Ann Carlsen is founder & CEO of Carlsen Resources Inc. (CRI), an exec­u­tive search and work­force plan­ning firm which oper­ates with­in the glob­al media telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions indus­tries. CRI is a lead­ing exec­u­tive search firm which uses strate­gic think­ing and inno­va­tion to attract the best exec­u­tives and high lev­el man­age­ment for some of the most well-known media and telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions com­pa­nies, includ­ing Rain­bow Media, NBC, Dis­cov­ery Net­works, ABC, Time Warn­er and Google.

After get­ting a degree in jour­nal­ism and busi­ness from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Col­orado, Carlsen’s pro­fes­sion­al career began as a door to door sales per­son with the com­mu­ni­ca­tions con­sult­ing ser­vices firm Unit­ed Cable Com­pa­ny. Using her expe­ri­ence with that com­pa­ny she got a sales and mar­ket­ing job with Cardiff Publishing’s Cable Tele­vi­sion Busi­ness mag­a­zine. In 1984 Ann was employed with the ven­ture cap­i­tal firm Busi­ness Ven­ture Invest­ments, and it was while she was employed at this com­pa­ny that she devel­oped her busi­ness and entre­pre­neur­ial skills. Her sub­se­quent role as Vice Pres­i­dent at Win­ston Man­age­ment Group made her realise how much she loved exec­u­tive search, and she used this pas­sion to estab­lish her own exec­u­tive search com­pa­ny Future Sense, Inc., which changed to Carlsen Resources Inc.

Carlsen is a very high­ly regard­ed leader with­in exec­u­tive search, earn­ing her­self a good rep­u­ta­tion for pro­mot­ing the best work­place diver­si­ty. With this, and a high lev­el of under­stand­ing of the indus­try she is a part of, orga­ni­za­tions with­in the media indus­try have award­ed Carlsen for her work. Her work for diverse recruit­ment is exem­pli­fied with her place as a found­ing mem­ber of the Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Diver­si­ty Net­work, and she has also worked on behalf of the Nation­al Asso­ci­a­tion for Mul­ti-Eth­nic­i­ty in Com­mu­ni­ca­tions for almost ten years. She has served on oth­er com­mit­tees and orga­ni­za­tions, such as the Nation­al Women in Cable and Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions (WICT) and the Nation­al Cable Tele­vi­sion Asso­ci­a­tion (NCTA).