Fran Shea is currently Executive Vice President of Programming and Marketing for GSN with a mandate to revitalize the Game Show Network’s brand and content line-up. She is an audience development specialist, having served as president of E! Entertainment Television and founded HBOlab, a digital platform within HBO. Additionally, she has managed a consulting business, working with broadcast, cable and digital media and has a broad range of experience in business, content and audience management.

Fran is the former president of E! Entertainment Television (1999-2001). Under her leadership the highly successful cable channel, which is now available in over 90 million homes, reached record profitability and launched a second network (style.). In addition, Fran oversaw the international business and managed theonline business (eonline) to continued revenue growth.

Preceding her presidency at E!, Fran originated and developed the programming and on-air brand for E! Entertainment Television (1990-1999) over a nine-year period as Senior Vice President of Programming. Managing a creative and technical staff of 700, she was responsible for the creative growth of the channel including the development and production of all shows (True Hollywood Story, Talk Soup, E! News Daily, The Howard Stern  Show, branded awards show coverage, etc). Fran spent a decade as a producer/executive at HBO. She won a producer Emmy Award in 1989. She is a graduate of SCSU with a BS in Journalism and has completed her Masters in Media Studies at The New School in New York (2013).

Fran is a frequent speaker/teacher on the subjects of creative management, low-cost/high volume content creation and audience development. She created curriculum and instructed at UCLA Extension on the topic of audience building. She has lectured at NYU, UCLA, USC, Cal State Northridge and has served as a mentor at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

Speaking on: The Gamut of Game