Innovation Talk: Wade Davis and Mike Fries

Wade Davis is Chief Executive Officer of TelevisaUnivision,Inc., the world’s leading Spanish-language media and content company. TelevisaUnivision owns the largest library of content in Spanish and industry-leading production capabilities that power its multi-media platforms, which include TV, streaming, digital and audio offerings. The company’s television portfolio includes the top-rated broadcast networks Univision and UniMás in the U.S. and Las Estrellas and Canal 5 in Mexico. TelevisaUnivision is home to 36 Spanish-language cable networks, including Galavisión and TUDN, the No. 1 Spanish-language sports network in the U.S. and Mexico. TelevisaUnivision also owns and manages 59 local television stations across the U.S. and four broadcast channels in Mexico affiliated with 222 television stations, Videocine and Pantelion movie studios, and Uforia, the Home of Latin Music, which encompasses 40 owned or operated U.S. radio stations, a live event series and a robust digital audio footprint. TelevisaUnivision is home to the global streaming service ViX, which hosts over 50,000 hours of high-quality, original Spanish-language programming from distinguished producers and top talent. The company’s prominent digital assets include Univision.com, Univision NOW, and several top-rated digital apps.

Davis has served as a media industry leader for over 25 years, including founding ForgeLight in 2019 to build, acquire and operate companies in the Media and Consumer Technology sectors. His experience includes serving as a C-Suite Fortune 100 operator, board director, investment banker and entrepreneur.

Prior to founding ForgeLight, Davis served as EVP & CFO for Viacom, where he played a key role in driving a turnaround of the business. In this role, he delivered total company growth across revenue, operating income, and earnings per share. Davis achieved these results by creating several strategic operational improvements, implementing an organizational redesign, leading cost transformation initiatives, and directing the operational oversight of key growth segments. The success of this turnaround paved the way for the merger of Viacom and CBS to create ViacomCBS.

Prior to Viacom, Davis co-founded America’s Choice, Inc., where he acquired research and associated IP to build a for-profit K-12 school performance improvement solutions business. He also founded AdvancePath Academics, a technology-based provider of dropout recovery and alternative education solutions. AdvancePath was successfully sold to Graduation Alliance. Earlier in his career, Davis spent nine years in M&A investment banking with ThinkEquity, Lazard, and Wasserstein Perella and led nearly $30B in total transactions, primarily in the tech, education, and media sectors.

Davis’ Board memberships include Cengage Learning, Executive Chairman of Hammerhead Navigation, and the Board of Directors of Daybreak Games. Previously he was a Board Observer on the Board of Directors of Roku, the rotational Chairman of the Rhapsody/Napster Board and on the Board of Viacom18 India.

Davis earned a dual BA degree, with honors, in Economics & Philosophy from Williams College.

Over the past 30 years, Mike Fries has built Liberty Global into a world leader in converged broadband, video and mobile communications and an active investor in cutting-edge infrastructure, content and technology ventures.  Liberty Global delivers next-generation products through advanced fiber and 5G networks, providing over 86 million broadband and mobile connections across Europe and the UK. Its businesses operate under some of the best-known consumer brands, including Virgin Media-O2 in the UK, VodafoneZiggo in The Netherlands, Telenet in Belgium and Sunrise in Switzerland and generate, in the aggregate, over $25 billion of revenue. Through its substantial scale and commitment to innovation, Liberty Global is building Tomorrow’s Connections Today, investing in the infrastructure and platforms that empower customers and deploying the advanced technologies that nations and economies need to thrive. As a member of the management team that founded the Company, Mike launched its international expansion and has served as CEO since 2005.

Mike is also Executive Chairman of Liberty Latin America and a board member of Grupo Televisa and Lionsgate Entertainment. He serves on the Cable Labs board, is a trustee of The Paley Center for Media and is a Digital Communications Governor and Steering Committee Member of the World Economic Forum. He also chairs the board for the Biennial of the Americas and is trustee emeritus and former chair of the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver. Mike is an inductee of the Cable Hall of Fame and the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame. He holds a B.A. from Wesleyan University, where he is an emeritus trustee, and an M.B.A. from Columbia University, where he is a member of the Board of Overseers for the Business School.