Vinnie Curren is the principal of Breakthrough Public Media Consulting. Breakthrough helps public media companies navigate today’s dynamic and competitive media world. Breakthrough’s primary client for the past few years has been the Public Media Venture Group. In that role, Curren works with PMVG members to plan their transition to NextGen TV and develop business and service models that leverage the expanded capabilities of the new technology. Prior to forming Breakthrough Public Media Consulting, Curren served as Chief Operating Officer of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a position that he held for nearly a decade. Curren had overall responsibility for managing CPB’s policy, grant-making and station support activities, with the objective of ensuring that all Americans receive robust public media services for free and commercial-free. Prior to being named COO, Curren was CPB’s Senior Vice President for Radio.

 

Curren has been a major market station general manager (WXPN, Philadelphia). He is a member of the Advisory Board of the James H. and Mary B. Quello Center at Michigan State University and has served on the boards of the Development Exchange (now Greater Public) and the Station Resource Group, which he chaired for several years. Curren has received several awards including Public Radio International’s award for innovation and leadership. He holds a BA from SUNY Buffalo (Psychology) and an MS from the University of Pennsylvania (Organizational Dynamics). In his spare time, Curren is an avid motorcycle rider and shade-tree mechanic, and has toured parts of Spain, Mexico, and the U.S. on two wheels.

Jim DeChant is the CEO of Production Distribution and Revenue Group, LLC, a company dedicated to the broadcast and streaming media sectors. He also serves as the Director of Operations for Transmission Services Group, LLC, which provides monitoring, maintenance, and fabrication for broadcast, streaming, and over-the-air transmission.

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With extensive expertise in design, content production, streaming media, RF transmission, advanced advertising, and project management, Jim has held several prominent leadership positions. Notably, he was the Head of Live Streaming Playback Operations at Amazon Prime Video, where he oversaw global live event streaming monitoring. He also served as VP of Technology for the News-Press & Gazette Company, responsible for the design and management of engineering and operations for 74 network affiliate stations. His experience further includes a role as a senior solutions architect at LTN Global Communications, where he designed advanced network solutions, and as the general manager for KTVZ in Bend, Oregon.

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Jim has been actively involved in industry organizations, serving on the Board of Directors for the ATSC, leading the NAB BEIT Conference, and co-chairing the AWARN Alliance. He also created the NPG/NAB ATSC 3.0 test facility, which provides on-site and remote interoperability and is utilized by developers globally.

With a career spanning over three decades, Jon Edwards is a seasoned executive for broadcast and media operations and engineering. During his 23-year tenure at Disney, he held key leadership roles across both operations and engineering. Most recently, he directed the global media delivery team, overseeing the distribution of general entertainment assets across linear networks and VOD platforms. Working closely with his engineering teams, Jon successfully championed initiatives to consolidate technology portfolios, significantly reduce costs and optimized system performance.

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Jon’s roots in the communications industry trace back to 1991, beginning as a US Army radio operator in Europe. Since then, his experience has encompassed the full spectrum of broadcast roles—from live production and technical directing for news to master control. As an engineering leader, he has successfully guided facility, production, and media systems teams. Jon has spearheaded major projects ranging from the construction of comprehensive master control facilities to the consolidation of critical on-air systems. In the last five years, he has led major efforts to abstract master control and origination to private data centers and a major consolidation of engineering and operations to Texas.

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Now, Jon is thrilled to bring his expertise to the innovative team at LTN Global, leading a team of the industry’s best solution engineers and on-boarding customers to leverage LTN’s highly regarded media enrichment network. He looks forward to collaborating with industry leaders and helping to drive LTN’s massive growth in the coming years.

Marc Hand is the CEO and founder of PMVG, a consortium of thirty-two leading public media entities operating more than 140 stations and reaching over 250 million people. Through PMVG, he focuses on building collaborative models, partnerships, and infrastructure to support the long-term sustainability of public media organizations.

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He is also the CEO of Media Management Company LLC, the ownership group behind Public Media Management (PMM), which provides cloud-based content distribution and master control solutions for public television stations. In addition, Marc co-founded and served as Board Chair for the National Trust for Local News, the largest nonprofit owner of local newspapers in the United States.

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Previously, Marc was the co-founder and CEO of Public Media Company (PMC), alongside Susan Harmon. Earlier in his career, he worked with the Station Resource Group and co-founded Public Radio Capital, where he and Susan Harmon served as co-CEOs when it became an independent entity in 2001.

Kristen Hurley is a growth and strategy executive with more than 20 years of experience in public media and the nonprofit sector. She works with Public Media Management (PMM) on business development, marketing, client relations, and partnerships, supporting strategic growth initiatives.

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Kristen spent 16 years at GBH (formerly WGBH), where she served as Senior Director of Operations and Business Development and was a member of the senior management team. She oversaw Master Control, Traffic, and Research functions, bringing both operational and strategic perspective to her work. She also played a key role in the development and launch of Public Media Management (PMM), a cloud-based master control and content delivery platform created in partnership with Sony Electronics, leading business development, marketing, and client engagement efforts that generated more than $21 million in revenue.

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In addition to her work in public media, Kristen holds senior leadership roles in the nonprofit sector, focusing on strategic planning, fundraising, and partnership development, and serves on multiple nonprofit boards and advisory groups.

Erik has spent 20 years in national leadership roles in public broadcasting, and serves as the Executive Director of the Public Media Bridge Fund. Most recently, he co-founded Information Equity Initiative, a nonprofit organization that partners with PBS member stations to repurpose spectrum to provide educational content to people who lack access to broadband. Previously, Erik spent fifteen years at Public Media Company, where he structured dozens of mergers, acquisitions and strategic partnerships that raised several hundred million dollars to secure and expand public media services for millions of Americans.

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Prior to dedicating himself to public media, Erik was a corporate attorney at Kirkland and Ellis in New York City and Latham and Watkins in San Francisco, and worked at the United National Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva. He holds a JD from the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law and a BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.