About Shameel Arafin
Product and Technology Executive
Currently, I am the Chief Product Officer at a billionaire-funded news startup in stealth mode.
I work in media product and technology — interactive storytelling for subscription- and ad-driven business models
— at scale.
Over the last decade, my career has focused on journalism and documentary at digital-only
medial publishers,
as well as legacy publications undergoing digital transformation.
From 2019 to late 2021, I was Vice President, Product at Fortune Media,
where I oversaw product management and product development across web, mobile and video platforms,
spanning multiple business lines and verticals. Working with
the executive team, I helped drive the digital transformation of a 90+ year old brand that was newly
independent and billionaire-funded. During my tenure I launched
Fortune Connect,
a membership-community for mid-career professionals,
Fortune Premium, the subscription product,
Fortune On Demand,
an immersive video platform,
two mobile apps (iOS and Android),
and a new
Before joining Fortune Media, I was Vice President of Engineering at ViewLift.
We developed a platform for on-demand and live video streaming, across multiple device categories (mobile, web, OTT).
I managed several engineering teams of dozens of engineers, in New York and India.
Prior to ViewLift, I led the technology teams for TIME, FORTUNE, MONEY, Health Magazine and a number
of other brands, as Senior Director of Platform Engineering at Time Inc. (acquired by Meredith).
Before Time Inc., I architected and built the video and interactive
storytelling platform at MediaStorm,
as architect and lead developer. The MediaStorm platform was licensed to the Sundance Film Institute,
and continues to power stories at the Wall Street Journal and other publications.
Working with Design, Engineering, Marketing and Editorial departments, my teams build scalable platforms for distributed content and unique, immersive, cinematic online narratives.
