Introducing The iTV Doctor: Profiles - Joan Gillman, President of Media Sales at Time Warner Cable (Part 1 of 2)

Dear Readers:

As we have noted previously, it is our continuing mission to explore interactive television on a variety of levels: the product itself, the technology that enables it, the companies that drive it, and now the people who make it happen. This week, backed by a sponsorship from the good people at HSN, we bring you part 1 of a 2-part profile of Joan Gillman, president of media sales at Time Warner Cable.

I met with Joan in her 39th floor digs at 1633 Broadway (familiar stomping grounds for me, given my 12-year stint with Showtime Networks). And while I have sat across a conference table with Joan on occasion, and nodded acknowledgement at trade shows, I've never had the chance just to talk with her. And more importantly, listen to her (something my wife points out that I do with increasing infrequency).

So listen I did, for nearly an hour. And when we were done, I was the one who was out of breath! A petite powerhouse, Joan demonstrates a crackling intelligence and an apparent unwillingness to back down from a
fight that would be intimidating in any kind of negotiation. And Joan exhibited that energy and assurance very early on in her career.

A pre-med student at Holy Cross, Joan opted to delay entry into post-graduate medicine in favor of an entry-level job on Capitol Hill, working in Connecticut freshman senator Chris Dodd's office. Starting with phone calls from constituents, she moved rapidly into the policy side of the office. Dodd was a mentor who was not afraid to give talented people the opportunity to push as far and as fast as they could. And these were heady times in Dodd's Washington office. The Iran-Contra scandal broke in Joan's second year, and Dodd publicly (and maybe foolishly for a freshman Senator) took on an extremely popular president, in the person of Ronald Reagan, on the issue of funding for the Contras . We all know how it ended, with a stain on Reagan's reputation (and a radio talk show for Oliver North), but Dodd's office had to deal with death threats, maximum security and screaming phone calls from the public (Joan was not particularly amused at my observation about that being good training for someone in the cable television business...).

Joan worked as Dodd's deputy press secretary within 18 months on the job, and rapidly ascended to legislative director, overseeing Dodd's legislative efforts in education, labor and science funding for research. Along the way, she acquired a masters in legislative affairs from The George Washington University, got married and moved back to Connecticut.

After two years in Dodd's Connecticut office, Joan made the decision to go into business in 1995, jumping to the Internet with Physicians' Online. A private B2B firm, Physicians' Online provided information, education and even a bit of early ecommerce to member doctors. It was uncharted waters, which appealed to Joan's relish of adventure. She had to establish a new (pre-html) technology, market the product to potential members, and make it easy to use (emphasis added). And when the partners wanted to get coverage in the Wall Street Journal, Joan ran into a policy that frowned upon stories about private companies. So (remember the comment about not backing down from a fight) Joan offered to serve up to the Journal Physicians' Online members' opinions on critical medical issues of the day. And, rather obviously, after a few months, the Journal ran a feature. Shortly after that, Physicians' Online was acquired for the first time, and is now essentially the B2B component of Web MD.

However, in 1997 Joan's husband was transferred to London. And that's where the story gets interesting. Joan, in her own words, "had gotten good at getting jobs." So she networked. Found a friend at HBO (from her Chris Dodd days) who sent her resume to Mark Booth, CEO of BSkyB. And, just like that, Joan Gillman was handling business development for British Interactive Broadcasting, the joint venture of BSkyB, British Telecom, Matshushita and HSBC (a consortium sometimes dubbed "the unholy alliance"). In that role she negotiated telephone backchannel agreements with BT, satellite bandwidth with BSkyB, ecommerce transaction with HSBC and dozens of commercial and advertising contracts for upwards of 40 interactive applications.

The British Interactive Broadcasting team created the "Red Button" that iTV developers on this side of the pond still envy. And Joan was on the executive team that had to commercialize the concept, from consumer research to on-screen usability, from product definition to pricing, terms and deal flow. They had to define what each of the colored remote control buttons would do, what on-screen navigation would feel like, and how to create standards that independent developers could follow (and if this sounds a tad "Canoe-ish," that's no accident). And Joan had to do her part in less than three years!

In 2001, Joan's husband got transferred stateside, and Joan found herself moving over to OpenTV (one of the largest suppliers to the joint venture). She lived in New York, and had direct reports for her Static2358 division in Mountain View, Paris and London. Joan's group built 40 applications for DISH Network (which uses the OpenTV platform to this day), and supplied casual games to DISH and other distributors through the PlayJam subsidiary. But when OpenTV was sold, Joan decided that change and her insane travel schedule was enough! She briefly settled down to build the family home in Westport, and did a bit of
political consulting on the side.

But it's when Joan took a marketing consulting gig at Time Warner in 2004 that our story takes a pause--to be resumed in the next installment of The iTV Doctor: PROFILES.

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The iTV Doctor is *Rick Howe*, who provides interactive television consulting services to programmers and advertisers. He is the recipient of a CTAM Tami Award for retention marketing and this year was nominated to Cable Pioneers. He is also the co-author of a patent for the use of multiscreen mosaics in EPG's. Endorsed by top cable and satellite distributors, "Dr" Howe still makes house calls, and the first visit is always free. His services include product development, distribution strategy and the development of low-cost interactive applications for rapid deployment across all platforms. Have a question for the iTV Doctor? Email him at itvdoctor@itvt.com