TheGrio’s 100: Mary Spio, reaching beyond the stars

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Video produced by Alex Presha
Text written by Ronda Racha Penrice>

“Deep Space Engineer” is no movie role for Mary Spio; it’s the title the Syracuse and Georgia Tech alumna held at Ultra Corp before moving on to PanAmSat Corporation as a Senior Satellite Applications Engineer. A bona fide rocket scientist, Spio began gaining notoriety in her field when she joined Boeing in 2001 as the head of Satellite Communications Systems at just age 26.

At Boeing, Spio’s ingenuity produced several patent-worthy developments in customer engagement and demographic targeting technology at Boeing, culminating in a new division, Boeing Digital Cinema.

Her innovations have helped change film distribution, allowing studios to transmit films via satellite. Ocean’s Eleven and Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones are just two films that have hit the big screen using technology Spio developed.

Socially and scientifically adept, Spio switched gears in 2002, launching One2One Living, a specialty media company targeting singles that includes a nationally distributed eponymous magazine and an active web community. By 2004, she began attracting national attention, partnering with shows like The Bachelor.

Re-shifting her focus to the evolving interactive video landscape has paid off for Spio, now co-founder, president and director of Orlando-based Gen2Media, an interactive digital video technology, marketing, production and media company.

The growing trend of businesses, large and small, publishing online video and managing their own content, as well as advertising delivery, is an important aspect of Gen2Media’s growth strategy. To simplify the process, Gen2Media has developed its own digital video publisher software.

Under Spio’s leadership, Gen2Media has made many impressive inroads. Microsoft Xbox Live, TiVo, Clear Channel and Coca-Cola are leading brands that have signed up for their services. Gen2Media’s production arm has handled live concert and video production for some of the nation’s biggest entertainers, including Mary J. Blige, The Black Eyed Peas and Justin Timberlake.

Always creative, Spio’s also developing The Verge, a show that crosses America’s Got Talent and Rock Band. With the online expansion of video use on the upswing, the digital media expert’s sphere of influence is only widening.