News Broadcasting
Oltmanns joins PWC for Academy balloting process
MUMBAI: PricewaterhouseCoopers ( PWC), in its endeavour to renew and continue its association with the world-renowned Academy Awards, today announced that Brad Oltmanns, managing partner of the firm’s Los Angeles office, has joined the leadership team managing the 2005 Academy Awards balloting process alongside PricewaterhouseCoopers partners Greg Garrison and Rick Rosas.
These three will be fully responsible for the voting results which are scheduled to be announced during the 77th Academy Awards telecast on Sunday, 27 February.
“The Academy Awards balloting and voting demands the highest level of integrity and trust. We continue to find that in our relationship with PricewaterhouseCoopers,” said Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences executive director Bruce Davis. “We look forward to welcoming Brad to the stage later this month.”
“I am joining an exclusive group of PricewaterhouseCoopers partners who have been entrusted with one of the entertainment industry’s best kept secrets for 71 years running,” said Oltmanns. “It is a serious responsibility and certainly one of the biggest honors of my career. I am proud to continue the tradition for years to come.”
Oltmanns joins the group of individuals who have safeguarded the world’s most famous, hand-counted secrets. He has served the firm for 25 years, and is in charge of managing PricewaterhouseCoopers’ entire 1,000-person staff in Los Angeles. Oltmanns has also worked in leadership positions in the firm’s Chicago, New York and Minneapolis offices.
“I look at Brad and remember when PricewaterhouseCoopers first offered me the opportunity to lead the Academy Awards balloting process — the excitement, the privilege, the honor,” said PricewaterhouseCoopers’ longest-time lead balloting partner (retired) Frank Johnson.
“With a few helpful hints, I’m sure that Brad will make his mark among the exclusive group of past partners who have shared in this experience of a lifetime.”
News Broadcasting
Senior media executive Madhu Soman exits Zee Media
Former Reuters and Bloomberg leader says he leaves with “no regrets” after brief stint at WION and Zee Business
NOIDA: Madhu Soman, a veteran of global newsrooms and media sales floors, has stepped away from Zee Media Corporation after a short stint steering business strategy for WION and Zee Business.
In a reflective LinkedIn note marking his departure, Soman said his time within the network’s corridors was always likely to be brief. “Some chapters close faster than expected,” he wrote, signalling the end of a nearly two-year spell in which he oversaw both editorial partnerships and commercial strategy.
Soman joined Zee Media in 2022 after more than a decade abroad with Reuters and Bloomberg, returning to India to take on the role of chief business officer for WION and Zee Business. His mandate was ambitious: bridge the newsroom and the revenue desk while expanding digital and broadcast reach.
During the stint, Zee Business reached break-even for the first time since its launch in 2005, while WION refreshed programming and strengthened its digital footprint across platforms such as YouTube and Facebook.
But Soman suggested the cultural fit proved uneasy. Describing himself as a “cultural misfit”, he hinted at deeper tensions between editorial instincts shaped in global newsrooms and the realities of India’s television news ecosystem.
Before joining Zee, Soman spent more than seven years at Bloomberg in Hong Kong as head of broadcast sales for Asia-Pacific, expanding the company’s news syndication business across several markets. Earlier, he held senior editorial roles at Reuters, overseeing online strategy in India and managing Reuters Video Services from London.
His career began in television and wire reporting, including a stint with ANI during the 1999 Kargil conflict, before moving into digital publishing as India’s internet media landscape took shape.
Now, after nearly three decades in broadcast and digital media, Soman is leaving Delhi NCR and returning to his hometown, Trivandrum.
Exhausted, he admits. But unbowed. And with one quiet line that sums up the journey: he didn’t sell his soul — because some things, after all, are not for sale.
