How are TV shows and Broadway plays financed, and how has the financing of entertainment changed as consumers’ viewing habits have shifted? Those are some of the questions under discussion at a lunch hosted by ACG New York’s Women of Leadership at the Yale Club on May 25. The event, Spotlight on Leaders in the Entertainment Industry, features a fireside chat with Christina Spade (pictured) and Jane Dubin, moderated by Mergers & Acquisitions editor-in-chief Mary Kathleen Flynn.

Spade is the CFO of Showtime Networks Inc., which began airing a revival of Twin Peaks on May 21. Spade is responsible for all financial matters relating to the company’s businesses, and oversees the finance and strategy for the network's divisions including budgeting, planning, forecasting and accounting of all the business segments.

Dubin is the president of Double Play Connections. She won a Tony award for producing The Norman Conquests and also served as a producer on American in Paris and Peter and the Starcatcher and the upcoming Fingersmith. Trained as an actuary, Dubin was a managing director at Equitable Capital Management Corporation (a subsidiary of Equitable Life) and then principal of a private investment firm.

The conversation will address some of the challenges women face in achieving top-tier status in financial services. Spade will discuss the importance of diverse teams in business, and Dubin will talk about the League of Professional Theatre Women, of which she is a board member.

In the middle market, women account for only 14 percent of all dealmakers. ACG New York’s Women of Leadership committee is among the groups focused on programming for female dealmakers. Mergers & Acquisitions publishes an annual list of The Most Influential Women in Mid-Market M&A, which includes female dealmakers from all components of the middle market, including: corporate dealmakers, private equity investors, investment bankers, lenders, attorneys and other advisers.