A Conversation With
Theresa Pak-Tsang ’97 Can you share any inside stories? I can share that everyone at Disney Streaming Services and other parts of the Disney company all worked really hard to make the Disney+ launch a success. The power and influence of Disney is remarkable on so many different levels. We launched in Europe on March 24th. Theresa Pak-Tsang and her family
Theresa Pak-Tsang ’97 is a Program Manager for the Content Engineering organization of Disney Streaming Services, which ingests, manages, and delivers all content metadata. Here she shares her experiences of what it has been like working as a woman in a male-dominated field, and what it was like to be on the front lines of the worldwide launch of Disney+. Congratulations on the launch of the uber successful Disney+! How did you become involved in the project? Thanks! We’re definitely proud of what we were able to accomplish and are working on keeping that momentum going. I originally joined as part of MLB Advanced Media, working on services for MLB.tv, NHL.tv, WWE, HBO Now, PGA, Eurosport, and others. Our group was called BAMTech. Eventually we spun off from MLBAM, and The Walt Disney Company (TWDC) purchased a majority stake in BAMTech, changing our name to Disney Streaming Services (DSS) and focused on ESPN+ and Disney+.
18 • Roots & Wings • Spring 2020
The project seems like it was pretty intensive. What’s your secret to striking balance at work and home? There’s no secret because I still feel like I’m not balancing work and home well, but I try to have a routine to provide some consistency for my family. I avoid working when I’m not in the office, but if I have to, I do what can be done from my phone in minutes via email or Slack. Otherwise, it can wait until I’m back at work. Any exceptions need to be emergencies that might be reported on via news outlets. It would appear from the outside looking in that women are still the minority in this field. Is that true? If so, do you see that changing? In tech, this is an unfortunate reality, but there are LOTS of people working to change that, including myself. I take part in recruiting efforts specifically focused on hiring more women at conferences like the Grace Hopper Conference and have helped hire a number of talented women whom I continue to try and mentor even after they join. Around me, I see women teaching and leading through different organizations like Girls Who Code and coding bootcamps. I’m also encouraged by the men who are checking their gender biases at the door and advocating for the women they work with on a daily basis.
What would be your advice to a current NDP senior getting ready to graduate and go out into the world who may want to go into the same field? What college studies are best suited for your line of work? NDP helped teach me to shed myself of my selfish entitlement, never stop learning, and servant leadership. Don’t forget these lessons/skills and, instead, sharpen them. I use these daily, in both my work and personal life, and I’m confident they are some of the key contributors to any success that I’ve had. I majored in Information Systems and minored in Computer Science. The classes provided important foundations in things like data structures, technical architecture, and business processes. But in tech, as I’m sure with other fields as well, academics are just the start of your learning. I spent hours with friends tinkering with computer hardware, writing scripts to automate random things, setting up networks in my dorm and at my part time job, and learning new coding languages because each language had efficiencies and deficiencies in different ways. Can you recall any NDP teachers that left a big impression on you? What would you like to say to them today? Mrs. [Elaine] Gottschalk—In her class, I learned that I enjoyed logic questions and the importance of operational order. Both of these are used in every coding language I can think of. Mrs. [Barbara] Barr—She taught Pascal (which probably isn’t taught anymore),
