Erica was digital when digital wasn’t cool. Way back in 1995, she started one of Madison Avenue’s first digital advertising agencies, Saatchi & Saatchi Interactive, and was named to New York Magazine’s “Cyber 60” list that year.
Erica is also an Emmy Award-winning TV producer and executive, known for masterminding one of television’s biggest brands as President/CEO of The Food Network. There she staged a complete business and brand turnaround and introduced several now-famous smash hits including Emeril Live!, The Two Fat Ladies, and The Iron Chef, before selling the network to Scripps. Erica was the 2nd woman to ever hold the CEO title at a cable network.
Prior to Food Network, Erica also created and ran the branded entertainment group at Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising, creating hundreds of hours of television for Procter & Gamble, Toyota, General Mills and other Fortune 100 brands that ran on Lifetime and other networks.
Today, as a principal with Quantum Media, Erica uses her creative and financial chops to build business for many of the largest entertainment and publishing companies, including Rainbow Programming, the Comcast Networks, the BBC, Hearst, Reader’s Digest, and others. For Rodale Publishing and NBC, she created a multiplatform strategy that propelled that show to NBC’s #1 in primetime, including the paid-subscription program, The BiggestLoserClub.com, and a best-selling line of books and custom magazines. She also develops brand strategy and content strategy for the digital divisions of a number of print publishers transitioning to online. Via Sand & Stars Productions, Erica also has shows running currently on GoodHousekeeping.com and MensHealth.com, among others.
Erica began in cable TV as marketing director for the launch of Bravo, following previous jobs that took her all over the country as a concert promoter, school psychologist and middle-school Language Arts teacher. She is a Past Chair of the WICT Foundation and a past Honorary Chair of Cable Positive; was elected to the prestigious Cable Pioneers Society in 2006; and currently serves as secretary and trustee of the James Beard Foundation, awarding the yearly culinary “Oscars.” Erica holds an M.S. in Educational Psychology from the University of Wisconsin and a B.A. With Honors from the University of Michigan.
