Founder and president of FanTrust Entertainment Strategies, Catherine Warren is a management consultant to the broadcast, distribution and digital media industries. Her work has influenced Fortune 500 clients, producers, portals, and game corporations, providing them with new ways to captivate audiences, build revenues, secure financing and capitalize on innovation in the context of outstanding strategic plans.

Catherine’s client work includes strategic initiatives for major broadcasters and content producers/distributors such as Alliance Atlantis, the NFB, CBC and PBS/KCTS; content portals, including Bell Canada, Nokia and Orange Telecom France; computer corporations such as Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft; as well as game and animation studios, Radical/Vivendi and Decode Entertainment. She has developed multi-year strategic plans for multi-billion dollar corporations, including BC Lotteries, and business partnerships for FanTrust clients with Google, CORUS, Miniclip, Bell and other industry giants as well as world-class audience strategies for television franchises such as CSI. Catherine has led the digital due diligence on M&A for major game and animation companies, including DHX Media. Start-up ventures that have retained Catherine’s expertise include the entertainment portals Azureus/Vuze — the massive traffic platform with 20M-plus users, and BroadbandTV — the video monetization solutions provider, as well as Stage 3 Media/Sanctuary — the multiplatform Sci-fi series producers.

Team Leadership & Organizational Management

Catherine has executive team management experience and has recruited, led and retained senior managers and line staff in public, private and non-profit environments. Formerly the Chief Operating Officer of Blue Zone, an international leader in uniting television with new media, she spearheaded significant convergence broadcasting deals and developed media creation/distribution/ monetization IP. Under Catherine’s leadership, this publicly traded Nasdaq company with a US$300 million market capitalization delivered broadcasters and producers new audiences and new revenue streams through innovative technology and distribution models and secured major deals with CTV, Fox and others.

Production & Publishing

An interactive media veteran, Catherine’s executive productions include the Gemini Award-winning CTVNEWS.com. Working in the United States, the United Kingdom, Western Europe and Canada for two decades, Catherine has published more than 25 books and magazine series for adults and children on science and computing as well as produced numerous award-winning Web sites and interactive broadcasts. As a journalist and columnist, she has reported on culture and science for leading dailies such as The Oregonian and magazines including New Statesman and NewScientist as well as written the weekly business humor column for The Vancouver Sun.

Board Directorships & Academic Affiliations

A board member of the national the Bell Broadcast & New Media Fund for more than a decade, Catherine’s leadership includes chairing the Communications Committee, identifying winning concepts for multiplatform broadcasting and awarding significant financing. The Bell Fund is among the preeminent influences on the production of interactive content for Canadian TV programming, with $100 million invested to date in English and French language productions. In 2006, Catherine joined Emily Carr University as its Chief Industry & Research Officer, responsible for innovative corporate and community partnerships. In 2007, Catherine was appointed to the international jury of the Emmy Awards with a focus on interactive excellence, and was recently elected to the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.  She is also a jury member for the Rose d’Or, Gemini and MIPTV Content 360 Awards. Catherine serves as an Executive Board Member of the United Nations flagship program World Summit Awards for digital media and also on the Board of the United Way Lower Mainland, Canada, elected June 2007, where she chairs the Advocacy & Public Policy Committee.

Awards & Recognition

Canada’s number one woman’s magazine Chatelaine, featured Catherine in their millennium cover story: “Heroines: 15 to watch,” acknowledging her for excellence in technology innovation. In addition to winning a Gemini for client site CTV news, Web sites produced by Catherine have won numerous prizes, including a Webby award, Macromedia citation and Cool Shopping acclaim. She is also the recipient of the prestigious US Correspondent’s Fund Award for coverage from CERN on the race between Europe and America in high-energy physics.

Education

Catherine has a degree in physics from Reed College in Portland, Oregon and a master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where she broke the story of multimedia on location at M.I.T.