Events

Ross Biggam, ACT Director General

Ross Biggam has been Director General of the Association of Commercial Television in Europe (ACT) since 2000. After studying law at Exeter and Saarbrücken, Ross worked as Legal Adviser to the House of Lords EU Select Committee before joining ITV, the leading commercial television channel in the UK, where he held the position as Head of European Affairs.

Lucia Carta, Head of Business Affairs, Rights Division RTI, Mediaset

Lucia Carta heads the Business Affairs department at RTI (Mediaset) where she is responsible for handling all business affairs issues for the Rights Division, with a focus on acquisitions agreements for television series and feature films with US Major Studios and other content providers in Italy and worldwide. She also oversees international coproduction agreements and license agreements for the distribution of the Mediaset Italia international channel. Prior to joining Mediaset, she worked for ALI (Agenzia Letteraria Internazionale), the oldest literary agency in Italy where she negotiated and drafted agreements with authors and major publishing houses. Ms. Carta holds a Degree in Political Science, Comparative Law from the University of Milan and a post-graduate degree in Rights Management in the Media Industry.

Sahar Baghery, Head of International TV Formats & Contents at Eurodata TV Worldwide

Sahar Baghery manages a team of 25 people in charge of analyzing TV consumption and programming trends all around the world, from fiction to entertainment, kids programming and multiscreen strategies. Sahar Baghery graduated from the National School of Statistics and Economic Administration (ENSAE) and has a double Masters in Media and Communications Management from the London School of Economics (LSE) and the University of Southern California (USC). She previously worked with broadcasters in France and abroad such as the Walt Disney Company and Canal+ in Paris, NBC Entertainment and CNN International in Los Angeles, as well as Nielsen Media Research in London. In 2012, Sahar Baghery joined Eurodata TV Worldwide, Mediametrie's International department, which analyses the latest trends and provides audience results on TV programs broadcasted on more than 5500 channels on the 5 continents.

Stephen Flint, Director of Operations, Global Entertainment Production – FremantleMedia

Since 2011, as Director of Operations, Global Entertainment Production, Stephen works across FremantleMedia's wide catalogue of entertainment formats on production and commercial matters. In 2002, he joined FremantleMedia as Head of Brand Management to manage the roll out of Idol across the world. He started his media career at BMG Records (1991-1993) as a Financial Analyst before joining BSkyB as Head of Commercial Affairs, Sky One (1993-2002).

Laurine Garaude , Director of the TV Division, MIPTV, MIPCOM, Reed MIDEM

She was appointed Director of the TV Division at Reed Midem in 2009. She joined Reed MIDEM in 1993. Prior to Reed MIDEM, Laurine held various publishing positions at St Martin’s Press Inc. and Nathan Publishing Group. She holds a music degree from Yale University.

Jakob Mejlhede, Executive Vice President of Programming and Content Development, MTG

Jakob Mejlhede, was appointed as Executive Vice President of Programming and Content Development in March 2015 with responsibility for content acquisition, programming and development for MTG’s Nordic on and offline pay-TV businesses, and group-wide online free-TV businesses. The role also includes format sourcing and co-productions. He joined MTG in 2005 and became Senior Vice President of Acquisitions & Programming in 2009. He also became Chief Content Officer of the Group’s digital accelerator MTGx in 2014. Jakob previously worked as Programme Director for SBS TV in Denmark and as Executive Producer for TV2 Denmark. Jakob has a journalism degree from the Danish School of Media and Journalism.

David Wheeldon, Director of Policy and Public Affairs, Sky

David Wheeldon is Sky’s Director of Policy and Public Affairs. He looks after group public policy, government relations and industry engagement in the UK and Europe across all of Sky’s business areas including its linear TV channels, satellite platform, home communications products and mobile TV services. He has extensive current policy expertise in media and technology, and formerly had overall responsibility for Sky’s sustainability strategy and for Sky's initiatives to inspire customers and staff in sports, arts, environment and schools. Prior to joining Sky in 2007, David had a similar role at the London Stock Exchange Group where he had responsibility for public policy affecting listed companies, equities trading and the capital markets.