Congratulate our 2021 Award Winners
2021 Honorees
At CTAM Think on Nov. 4, 2021, industry colleagues honored this year’s winners. Join us in congratulating all the 2021 honorees for their impactful industry changing contributions by posting a comment below.
Rob Stoddard
NCTA
Steve Gorman
Cox Business
Chris Hebbard
Spectrum Business
Tony Maldonado
Cox Business
Alfred Perry
AMC Networks, Inc.
The CTAM Beacon Award is given in recognition of a communications leader who exemplifies success in the discipline, demonstrates innovative thinking, supports corporate positioning and growth, and inspires excellence in others.
Rob Stoddard
NCTA – The Internet &Television Association
Rob Stoddard
SVP, Communications & Public Affairs
NCTA – The Internet &Television Association
Influencing substantive discussion and recommendations for complex metadata management processes
Industry Contribution
Rob Stoddard is an extraordinary communications executive, a mentor and trusted ally to many in our business; his insights and guidance helped cultivate opportunities during challenging times and foster collaboration within our industry to ultimately achieve greater success.
Rob oversees the NCTA’s member relations efforts and industry-wide public affairs programs, and he helps manage NCTA’s relationships with other cable industry associations and societies. Before joining NCTA, he served as chief communications officer for a variety of major cable companies, including AT&T Broadband, MediaOne, and Continental Cablevision.
Quote
“Rob, congratulations on this well-deserved honor! From the days of analog cable to the invention of broadband and the pending 10G future, you’ve had a front row seat to the tremendous growth and innovation that the cable industry has experienced. Some would say that makes you old, but I call it seasoned! Once again, congratulations on your storied and successful career.”
Brian Dietz, SVP, Strategic Communications, NCTACongratulatory Videos
Peter Kiley
VP, Affiliate Relations & Communications
C-SPAN
Fun Fact:
What was one skill or new thing you learned about yourself during COVID?
After decades of office work in big cities, frequent travel, non-stop networking, and perpetual motion, turns out I am a home body. The quietude of a residential office, the 30-second commute, and lunch every day with the woman you love, are hard to beat.
The CTAM TAMI Award honors individuals for their leadership in addressing business challenges and creating opportunities for members to achieve greater impact by working together.
Business Services
Ensuring cable’s leading position in the Indirect Channel
Steve Gorman
Cox Business
Steve Gorman
Channel Marketing Manager
Cox Business
Ensuring cable’s leading position in the Indirect Channel
Industry Contribution
Steve Gorman recognizes exceptional leadership in important industry projects and has been instrumental to CTAM’s progress and success relative to Business Services initiatives, specifically in the Indirect Channel Working Group. Steve consistently provides impactful contributions and helps lead the groups collaborative efforts with other MSOs and partners ensuring cables leading position in the Indirect Channel.
As Channel Marketing Manager at Cox Business, Steven is responsible for supporting the Channel Program and Carrier Sales teams. He has the primary responsibility develop go to market strategies including branding, recruitment, sales enablement, and lead generation campaigns that directly impact sales revenue growth. Steve has over 20 years of experience in marketing leadership positions across a wide array of verticals
Congratulatory Videos
John Muscarella
Executive Director, National Indirect Sales Channel
Cox Business
Lisa Majdi
Executive Director of Marketing
Cox Business
Dalyn Wertz
Executive Director, Indirect Program Management & Marketing
Comcast Business
Fun Fact:
My favorite movie or TV show of all time is . . .
Crazy People
Business Services
Expanding the success of the Indirect Channel Group and its programs.
Chris Hebbard
Spectrum Business
Chris Hebbard
Sr. Marketing Manager
Spectrum Business
Creating new marketing communications, training and partner programs
Industry Contribution
A driving force behind the success of the Indirect Channel Group, Chris’s unyielding push to grow the Channel program leads to successful collaboration among all the MSOs. Chris and his team continue to challenge previous goals, consistently adding creative new marketing communications, training and partner programs while helping to grow cable’s success in the Indirect Channel.
Chris Hebbard leads Marketing strategy for Spectrum Business’ Strategic Sales channels, comprised of Indirect, Reseller and National Accounts segments. Chris is responsible for developing and executing Spectrum’s go to market strategy through branding, lead generation and sales enablement. With 15+ years of experience in cable, his experience in partner marketing drives revenue through the creation of new opportunities and strengthening relationships.
Congratulatory Videos
Amy Kim
Senior Director of Marketing
Spectrum Business
Dalyn Wertz
Executive Director, Indirect Program Management & Marketing
Comcast Business
Fun Fact:
What was one skill or new thing you learned about yourself during COVID?
I have taken my experience with Grubhub/Uber Eats to a new level.
Customer Retention
Optimizing the customer lifecycle and developing retention programs to maintain and grow subscriptions
Tony Maldonado
Cox Communications
Tony Maldonado
Vice President of Consumer Marketing Strategy
Cox Communications
Development of valuable retention insights, discussion and best practices
Industry Contribution
A bedrock for the industry’s retention best practices efforts since the group’s founding in 2014, Tony’s insights, clear findings and thoughtful questions help others assess the applicability of programs and practices for their own companies. Tony proactively offers topics of interest that help focus CTAM’s work, generating valuable discussion and insights. He contributes his time and talents shaping agendas and joint initiatives. He is always willing to share best practices, both successes and hard lessons learned. Tony has been a CTAM stalwart since 1996 fueling efforts ranging from the early days of the Mover Marketing program to the founding of the Marketing Sciences Working Group.
Tony manages the Cox residential business through the full customer lifecycle from new customer acquisition and onboarding through customer base management and retention in order to maximize enterprise customer lifetime value. Over his 21-year career at Cox, he has also led marketing sciences, Cox business marketing, marketing communications, brand marketing and multi-cultural marketing all at the enterprise level.
“Tony’s mantra is “retention is a team sport” and that every employee and functional team plays a part in retention. He helps share that every customer interaction or touch point either adds or detracts from a customers’ loyalty. This sensibility combined with keen data driven approach to retention understanding and decision making makes him a fantastic leader.”
Jodi Muller-Stotser, Executive Director, Retention Strategy, Cox“Tony – congratulations on this well-deserved achievement. You’ve done so much to move the needle when it comes to our Retention Marketing strategy and Multi-Cultural sectors of our business – not only are you helping to pave the way here at Cox, but I know you’re an industry leader that will continue to elevate us all.”
Boone Hand, VP, Retention, CoxCongratulatory Videos
Jason Axsom
Executive Director of Lifecycle and Mover Consumer Marketing
Cox Communications
Kristine Faulkner
Vice President, Operations/New Business
Cox Business
Fun Fact:
What was your first job?
My first real job was a bus boy and I thought I would get fired when I dropped and broke a glass after a month. That was the only thing I broke all summer!
Anti-Piracy
Leading consumer-centric efforts to address the $50B+ threat of content theft
Alfred Perry
AMC Networks, Inc.
Alfred Perry
Vice President, Intellectual Property Protection and S&P
AMC Networks, Inc.
Guiding the messaging and tone of anti-piracy education and site content on StreamSafely.com
Industry Contribution
Al has been instrumental to our progress and success relative to CTAM’s anti-piracy and password-sharing initiatives. He provides insights and guidance to refine the messaging and tone of anti-piracy education on StreamSafely.com. He is current and well-versed on piracy and password sharing news, often providing deeper background on audience intelligence findings, and regularly offers meaningful suggestions to improve site content and to help the working group relate news to content opportunities.
Al Perry was born and raised in North Carolina but considers himself a native New Yorker. After graduating from Yale Law School, Al worked as a Wall Street lawyer and lived in NYC. He has lived in Los Angeles since 1998 and has worked at AMC Networks since 2014. At AMC, Al oversees anti-piracy, content security, S&P and content cultural sensitivity. Before Covid, he traveled the world extensively and enthusiastically.
Congratulatory Videos
Sean Ryan
VP, Digital Strategy
i.e. network
Fun Fact:
What was one skill or new thing you learned about yourself during COVID?
Learned to deal in modern art.
Past TAMI Award Honorees
Past Beacon Award Winners
Leigh Woisard SVP, Public Affairs, Cox Communications received the 2020 CTAM Beacon Award for communications excellence. The award spotlights communications executives for extraordinary accomplishments, innovative thinking and inspiring excellence in others. This year’s Beacon showcases a leader who distinguished themselves by successfully navigating communications efforts during COVID-19.
“At a time when the community was struggling to adapt to life at home, Leigh quickly established new, innovative ways for Cox to effectively communicate through the crisis,” said Vicki Lins, president & CEO, CTAM. “It’s a pleasure and honor to acknowledge her extraordinary communications efforts during a time of uncertainty.”
CTAM is pleased to announce that the recipient for the 2019 CTAM Beacon Award for Communications Excellence is Quentin Schaffer, former Executive Vice President, Corporate Communications at HBO with an extraordinary 39-year tenure at the company. The award, established by the CTAM Communications Steering Council, spotlights communications executives for extraordinary accomplishments, while exemplifying the pillars of communications and public relations excellence. The Council selected Schaffer as a bow to his impressive career, stellar expertise, professionalism and reciprocal relationship with the press that paved the way for HBO’s tremendous success.
“Quentin played a vital role establishing cable’s reputation for excellence in original programming,” said Vicki Lins, CEO, CTAM “It’s an honor to acknowledge his remarkable accomplishments in the field of communications.”
Schaffer joined HBO as a senior publicist in 1980 and rose to executive leadership where he pioneered the first premiere of a TV show in a theater with Sex and the City in 1999. As one of the originators of HBO’s Emmy campaigns, he led publicity for landmark series Game of Thrones, The Sopranos, The Wire and many more. Most recently, he helped facilitate the launch of HBO Now with Apple.
CTAM is pleased to announce that the recipient of the 2018 CTAM Beacon Award for Communications Excellence is Chris LaPlaca, senior vice president, corporate communications, ESPN. The award, established by the CTAM Communications Steering Council, spotlights communications executives for extraordinary accomplishments, while exemplifying the pillars of communications and public relations excellence. The Council selected LaPlaca as a bow to his impressive career, spanning 38 years.
“Chris LaPlaca is just as good as it gets for our function, our industry and – most importantly – as a person, all of which make him the perfect choice for the first CTAM Beacon Award,” said Jim Maiella, SVP and co-head of corporate communications for AMC Networks. “His leadership of a dynamic team of highly achieving communicators at ESPN, across a broad array of activities and business opportunities over many years, has been remarkable. Yet, he still finds the time to be a trusted friend and ally for so many of us focused on driving results at our own companies through our shared function and expertise. We couldn’t be more pleased to present him with this well-deserved recognition.”
Rob, thank you for all that you’ve done for our industry. You are a true pro, gentleman and a really good human! You’ll be missed my friend!
Leigh, Thanks so much for your gracious words. I deeply appreciate your partnership and friendship over the years. Your leadership has been an inspiration to me, and your great representation of Cox and the industry have made you a role model for so many. Thanks for your amazing contributions to CTAM.
Congratulations Rob! For decades, you have served as a role model to countless communications professionals in our industry. On behalf of all the people you have inspired and taught over your storied career, I say thank you!
Tom, thanks so much for congratulations — high praise coming from you. I value our wonderful collaboration on so many initiatives, and your commitment to our industry’s success is unsurpassed. it’s been a true pleasure working with you. I know you will keep up the good fight!
Congratulations to all these thought leaders as honorees! Very well deserved recognition from an outstanding organization!
Congratulations Steve! Definitely well deserved. So proud of you and thank you for your many incredible contributions to our channel program and the cable channel as a whole! Keep up the amazing work!
Congratulations Steve!!!!
I don’t know anyone more deserving and am so happy to get to work with you on a day to day basis! We are so fortunate to have you on our team!
Congrats to all of this year’s winners! Well deserved and we appreciate all your hard work.
Congratulations to all of the honorees!
Steve, you’re the best. Congrats on your TAMI Award. Your efforts and commitment to the Channel are so critical. It’s a pleasure to work with you.
Congratulations Chris Hebbard. This is well deserved. Your hard work and dedication pays off!
Chris – Spectrum is fortunate to have you on our team. This is a well deserved recognition. Congratulations to you and all the honorees!
Congratulations Chris. Our team is lucky to have you!
Congratulations Rob Stoddard and thank you for all you have done for our industry. Your strategic insights and strong advocacy have made a difference not just for our companies but for the Country as well. Well done. Thank you also for your personal kindness to me in every interaction.
Peter, I’m touched by your words, as I look up to you on so many fronts. Thank you for all your amazing and insightful guidance over the years. Much of your work has formed the bedrock for our industry-wide efforts at CTAM and NCTA. I deeply appreciate your friendship and collaboration.
Congratulations to all the TAMI winners! Well done and thanks for your industry excellence and leadership.