USC Viterbi’s Mike Lee Appointed Chief Technology Officer of Norman Lear Center’s Media Impact Project

Former Fox executive to lead product strategy and technology team

LOS ANGELES, February 9, 2016 – The USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center’s Media Impact Project (MIP) today announced the appointment of Mike Lee as Chief Technology Officer.  Lee brings both industry expertise in building scalable media solutions as well as academic expertise in media analytics to his role at MIP, where he will lead the organization’s product strategy and technology operations.
 
Lee is a faculty member at the Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California where he teaches enterprise systems and, in collaboration with the Marshall School of Business, digital entrepreneurship. His research focus is developing new frameworks for digital marketing and media analytics.
 
Lee brings over 20 years of product and technology experience to MIP, most recently as Chief Technology Officer at digital distribution company Yekra.  Lee led the development of Yekra’s media distribution platform which revolutionized the way films are discovered and monetized through micro-target audiences.
 
Prior to Yekra, he spent a decade in the media and entertainment industries, at Fox and Warner Bros, where he was responsible for technology strategy as Vice President of Technology.  Prior to the studios, he was at innovative start-ups that have defined the consumer Internet, including Netscape Communications.
 
This announcement comes at a time of expanded demand for MIP services as the media industry transitions to actionable metrics that enable data-informed decisions.  In particular, MIP is increasingly filling the need of non-profit foundations and media organizations for media impact measurement.  This addition of senior product development-level talent enables MIP to scale beyond services to offering products that can have industry-wide impact.
 
“I am excited to align my research focus at Viterbi with the innovative work at Annenberg’s Norman Lear Center to solve the biggest problem that we face in media analytics – correlation of data across multiple sources into actionable information,” Lee said.
 
"Mike has a unique combination of technology execution and academic and analytics experience.  Plus – from his decades at media, entertainment and Internet companies – he knows how to assess and develop scalable products, and he understands how research can be mobilized to help media organizations,” said MIP Director and USC Annenberg School of Journalism lecturer Dana Chinn.
 
The Lear Center's Media Impact Project is a joint project with the USC Viterbi School of Engineering that strives to accelerate measurement thinking and open source tool development in order to explore, validate and share solutions for measuring impact. It is supported by grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Open Society Foundations. For more information, visit mediaimpactproject.org.
 
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The Norman Lear Center is a multidisciplinary research and public policy center studying and shaping the impact of entertainment and media on society. From its base in the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, the Lear Center builds bridges between faculty who study aspects of entertainment, media and culture. Beyond campus, it bridges the gap between the entertainment industry and academia, and between them and the public. learcenter.org.
 
Located in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California, the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism is a national leader in education and scholarship in the fields of communication, journalism, public diplomacy and public relations. With an enrollment of more than 2,200 students, USC Annenberg offers doctoral, graduate and undergraduate degree programs, as well as continuing development programs for working professionals across a broad scope of academic inquiry. The school's comprehensive curriculum emphasizes the core skills of leadership, innovation, service and entrepreneurship and draws upon the resources of a networked university located in the media capital of the world. For more information, visit annenberg.usc.edu.
 
Engineering Studies began at the University of Southern California in 1905. Nearly a century later, the Viterbi School of Engineering received a naming gift in 2004 from alumnus Andrew J. Viterbi, inventor of the Viterbi algorithm now key to cell phone technology and numerous data applications. One of the school’s guiding principles is Engineering +, a coined termed by current Dean Yannis C. Yortsos, to use the power of engineering to address the world’s greatest challenges. USC Viterbi is ranked among the top graduate programs in the world and enrolls more than 6,500 undergraduate and graduate students taught by 185 tenured and tenure-track faculty, with 73 endowed chairs and professorships. For more information, visit viterbi.usc.edu.

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