In celebration of International Women’s Day, a panel of five female entrepreneurs and business leaders discussed a range of issues, but focused mainly on women’s influence in the tech and media sectors.
The panel, titled “Women in Emerging Digital Media Leadership,” was assembled on March 8 at The Rye Arts Center and moderated by Suzanna Keith, a former city of Rye councilwoman and digital media disruptor with a long career in sales and marketing. The invited speakers had a variety of backgrounds, including a former chief marketing officer of MTV, the president of a media consulting agency, the CEO and founder of a popular website, a venture capitalist and the co-founder of a nonprofit organization.
Rye Arts Center on March 8 to discuss technology, gender and the media. From left, Suzanna Keith and
Kim Berns, of Rye, Johanna Zeilstra, of Mamaroneck, Tina Exharos, of Rye, Tiffany Pham, of New York City,
Shenan Reed and her daughter Charlotte, of Bronxville, Fran Hauser, of Bedford, and Debra Sanguenti, of
Rye. Photo courtesy Suzanna Keith
Despite their different backgrounds, all the panelists discussed different ways that the tech and media industries could improve to cater more to female consumers and be more appealing to interested female professionals.
The youngest member on the panel was Tiffany Pham, 29, the founder and CEO of the online community Mogul, which caters exclusively to female users as a platform to exchange ideas, post articles, and make personal and professional connections.
Pham comes from a family of journalists and media professionals, and mentioned feeling specifically inspired by her late grandmother who ran newspapers across Asia that opposed communist propaganda.
“I made a promise to her and my family that I was going to carry forth our family legacy of providing the information access to the world like she had,” Pham said.
Pham said she discovered that gap in information access while working in various film production and media jobs, and she realized that there weren’t many digital platforms that catered specifically to women, which is why she created Mogul, a company that now boasts 18 million unique users per week.
The panelists also discussed issues facing female producers of digital media content, and how it can be hard to be taken as seriously as their male colleagues.
Tina Exarhos, the former CMO of MTV, cited a “soulcrushing” incident beginning her career in her 20s when a male co-worker immediately dismissed an idea she put forth in a meeting, and told her she wasn’t creative.
Exarhos said that women need to develop the same “hubris” that men in the workplace have.
Shenan Reed, the president of MEC Digital, a media consulting company with clients such as Netflix, Vodafone and Paramount Pictures, highlighted the importance of creating flexible policies in order to keep talented and creative women in the workforce.
Reed was specifically frank about the need for companies to be accommodating to the needs of mothers in the workforce.
“Balance is [BS],” she said, referring to the balance between raising children and working full time.
