Lori Conkling was named Executive Vice President, Distribution, of Lifetime Networks in March 2008. After Lifetime’s acquisition by A+E Networks in 2009, she was named Executive Vice President, National Accounts, Field Sales and Canada, for A+E Networks.
In her role, Conkling is responsible for supervising A+E Networks’ distribution strategy across multiple platforms for the company’s 10 networks, including A&E, History, Lifetime Television and Lifetime Movie Network. She also directly oversees field sales and national accounts in the U.S. and Canada.
Among her achievements since joining the company, Conkling has grown Lifetime Movie Network to reach 81 million U.S. subscribers, making it one of cable’s fastest growing Nielsen-rated channel. She also was named by Multichannel News as one of the industry’s “2009 Women to Watch” and honored as one of cable’s top “40 Under 40” executives by the same publication. In 2010, she was named one of CableFax’s Most Powerful Women in Cable and, most recently, was inducted into Multichannel News’ Wonder Women Class of 2011.
Conkling joined Lifetime from Disney and ESPN Media Networks, where, since 2004, she served as Vice President, National Accounts. While there, she was responsible for executing complex, multi-product national distribution deals for linear channels, VOD and pay-per-view services, broadband products and interactive television applications. In her role, Conkling negotiated on behalf of Disney, ESPN, ABC and ABC News, among others. She rose to this position after having served as Director, National Accounts, for the ABC Cable Networks Group.
Prior to joining Disney and ESPN Media Networks, Conkling worked in the Media & Entertainment practice at Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting), specializing in analyzing and developing corporate strategies for publishing, film and telecommunications companies.
Conkling received a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Southern California and a MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. She also is a member of Class 12 of the Betsy Magness Leadership Institute, WICT’s prestigious training program for executive women in the telecommunications industry.
