Accomplishments

Scaled The CW’s streaming platform across CTV, mobile, and web through integrated product, content, data, and monetization strategy. Built the systems, teams, and processes that turned a broadcast television digital presence into a nationally scaled AVOD platform.

Product leadership spanned consumer experience, platform architecture, content discovery, ad monetization, distribution partnerships, and audience analytics — all working in coordination across multiple device surfaces and content libraries.

Built a full-stack monetization ecosystem spanning ad-supported streaming, programmatic demand, distribution partnerships, platform integrations, and sustainable UX/revenue balance. The system translates audience attention into ad revenue while maintaining the quality of the viewing experience.

Work spanned ad tech integrations, programmatic pipeline architecture, distribution deal product requirements, and the strategic balance between monetization depth and user experience quality — ensuring ads are a product layer, not a penalty.

Owned product KPIs including engagement, viewing time, and retention. Drove measurable growth in audience behavior through a combination of UX improvements, content discovery optimization, personalization, and product strategy grounded in audience data.

Engagement improvements came from understanding where viewers dropped off, what content drove return visits, how discovery surfaces affected depth of session, and how personalization accelerated time-to-engagement across device surfaces.

When The CW closed a deal to carry live sports, there was no vertical, no infrastructure, and no playbook — just a deadline. Zach led the sprint to stand up The CW’s first-ever live sports product from scratch: product architecture, engineering build, broadcast operations integration, ad sales enablement, and distribution setup, all coordinated across functions that had never worked together on a live event before.

Three weeks from deal close to opening kickoff. The kind of execution that only works when every function is moving in the same direction at the same time — and someone is making sure they are.

Built and led a unified data and analytics strategy that translated audience behavior into growth, monetization, programming, and product decisions. Created the measurement frameworks, dashboards, and data pipelines that turned raw viewing data into actionable intelligence.

Advanced ML-driven personalization and recommendation systems to improve content discovery and user satisfaction at scale. Personalization work connected content metadata, audience behavior signals, and algorithmic ranking to surface the right content to the right viewer at the right moment.

Expanded audience reach through FAST (Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV) syndication, distribution partnerships, and cross-platform growth strategy. Brought The CW’s content to viewers across additional platforms and surfaces, growing the total addressable audience and diversifying distribution revenue.

Distribution expansion required product work on feed architecture, metadata standards, ad integration for syndicated environments, and partnership negotiation support from a product and technical standpoint.

Built the original CW digital platform at Warner Bros. Worldwide Television, including CWTV and CW Seed. This foundational work created the long-term digital infrastructure that The CW’s streaming business was built on — consumer-facing streaming products, internal distribution workflows, and global B2B licensing systems.

Led the introduction of Agile and SCRUM practices into the digital product organization. Drove early platform innovation with Facebook and Xbox. Earned Emmy, Webby, and Communicator award recognition for platform and product development work during this period.

Led product and creative development for Virtual Magic Kingdom (VMK), Disney’s massively multiplayer online experience that connected theme park imagination with a digital companion world. Grew the platform significantly and designed interactive experiences that bridged digital and physical environments.

VMK was an early and ambitious attempt at creating persistent digital entertainment communities anchored to physical IP. Work included interactive product design, cross-platform engagement systems, and the creative and technical integration of Disney Parks themes into an online game world. Authored patents for digital/physical integration concepts developed during the project.

Early career production work on the hit TV series 24, Zack Snyder’s 300, and Martin Scorsese’s Silence provides a rare foundational fluency in how entertainment content is created before it ever reaches a streaming platform or distribution system.

Most streaming product executives work only on the distribution and consumption side. Having started on production sets creates a different kind of fluency — understanding what decisions get made upstream, what constraints exist in content creation, and how those realities shape what’s possible in product, distribution, and monetization downstream.