The individual who tops RBR+TVBR‘s first-ever ranking of Broadcast Media’s Top Tech Leaders, announced in the Winter 2022 RBR+TVBR Special Report distributed this week at MWC 2022 Barcelona and in January to subscribers, has just been promoted to President to Technology at Sinclair Broadcast Group.
Earning the elevation from EVP/Chief Technology Officer is Del Parks.
Parks is celebrating 50 years at Sinclair, where he has held various operations and engineering positions since 1973. Today, he supports the company by overseeing Engineering, Technical Operations and Facilities as well as charting its future technical and operational direction.
Parks also has overall responsibility for the deployment of ATSC 3.0 and co-leads Sinclair’s technical and operational integration of the 21 Bally Sports networks. He’s also directing the transformation of the company’s media and broadcast operations as they migrate to the cloud and their future state.
Outside of Sinclair, Parks is a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel who has held various commands during his 26-year reserve career. He’s also a member of the Society of Motion Pictures and Television Engineers and in 2015 was honored as a SMPTE Fellow.
For RBR+TVBR’s Winter 2022 Special Edition, Parks was asked what, perhaps, is the most important aspect of the work he does when it comes to the smooth operation of Sinclair. He replied, “Sinclair is a very large enterprise with a high reliance on its media technology and operations to support its linear and digital distribution channels. The integration of these media assets across all of our platforms is critical to our company’s business success and out technology teams are the best in the business. Providing the leadership and resources which allow our teams to perform is my greatest challenge and also my greatest reward.”
To view the RBR+TVBR Winter 2022 Special Edition, please click here.
In addition to Parks’ promotion, Sinclair promoted VP/Technical Operations and Deputy Chief Technology Officer Mike Kralec to SVP/Chief Technology Officer.
At the same time, Jason Smith moves from VP and Chief of Staff to the President of Broadcast to Head of New Media Enterprises; and Asst. VP of Business Development Skip Flenniken becomes VP/GM of Technology Business Development.
Concurrently, at the Sinclair Television Group, SVP/Chief Digital Officer Kevin Cotlove is now EVP/COO of Social, as SVP of Product Engineering Amit Mathur rises to SVP/Chief Digital Officer and VP/TV Sports Engineering and Production Systems Don Roberts is named SVP/TV Sports Engineering and Production Systems.
“We are thrilled to recognize these individuals, especially Del Parks who recently celebrated 50 years with the Company and was key in building not only our broadcast operations but Sinclair, as we grew from one television station in Baltimore to one of the largest 500 companies in the country and an industry leader,” said Chris Ripley, President & CEO of Sinclair. “We congratulate all these individuals on their new roles and look forward to their contributions as we continue to evolve and innovate.”
