Meet the CTM Team

Lucy Hood
Executive Director
lucy.hood@marshall.usc.edu

Lucy Hood, head of USC's Institute for Communication Technology Management (CTM), is a highly respected industry expert in telecom strategy and innovator in digital content. CTM is the world's leading Institute at the intersection of technology and content, offering its members cutting-edge global research and business strategy, executive education and leadership forums for the digital industry. CTM's corporate partners include AT&T, Verizon, HP, Cisco, Qualcomm, Motorola, Alcatel-Lucent, Ogilvy, Intel, Adobe, Fox and Disney.

Prior to joining USC's Marshall School of Business, Hood was founder and President of Fox Mobile Entertainment and Senior Vice President at News Corporation. Lucy Hood and her team led the groundbreaking "American Idol" mobile efforts, which introduced text messaging to mass media in the United States in 2001. Hood was a key executive in launching numerous technology businesses at Fox, including Fox.com and FX Cable.

Hood is a keynote speaker at major industry events around the world such as CES, E3, CTIA, Mobile World Congress, Wireless Influencers and Digital Hollywood. She has won numerous awards and is regularly featured in lists of key influential executives, including the Digital 50. Hood holds an M.B.A. from Columbia University's Graduate School of Business and a B.A. from Yale University.

Josette Bonte
Chief Strategy Officer
Head of Research and Industry Relations

Josette Bonte has recently joined USC CTM as Chief Strategy Officer, Director of Research and Industry Relations. In that role she will oversee key CTM projects such as the Digital Home Survey, "How Much Media?" and the Global Mobile Survey. In addition, Josette will guide CTM's thought leadership and research strategy, developing innovative new projects in partnership with CTM members. Bonte spent the first 10 years of her career as a film and television industry executive in Hollywood, and the past 17 years in the fields of communication technology, interactive television, IPTV and online games.

Most recently, Josette Bonte served as Executive Digital Media Strategist for Cisco's IBSG, a division responsible for performing large-scale strategic consulting engagements for Cisco's leading clients across industry verticals. Prior to Cisco, Bonte worked for Cookie Jar Entertainment where she was Vice President of Digital media. She also served as Vice President of Content & IPTV for Ovum, working on IPTV content deployment strategies with service provider clients including AT&T, Verizon, France Telecom, and BT.

A telco TV pioneer, Bonte joined US West (now CenturyLink) in 1994 as Head of Strategic Marketing, Entertainment, and Interactive Services, where she participated in the company's early interactive media and VoD trials, soon becoming the company's Liaison to the Hollywood entertainment industry for content strategy. In the late 1980s, Josette served as Executive Director of Unifrance Film LA, where she represented the French motion picture and television industries in Hollywood. She subsequently founded EuroScreen Partners, a film production and distribution company where she served as CEO. Bonte holds an M.F.A from the UCLA School of Film and Television, and a Ph.D. in Information Sciences and telecommunications from the Sorbonne. She has published a best-selling book entitled: La Television a la Carte aux Etat-Unis.

Jay Tucker
Associate Director

Jay Tucker oversees Marketing Strategy & Communications at the Institute for Communication Technology Management. He is responsible for communicating CTM's vision, thought leadership, educational offerings and major events to CTM members and the larger community. Jay also handles CTM's forums and programs, including the Executive Roundtable. Since joining the Institute, Jay has re-launched CTM's Advanced Management Program, the flagship five-day educational experience for rising leaders. Jay also helped to co-author the strategic plan for the Marshall School of Business.

Before coming to CTM, Jay served as a Director of Technology for St. Luke's School in New York City where he developed the school's IT infrastructure and taught students and educators to use interactive media. Jay also served as a Marketing Recruiter at the Microsoft Corporation and as an independent consultant in the areas of IT management, website design and development, and software testing.

Jay holds three college degrees: an MBA in Marketing & Media Management from the UCLA Anderson School of Management, a Masters degree in Instructional and Learning Technologies from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a dual Bachelors degree from Stanford University in Political Science and African & Afro-American Studies. He has taught courses on technology issues to professionals at corporations and non-profit organizations, and presented for numerous organizations including the National Association of Independent Schools and the United Nations.

Dr. Elizabeth Fife
Associate Director of Industry Studies,
Sr. Lecturer

Dr. Elizabeth Fife is the Associate Dir. For Industry Studies at the Institute for Communication Technology Management (CTM), Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California where she is also a Sr. Lecturer in the Viterbi School of Engineering. She directs the Global Mobile Survey (GMS) study, an annual international survey project of mobile consumers in Asia, Europe and North America. Research interests include international telecommunications markets, mobile user behavior, development and ICTs. Teaching areas include technical communications, market research methods, economics of the entertainment industry and evolution of telecom/entertainment/digital markets.

Andrea Vladár
Assistant Director of Research

Andrea Vladár is the Assistant Director of Research at CTM (Institute for Communication Technology Management), Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California. She has over 10 years of research experience in the field of telecommunications. Her research interests include consumer behavior in the mobile space and adoption of m-commerce and m-payment services.

Andrea directs the Digital Home research project, CTM's year-long research study carried out jointly by CTM and corporate sponsors. Digital Home provides insights into the connected, multi-screen digital home, including key factors for adoption and perceived value of digital devices and services. Andrea also disseminates our results to research contacts at CTM member companies and conducts Digital Home workshops.

Prior to joining CTM, Andrea spent 9 years at major international telecommunications companies (Global Telesystems, Siemens Hungary), where she developed an in-depth knowledge of market analysis, research and strategic planning. Andrea has a Master of Science degree in Economics from the University of Miskolc, Hungary.

Steven Shepard
Resident Director of Executive Education

Steven Shepard is the president of the Shepard Communications Group in Williston, Vermont. A professional author and educator with 24 years of varied experience in the telecommunications industry, he has written books and magazine articles on a wide variety of topics. He is the author of Telecommunications Convergence: How to Profit from the Convergence of Technologies, Services and Companies; A Spanish-English Telecommunications Dictionary; Managing Cross-Cultural Transition: A Handbook for Corporations, Employees and Their Families; An Optical Networking Crash Course; SONET and SDH Demystified, Telecom Crash Course; Telecommunications Convergence, Second Edition; Telecom Crash Course, Second Edition; and VoIP Crash Course. Steve is also the Series Editor of the McGraw-Hill Portable Consultant book series.

Mr. Shepard received his undergraduate degree in Spanish and Romance Philology from the University of California at Berkeley and his Master's Degree in International Business from St. Mary's College. He spent eleven years with Pacific Bell in San Francisco in a variety of capacities including network analysis, computer operations, systems standards development, and advanced technical training, followed by nine years with Hill Associates, a world-renowned telecommunications education company, before forming the Shepard Communications Group. Global clients include major telecommunications manufacturers, service providers, software development firms, multinational corporations, universities, professional services firms, advertising firms, venture capital firms, and regulatory bodies.

Dr. James Short
Visiting Director of Research

James E. (Jim) Short is Lead Scientist, San Diego Supercomputer Center, at UC San Diego (UCSD). He directs the How Much Information? (HMI) research program and the How Much Media? (HMM) research project at USC. Jim's research has focused on information growth and the value of information, corporate communications and disclosure, and selected topics in storage and information systems management. His work on market transparency and corporate information disclosure has been published in The Accounting Review. His applied work has focused on information metrology and the value of information. With co-author Roger Bohn (UC San Diego), the first of several studies on information growth was published in December 2009, "How Much Information: Report on American Consumers." A second report on enterprise information, "How Much Information: Report on Enterprise Servers," was published in April 2011.

Carolyn Tutas-Cohen
Business Manager

Carolyn M. Cohen serves as assistant director of budgets and operations for theUSCMarshall School of Business Institute for Communication Technology Management (CTM). She began working with CTM in May of 2012. Prior to this, she worked at theUSCTRIO Programs and the School of Cinematic Arts.

Carolyn graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater with a bachelor's degree in International Relations and a minor in Spanish. She attended theUSCSchool of Policy, Planning, and Development, and graduated with a Master of Public Administration in 2007. She enjoys being a resident of the University Park neighborhood in South Los Angeles, where she and her husband have resided since 2001.

Ruth Cornejo
Administrative Assistant

Ruth Cornejo is the Administrative Assistant, to CTM Executive Director, Lucy Hood. Ruth also is responsible for organizing special events, such as the bi-annual Executive Round Table, logistics to the Executive Education programs, as well as all other on-campus programs. She also currently coordinates with CTM student staff and supports the CTM office with general Administrative duties.

Prior working at CTM, Ruth worked with USC catering and hospitality services and has spent over 20 years working in the administrative field. She's worked with such organizations as the California Restaurant Association and the California Jewelers Association, where she was responsible for the logistics of the Pacific Jewelry Show. Ruth has also worked in the human resources, accounting and event planning.