Sohonet - International Women's Day Series

As part of International Women’s Day, we’re running a series highlighting inspiring women across the media and entertainment industry, sharing their perspectives, experiences, and leadership journeys.

This week we’ve featured three incredible women - 

Terry Karapiperi is the Operations Manager for Production Technology at Lucasfilm, where she focuses on improving the systems that support storytelling behind the scenes. With a blend of creative roots and a builder’s mindset, she brings resilience and a commitment to continuous improvement to an ever-evolving industry.

Barbara Ford Grant is a creative technologist and entertainment executive whose career spans the evolution of visual effects and CG animation from its earliest days to the current AI frontier. Over 25+ years, she has held senior leadership roles at HBO, Digital Domain, DreamWorks Animation, Sony Pictures Imageworks, and Meow Wolf, contributing to landmark productions including Game of Thrones, Alice in Wonderland, Maleficent, and the Shrek franchise, and leading development of Academy Award-winning technologies. As President of Prysm Stages, she launched a Lumière Award-winning virtual production stage and oversaw creative services for Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis. Ford Grant now advises major studios on AI production strategy through BFG Productions and continues to pioneer new approaches to cinematic storytelling, most recently producing the AI-enhanced short film Unhoused, which demonstrated how small expert teams can achieve studio-quality results. She is a member of both the Motion Picture and Television Academies, and serves on the Visual Effects Society's Technology Committee and Editorial Board for VFX Voice magazine.
Read the full article here

Alicia Hirsch. Across a remarkable four-decade career, Alicia has held senior roles at some of the industry’s most influential studios, including MTM, Universal, and Fox. From her early days at MTM to overseeing global distribution and creative production on acclaimed series such as The Americans, Burn Notice, and The Killing, she has helped shape some of television’s most enduring storytelling. Today, she continues to consult, lecture, and mentor the next generation of industry talent.
Read the full article here