Erica Gruen is a ‘venture catalyst,’ advising growing media, entertainment, and education companies. An Emmy Award-winning TV producer and executive and digital pioneer, Erica is known for masterminding one of television’s biggest brands as President/CEO of The Food Network/foodnetwork.com. 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, in addition to launching the leading food site. Erica was digital when digital wasn’t cool Way back in 1994, she started one of Madison Avenue’s first digital advertising agencies, Saatchi & Saatchi Interactive, and was named to New York Magazine’s first “Cyber 60” list. She also created and ran the branded entertainment group at Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising, the world’s largest ad agency at the time. Erica uses her creative and financial chops to build business for many of the largest entertainment and publishing companies, including the BBC, Rainbow Programming, the Comcast Networks, Conde Nast, Hearst, Reader’s Digest, and others. She is the recipient of the 2012 Distinguished Fellow award from the e-Business Institute at her alma mater, The University of Wisconsin/Madison, and is an Advisor to the Weinert Entrepreneurship Center at the School of Business there. She lives in New York City and is an author and frequent speaker on work, innovation, and building sustainable brands.