• Lawrence H. Leach

    Media / Engineering Executive

  • Experience

     

    NBCUniversal - Peacock

    Sr. Director Software Engineering, Video Playback 09/21 - Present 

    I lead the international development efforts of the Core Video SDK (CVSDK) for Android, iOS and Roku.
    platforms for the Peacock streaming service. The CVSDK is responsible for all content
    playback for Peacock. Working closely with external client teams, I am
    responsible for managing all aspects of development and delivery. Responsibilities
    include ownership of the strategic engineering roadmap.

    • Lead a team that is spread acrossmultiple European and Asian countries.
    • Lead the development of a videostreaming player that serves ~2B streams a day.
    • Significantly increased Peacock revenuefor live content through initiatives such as Live Video Pre-roll advertising.
    • Maintain a consistent and predictable release calendar for all Mobile and Roku teams.
    • Responsible for the migration to Jira across all player teams.
    • Oversee the agile scrum processes for each team.
    • Tracking and acting on player KPIs.
    • Driving improvements in top-level videostart time and playback failures.
    • Management of product requirements across video playback services.

    Hulu / Walt Disney Company

    Director of Software Engineering - 11/17 - 09/21

    Reporting directly to the VP,Engineering – Digital Ad Platforms, I worked very closely with Product Management
    and Senior Leadership to develop the roadmap for Hulu ad products and features.

    • Helped drive revenues of $1B indirect advertising sales for the first time in Hulu’s history in 2018.
    • Led the Advertising Applications theteam to help the direct ad sales pipeline deliver $2.2B in annual revenue in
      2020.
    • Built and launched Hulu Ad Manager(HAM) – Hulu’s self-service portal used by small-to-medium sized businesses to manage their own ad buys.
    • Drove $5M is sales through for the first year of HAM.
    • Established the direct sales and self-service campaign management pipeline.
    • Managed a team of ~45 Engineers, Technical Writers, Quality Engineers and Architects across 5 teams.
    • Responsibilities include developing many of the technologies used to drive the Viewer-first Advertising Products
      being launched by Hulu.
    • Drove the Ad Applications Engineering effort to redesign the overall campaign domain model.

    Victorious (now Headspace)

    Sr. Engineering Manager - 7/14 - 11/17

    As a hands-on engineer and manager, workedvery closely with my teams to develop key features and functionality for the Victorious application platform.

    • Victorious Application Management System (VAMS): Automated system that enabled Victorious to compile and submit multiple native applications (Android and iOS) to their respective app stores.
    • Live Broadcast Streaming: Established and manage the team responsiblefor the integration of Live video broadcasting into our application platform.
    • Front-endEngineering: Responsible for migrating the front-end web development stack from Backbone.js to a React.js/Redux.
    • iOS Engineering: Responsible for the staffing and management of the iOS engineering team. Additional
      responsibilities include code reviews, architectural decision making and minor code development. (Usually prototype / proofs of concept development)

    OpenX

    Sr. Software Engineer - 06/13 - 07/14

    Responsible for development andmaintenance of the OpenX Mobile SDK for iOS.

    • Built the VAST v3.0-compatible video player integration
    • Integration of MRAID v2.0functionality into mobile SDK
    • Implemented code review process
    • Responsible for extensive code cleanup

    Websight Design, Inc.

    Chief Technology Officer - 04/10 - 06/13

    • Led all aspects of technology and engineering design and development.
    • Directed company’s technology base, determining programming languages as well as development frameworks.
    • Management / mentorship of all development staff (full-time and contractors).
    • Drove company innovations towards development efficiencies and entering new business areas i.e. Mobile development, B2B andB2C categories.
  • Affiliations & Recognition

     

    Professional Affiliations

    • AfroTech– Speaker (Viewer-First Advertising)
    • Blacks in Technology – Speaker / Panelist
    • Founding member of Vibranium Affinity Group at Disney
    • Board member of Hulu Black employee resource group
    • Founding member of Melanin+ employee resource group
    • Founding member of the Diversity & Inclusion Council for DMED
    • Black Data Processors Association / Greater San Fernando Valley (BDPA/GSFV) Member
      since 1992

    Recognition

    • 2000 Communication Arts Interactive Award.
    • 1998 Fisher-Price Inside Sales award for work done on the eToys.com web site.
    • Receivedthe USA Today On-line HotSite of the Dayaward for April 24th 1996. This was the first online award the Walt Disney Company received at that time.
    • Panelistat the 2009 Billboard / SESAC Songwriters Boot-camp on New Media.
    • Previous organizer for the Los Angeles / Pasadena chapter of CocoaHeads (http://www.meetup.com/CocoaHeads-Pasadena)