Cablefax The Magazine December 2022 - 25

Eileen Diskin
SVP & CMO
Comcast Business
Comcast Business is one of the
Elaine Partridge
VP, Special Projects &
eCommerce
Vexus Fiber
largest contributors to the growth
of Comcast Cable. This year Diskin
led a new 10-year sponsorship of
the PGA Tour and a partnership
with CNBC, and her team played a key role in companywide
efforts to support low-income and underrepresented
communities through the Lift Zones and Comcast
RISE programs.
I grew up with many brothers-my father
always treated me like one of the boys. As a
result, I'm comfortable being the only woman in
the room-if anything, it further motivates me to show up,
sit at the table and take a leadership position. In my more
than 20 years at Comcast, I have always enjoyed a level
playing field with my male counterparts. "
Partridge's reputation as a
problem solver through 25
years in the industry continues
as she leads major
fiber-to-the-home expansion
efforts at Vexus, where she also oversees e-commerce,
project planning, customer analytics and
programming. To boot, this year she was also elected
board chair for NCTC-the first female since the mid1990s.
Who
would I like to have dinner with? A
night to remember would be to spend an
evening with Adele in an English Pub
listening to her accent, amazing singing voice and
humor while enjoying a pint or two. "
Women's Advancement Champion
When your entire career revolves
around championing women, there
is the risk of burning out-particularly
when progress isn't made at
the speed you want or a door closes.
But 13 years after joining The WICT
Network as President and CEO, Maria
Brennan is still on fire to create strong
women leaders in the industry.
" What a gift it is to feel like I am
contributing something to make the
world a little bit better than it was
when I found it. Because when I
found it, it was not nearly as friendly
to women, I assure you that. Almost all
of us of a certain age have a 'me too'
story or several. It's really an exciting
time to be in the gender diversity
space, because being a feminist is not
a whisper anymore, " she says. " We see
some of the most vocal men in the world wearing feminist
T-shirts and in support of feminism. That's exciting. How
can you not be jazzed about that every day? "
Brennan comes by the spirit of optimism honestly-and
through some of her heroes. Earlier in her career when
she was with American Women in Radio and Television,
she found herself in a café in New York City enjoying a
two-and-half-hour lunch with Gloria Steinem. " I couldn't
believe how completely optimistic and positive she was
about everything in the universe, " recalls Brennan. " She
was like, 'look at what organizations like AWRT and WICT
Network are doing.' She was just very optimistic about
what would be and could be. "
As the leader of the industry's association dedicated to
women executives, it may seem rather obvious to deem
Brennan as our Women's Advancement Champion. But
this honor is in recognition of how she marshaled the reCablefaxWomen.com
sources
and programs needed to make
sure women knew they weren't alone
as they navigated the pandemic and
Maria Brennan
President, CEO
The WICT Network
'she-cession.' She led the organization to
double down on communications with
chapters, stakeholders, sponsors and
others and to continue evolving critical
development opportunities. As if that
wasn't enough, she guided the organization
through a census of member
companies that paved the way for the
name change-from " Women in Cable
Telecommunications " to " The WICT
Network, " with the tagline " Empowering
Women in Media, Entertainment and
Technology. "
The fruits of Brennan's 25 years of working
at gender diversity could be seen in
the latest WICT Network PAR Survey,
which found representation of women in
the industry was up 5% to 38% since 2019, despite being
highly impacted in employment by the pandemic. Women
made up 47% of all new hires in media, technology
and entertainment, a 15% boost from three years ago.
Women of color in the workforce jumped 6% since 2019,
with the percentage of women of color going up in professional
and managerial positions by 8% and executive/
senior positions by 3%.
All this time in the diversity space has taught Brennan
that women in general are huge champions for other
women, and she's proud to be a part of that. " Women are
so uniquely built to support one another when it comes
to this network that we build, " she says. " The thing that I
love about The WICT Network is this level of camaraderie
and loyalty to one another as well as to the industry.
I think the most successful women I've seen love the
industry as much as they appreciate one another. "
December 2022
25
http://www.CablefaxWomen.com
Cablefax The Magazine December 2022

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