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!
Katina Papas Wachter/Roku:
Katina Papas Wachter leads Roku’s strategy and monetization efforts for The Roku Channel. Prior to joining Roku, Katina accumulated more than a decade of experience in TV/video media buying at Dentsu and connected TV ad sales at YuMe. Today, she continues to help brands navigate the TV streaming space and leverage The Roku Channel to reach new audiences and drive meaningful value for the brand and viewer alike.
What her colleagues are saying:
"Katina has a sharp wit and operates with a constant growth mindset for herself, her team and for the company. She seamlessly translates how The Roku Channel can help marketers tap into new and creative ways to reach consumers in TV streaming and her leadership efforts have established The Roku Channel as a key pillar of Roku's ad offering. We are lucky to have her!" – Rob Holmes, vice president of programming at Roku
"Katina has directly had a massive influence on the growth of Roku’s ad business and we are extremely lucky to have her guiding successful monetization around The Roku Channel. She is an exemplary cross functional partner, tackles challenges and uncertainty head-on and anyone that works with her knows she is a pleasure to work with!" – Alison Levin, vice president global ad revenue and marketing solutions at Roku
Streaming Industry Q&A:
What streaming services do you subscribe to?
The Roku Channel, which doesn't require a subscription 😉, but outside of that I enjoy different content across Netflix, Hulu and Disney+.
Describe your biggest career highlight so far.
I'm fortunate to have had many incredible once-a-career moments at Roku, but recent highlights for me have been contributing to the Quibi and This Old House content acquisitions. It has been so rewarding to get the opportunity to get closer to the content side of our business, meet a lot of new smart people with great ideas and bring our ad partners in for this exciting journey.
What has been your biggest career learning experience?
It’s more about people than the product. By that I mean, it is important to make sure everyone you are working with feels empowered and appreciated in what they do. You spend an extraordinary amount of time with your co-workers, so it’s important to establish respectful relationships and create a culture where your team is excited and believes in the work you’re doing.
What's next for you in terms of new challenges in streaming TV?
I think that 2020 was really the year of SVOD, with so many great new services like Discovery+, HBO Max, Paramount+ and more launching. This year and beyond, I think we are going to see more focus in the market on AVOD as consumers begin to make decisions about which services they are willing to pay for and which ones they want to watch via an ad supported model. For me this means, learning fast and constantly asking myself how to continue building bigger and better engagement and experiences for advertisers within The Roku Channel.