Looking to build your leadership skills? Looking to drive change in your organization? In this interactive session, you’ll learn tips on how to lead in a way that inspires and influences others. That’s a critical skill to have during this time of historic change in the media industry. This session’s panel will share the best leadership lessons they’ve learned throughout their careers. They’ll also help answer your leadership questions.
Panelists: Bob Bicknell, Sarah Burke, Chris Kolk, Chad Matthews, Jesse Rodriguez, Stacy Sullivan
BOB BICKNELL is the senior executive producer for CBS Newspath – CBS News, a satellite news gathering organization, which provides news and information to 200-plus CBS affiliates nationwide and to broadcasters around the world. Previously, Bicknell was a senior producer and producer for Newspath, writing and producing correspondent coverage of breaking news, including the 2012 presidential campaigns and election night. During his 18 years at CBS, he also served as senior producer/managing editor of “The Early Show” and senior producer for “CBS News Up to the Minute,” formerly the network’s overnight news broadcast. He began his career at CBS writing, producing and editing for “Up to the Minute,” while concurrently filing daily as the nationally syndicated technology reporter for KYW-AM in Philadelphia. Bicknell is a graduate of the University of Delaware. He lives in New Jersey with his partner, son and daughter.
SARAH BURKE is a writer and editor based in Brooklyn, NY. Her work focuses on art, identity, social justice, technology, and the intersections therein. She is currently Identity Editor at VICE, where she has led award-winning projects such as the Gender Spectrum Collection and the Trans Legends oral history archive. She is also co-host and creator of the Ellie-nominated podcast, “Queerly Beloved.”
CHRIS KOLK is senior manager of diversity recruiting and talent assessment at Verizon Media. He’s a member of the board of directors for the Santa Cruz Diversity Center, a member of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB)’s Diversity & Inclusion Task Force, Out in Tech’s Quoporate Council, as well as the Silicon Valley LGBTQ Employee Resource Group High Tech Alliance.
CHAD MATTHEWS is the vice president and news director at WABC Eyewitness News New York. A 12-year veteran of WABC, Matthews previously worked as assistant news director. He has also worked at NBC Miami, where he was assistant news director. Matthews oversees all news gathering and presentation of local news across all of the WABC’s platforms.
JESSE RODRIGUEZ (he/him) is the New York-based director of booking for MSNBC, focusing on the channel’s weekday morning show, “Morning Joe,” daytime hours of news coverage and primetime programming. Before joining the “Morning Joe” team, he was a booking producer on MSNBC’s “The Dylan Ratigan Show” for two years following his time as a planning producer for MSNBC’s daytime news, where he coordinated daily coverage of the 2008 presidential election. He started at NBC News in 2007 as an assignment editor on the network’s national news assignment desk. Before that, Rodriguez was with CBS’s Miami affiliate WFOR-TV as the weeknight assignment editor. Rodriguez was instrumental in breaking the news of Fidel Castro’s 2006 transfer of power to his brother Raul Castro, leading the station to be the first English-language news organization to break the story. Rodriguez is the 2002 Hispanic Heritage Youth Awards national winner for Literature and Journalism. He attended Florida International University, where he studied international relations. He is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and NLGJA.
STACY SULLIVAN is community relations and events director for the Phoenix media group. At The Republic, he’s also led news, features, audience development and social teams. In his current role, Sullivan organizes live storytelling nights and other events that support the newsroom’s work. He also manages fundraising and grant-making efforts, distributing more than $2.1 million in charitable giving. In 2019, he was named one of the network’s “Unsung Heroes” for his leadership work in Phoenix and at USA TODAY NETWORK sites in Florida and Louisiana before that. Sullivan is a graduate of the University of Louisiana at Monroe.
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