Meet The Team
Led by Founder and Managing Partner, Stephen McCreath, Charlotte's senior management team boasts 75+ years experience in the global television industry during which time, Stephen, Michael and Max each worked on both sides of the fence as channel owners, programmers and media buyers. Therefore, they understand exactly what is required to successfully launch channels and new markets!
Click on the headshots below to learn more about our senior management team's industry background and experience.
Stephen McCreath
Founder & Managing Partner
Stephen has had a successful career in Direct Response TV Advertising and Independent Film and Television sectors spanning 25-years, His time working in Australian, North American and UK television markets has given him a wealth of knowledge and expertise regarding international media buying & strategy, broadcast regulation, licensing & sponsorship, channel management & broadcast logistics.
Stephen enjoyed 12, highly accomplished years working in the DRTV & Advertising industry, holding senior management positions at High Street TV and JML as well as being responsible for developing and managing some of the UK and North America's largest and most successful ever DRTV campaigns including Nutri-Bullet, Atkins Answer and Natural Cures amongst many other As Seen on TV brand successes. During this period, he launched and managed a number of 24/7 TV home shopping networks in the UK - in addition to airtime blocks in Australia and North America. At his peak, he was buying and controlling over 50% of all available third-party DRTV airtime inventory on UK television earning himself the reputation for being one of the industry's most respected and commercially astute media negotiators.
Stephen, by his own admission, became a "suit" (aka a Producer) after leaving the DRTV industry to run a small, independent film studio for a few years before returning to mainstream television where he developed and produced a series of documentaries for SKY Sports as well as producing the annual "Classic Rock Awards" and "Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards" shows for SKY Arts and AXS TV for several years.
In 2017, Stephen decided it was time to leave the 'rat race' in London, and after a little time-out to recharge the batteries, he formed The Charlotte Agency with the vision of using internet and cutting-edge broadcast delivery technology to inexpensively launch (existing) TV channels and programmers in overseas, international markets on Linear, Digital, Connected TV (CTV) or Free Ad-Supported Streaming Television (FAST) platforms.
Max Compton
Partner, Australia & New Zealand
Max enjoyed a successful career spanning 20-years in Australian TV as General Manger - Sales for two of the country's largest, national TV networks; Seven Network and Network 10 (Paramount ANZ). At the end of the 1990's, he chose to leave the corporate sector behind to launch his own TV production and media sales agency, InfoBreak.
Throughout the 2000's, Max established InfoBreak as one of Australia's largest and most successful independent media sales and marketing agencies, enjoying close working ties with Seven, Nine and 10 television networks. The agency was responsible for producing some of the country's biggest DRTV campaigns in addition to devising and producing several B2B and B2C lead generation ad-campaigns, working with a diverse range of consumer brands and clients.
It was also during the early days of InfoBreak, that Max first met Stephen who was in town to set-up and launch his then new, Australian DRTV business; Shop America (Australasia). The two quickly formed a close working relationship, that ultimately helped to establish SAA as the number 1 DRTV Infomercial advertiser in Australia, less than 12-months after its launch. It was quite the achievement!
Since 2020, Max has worked exclusively with Charlotte supporting clients such as America's Value Channel, Cruise Away, Gemporia and ISN TV launch their respective TV Home Shopping businesses in the lucrative Australian television market.
Michael Kokernak
Partner, North America, South America & UAE
Michael is a US TV industry veteran who boasts 30+ years' experience working with most of America's major national and regional TV networks and Cable platforms brokering over $40M in TV network deals on behalf of home shopping networks, direct response advertisers and specialist TV programmers.
Michael and Stephen were first introduced to one another some 10-years ago by a mutual friend and associate at Comcast (NBC Universal). Sharing a common interest in data and broadcast technology, they were both interested in better understanding how advancements in streaming [at that time] could eventually enable broadcasters, programmers and brands to expand globally and cost-effectively, reaching new and wider television audiences by means of live-simulcasting and streaming. That curiosity ultimately led to the formation of Charlotte.
In recent years, Michael has invested considerable time in developing bespoke advertising and marketing strategies for our clients by leveraging video cloud technologies. The work he has designed for American broadcast, cable, and cloud industries has been recognised and awarded several patents in the United States with several other patent applications for clickable advertising technologies still pending.