Robert Tercek
![Robert Tercek portrait](https://arts.unl.edu/images/advisoryboard/tercek-robert-min.jpg)
Robert Tercek is one of the world’s most prolific creators of interactive content. His book, Vaporized: Solid Strategies for Success in a Dematerialized World, was the International Book Award Winner at the 2016 Frankfurt International Book Fair. In 2009, he was named one of the “25 Executives to Watch” by Digital Media Wire. Variety has named him one of the “Digital Dozen” most influential players in new media. The Industry Standard dubbed him a “TV Anarchist.”
Tercek has created breakthrough entertainment experiences on every digital platform, including satellite television, game consoles, broadband internet, interactive television and mobile networks. His expertise spans television, telecommunications and software.
His 22-year career is marked by achievements which include several milestones: the first multichannel television service in Asia (STAR TV in 1991); the first multiplayer Java games on the Web (Sony, 1997); the first interactive games shows on U.S. television (Sony, 1999); the world’s first streaming video service on mobile phones (PacketVideo and NTT DoCoMo’s V-Live, 2001); the largest audience for live interactive video events on the web (Oprah Winfrey’s 2009 web casts); the most popular free book download in history (Suze Orman on Oprah.com, 2009).
Tercek has served in executive leadership roles at major media companies, most recently as President of Digital Media at OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, and previously as Senior Vice President of Digital Media at Sony Pictures Entertainment and earlier as Creative Director at MTV: Music Television. He also co-founded five startup ventures, including 7th Level, Inc which went public in 1993.
Tercek has provided strategic insight and advice to many companies seeking to enter the networked entertainment market, including: Nokia, Motorola, AMD, MSN, Sony Computer Entertainment, Taito, Bandai Networks, Siegel and Gale, CMP Media Group, VNU Media Group, and The Anthony Robbins Companies.
He serves as an adjunct professor and lecturer at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinema-Television, where he introduced the curriculum for interactive media, and served on the faculty of the Peter Stark Producers program. He has been a guest lecturer at several universities and colleges in the US and abroad. In 1985 he was awarded a Fulbright Teaching Fellowship in Kiel, Germany.
In 2008, he was named a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts in recognition of his achievements in social media for the benefit of society.
He is a voting member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and contributed to the founding of the Interactive Media Peer Group at ATAS. He has lived and worked throughout Europe, Asia and the Americas. He currently lives in Los Angeles.