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Sarah Tomassi Lindman, 37
General Manager
The N
Growing up, Sarah Tomassi Lindman had no idea what she wanted to be. But as an only child who spent a lot of time alone, she knew she liked TV.
"I could recite the prime-time lineup of all three networks," she recalls. "I was really tuned in to scheduling."
Her eye for scheduling would later come in handy. First, Ms. Lindman studied philosophy at Yale and taught English in Spain. A paralegal job at Warner Bros. led her to the Kids' WB; from there, she jumped to fledgling children's network Noggin.
"My career has been about being open to possibility," says Ms. Lindman, who became head of programming and production for the digital channel in 2000.
In 2002, Ms. Lindman added The N to her portfolio when it was launched as Noggin's nighttime network, targeting teenage girls. Signature shows Degrassi and South of Nowhere have come in first among teens and female teens, respectively, during their time periods--not bad for a channel that's in only 54 million homes. Ad revenues reached $16 million last year, 33% above 2005 levels, according to Kagan Research.
Ms. Lindman, who has been GM of The N since July, is now accelerating the production of original programming.
"Sarah has this purity of vision for what teenagers need and want of us, rather than what we wish them to want," says Tom Ascheim, general manager of Nickelodeon Television, the Viacom division that oversees The N. "And if you keep your eye on your audience, you tend to make the right choices."