Tamara Bowens
Vice President, Field Marketing, Spectrum Enterprise
Tamara S. Bowens serves as Vice President- Field Marketing for Spectrum Enterprise. In this role, Ms. Bowens is responsible for lead generation, campaign execution, sales incentives, national & local sponsorships and events. She also has marketing responsibility for NaviSite U.S. & NaviSite UK, including direct & indirect channel marketing, lead generation and sales incentives.
Ms. Bowens came to Charter Communications via its merger with Time Warner Cable where she served as Senior Director- Customer Lifecycle Marketing & Experience for Time Warner Cable Business Class. In this role, Ms. Bowens was responsible for management of the overall customer lifecycle including onboarding, revenue maintenance & growth, customer engagement & retention. Through the development of direct mail, e-mail and on-line campaigns for the Business Class customer base, Ms. Bowens was responsible for driving revenue through the inbound & outbound telesales channels. Additionally, she was also responsible for the end-to-end customer communications including bill messaging, legal notifications and product notifications.
Prior to joining Time Warner Cable Business Class, Ms. Bowens held senior level marketing positions with Cingular Wireless, GMAC Insurance, The Dawson Company and First Data including branding, CRM, product marketing, new technology development and external affairs.
Mrs. Bowens holds a bachelor of business administration with an emphasis in marketing from the University of Texas-Austin and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She is also actively involved with numerous arts & culture non-profit organizations including Free Arts NYC, the High Museum, and the Perez Museum.
PANELISTS
Sean McGrail
President & CEO, NESN
Sean McGrail has served as President and CEO of NESN (New England Sports Network) since May of 2000. Under McGrail’s leadership, NESN has been transformed into one of the most popular media services in New England, growing from a premium service with 400,000 subscribers to a standard service with over 4.2 million homes. The network is also distributed to over 5 million homes in over 85 DMAs outside New England as NESN National and is available everywhere with DirecTV and Dish Network. NESN also boasts a digital group that oversees NESN.com, the most visited RSN website in the country, and develops distinctive mobile apps and other product extensions.
Celebrating 30 years serving the fans of New England sports in 2014, NESN’s award-winning Red Sox and Bruins coverage consistently garners higher average prime time ratings than any Boston area broadcast network and consistently ranks among the most watched and highest rated regional sports networks in the country. In 2013, Forbes Magazine ranked NESN as the eighth Most Valuable Sports Business Brand in the world.
McGrail engineered NESN’s 2006 relocation to the NESN Television Center in Watertown, MA, considered one of the leading regional sports network facilities in the country. The move also made NESN the first regional sports network in the country to originate every game and studio show in high definition.
In addition to his work at NESN, McGrail also serves on the Boards of Roush Fenway Racing and The Red Sox Foundation.
Roush Fenway Racing is one of the largest and most successful teams in NASCAR, fielding multiple teams in the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series. For over twenty-five years, Roush Fenway Racing has been committed to performance, having won 31 championships and more than 400 races in drag racing, sports car and stock car racing.
The Red Sox Foundation is the official team charity of the Boston Red Sox. The Foundation’s primary focus is in serving the health, education, recreation, and social service needs of children and families in need across New England by harnessing the passion fans have for the Red Sox and transforming it into a vehicle for positive change in the New England community.
A Worcester, Massachusetts native, McGrail graduated from Northeastern University and earned an MBA from Boston University. He began his career at Continental Cablevision before joining NESN’s marketing department in 1985.
McGrail resides in Hopkinton, Massachusetts with his wife Judy and two sons.
Justin Connolly
Executive VP Affiliate Sales & MArketing, Disney & ESPN Media Networks
Justin Connolly – executive vice president, affiliate sales and marketing for Disney and ESPN Media Networks – oversees all aspects of domestic distribution, affiliate marketing and affiliate-related business operations for Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, ESPNEWS, ESPN Deportes, ESPNU, ESPN Classic, ESPN Goal Line, ESPN Buzzer Beater, ESPN Bases Loaded, Freeform, Longhorn Network, SEC Network, and related WATCH authenticated products, HDTV, video-on-demand, and interactive television as well as retransmission consent agreements for The Walt Disney Company’s eight-owned ABC stations. Based in Bristol and New York, Connolly reports to John Skipper (president, ESPN and co-chairman, Disney Media Networks) and Ben Sherwood (president, Disney/ABC Television Group and co-chairman, Disney Media Networks).
Most recently, Connolly served as senior vice president, college networks and was responsible for setting the strategic direction, overseeing content acquisition and scheduling, and working collaboratively with all ESPN business units to maximize distribution, viewership and revenue opportunities for Longhorn Network and SEC Network. Under his direction, SEC Network was the most successful network launch in cable history.
Prior to his work with the college networks, Connolly served as senior vice president, national accounts for Disney & ESPN Media Networks. He was responsible for all domestic distribution and licensing efforts for The Walt Disney Company’s linear networks, broadband and VOD content within the Media Networks Group. His team worked to negotiate distribution agreements with all of the cable, satellite and IPTV distributors throughout the country. Connolly also worked to develop and implement sales strategies for all of the domestic linear networks as well as the new digital media products and services.
Since joining ESPN in 2003, Connolly has served in various capacities including director, strategy and operations (July 2003-July 2004) where he helped ESPN with its long-term affiliate negotiations. He was promoted to vice president, distribution strategy (August 2004-October 2005), where his duties included the development of pricing and packaging strategies while also participating in negotiating the distribution agreements involving Disney and ESPN assets.
Prior to joining ESPN, Connolly worked in the corporate finance group for The Walt Disney Company’s corporate treasury department in Burbank, Calif.
Connolly – a Boston native and Sports Business Journal 40 Under 40 Hall of Fame inductee – graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics in 1998 and earned an MBA from Harvard Business School in 2003.