As president and CEO of Women in Cable Telecommunications, Maria Brennan has worked collaboratively with executives and companies to develop women leaders in the cable industry.
As the oldest and largest organization serving women professionals in cable telecommunications, WICT has remained steadfast in its resolve to advance women and position them in local and national leadership roles. For her part, Brennan has successfully expanded the organization’s programs and its reach.
NCTA is honoring Brennan with its Vanguard Award for Associates & Affiliates, which recognizes the important contributions of service suppliers and equipment manufacturers to the cable industry’s innovation and progress.
Since she joined WICT in 2009, Brennan and her team have managed to increase the organization’s membership numbers each year. She also took the group overseas with its first-ever event in the United Kingdom, and relaunched WICT’s Senior Executive Summit for high-level women in cable.
Before joining WICT, Brennan served as president of American Women in Radio and Television for nine years. She has worked with a number of diversity-based non-profit groups, including the National Association of Women Business Owners and The International Alliance of Women.
Brennan has more than 23 years of executive management experience with associations ranging from 2,000 to 33,000 members in size, with particular expertise in the areas of strategic planning, communications, resource development and advocacy.
Brennan is often cable’s public voice on genderdiversity matters and is often quoted as an expert on pay equity and work/life integration issues. She received an EXCEL Award for her “Hear Me Roar” column in the American Women in Radio and Television’s national magazine, Making Waves.
She was elected to serve on the Women’s Leadership Board at Harvard University in 2007, and is a member of its strategic planning and communications subcommittees. Brennan is also a coalition member of WIPP — Women Impacting Public Policy, a commissioner of the Girl Scouts Healthy Media Council and a charter member of the FCC’s Diversity Advisory Board, where she is currently serving her fifth term. She teaches continuing education classes in the non-profi t sector, where she has served as an American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) Certifi ed Association Executive immersion instructor.
She is a native of Washington, D.C., where she and her husband Michael reside with their two daughters.
Fun Fact:
Brennan received her CAE (Certified Association Executive) distinction from the American Society of Association Executives; a certification earned by only 5% of non-profit executives in the United States.
