicole graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in journalism, then went onto grad school at UCF’s DeVos Sports Business Management Program.

She started her career at the NBA’s league office, with stops in partnership sales at Atlanta Motor Speedway (NASCAR), and activation with the Tampa Bay Lightning (NHL). She then made the move overseas to work for the National Rugby League in Australia, leading marketing and fan experience. When back in the states, she transitioned to agency side with experiential and sponsorship agency Momentum Worldwide, where she led the sports portfolios for American Express and Verizon over more than 5 years.

In 2021 she began at BSE Global, the parent company of the Brooklyn Nets, the New York Liberty and Barclays Center, where she leads the global partnership strategy, supporting both the current portfolio of partners and development of new partnerships.

Nicole lives in Jersey City with her husband Ben, and her amazing dog, Koufax.

Bill Bergofin has extensive experience in marketing and creative roles within the sports and media industry. Bill is currently the Head of Marketing & Creative at YES Network, where he leads the internal YES Agency and contributes to the digital transformation of the brand.

Bill's previous experience includes roles at NBCUniversal Media, LLC, where he was the Senior Vice President of Business Development/Brand and Content for Telemundo Deportes & Universo. Bill played a key role in securing a partnership with FIFA and oversaw coverage of the Men's and Women's World Cups.

Prior to that, he was SVP of Marketing and Promotion at NBC Sports, where he led consumer and B2B marketing efforts for the brand, produced high-profile advertising and digital content, and built an award-winning in-house agency.

Before joining NBC, Bill held positions at Comcast, SS+K, FOX Sports, and the National Football League (NFL), where he gained experience in rebranding, product development, corporate identity, and consumer engagement. Throughout his career, Bill has consistently demonstrated his ability to drive growth and success within the sports and media industry.

Bill Bergofin holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Justice & Law from American University. Bill also obtained a certificate in Digital Marketing: Customer Engagement, Social Media, Analytics & Planning from Columbia University.

Professor Stephen Master has spent the last 25 years in a variety of leadership roles across the sports marketing and media industry. Stephen has been an adjunct Professor at NYU since 2004 where he teaches courses on Sports Sponsorship & Media and The Business of Sports Betting.

Outside of Stern, he co-founded Amaze Media Labs in 2020, a media company focused on the rapidly emerging podcast space and has built a sports podcast network of 100+ leading podcasts and creates branded podcasts for clients such as Draftkings, BetMGM, Ford and Facebook. As the head of Master Media Advisors, he also works closely with start-ups across sports, entertainment and gaming on business plans & fundraising and advises financial and VC firms on evaluating media and sports betting investments.

Prior to forming Master Media Advisors, Stephen spent ten years as the Global Head of the Sports Group at the Nielsen Company and was the co-founder of the Nielsen eSports practice. At Nielsen, Stephen grew the revenue of the sports data & insights division 10 X through the development of the "FANALYTICS" platform, providing sports properties and brands intelligence into how fans are consuming and engaging with sports content. His insights & analysis from the "FANANLYTICS" platform were regularly quoted and featured in the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, CNN, ESPN, Bloomberg and the SBJ.

Before joining Nielsen, Stephen was the VP of Business Development at the National Football League where he worked on activating corporate sponsorships for the league. Stephen also spent 8 years in the agency space working at Octagon Worldwide as the VP of Business Development and at TSE Sports & Entertainment where he worked with leading brands to incorporate sports, music & entertainment into their marketing portfolios.

Stephen launched his career in sports at the National Basketball Association, where he served as the Director of Business Development in the International Group and helped build the NBA’s global presence and brand. Stephen graduated from the University of Michigan and received an MBA from Northwestern.