Public Media Infrastructure has named Dave Williams as its first CTO.
PMI is the nonprofit founded by five public media organizations under a five-year grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, one of CPB’s final acts.
The founders are American Public Media Group, the National Federation of Community Broadcasters, New York Public Radio, PRX and the Station Resource Group.
Jeannie Ericson began as its CEO in August.
“PMI’s goal is ambitious and urgent,” Ericson said in a press release.
“In a post-CPB, post-satellite world, we need to future-proof public media’s infrastructure and fuel innovation around revenue, distribution and operations, allowing stations of all sizes to keep doing the critical work of serving their communities.”
PMI said Dave Williams has experience “leading digital and infrastructure transformation for Fortune 500 companies, federal agencies and middle-market organizations across sectors including media, financial services, healthcare, aerospace and energy.”
It said he has had consulting leadership roles as an associate partner at McKinsey & Company, built service offerings as a director at RSM, led cloud and cybersecurity practices at New Light Tech, and “delivered enterprise transformations” for organizations including LPL Financial, Boeing/Jeppesen, the Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Navy.
Ericson said Williams “understands what it takes to build a foundation for a federated system of independent stations.”
The organization wants to move public media “toward a shared, scalable digital infrastructure built with the needs of local stations at the center.”
It quoted Williams saying, “Moments of disruption can become opportunities for innovation with the right vision, a smart application of technology and a genuine commitment to collaboration.”
Part of his job will be to develop systems to replace satellite distribution.
When CPB issued its grant, it said the money would go toward “sustaining public media’s interconnection services and positioning the system for the future,” including nterconnection services to public stations through platforms like PRX’s Dovetail, while also expanding capabilities in digital content distribution, audience measurement and sponsorship technology.
