Diverse Industries, Yes, Diverse Panelists, No

Cable World, April 4, 2005

By Simon Applebaum

This week's National Show general session panelists run the gamut from Comcast CEO Brian Roberts and Vulcan chairman Paul Allen to NBC Universal chairman and CEO Bob Wright and Sprint COO Len Lauer. A formidable lineup to be sure. But one that's sadly lacking any women and featuring only one person of color (Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang).

NCTA says it asked women to be panelists at the general sessions. Hewlett-Packard chairman and CEO Carly Fiorina accepted, but "she lost her job," says Mark Bell, NCTA's senior director of industry affairs. And eBay CEO Meg Whitman declined a request to be a general session panelist. Additionally, CNBC anchorwoman Maria Bartiromo will moderate the closing general session.

Although there is a lack of diversity at the general sessions, women and people of color are prominently featured at the breakout forums, NCTA communications SVP Rob Stoddard points out.

Perhaps if National Show organizers had dusted off our "50 Most Influential Minorities in Cable" (Sept. 20) and "50 Most Influential Women in Cable" (Nov. 8) issues, things might have been different. We'd like to suggest four executives--not a white male among them--who'd bring star power to any general session panel: BET's Debra Lee, BendBroadband's Amy Tykeson, MTV's Judy McGrath and National Geographic Channel's Laureen Ong.

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