Serhad Doken is responsible for the technology roadmap, research strategy and advanced R&D projects. Mr. Doken previously was the Executive, Director of Innovation & Product Realization at Verizon where he drove new 5G and Mobile Edge Computing powered services for Consumer and Enterprise Businesses. Prior to Verizon, Mr. Doken was VP, Innovation Partners at InterDigital focused on technology strategy and external R&D projects and partnerships. Prior to InterDigital, Mr. Doken worked on emerging mobile technology incubation at Qualcomm. Prior to this, Mr. Doken held positions at Cisco Systems, Nortel Networks and PSI AG. Mr. Doken is an inventor on 30 issued worldwide patents over 90 worldwide applications. Mr. Doken has a Computer Engineering degree from Bosphorus University and has completed the M&A Executive Education Program at The Wharton School and the New Ventures Executive Education Program at Harvard Business School.

Mrugesh Desai joined Accedo in 2013 and is Regional Vice President, North America, leading the North American sales, solutions engineering, and marketing functions. He was previously Head of Solutions Engineering, working with customers to understand their video experiences needs and help define ways to scale their brand and content to the fragmented OTT device market while still delivering best in class video experiences. He is most excited about some of the new advents in video experiences specifically in AR, VR and mixed reality and sees Accedo playing an important role in this arena.

Scott Ehrlich has a track record of successfully creating new ventures in television, technology and new media. Currently he serves as Chief Innovation Officer and Head of Corporate Strategy for Sinclair Broadcast Group (SBG) where he has created the company’s first dedicated cross functional research, development and strategy group to coordinate and accelerate efforts across content, technology, audience development and distribution.

In addition, Ehrlich oversees Sinclair’s Start-up business group, which includes Over the Air (OTA) Networks (Comet, Charge, and TBD) and Over The Top (OTT) Platforms (Stirr, NewsOn). Previously, Ehrlich was SVP, Growth Networks & Content for the company.

Earlier in his career, Ehrlich also served as Founder and CEO of Agility Studios, where he led the development of Agility’s award-winning franchise; The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers, created by Jon M. Chu, into a multi-faceted business with three installments of the filmed entertainment property, distributed worldwide by Paramount. The production/show has been complimented by performances on television (including: So You Think You Can Dance, Dancing with the Stars, The 82nd Academy Awards, Conan, and more), tours (Glee Live), corporate (including: Mini Live: Beijing and Google Zeitgeist Europe) and social media (Coke Zero: Make it Possible). The LXD received an International Emmy among many other accolades and awards.

Before Agility, Ehrlich founded and served as the Managing Partner at Impulse Media, a Seattle-based digital business consulting company, serving as an advisor to senior management at Sony Pictures Digital Networks, Rivals.com (sold to Yahoo), Infospace, Disney/ABC Digital Media Group, Navio Systems, DivX, iFilm (sold to MTV Networks), Lightningcast (sold to AOL), Rhythm Networks (sold to Blinkx), BBC, Weather Channel and Microsoft.

Prior to forming Impulse Media, Ehrlich served as Vice President of Media Acquisition and Distribution for RealNetworks, where he developed key strategies, negotiated, implemented and managed product deals and relationships for the site’s GoldPass and SuperPass services, and drove growth of its services to more than 1 million subscribers, creating one of the earliest Over the Top (OTT) video services in the industry. Previously, Ehrlich was Executive Vice-President and General Manager of Rival Networks, where he oversaw all aspects of the business including advertising sales, e-commerce, content, business development, marketing, public relations and creative services.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Ehrlich was the Senior Vice President and Executive Producer of News America Digital Publishing at News Corporation and Director of Audience Development at NBC Cable.

In addition, Ehrlich is a partner in the Los Angeles based production company Substance Over Hype, and just recently served as Executive Producer on Two Bellmen, Two Bellmen Two, Two Bellmen Three and Business Unusual for Marriott Content Studios.

Ehrlich received his master’s degree from The Graduate School of Political Management and his undergraduate degree from Kenyon College. He lives in the Los Angeles area with his wife and two sons. He can be found on Twitter @sehrlich or on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/scottehrlich.

Field Garthwaite is the Co-Founder and CEO of IRIS.TV, a video data platform that enables better viewing experiences and advertising outcomes. Since inventing the core technology behind IRIS.TV, Field has led the company to engineer the most open video data ecosystem in the world, enabling its partners to build scalable solutions on top of its platform, including video-level contextual and brand-safe ad targeting, planning, verification, and measurement solutions. Today the company works with thousands of media companies, data, streaming, and ad tech partners around the world to power meaningful connections between brands and consumers. Prior to IRIS.TV, Field worked in digital distribution, data architecture, and video for companies including HBO, Universal Pictures, Rubicon Project and Jukebox TV.

As Director of Product Marketing for global streaming platform Plex, Danni Hemberger is responsible for implementing marketing strategies that bring the brand and its product stories to life.

Prior to joining Plex, Danni spent nearly three years at Tubi as the Senior Manager of Product Marketing and Operations where she was responsible for marketplace research, go to market strategies and collaborated on the launch and measurement of several integrated marketing campaigns, driving over 10% increase in awareness of Tubi. Prior to this, she also worked at independently-owned creative agency, Swirl, as an Account Director where she led cross-functional teams in the process of developing, recommending and implementing product strategies for her clients. She started her career at U.S. Sports Camps Inc. where she simultaneously managed sponsorship, logistical, financial and administrative duties for the Nike Soccer & Running camp networks.

Danni graduated with a B.A in International Relations and Spanish from the University of Southern California.

David is the CEO of Swedish fast growing streaming guide PlayPilot. Before joining PlayPilot in early 2018 David was VP Sales EMEA at Ooyala and has been contributing to several boards and management teams within the media and SaaS space. Now at PlayPilot he is 100% focused on solving the main problem left for the entertainment industry and that is to help the audience to search less and consume more high quality content. 

Stacey Richman serves as the SVP and Head of Communications for Team Whistle, a sports and entertainment media company that creates content across the platforms where young audiences are consuming content. Her appointment was covered by B&C, AdWeek, Campaign US, PR Week, Cynopsis and Cablefax. She hails from Group Nine Media, where she most recently served as their Director of Consumer Communications. She spent two years in that role, where she was responsible for spearheading and executing the consumer strategies across The Dodo, Thrillist, NowThis, POPSUGAR and Seeker brands. Prior to joining Group Nine, Richman served as a Manager of Communications at WarnerMedia's truTV, and before that as a publicist for Discovery, Inc. and Animal Planet. Stacey began her career working at Ferencomm, and as a coordinator for CBS News. Stacey currently lives in Manhattan with her two dogs.

Goutham is responsible for platform engineering, service operations,. SI services and customer success at Quickplay. He most recently was Global Head of Software Engineering with AT&T Entertainment, where he led OTT & video solutions engineering teams in the U.S., Canada and India. Previously Goutham held the role of VP of Platform Services for Quickplay, until it was acquired by AT&T in 2016. Additionally, Goutham has held roles as SVP of Engineering with Polaris Financial Technologies, and Practice Head in North America with TATA Consultancy Services, where he worked across industry verticals. Goutham has a MSc in Computer Science from National Institute of Technology, Warangal and BSc in Electronics from ANU, India.

Goutham is responsible for platform engineering, service operations,. SI services and customer success at Quickplay. He most recently was Global Head of Software Engineering with AT&T Entertainment, where he led OTT & video solutions engineering teams in the U.S., Canada and India. Previously Goutham held the role of VP of Platform Services for Quickplay, until it was acquired by AT&T in 2016. Additionally, Goutham has held roles as SVP of Engineering with Polaris Financial Technologies, and Practice Head in North America with TATA Consultancy Services, where he worked across industry verticals. Goutham has a MSc in Computer Science from National Institute of Technology, Warangal and BSc in Electronics from ANU, India.

INDUSTRY EXPERTISE: Connected Health, Connected Home Technologies and Services, Connected Entertainment Products and Services

Jennifer manages the research department and Parks Associates' process for producing high-quality, relevant, and meaningful research. Jennifer also leads and advises on syndicated and custom research projects across all connected consumer verticals and guides questionnaire development for Parks Associates’ extensive consumer analytics survey program. Jennifer is a certified focus group moderator, with training from the Burke Institute.

Jennifer earned her PhD in religion, politics, and society and an MA in church-state studies from Baylor University. She earned her BA in politics from the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.

Elizabeth leads the marketing team and supports the research and operations teams. Elizabeth manages and directs the integrated strategic communications plan for Parks Associates, including advertising, public relations, and marketing campaigns for research and events hosted by Parks Associates. Elizabeth is the key organizer for all of Parks Associates' events, including CONNECTIONS™. She also supports Parks Associates' Business Development Team with prospective client searches, overall support, and maintenance of Parks Associates' databases.

Elizabeth joined Parks Associates on a full-time basis in 1998 after graduating from the University of Texas at Austin with a BA in psychology.

Ross Rubin is a contributing analyst at Parks Associates and the founder and principal analyst at Reticle Research Ross has focused on innovation in the technology, media and telecom markets for over 20 years. Prior to founding Reticle Research, he was executive director and principal analyst at The NPD Group. Prior to NPD, he founded and managed the consumer access and technology service at Jupiter Research (acquired by Forrester Research), where he served as vice president and chief research fellow. He has contributed to and been quoted by leading publications and media outlets hundreds of times. Ross is a graduate of Cornell University.