
C.J. Kettler rediscovered “Carmen Sandiego” for Netflix, brought Popeye to new audiences, and launched a multi-channel green lifestyle brand.
On Wednesday, October 28, at 6 p.m., Kettler will share her experiences when the Denise Taber Finard ’80 Women’s Institute at Russell Sage College and the Times Union’s Women@Work present “Modernizing Brands, Purpose-Driven Media, and the Winding Road to Leadership.”
In this free, interactive one-hour webinar, hear how Kettler navigated career pivots, brought legacy brands to new audiences, and stayed true to her purpose through it all.
“I like to say, despite the twists and turns, what seem like unrelated and disparate jobs all add up and aggregate a skill set that continues to serve you wherever you land next,” Kettler said.
She is president of King Features, a division of Hearst Newspapers, and a HearstLab Scout, who helps entrepreneurs get their start. According to her Hearst bio, Kettler “was EVP, consumer brands and strategy, at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt until May 2017, where she successfully transitioned Channel One News into an educational product, launched Curious World, a mobile subscription service for millennial families, and produced the Emmy-nominated animated series Carmen Sandiego, which premiered on Netflix in January 2019. She joined Channel One News, owned by private equity firm Zelnick Media, as CEO and chair in November 2012 and led the sale of the company to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (NASDAQ: HMHC) in May 2014.”
She has also served as a senior executive at MTV Networks/Viacom and CBS.
“The unifying theme for my whole career has been to follow, or more importantly, get ahead of the cultural zeitgeist,” Kettler said. “I first pursued media as a career because ‘Media drove Culture,’ which is a good question to probe given the current fragmentation of media, and that social media now drives culture.”
The event is free and open to the public, but online registration is required to receive the webinar link.