Suzanne Ackley

Senior Research Analyst

Suzanne Ackley covers SMB research and analysis.
Expertise: Traditional Media, Social Media, Digital Media

Senior research analyst Suzanne Ackley is a member of BIA Advisory Services’ Analysis and Insights team. She creates and maintains profiles on companies in the local media space and researches trends in local online advertising and marketing across mobile, social and digital platforms.

Suzanne assists with BIA’s competitive intelligence services, providing clients with insight into their competitors’ product and business strategies. She also acts as manager and editor for all publications on BIA’s proprietary survey of small and medium-sized businesses, Local Commerce Monitor (LCM). Suzanne has written numerous blog posts detailing the Analysis and Insights team’s SMB, consumer and market revenue research. She also assists the marketing team in managing BIA’s social media marketing.

From 1994 to 2012, Suzanne was part of BIA’s Valuations and Appraisals division, where she performed hundreds of asset allocation assignments for some of the largest media companies in the nation as well as many regional and national financial institutions. She was responsible for appraising intangible assets for acquisitions and fresh-start accounting purposes. She also assisted many publicly traded and privately held broadcast companies with their valuation needs associated with FASB 141/142. Suzanne has been responsible for researching and preparing local market analyses, industry overviews, and national economic overviews. She has conducted several independent research studies, including an analysis of the power ratios of radio stations in Arbitron-rated markets.

Suzanne earned a Bachelor of Arts in English writing and a Master of Education in Secondary English from George Mason University. She also holds an Associate of Applied Science in business management with a specialization in finance from the Northern Virginia Community College. Her A.A.S. degree was conferred magna cum laude.

Richard V. Ducey, Ph.D.

Managing Director

Rick Ducey helps clients develop and implement strategies to accelerate business growth and solve leadership problems creatively.
Expertise: Digital & Traditional Media, Marketing & Advertising, Technology Platforms

Rick leads BIA’s strategy consulting practice and serves as an advisor to an affiliated investment banking group BIA Capital Strategies. Rick works with media, adtech and martech companies to see and evaluate opportunities and strategies in the market to achieve corporate goals.

Rick helps clients with strategic planning, developing partnership strategies, product planning, and achieving revenue growth and diversification. He helps marketers including brands and agencies with effective planning and use of digital media platforms. He also works on investment banking projects assisting buy-side and sell-side clients

Rick co-cofounded SpectraRep in 2000, a technology company that specializes in emergency alert and warning solutions. Prior to joining BIA, Rick headed the National Association of Broadcaster’s Research and Information Group overseeing all research and information technology initiatives.

In addition to his work at BIA, Rick serves on the ATSC Business Advisory Council. He is a member of the Journal of Media Economics the editorial board. He has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in strategy, entrepreneurship, and research and analysis at Michigan State University, University of Maryland, George Mason University, and The George Washington University. 

Rick earned his Ph.D. from Michigan State University, his M.S. from Syracuse University and his B.A. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Mark Dugan

Director- Data Insights & Client Relations

Mark Dugan covers Data Insights & Client Relations.
Expertise: Broadcasting, Traditional Media, Market Research

Mark is BIA’s Director of Data Insights and Client Relations. In this role, Mark works directly with clients to determine their needs and requirements. Mark’s experience on the broadcast side, and as a user of BIA ADVantage, puts him in a unique position to help clients use BIA data and research effectively and efficiently.

Mark is also part of the content team at BIA, developing presentations reports, webinars and podcasts. He is also developing a client video training series for BIA ADVantage to help clients learn how to best use the platform.

Mark has over 23 years of Broadcast Television experience as a Research Director at WKBW in Buffalo and WPGH in Pittsburgh, and as an Account Executive at WMC in Memphis. Mark has deep data skills and has worked regularly with Nielsen, Scarborough, Media Audit and Kantar Research to develop client centric presentations and assist sales management.

Mark has his MBA with a concentration in Marketing and a BA in Psychology from the University of Rochester.

MacKenzie Lovings

VP, Marketing

MacKenzie Lovings is the vice president of marketing, responsible for the strategic development and tactical implementation of the company’s corporate positioning, product marketing and public relations. She leads a marketing and communications team that manages the company’s Website, marketing programs, company communications, advertising strategies and social media. Lovings also manages the marketing of BIA/Kelsey’s conferences, tradeshows, and sales lead generation. She is responsible for the full creative development, design, and production of all sales collateral and marketing brochures.

Lovings has over 20 years of marketing and management experience, including strategic planning, business development, and market analysis. In marketing management positions at public and privately held companies, she handled marketing communications, partner marketing and press relations in the content management and software development industries. She was part of a management team that successfully built and sold two companies.

Lovings has a Bachelor of Science in Technical Communications and a minor in Computer Science from the Florida Tech.

Celine Matthiessen

Vice President, Analysis & Insights Founder, Women Leading In Local

Celine Matthiessen covers market research.
Expertise: Competitive Intelligence, Market Research, Digital Media

Celine Matthiessen, BIA Advisory Services’ vice president of analysis and insights, develops the strategy, products and growth of the company’s proprietary Local Commerce Monitor (LCM) research of the marketing behaviors of small businesses as well as other custom data products that provide clients with tactical and strategic insights.

Celine has more than 20 years of experience in strategy, research and competitive intelligence. She collects and analyzes information from various primary and secondary sources for clients to anticipate competitive activities, see past market disruptions and dispassionately interpret events.

Through detailed and concise analysis, Celine assists clients in entering new industries and markets, launching new services, and understanding market forces and future. She sets up and runs formal and informal competitive communications for clients’ sales teams to keep them informed and able to position against the competition to close deals. She helps clients’ product teams effectively price and position products in markets and provides support for their strategies and initiatives with BIA’s proprietary data. She also assists clients looking to purchase, invest or partner in the local space through her due diligence and market knowledge.

Previously, Celine served as group manager of competitive intelligence at SuperMedia (Dex Media), where she established and managed a formal competitive intelligence department that supported the needs of a 4,000-member sales force and more than 500 employees in marketing, strategy, sales training, IT, business development and investor relations. As principal of Red Leaf Consulting, she managed a successful consulting business, performing on-demand, customized business and competitive intelligence for clients in the biotechnology, consumer electronics, medical, Internet, telecommunications, advertising, consumer packaged goods and design industries.

Celine is also the founder and executive leader of Women LEADING IN LOCAL that is specifically for women in the industries of media, advertising and marketing. The purpose of the group is to give women who attend BIA conferences and other trade conference additional opportunities to network, learn and for professional development.

Celine holds a Master of Information Science from Dominican University and a Bachelor of Arts from Knox College.

Nicole Ovadia

Vice President Forecasting & Analysis

Nicole Ovadia covers forecasting, media and advertising
Expertise: Broadcasting, Ad Forecasting, Economics

Nicole Ovadia serves as BIA Advisory’s Vice President Forecasting & Analysis. In that capacity, she focuses on overseeing the forecasting process across all local media segments. Additionally, Nicole helps with strategic and financial consulting projects by providing insights and analysis on broadcasting and digital trends. She also covers the impact of economics and consumer trends on advertising.

Born and raised on Long Island, New York, Nicole has always loved media. According to her parents, she said “Big Bird” before she said “Mom” or “Dad”. They’re still miffed. Nicole began her career as the Editor of Inside Radio before a five-year stint in finance working for BNP Paribas where she focused on Operations. Missing media, she then spent 14 years at Emmis Communications at the corporate level in the Strategy Group focusing on sales and acquisitions as well as at the local level in New York where she served as Vice President Customer Success. From there, Nicole worked with the New York State Broadcasters Association advocating for New York City radio.

Nicole received her undergraduate degree in Marketing and Communications from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. She also has an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management.

Geoff Price

VP, Financial Consulting

Geoff Price covers valuations and financial consulting
Expertise: Media Industries, Asset Appraisals, Fair Market Valuations

Vice President Geoff Price manages and operates BIA’s valuation consulting group. He has been with the company since 1988 and has appraised hundreds of media and telecommunications properties worth in aggregate in the tens of billions of dollars.

Price is responsible for the preparation of asset appraisals, valuation studies, strategic consulting assignments, and litigation support for clients in the communications and broadcast industries. He has also been responsible for assisting many publicly traded and privately held broadcast companies with their valuation needs associated with FASB 141/142. In addition, Price is part of the business development team and is responsible for client relationships with many of the largest broadcast companies nationwide. His appraisal and valuation experience is diverse, including reports for firms in the cellular, paging, SMR, cable, print, tower and broadcast industries.

Price earned a B.S. in finance from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia, and received his M.B.A. from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

Lauren Ross

Vice President, Media Valuations

Lauren Ross prepares valuations of media businesses.
Expertise: Fair Market Valuations, Minority Shareholder Interest Valuations, Litigation Support and Expert Testimony

As Vice President, Media Valuations, Lauren Ross has performed appraisals of thousands of media properties with an aggregate value of over $50 billion. She has prepared media valuations for more than 30 years and possesses a deep understanding of the value drivers in media industries. Her research and analytical skills, coupled with BIA’s wealth of knowledge and data on local media, are instrumental to clients understanding the value of their businesses.

Lauren prepares and oversees fair market valuations for broadcasting and cable properties, cable networks, print and digital publications, web-based businesses, communications towers, outdoor companies, and conferences/trade shows. She has appraised majority and minority interests in privately held companies to be used for gift tax and estate planning, shareholder disputes, and litigation support. She has also testified as a valuation expert in United States Bankruptcy Court and the Court of Chancery in the State of Delaware.

In addition, Lauren assists broadcast clients with their financial reporting requirements related to fair valuations of goodwill and other intangible assets with indeterminable lives (SFAS 142). Many of these assignments performed on an annual basis relate to enterprise valuations of broadcast properties and their associated FCC licenses. Clients for whom these analyses have been performed include both large publicly traded companies as well as smaller privately held firms.

Prior to joining BIA, Lauren served as a financial analyst with Frazier, Gross & Kadlec, a broadcast financial management consulting firm, also specializing in fair market valuations and tax appraisals for television, radio and cable television stations.

Lauren graduated from Furman University with a double major in economics/business administration and philosophy. Her Bachelor of Arts degree was conferred cum laude. She is an Accredited Senior Appraiser (ASA) in Business Valuation with the American Society of Appraisers.

Brad Adgate

Executive Industry Adviser

Brad Adgate covers agencies.
Expertise: Agencies, Audience Data & Measurement, Radio/TV/Digital Advertising

With 35+ years of experience in the industry, Brad Adgate is a well-known media insights veteran.

Adgate has worked at many top tier advertising agencies and media companies. These include working in the media research departments at Grey Advertising, Backer & Spielvogel, Saatchi & Saatchi Compton and Horizon Media, as well as ad sales research positions at LBS Communications, Turner Broadcasting, Westinghouse Satellite Communications, The Family Channel, and Comcast Spotlight.

Through the years, Adgate has provided POV’s, presentations, webinars, white papers, and participated in numerous industry panels. Adgate has also been published on a number of occasions by Ad Age, Adweek, Mediapost and is a contributor to Forbes.

Adgate has been sought by the media for his industry insights. He has been interviewed on numerous television and radio outlets about media including The Daily Show, CBS Sunday Morning, Bloomberg, Fox Business, Marketwatch, NPR and CNBC. Adgate has been quoted frequently in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Business Week and other prominent publications.

Adgate has been a member of several advisory boards and committees, including the Council for Research Excellence in which he chaired the Digital Committee, the Board of Directors of the Media Rating Council, The Board of Governors of the Advertising Research Foundation as well as on the advisory boards for Nielsen’s Local TV Committee, Arbitron Radio and Kantar Media. Adgate had also occupied the chair of the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s)’s Media Measurement Committee. As chair of the committee, Adgate co-authored the very first P.O.V. from the 4A’s on the need to improve local TV audience measurement.

In 2002 Brad was named a “Media Maven” by Advertising Age. For several years he has been named the most quoted media executive in the industry by Advertising Age in the publications annual “Media Talk” survey. In 2006, Brad was named “Media All Star” in the research category by Adweek. In 2009, Advertising Age named Adgate, one of “25 Media People You Should Follow on Twitter”.

Adgate is a graduate of Jacksonville University with a bachelor’s degree in history and political science. In 2014, he was named “One of 80 Alumni You Should Know” by the university.

Michael Boland

Executive in Residence

Michael Boland covers interactive and mobile media.
Expertise: Mobile Advertising, Social Media, Emerging Tech

Mike was one of Silicon Valley’s first tech writers of the internet age as staff reporter for Forbes, starting in 2000.

Now a leading industry analyst, he’s a frequent speaker at top industry conferences such as BIA events, ad:tech, and LeadsCon.

He authors defining reports and revenue forecasts on the changing tech & media landscape; He contributes to highly-red news sources such as Business Insider and The Huffington Post; and his quotes & comments appear in the Wall Street Journal, Fortune and The New York Times. 

Mark Fratrik

Mark Fratrik covers media advertising and economics.
Expertise: Broadcasting, Competitive Media

Senior vice president Mark Fratrik serves as BIA Advisory Services’ chief economist and is responsible for forecasting across all local media segments. He also manages the company’s numerous proprietary databases and conducts primary research on various trends as they affect the broadcasting and related communications industries. Additionally, Mark is heavily involved in BIA’s strategic and financial consulting projects, conducting research and analysis for clients on matters related to the broadcasting, digital media and related communications industries.

Throughout his career, Mark has researched and spoken at numerous conferences on the impact of the economy on the broadcasting industries, revenue trends, proposed and enacted regulatory changes, and new media technologies. He has also been heavily involved in analyzing the financial impact of the upcoming FCC reverse auction of local television stations.

He is often quoted in the media and is a leading spokesperson concerning trends and forecasts for the media industry including analyzing competitiveness of media and related industries. He is the author BIA’s series of studies on the state of the radio and television industry.

Mark received his Bachelor of Arts in mathematics and economics from State University of New York at Binghamton and his master’s and doctoral degrees in economics from Texas A&M University. He served as an adjunct professor of economics at Johns Hopkins University for more than seven years.

Kevin Gallagher

Kevin Gallagher covers Media buying agencies.
Expertise: Media buying agencies, local media planning and activation, omnichannel campaigns, workflow automation and programmatic trading

Gallagher has led local investment planning and activation at major media buying agencies including Spark/Publicis, Starcom/Leo Burnett working with major clients such as GM and Comcast. He has substantial experience and expertise in identifying current trends and evolving best practices for Local TV currencies, omnichannel approaches, inventory management, data/attribution models and media buying software tools.

Gallagher’s recent work includes advising a growing, regional media agency to improve their Local Buying Operations with focus on systems/tools, buying process, team structure/organization and dynamic local media landscape.

He has developed strong professional relationships with agency colleagues and management, senior level Clients, trading partner sales organizations and media management software providers. He’s also contributed thought leadership as a member of local industry committees including 4As, Nielsen Local TV Alliance, The Media Ratings Council and the TVB.

Gallagher has a proven track record of building team organizations and identifying streamlined, effective processes and staff structures leveraging his leadership ability to inspire, motivate and coach teams. He’s built media buying teams that he’s recruited, trained, and mentored to become top industry talent while building unique team culture.

Mitch Oscar

Executive Industry Advisor

Mitch Oscar covers the advanced television arena.
Expertise: Programmatic, Advanced TV, OTT

Mitch Oscar is BIA’s executive industry advisor covering the advanced television arena including addressability, programmatic TV, ad-supported video on demand and OTT.

Oscar is the founder of HocusFocus, a media and marketing thought leadership consultancy that specializes in analyzing and developing television advertising models from a television point of view. He is the editor of the weekly publication HocusFocus, a media ecosystem newsletter. Since the company’s inception in 1993, Oscar has been retained in various capacities by a variety of clients including Acxiom, Adelphia Cable, AGS Financial Services, Alcatel Lucent, Arthur Andersen, AT&T, BackChannelMedia, Bloomberg Business Radio, Burly Bear College Network, Cablevision, Televisora de Costa Rica (Costa Rica), CNN/Cartoon Network, Cox Communications, Comcast, Discovery Communications, Donovan Data Systems, erinMedia, ESPN, ExpoTV, Fox Cable, French Media Institute (France), Hotel Networks, Invidi, JPMorgan Chase, LiquidGeneration, Management Science Associates, Merrill Lynch, Mhow (South Korea), MusicChoice (U.K.), Navic, Nielsen Media Research, Public Television’s WNET, RePlayTV, SevenOne Media (Germany), ShadowTV, Sunshine Interactive Network, The Myers Group, TNS, Video Research (Japan), Verizon and Visible World.

Oscar was the architect and moderator of The Collaborative Alliance (2003-2012), a quarterly forum where on average 250 media professional gathered over lunch to help navigate the future of the consumer and advertiser relationship within the evolving televisual landscape. His current collaborative association is The TV Programmatic Secret Society, whose mission is to create dialogues about issues, models and data affecting the evolution of the TV programmatic landscape.

His book, “Trials & Defibrillations: Interactive Television in the U.S.,” published in 2008, was one of the first to offer a comprehensive analysis of the learnings gleaned through his in-market advertiser-supported trials, consulting, educational gatherings and industry interactions. It is a primer for those media professionals not familiar with the realm and a guide for those navigating through the maze.

Oscar is a standing member of industry trade associations and a frequent panelist and speaker at industry events.