Media Financial Management Association (MFM) announced today that Cindy Pekrul, Senior Vice President and Deputy Controller for Turner and Vice Chair of MFM's Board of Directors, will serve as Chair of Media Finance Focus 2018, the 58th annual conference for MFM and its BCCA subsidiary, the media industry's credit association. Mike Lavey, Senior Vice President/Corporate Controller for tronc, Inc. and MFM Board Secretary, will Co-Chair the conference.
Media Finance Focus 2018 will be held at The Hyatt Regency Crystal City (Arlington, VA), starting on Monday, May 21 and concluding on Wednesday, May 23. MFM/BCCA's annual conference is the primary source of professional education for the media industry's business and credit management executives, including its digital media, video, gaming, publishing, broadcasting and broadband telecommunications enterprises.
"We couldn't ask for better leadership to shape the agenda for Media Finance Focus 2018; Cindy Pekrul and Mike Lavey represent the most dynamic aspects of the media industry today,' said Mary M. Collins, president and CEO of MFM and BCCA. "They are both directly involved in the transformation resulting from dramatic shifts in the ways people acquire and consume media."
About the Chair and Co-Chair
For the past two years, Cindy Pekrul has served as Senior Vice President and Deputy Controller for Turner, where she responsible for the Accounting Business Services ("ABS") organization, an integral component of Turner's Global Financial Business Service ("FBS") organization. ABS is a full-scope financial shared service organization that supports Turner's global operations by providing services in accounting, procurement and payables, invoicing and collections, payroll and travel. Prior to her current role and after joining Turner in 2005, Pekrul was the Vice President and Deputy Controller of Turner's Accounting Center of Excellence and held controller positions at CNN Worldwide and Cartoon Network. Pekrul began her professional career at Ernst & Young in Atlanta. Turner, a Time Warner company, creates and programs branded news; entertainment; kids and young adult; and sports media environments on television and other platforms for consumers around the world.
Mike Lavey has served as Senior Vice President/Corporate Controller for tronc, Inc. (formerly Tribune Publishing) since May of 2015 and is responsible for tronc's shared financial functions, consisting of accounting and financial reporting, tax, compliance, and transaction processing. Headquartered in Chicago, tronc operates newsrooms in ten markets, with publishing titles that include the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, New York Daily News, The Baltimore Sun, Orlando Sentinel, and Hartford Courant. Before being recruited to join the senior finance team at tronc, Lavey spent six years as Vice President and Corporate Controller for A.H. Belo Corporation and as Controller for its Dallas Morning News operation. Lavey, who began his career in 1979 with Arthur Andersen & Co., has previously held senior finance posts at a number of media and technology firms.
About Media Finance Focus 2018
Media Finance Focus 2018 will feature presentations from over 150 industry experts, who will provide timely information on topics relevant to media industry finance professionals, including accounting, economic projections, valuations, M&A, taxes, human resources, regulatory, and technological developments and internal audit. BCCA, the media industry's credit association, will povide a full track of sessions designed to meet the needs of today's credit and collections professionals. The event will also offer formal and informal networking activities to foster idea-sharing and will host an exhibit hall featuring the latest in products and services for addressing the industry's financial management and credit and collections requirements. Registered participants can earn 20 or more CPE credits. Additional information about Media Finance Focus 2017 may be found on the conference website.
About MFM and BCCA:
Media Financial Management Association (MFM) is the premiere resource for financial professionals for media industry education, networking, and information sharing throughout the U.S. and Canada. More information about MFM is available on its Web site: http://www.mediafinance.org and via its updates on Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter. Its BCCA subsidiary serves as the media industry's credit association. BCCA's revenue management services encompass a variety of credit reports on national and local media advertisers and agencies, including Media Whys, a credit report for media businesses which offers a credit score based on industry-specific aging combined with trade data from Experian or D+B. More information about BCCA is available at http://www.bccacredit.com as well as its updates on Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter.
