Donna Thomas, executive vice president, Vubiquity talks to TVBEurope about how nurturing an early entrepreneurial streak paved the way for her career
By Matthew Corrigan
Published: March 26, 2025 Updated: March 27, 2025
Donna Thomas, executive vice president, Vubiquity talks to TVBEurope about how nurturing an early entrepreneurial streak paved the way for her career
target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedin>
Talk us through an average day in your role No day is the same in my role, which is one of the reasons that I love what I do! Much of my time is spent in the field with our studio partners. It could be lunch discussing upcoming production schedules or locked in a conference room whiteboarding solutions to meet challenging upcoming launch dates.
Vubiquity is a team environment, so much of my time is spent cross-functionally with my operation and product development counterparts. We are in lockstep when it comes to meeting our objectives of providing world-class service to our customers, and we work together on the company's product roadmap and strategic direction.
Donna Thomas, executive vice president, Vubiquity I also feel allocating time to my team's development is essential. In this post-Covid world, finding mentorship or even a senior in the office to look to for advice is much more challenging. I've given this much thought lately and have committed to stewardship in my role. I had great role models and nonofficial mentors who helped me grow in my career, and I see that this new hybrid office/home environment is lacking. So, I try to allocate part of my day/week to be available to my team or anyone in my company looking for a sounding board.
How did you get started in the media industry? I was still in college and got a 20-hour-per-week temporary position at Discovery Networks in the satellite office in Atlanta, GA. Three weeks into that job, they told me they were closing the office and moving back to Maryland.
When I'm asked about this time in my life now, I say this is one of the most defining moments of my life. I just knew that I had to go with them to Maryland to have the life I wanted. So I asked my boss of three weeks, Kim Martin, to move me too. She laughed and said, You don't work here; you are a temporary employee. I don't remember exactly what I said, but I told her that I wanted to work for her, that I would never let her down, and that she would not regret it. A part of me thinks she saw some of herself in me. We were both beauty queens from South Georgia.
She fought for me to be hired as her administrative assistant. They paid to relocate me to Maryland, and within six years, I was senior vice president of affiliate sales and marketing.
What training did you have before entering the industry? The only training I had before getting that temporary position at Discovery Networks was a Word Perfect and Lotus 123 class. I know, hilarious right?
Why do you enjoy working in the industry? I love everything about our industry. It marries two of my great loves: TV/Movies and sales.
I made my first sale when I was 5 years old. My mother and I were at a gas station, and I asked her for $1 for some candy. She told me no. When I got home, I sat down at my desk and wrote a poem. I then put on my best Sunday dress and my patent leather Mary Janes, and walked down to Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson's house. They were an older couple that lived in my neighbourhood. I knocked on the door, and Mrs. Feguson answered. I said, Hi Mrs. Ferguson, I've written a poem for you and Mr. Ferguson. She said, How lovely. Bill, come to the door. Donna has written us a poem. When he got to the door, she said, Go ahead and read it, to which I responded, That will be one dollar.
TV and movies have been my escape since I was little. I didn't know it was my dream to work in the industry, but I'm lucky to do what I love. I'm also a writer and comedian, so it's a gift to serve my clients by day and fuel my creative interests in my free time.
What piece of advice would you offer someone looking to explore a role similar to yours? The advice I would give is twofold. First, if you can get your foot in the door in your desired role, you should work harder than anyone else. Always raise your hand for new projects, volunteer to work on that team, and, to quote my father, leave the campground better than you found it. Those are table stakes.
Second, find a company that values the gifts that YOU bring to the table. Discovery was a company that valued hard work, scrappy fighters and an entrepreneurial spirit. That was me. Had they valued Wharton/Harvard MBA recruits (for example) then I wouldn't have been a fit and wouldn't have been able to thrive like I did. I think it's critical to find the right company fit, especially in your early years. It can make the difference in having just a job vs. finding the role of a lifetime.
Bonus: Give back. The Thomas Angel Foundation, which I founded in 2001, was initially dedicated to empowering young women from my hometown of Warner Robins, GA, through education. In 2012, the Foundation partnered with the Upright Citizens Brigade in Los Angeles. Our mission focuses on providing scholarships to talented and deserving young women pursuing careers in the entertainment industry. As a woman working in media and entertainment, I wanted to create a programme that not only offers financial support but also fosters opportunities for women pursuing their passions in our field. I'm proud to say that in the last 20+ years we've given away hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships to women pursuing careers in the media industry.
The foundation's mission has always been to support women in the performing arts and foster a sense of community. During my car
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
28/08/2025
IBC stand 5.F81
Wowza to Reveal Next-Gen Video Streaming Innovations at IBC 2025
Amsterdam, August 28, 2025 Wowza, a leader in video streaming infrastructur...
Donna Thomas, executive vice president, Vubiquity talks to TVBEurope about how nurturing an early entrepreneurial streak paved the way for her career
