People
One on One with Kaleil Isaza Tuzman, Chairman and CEO of KIT Digital
By HE&IT
Aug 24, 2010, 13:11

Kaleil Isaza Tuzman is chairman and chief executive officer of KIT Digital. He is responsible for managing day-to-day operations, including business development, content acquisition, product development, network operations, marketing and financial planning.

Prior to joining KIT digital, he served as president & COO of JumpTV Inc., and president and CEO of JumpTV International FZ-LLC, the world¡¯s largest broadcaster of international and sports content over the Internet.

Mr. Isaza Tuzman served as chairman and CEO of KPE, Inc., a leading New York-based digital media services company with the clients portfolio including Sony Entertainment, Viacom and Carnival Cruises, which was sold to a predecessor of Agency.com. Prior to KPE, he served as chairman & CEO of govWorks, Inc., a KKR and Mayfield Fund-backed government technology services firm.

He previously spent five years working on Goldman Sachs emerging markets investment banking and risk arbitrage teams. He has been a term member of the Council of Foreign Relations, a U.S. trade representative under the President William J. Clinton and George W. Bush, and was recently named one of the 100 Most Influential Hispanics by Hispanic Magazine. Mr. Isaza Tuzman holds magna cum laude degree from Harvard University.

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HE&IT: What is your proudest career accomplishment?

Kaliel Isaza Tuzman: My proudest career accomplishment is overcoming failure in my first venture and going out and starting a new company.

HE&IT: Who is your greatest influence?

KIT: One of my greatest influences is my grandfather, who was a Holocaust survivor and who arrived on the shores of the U.S. with the prototypical dollar in his pocket. He had no formal vocational training but ended up being a successful entrepreneur in the window-cleaning business.

HE&IT: How do you measure effectiveness?

KIT: I measure effectiveness much differently now than I did earlier in my career. I used to think effectiveness had to do with material productivity - how many units of output there were per unit of time. Now I measure effectiveness in relation to training and educating future managers and leaders. Did you do something that taught someone else on the team, or helped someone tap into their best abilities? Did your leadership help that person act more effectively in the next client meeting, or the next managerial challenge? That is how I measure effectiveness now ¨C it's more about human resources and training.

HE&IT: What do you think the next big thing will be?

KIT: In our field, I think the next big thing will be completely personalized entertainment. This is the rise of a generation that interacts with entertainment in a non-programmatic fashion - they do not watch a linear program line-up (for example, I think the traditional cable subscription model will end in our lifetime). Instead, they order and create their own personal bucket of content to consume.

HE&IT: Where is your favorite vacation spot?

KIT: Cartagena, Colombia - my heart and soul are there.  It's a beautiful sixteenth-century Spanish fort city; attacked by the British for centuries but never surrendered.  It is the most preserved post-colonial historical site west of Europe, and hasn't yet been "discovered" by hordes of tourists.  It's a truly magical place where I have a home and will probably retire someday.

HE&IT: What's the title of a book you've read recently?

KIT: I just read "El Conquistador" a wonderful book by an Argentine author, Andahazi Federico. The book looks at history through the prism of what would have happened if the early "Mejicos" had colonized Europe instead of Europe colonizing America.

HE&IT: What's your favorite leisure activity, website and gadget besides your smartphone?

KIT: My favorite leisure activity is scuba-diving off the Colombian coast. I'm a big fan of Martin Varsavsky's blog (http://english.martinvarsavsky.net/). It's really great insight from an entrepreneur who is a subject matter expert in telecoms and digital media and who is broadly an aficionado of both for-profit and social entrepreneurship and an ambassador at large of Argentina. I am a huge proponent of personalized editorial and news sites, which is why I enjoy this site so much.¡¡My favorite gadget is my mechanical depth gauge watch. It measures up to 80 meters depth without any electronic component. I am a watch nerd.

HE&IT: What's your dream job?

KIT: I've got my dream job at KIT digital ¨C I love being an entrepreneur and working with a team to build new products and tap new markets.

HE&IT: What are three items you never leave home without?

KIT: I never leave home without my BlackBerry, my chapstick (I'm an addict) and my optimism.