The Fierce Video editorial team is proud to present its second annual Emerging Leaders Awards, recognizing the brightest young professionals rising up the ranks of the streaming TV industry. Throughout the months of May and June we’ll be featuring these profiles with each of our finalists. We will announce the winners during our StreamTV Show with an awards ceremony June 17 at 3:15 p.m. ET. Not yet registered for the StreamTV Show, running June 15-17? Be sure to register now and save your spot at this free virtual event!
Laura Wu/Beachfront:
Laura Wu is the head of strategy and operations at Beachfront, where she manages the strategic planning and execution of key innovation initiatives while overseeing the company’s marketing, revenue operations and human resource functions. Since joining Beachfront in 2019, Laura has helped reshape and redefine the company’s go-to-market strategy for its connected TV advertising solutions. Prior to Beachfront, Laura served in a variety of strategy and business operations roles at Verizon Media (Yahoo and Brightroll) and Gartner.
What her colleagues are saying:
“Laura is a committed team leader and consensus builder, relentlessly focused on improving our business’s focus, outcomes, and relationships with stakeholders. Always leading with integrity and empathy, Laura understands the value of having everyone pull in the same direction, and consistently drives alignment and execution across our business. Her tireless efforts and kindness play an invaluable role in moving our team forward while delivering value to clients and partners.” - Chris Maccaro, CEO at Beachfront
Streaming Industry Q&A:
What streaming services do you subscribe to?
Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max and Amazon Prime.
Describe your biggest career highlight so far.
I’ve been fortunate enough to be part of multiple organizations that have undergone transformational change, and I’ve managed teams through acquisitions, consolidations and restructures amidst a rapidly changing industry landscape. The highlight for me, however, has been joining Beachfront and growing the company from the ground up by driving groundbreaking innovation, building critical business infrastructure and solving hard problems for our clients and partners.
What has been your biggest career learning experience?
2020 was such a defining year. Navigating Beachfront — including our employees, our partners and the business overall —through the pandemic, remotely, with two young children at home, has been my biggest learning. This past year has taught me so much about leading with empathy, and I now have a whole new perspective of what is truly important and how to prioritize my time both personally and professionally.
What's next for you in terms of new challenges in streaming TV?
With so much incredible content being made available across so many platforms, the next challenge for streaming TV is to make viewers’ ad experiences more aligned to the high-quality content experience. This includes delivering more relevant and engaging ads to viewers, while lightening ad loads and cutting down on frequency issues. This is something we’re actively focused on at Beachfront, and while there is still a lot more work to be done as an industry, I'm excited to be part of it.