Rise diversifies globally to support women working in M+E

Gender diversity membership organisation Rise has announced its expansion into North America and APAC as well as the appointment of four new board members. 

Rise was formed in 2017 to support and promote women working in the non-craft part of the broadcast industry in roles across operations, engineering, sales, marketing and business.

Annex Pro North America sales director Serena Harris will lead Rise North America, while Digigram Asia managing director Nancy Diaz Curiel will head Rise in APAC.

Harris is based in Vancouver and has over two decades of experience in the media and entertainment industry having worked with Avid and Marquis.

She said: “I am overjoyed to be launching Rise North America. What Rise is doing for women in the industry is extraordinary and I want to open those same opportunities to women here.

“I am very much looking forward to building on the momentum of Rise’s success’ to help even more women realise their potential and growth within our industry.”

Diaz Curiel is based in Singapore and has over 10 years of experience in the broadcast industry and is set to launch the Rise mentoring scheme in the near future.

She said: “I am humbled to be appointed head of the APAC antenna of the organisation.

“I am a strong believer in gender equality and am an active participant in several mentoring initiatives in the APAC region to highlight and drive the success of the amazing women in our industry.”

The announcement comes in the same week as International Women’s Day 2020.

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In addition to its global expansion, Rise has appointed four new board members: BT Sport chief engineer Andy Beale, The British Arrows operations director Lisa Lavender, Moore Kingston Smith director Joanna Cosgrove, and Sundog Media Toolkit key account manager Tanya Rai.

Rise managing director Carrie Wootten stated; “Rise is growing at an astonishing rate, and we are immensely grateful to all of our sponsors and partners who have enabled this to happen.

“Expanding into the North American and APAC market is very exciting, and we are positive Serena and Nancy will go beyond our expectations in advancing our global efforts in gender equality for the industry.”

“We have further plans for growth for both our Rise programme, and Rise Up and therefore have appointed four dedicated members of the industry, Andy, Lisa, Joanna and Tanya to help play a key part with our ever-expanding vision and help us reach our global goals.”