Woman to Watch
Wonya Lucas, GM and Executive VP, The Weather Channel Networks
By Craig Kuhl -- Multichannel News, 11/11/2007 7:00:00 PM
Wonya Lucas made stops at companies such as Coca-Cola and Westinghouse before she landed in the cable industry with Turner Broadcasting System. Even though she now serves as general manager and executive vice president of The Weather Channel, her early professional passion had been engineering.
“My mom was on the board of directors at Turner Broadcasting, so she wanted me to work at Turner. But I wanted to practice real engineering, so that’s what I did for five years,” Lucas said. “But after attending [University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of business], and interning at Turner, I began to think that cable would be a good career. And I loved the programming side.”
After five years at Clorox and Coke serving in various brand marketing positions, Lucas decided it was time to take the leap of faith and join cable. “Ted (Turner) was a real visionary, with targeted brands like CNN,” she said. “It was very exciting.”
| Woman to Watch |
|---|
| Awarded to a woman with leadership potential who exhibits job excellence at the middle to senior management level, as well as strong dedication to the industry. The honoree is selected based on the following criteria: |
| • Personifies WICT Touchstone of Leadership. |
| • Demonstrates leadership qualities. |
| • Successfully contributes to her organization’s success. |
| • Inspires and motivates others to achieve their best. |
Exciting, but after 27 interviews with a cross-section of Turner management, she still had no job at the network.
“I think I interviewed with everyone at Turner. But I was very determined. I was sold on cable,” she said.
Eventually, Lucas was hired by Turner in 1994 as strategic marketing director for Turner Corporate Marketing and later named vice president of marketing for TNT, responsible for the development of advertising campaigns, promotions, and trade marketing. She would eventually serve as senior vice president of strategic marketing for domestic networks of the CNN News Group.
Lucas remembers that her early days in cable presented some serious marketing challenges. “At the core, I’m a strategic marketer. But people in cable didn’t talk about branding back then. Now they do. In fact, we all talk about branding,” she said.
“Early in my career, it was very frustrating. But I worked with Scot Safon at [Procter & Gamble] and he taught me how the packaged goods industry translated to cable. With cable, there are multiple networks, and at the time only two distribution channels. Once I got clear on that, people in cable thought I was crazy. Today, everyone is a brand marketer,” she added, with a laugh.
Aside from her work at Turner and now Weather, Lucas has been leaving her mark on the industry through her work for organizations such as Women in Cable Telecommunications.
“We wanted to make programming more accessible and Wonya came up with a matrix that stands today as the benchmark. We call it the 'Wonya Lucas Matrix,’ ” WICT CEO and president Benita Fitzgerald Mosley said. “We’ve been using that concept to round out programming.”
Mosley credits Lucas with having “a strong legacy at WICT through her sheer successes and for setting an example. She’s had a deep impact on WICT and the cable industry.”
The feeling is mutual, admitted Lucas. “As one of the first Betsy Magness Institute graduates, I was around some amazing women, and I learned so much from them about how companies are organized and how the business works. There was incredible support,” she said.
As a member of WICT’s board, Lucas became key to the organization’s Touchstone of Leadership and PAR initiatives.
“It was a very critical time with some amazing leaders, and a very important organization [WICT]. It taught me the value of mentoring and gave me a chance to give back to the industry,” she said.
Lucas, who is program chair for WICT, also served on the board of directors for the Children’s Museum of Atlanta, and is a member of the Georgia Center for Children. She is currently on the board of visitors for the Grady Health System and the International Women’s Forum.
“My family was raised to give back, so it’s important for me to give back to the community and to the cable industry, namely on behalf of children. And I want to help [the National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Cable]. It’s an important organization,” she said.
Meanwhile, Lucas credits cable, and particularly her current position at Weather Channel, with allowing her to apply her marketing talents in ways she hadn’t imagined.
“The Weather Channel has a viable international play, and ultimately it was the brand that attracted me,” she said. “People really need and love the brand. Plus, I was intellectually curious about the brand. I enjoy working with smart people.”
Thinking back to how she broke into cable, Lucas recalled an early interview experience that defines her can-do attitude.
“While interviewing for a position at TNT, I was told I might be the person for the job,” she said. “I thought to myself: What would Cindy Swenson [a Magness Class 3 graduate and now an executive coach] do? So I told the interviewer he could look around but I’m the right person for this job. I got the job the next day. That was the power of asking for what you want and having the confidence.”
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