SVG Europe women teams with Rise to support two women in sports broadcasting for 2020 mentoring scheme

BT Sport’s Gemma Knight, director for BT Sport football [third from left] and Kylie Jenner, freelance director [fourth from left], taking part in the tech panel at the SVG Europe Women winter tech networking event 2018. [L to R] SVG Europe’s Heather McLean, Sunset+Vine’s Adeline Lee, head of broadcast services, BT Sport’s Gemma Knight, Kylie Jenner, freelance director, Roisin McKeniry, head of production technology at Timeline Television for BT Sport, and Nikki Lushington, Timeline TV’s lead MCR engineer

Rise has announced the pairing up of mentees and mentors for its third annual mentoring scheme in the UK, and its first mentoring scheme in the APAC region. The 2020 programme sees participation from a variety of experienced broadcast sector industry leaders offering expertise, knowledge and guidance to 30 women.

This year, SVG Europe Women, a powerful network of women working in the sports media arena made up of members from across TV sports broadcasting, production, distribution and technology, joins as an industry partner.

SVG Europe Women has paired Gemma Knight, director, BT Sport as mentor to Sarah McLaughin, replay operator and junior director, PSA World Tour, and Kylie Jenner, freelance director as mentor to Hayley Webster, multi-camera automation director at Sky News and vision mixer at Sky Sports News.

SVG Europe Women will offer those women specific sports industry advice, events and additional guidance, alongside the Rise mentoring scheme.

Head of SVG Europe Women and editor at SVG Europe, Heather McLean, stated: “It is great to be involved in a mentoring scheme that is able to give guidance and inspiration to so many women today. SVG Europe Women is happy to be part of this, and we will look to support our sponsored mentors and mentees throughout the scheme, and beyond.”

Each pairing will involve 12 hours of one-to-one time with their mentor, the opportunity to meet the mentee group on a monthly basis, as well as attend networking events, workshops, and seminars throughout the six month programme (all delivered digitally until the lockdown lifts). The diverse group of mentees, from all around the UK, and Singapore, were chosen from over 60 applications.

Carrie Wootten, director of Rise, said: “We are very excited to announce the 2020 mentor and mentee pairings, despite our programme commencing at a very unique time. We know that the support provided through the programme is needed now more than ever and are delighted to be working in partnership with SVG Europe Women this year and supporting 30 women from across the sector.”

Wootten added: “I would like to thank our incredible sponsors and partners, and of course, the mentors, for all of their continued support of Rise and enabling us to bring the scheme to women in the industry. Because of your generosity, we have been able to launch an APAC mentoring scheme this year based in Singapore and run by Nancy Diaz Curiel.”

The mentor and mentee pairings for the 2020 programme are as follows:

• Kylie Jenner, Freelance Director will mentor Hayley Webster, Multi-Camera Automation Director at Sky News & Vision Mixer at Sky Sports News (sponsored by SVG Europe Women)
• Gemma Knight, Director, BT Sport will mentor Sarah McLaughin, Replay Operator & Junior Director, PSA World Tour (sponsored by SVG Europe Women)
• Fiona Burton, Head of Post Production and Engineering EMEA for A&E Networks, will mentor Victoria Jameson, Inside Sales, Avid
• Carolina Santos, Head of Broadcast at ATP Media, will mentor Hannah Davy, Project Engineer from Cerberus Tech
• Paul Griffiths, Director of Post Production Technology at The Walt Disney Company, will mentor Lauren Smithers, Head of Post Production UK, Argonon
• Lisa Collins, Head of Marketing for IABM, will mentor Laura Light, Marketing Manager at Object Matrix
• Natascha Cadle, Creative Director and Co-Founder of Envy Post Production, will mentor Lynn Marcus, Financial Controller, M2A Media
• Anna Lockwood, Head of Global Sales at Telstra Broadcast Services will mentor Hannah Price, Business Process Manager, ES Broadcast
• Sadie Groom, Rise Founder and Managing Director at Bubble Agency, will mentor Sophie Finlay, Resource Bookings Coordinator, Timeline Television
• Marina Kalkanis, CEO at M2A Media Ltd will mentor Joanna Taylor, Software Engineer at Sky
• Catriona Tate, Business Development Director at Simplestream will mentor Laurissa Yeung Shea, Business Analyst at Discovery
• Anne-Louise Buick, Vice President of Global Field and Channel Marketing at Avid will mentor Bélen Arronte, Regional Marketing Lead Media Solutions, Sony Professional
• Stuart Burrows, Infrastructure Design and Integration Manager, Red Bee Media, will mentor Urszula Czarnota, Project Manager at ABS Broadcast
• Lisa Lavender, Operations Director at The British Arrows will mentor Bethan Wilkin, Head of Content Delivery, ITV
• Kate Wendelboe, Senior Strategy Manager – Ventures, BT will mentor Peggy Rieckmann, Client Services Manager, Vubiquity
• Kathryn Lancaster, Graphics & Data Solutions Support Manager, Sky will mentor Nicola Parr, Main Station Design Engineer, Arqiva
• Allison Coucher, Service Strategy Manager, Sky will mentor Sophia Hazari Transmission Lead, Discovery
• Ian Wagdin, Senior Technology Transfer Manager, BBC R & D will mentor Sneha Gopee, Media & Broadcast Design Specialist, BT Media and Broadcast
• Katie College, Senior Communications Manager-EMEA for Blackmagic Design will mentor Fionnuala Walmsley, Account Executive, Bubble Agency
• Olive Perrins, Head of In Home Experience Sky will mentor Jessica Milverton, Broadcast Media Manager, Channel 4
• Tracie Mitchell, Media Technologist, Sensore Consulting will mentor, Laura McManus, Programme Operations Executive, BBC Studios
• Nicki Fisher, EMEA Sales Director at Clear-Com, will mentor Katia Florescul, Sales and Marketing Coordinator, BASE Media Cloud
• Roisin McKeniry, Head of Production Technology, Timeline Television will mentor, Emily Bergun, Associate Broadcast Support Engineer Sky
• Sinead Greenaway, Chief Technology and Operations Officer, UKTV will mentor Rosanna Prada, Broadcast Engineer, DAZN
• Colleen Relle, Freelance Vision Mixer will mentor Karishma Bolakee, Freelance Vision Mixer
• David Joel, Client Services Director, Vubiquity will mentor Saskia Hook, TV Outside Broadcast Product Manager, BT Media and Broadcast
• Claire Harvey, Key Account Manager at Red Bee Media, will mentor Nicola Stansfield, Video Operations Manager, The Financial Times
• Sharifah Ahmad, Marketing Communications Manager, Torque Video Systems, will mentor Lee Yee Lim, Sales Administrator, Ideal Systems (Singapore) Pte Ltd.
• Shad Hashmi, Senior VP, Digital Development Global Markets at BBC Singapore, will mentor Rosa Pereiro, Solutions Director for Asia, Brightcove
• Peter Bruce, Director IABM APAC, will mentor Rosa Monica Cangco, Lead Engineer, Benchmark Broadcast Systems

The scheme is made possible due the support from industry partners including: Gold sponsors: Avid; Sky. Silver sponsors: Clear-Com; Audio-Technica Europe; Ross Video; Sony; DPP; Pixelogic.