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NASCAR: Live Event Broadcasting

Putting the pedal to the metal inside the graphics van

Putting the pedal to the metal inside the graphics van
Working in motorsports isn’t just about being a driver on the track or announcing the action as it happens. There are a multitude of behind-the-scenes jobs that go into producing a live event broadcast, from research and analysis to graphics package design, that require an arsenal of racing fans capable of working in a high-octane environment.

With 36 autos on the racetrack at any given time, it’s impossible for hosts and analysts to keep track of – and comment on – all the information in play at any given moment. As a result, broadcast networks like Fox Sports employ teams of producers, associates, and data analysts  to compile as much information as possible, as quickly as possible, and convert them into graphics packages that enhance the viewing experience for home audiences.

“Growing up, sports was a big passion of mine,” says Jonathan Biles, a broadcast associate for Fox Sports. Biles works with a team that produces graphics on the fly during NASCAR races.

Biles majored in sports journalism at the University of Alabama, where he wrote about his college football team for online publications before obtaining an internship at Fox Sports, which is where he got his first taste of working in television production.

“Watching the race, we’re following what the announcers are talking about, statistical trends during the race,” says Biles. “We use the information given to us by Racing Insights – they really provide the stats for our production crew to use.”

“We provide all the quirky, off-the-top-of-the-head tidbits that add a little bit of pizzazz to their show,” says Jimmy Hicks, vice president of Racing Insights, a company contracted with Fox Sports to provide historical statistics and live data for motorsports. Although it may seem like sports announcers have an encyclopedic knowledge of facts and figures, it’s actually companies like Racing Insights that are supplying them with information in real time.

To get his foot in the door of the motorsports industry, Hicks earned a degree in marketing and then began interning for NASCAR’s Timing and Scoring, where he learned the rules of how all the point systems work. 

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Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.