Public Media Infrastructure (PMI) today selected a digital and technology veteran as the organization’s first Chief Technology Officer.
In this role, Dave Williams is being asked to drive the organization’s mission “to move public media toward a shared, scalable digital infrastructure built with the needs of local stations at the center.”
With satellite distribution scheduled to sunset in 2028, Williams will be responsible for evaluating, designing, and integrating the operational systems that can support digital transformation, and provide a new technological foundation for public media stations, PMI said.
“The goal is a system with seamless scalability and flexible interoperability across all public media organizations – from the largest major-market stations to small, rural, and tribal organizations,” PMI added.
Funded through a five-year, $47 million grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — one of the last CPB awarded before it lost its federal funding — PMI was created by five leading public media organizations with a shared goal of ensuring local stations have the tools, technology, and support they need to keep serving their communities in the post-CPB era.
PMI CEO Jeannie Ericson commented, “PMI’s goal is ambitious and urgent. In a post-CPB, post-satellite world, we need to future-proof public media’s infrastructure and fuel innovation around revenue, distribution, and operations, allowing stations of all sizes to keep doing the critical work of serving their communities Dave pairs broad, at-scale architectural vision with real technical depth and a genuine passion for the public media mission. He understands what it takes to build a foundation for a federated system of independent stations, and I can’t think of a better leader for this work.”
Williams brings 20 years of experience leading digital and infrastructure transformation for Fortune 500 companies, federal agencies, and middle-market organizations across sectors including media, financial services, healthcare, aerospace, and energy. His extensive architecture expertise includes networking, security, data privacy, regulatory compliance, cloud computing, AI, and data services. He has held consulting leadership roles as an Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company, built new service offerings as a Director at RSM, led cloud and cybersecurity practices at New Light Tech, and delivered enterprise transformations for organizations including LPL Financial, Boeing/Jeppesen, and the Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Navy.
