Los Angeles — Four cable
company executives, a programmer
and a technology vendor executive
will be honored Thursday
night with LEA Awards from
the Southern California Chapter
of Women in Cable Telecommunications.
The award — an acronym for
Leadership, Education and Advocacy
— traditionally goes to
four outstanding individuals and
a chapter board member for their
achievements in those categories
for contributions to the telecommunications
industry and support
of WICT. The winners are
selected by a committee of industry
leaders from a pool of nominations.
Actually, this year five individuals
and a board member are being
recognized. There was a tie in
the category of Woman to Watch:
Kristen Cuffee-Brown, manager
of video product marketing at Cox
Communications, and Wendy
Gross, director of field sales and
marketing at NBC Universal.
The Advocate Leader is Mitchell
Christopher, vice president
of technical operations at Time
Warner Cable.
The Woman of the Year is Tiffany
Lynch, community relations
manager at Time Warner Cable.
The Lifetime Achiever is Lyndsay
Lowe, vice president of sales
at Avail-TVN.
And the WICT Board Member
of the Year is Beth Bayer, regional
manager of collection analytics at
Time Warner Cable.
Kristen Cuffee-Brown has
been with Cox for five years,
working her way up from marketing
specialist to supervisor
to manager. Cox considers
her leadership and product expertise
in marketing new video
product launches to have made a
key impact. She has been instrumental
in key initiatives like the
digital transition, the launch of
Tru2way, MyPrimetime OnDemand
and other products. She is
an inspiration to the women she
leads and those around her, her
nomination stated. She is passionate
about the telecommunications
industry and has devoted
herself to the improvement of the
video platform.
Wendy Gross is one of the regional
team members that NBCU
senior leadership often relies on
for input and feedback on industry
issues and trends. She took
on an expanded role this year,
representing NBCU across key
regions, including Southern California,
and she has the ability
to seamlessly craft and execute
solid distribution deals that provide
mutually beneficial terms.
Mitchell Christopher has been
instrumental in promoting the
advancement of women at Time
Warner Cable. While he manages
a large team and has considerable
responsibilities, he still finds
time to mentor employees on his
team and in other departments to
achieve their personal, academic
and professional goals and demonstrates
the importance of this
by doing the same for himself. He
is greatly respected as a leader and
role model, his nomination said.
Tiffany Lynch’s areas of responsibility
include bringing
Time Warner Cable programs
and initiatives, such as Connect
a Million Minds, and cable
network initiatives to local
markets, including CNN’s Elect
ion Express Yourself Tour,
CNN Latino in America, the
C-SPAN Civics School Bus and
the History Channel’s Take a
Veteran to School Day. She also
leads localized initiatives, such
as the Best Moms essay contest
and Junior Achievement Bowla-
thon, in addition to responsibilities
for employee volunteer
activities and employee grants.
Lyndsay Lowe is responsible
for providing strategic coordination
between internal departments
to enhance group
synergies. She joined TVN
Entertainment (which later
merged with Avail Media) in
2002 as a senior manager of affiliate
relations and was promoted
to director of affiliate
sales and, later, to vice president
of national accounts. She is an
executive member of WICT and
served as president of the Southern
California Chapter in 2006.
She has worked on cable modem
rollouts across the country,
first as director, Western division,
for ISP Channel and then as
director of affiliate relations for
@Home Solutions.
Beth Bayer joined Time Warner
Cable’s West Region in 2006
after the acquisition of the Comcast
and Adelphia footprints
in Southern California, and
worked to successfully integrate
the account ing systems and
processes of the three different
companies into one. Her professional
affi liations include California
Society of CPAs, where
she serves as vice president of
the Los Angeles Chapter Board
of Directors, State Council Representative
and Co-Chair of the
Torrance Discussion Group. She
serves on the WICT Southern
California board of directors as
programming chair.
“Congratulations to these outstanding
individuals who continue
to make extraordinary
contributions, to not only the industry
as a whole, but also showcase
the dedication, commitment
and support of women at the
companies where they work,”
Colleen Dillaway, WICT Southern
California Chapter president
and marketing director at
Bright House Networks Bakersfield
division, said in a statement.
The LEA Awards will be presented
on Thursday (Oct. 14) at
the Beverly Hills Hotel. Jeannie
Mai, host of Style Network’s How
Do I Look?, will emcee the ceremony.
For more information, see the
WICT Southern California Chapter
website at Socalwict.org.
