SMPTE Introduces 2022 Leadership

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — March 22, 2022 — SMPTE^®, the home of media professionals, technologists, and engineers, today introduced the board officers, regional governors, and governors-at-large serving terms on the SMPTE Board of Governors in 2022, as well as the standards, education, and membership directors appointed to serve in 2022. This leadership group will welcome SMPTE's next executive director, continue to reimagine how professionals access engineering documents and articles and guide the Society in providing ongoing value and service to the industry.

"It's exciting to see the Society's leadership evolving to better reflect and represent SMPTE's membership and the greater motion-imaging and media community," said SMPTE President Hans Hoffmann. "Addressing the interests and needs of this diverse community is an important part of keeping SMPTE a relevant and valuable entity in supporting the industry. The Society's 2022 SMPTE Board of Governors brings fresh perspectives to our work in empowering the industry to overcome creative and technical challenges and to build new innovations together."

New SMPTE Officers
Renard Jenkins, senior vice president, production integration and creative technology services at Warner Bros./WarnerMedia, has been appointed SMPTE executive vice president. Jenkins is splitting the 2021-22 term with Patricia Keighley of IMAX, and following one year as executive vice president. Rose Lockwood, global account director at Belden, has been appointed SMPTE membership vice president for the 2022-23 term and will succeed Jenkins, who was the former membership vice president.

"As we move into 2022, we'll continue to look at the Society as a whole and our strategy for keeping SMPTE relevant as the technology and industry continues to change at breakneck speed," said Jenkins. "Being the first African American in the SMPTE EVP role, I'm eager to continue the work of casting a wider net with my SMPTE colleagues to make the Society a truly more inclusive environment where everyone feels welcome."

SMPTE also welcomes Florian Schleich, senior software engineer, media systems, at Netflix, elected as SMPTE standards vice president, and congratulates Paul Stechly, president at Applied Electronics, in his reelection to the office of SMPTE finance vice president. Both will be serving 2022-23 terms. They join 2021-22 officers Hans Hoffmann (president), Patrick Griffis (past president), John Ferder (secretary/treasurer), and Michael Zink (education vice president).

New SMPTE Regional Governors
For the 2022-23 term, the Society has elected eight regional governors.

Asia-Pacific Region
Michael Day, Project Management Lead for Professional Media at Telstra Australia

Canada Region
Troy English, CTO and SVP of Product Development at Ross Video Group

Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Central South American Region
Dagmar Driesnack, Solution Manager at Rohde & Schwarz

USA-Eastern Region
David Long, Director/Associate Professor at Rochester Institute of Technology

USA-Hollywood Region
Kylee Peña, Manager of Creative Technologies Program Management at Netflix

USA-New York Region
Jeff Cohen, Director of Sales at Domo Broadcast Systems
Thomas Mauro, Freelance Media Consultant

USA-Southern Region
Frank Torbert, Director of Technology at WKMG-Graham Media Group

USA-Western Region
Chris Lennon, Office of the CTO: Director of Standards Strategy at Ross Video Group

Governors-at-Large
For the 2022 term, the SMPTE Board has appointed four governors-at-large.

Chaitanya Chinchlikar, Vice President & Business Head, Chief Technology Officer & Head of Emerging Media at Whistling Woods International

Eric Gsell, Staff Engineer at Dolby Laboratories

Jim Helman, CTO at MovieLabs

Rich Welsh, Senior VP of Innovation at Deluxe

SMPTE Education, Membership, and Standards Directors
The SMPTE leadership team includes a total of 15 directors for 2022: SMPTE Education Directors Polly Hickling, Peter Ludé, Liz Pieri, Jaclyn Pytlarz, and Iris Wu; SMPTE Membership Directors Zandra Clarke, Sally Hubbard, Chris Lapp, Ian MacSpadden, and John Shike; and SMPTE Standards Directors Dean Bullock, Bruce Devlin, Sally Hattori, Thomas Kernen, and Pierre-Anthony Lemiuex.

Biographies for all SMPTE officers, governors, and directors are available on the SMPTE website. More information about SMPTE is online at smpte.org.