ThinkAnalytics, a U.K.-based provider of multiplatform TV search and recommendations technology, has hired cable-tech veteran Michael Pohl as strategic director for marketing and business development -- and also named him to its board of directors -- and hired Tennis Channel's Nancy Pingitore as vice president of sales for the U.S.
Pohl will focus on marketing and business development activities in The Americas and provide strategic direction for the company’s expansion into new markets, ThinkAnalytics said.
Pingitore, most recently VP of distribution for Tennis Channel, will oversee key customer accounts and partnerships throughout the U.S. working with Michele McGarry, vice president of marketing and business development for North America.
“Our large-scale deployments have proven that delivering better TV recommendations has a profound impact on business results,” ThinkAnalytics chairman Eddie Young said in a statement. “Michael and Nancy have both had tremendous success in opening sales channels for new technologies in this industry. With their help we will continue to hasten the deployment of Intelligent Navigation and personalized recommendations that drive home the business objectives of our operator customers and provide value for their subscribers.”
With 30 years of experience in the industry, Pohl currently serves as chairman of dynamic ad insertion vendor BlackArrow, as well as director of Ascent Capital Group. He was previously non-executive chairman of BigBand Networks (now part of Arris Group) and a member of the Canoe Ventures advisory board. He was interim general manager of on-demand systems for Arris, following the company's 2007 purchase of C-COR, where Pohl headed global strategies. In 2002, C-COR bought Larry Ellison's nCube, which had just appointed Pohl chief executive. That came after nCube in 1999 acquired SkyConnect, an ad-insertion company which Pohl ran as president and CEO.
Pingitore, prior to Tennis Channel, was co-founder and vice president of Incanta, an advanced media personalization platform for cable operators and broadband providers. She also served as director of international business development at Arris.
ThinkAnalytics says its system is in use at operators representing more than 100 million subscribers worldwide. Customers include Liberty Global, Cox Communications, BSkyB, Virgin Media, Swisscom, Telenet, Unitymedia and Zon.
