United States
Darren Brelesky is the Executive Vice President of Product at CBS Digital, Paramount Global, Inc. In his current role, he oversees the full product development life cycle from user research, concept, and design through engineering and delivery. A highly adaptive and hands-on leader, he efficiently manages people, programs, budgets, and operations at various altitudes. As a senior executive in media Darren possesses a unique comprehension and passion for digital experience design and stands as a demonstrated driver of innovation for the company. Mr. Brelesky is an Emmy Award winner for User Experience and Visual Design, as well as a winner of multiple Webby Awards and an Apple's Editor's Choice Award for mobile experiences. DIGITAL PRODUCT EXECUTIVE 20+ years of experience defining strategy, vision, execution and operation of innovative, digital products. Proven expertise in web, OTT, and mobile app UX design and development for US and global games and video-based experiences. LEADER An accomplished leader of cross-functional product development teams comprised of user-experience designers, product managers, engineers, and project managers. Outstanding relationship-building talent with a history of cultivating strong, lasting partnerships with vendors and executive management. ENTREPRENEUR Founder and self-creator (product, design, engineering) of SwingHRD, a private, Ruby on Rails web app and home run derby league for baseball fanatics.
Leading product management, product design, and live operations teams for a multi-product portfolio in service of nearly 100M unique and passionate fans a month. Building teams, breaking ground, connecting to audiences, having fun, and straight-up killing it.
Develops the strategies and digital products for the Nickelodeon brands of a global entertainment company for kids and families with reach into over 100 million homes. Mr. Brelesky actively oversees the product management, ux design and technology teams (~ 70+ employees) all operating to grow online, mobile, game console and TV-connected device audiences for TV entertainment and gaming product lines. Most recently, Darren has built teams to: • Create and deliver the multi-platform rollout of Noggin, an over-the-top SVOD service for mobile audiences. The direct-to-consumer app launched in March 2015 with incredible subscriber adoption. • Migrate and re-think a novel, modern-media web paradigm for kids in Nick.com with innovative strides in video UX design, cross-platform game technology, and modern NodeJS architecture. The site launched responsively in July 2014. • Concept and deliver a new era of preschool entertainment experiences in the Nick Jr. app and responsive NickJr.com. The app has landed on iOS devices with phenomenal growth and retention, and won the esteemed Apple Editor’s Choice Award in December 2014. • Define and deliver the innovative Nick Jr. Apple Watch app. • Deliver and manage 39 (and counting…) cross-platform mobile apps to iOS, Android, Amazon, Xbox, Windows8 and Roku. • Create and manage products across 7 audience segments accounting for over $100MM in revenue across both ad-supported and premium revenue businesses • Grow and hire a ground-up, customer experience team and culture for Viacom
• Define digital product vision and product roadmaps to support annual organizational goals. • Lead 8 concurrent Agile Scrum and Kanban design and development teams to execute consistently, rapidly and effectively against a portfolio of over 70 million unique visitors per month. • Responsible for product planning, new customer discovery and evaluation of new business initiatives including acquisitions and contract negotiations with partners, affiliates and vendors. • Drive the creation of innovative product solutions for digital experiences and lead the advancement and evangelism of product and technology for the organization. • Responsible for recruiting, training and the on-going development of 20+ full-time and virtual teams of producers, product managers and interaction designers. • Led digital rollout of the most successful live, digital event for Nickelodeon driving 200+ million votes and 75,000 concurrent video streams with distribution to 18 international regions.
• Built a product management and interaction design team for the organization from 0-12 reports in 18 months. • Helped introduce and implement agile methodologies for software development to Nickelodeon. • Orchestrated the digital one-brand redesign for Nickelodeon’s portfolio of digital properties resulting in a net increase in unique visitors and traffic of +15%.
* Built a UX team and product-development competency for the organization from 0-12 reports in 18 months. * Orchestrated the digital one-brand redesign for Nickelodeon’s portfolio of digital properties resulting in a net increase in unique visitors and traffic of +15%. * Led cross-functional teams to develop a consensus on business and user objectives to create product requirements taking into consideration business, legal, international, user, and technical issues.