Media and Entertainment: An emerging tide of creative opportunities

Coordinator: Hafeez Giwa, Akintunde Kehinde, Taire Avbovbo

Mark Walton
Executive Vice President, Sponsorship and Corporate Development, The Africa Channel
 
Mr. Walton has over 20 years of experience in advertising sales, TV and film distribution, marketing and general management.
Before joining The Africa Channel, Mr. Walton was President and CEO of Onyx Media Group International, Inc., a New York-based advertising sales and TV program distribution company, he co-founded. For fifteen years, Onyx secured sponsorship and distribution, domestic and international, for over 50 television programs, aimed at both general audiences and multicultural viewers. Over the years Onyx's client roster included: Post-Newsweek Stations Group, Cowles Enthusiast Media, Black Entertainment Television, CBS New Media, SI Communications and the Hispanic Heritage Awards Foundation. In 2003, his company syndicated the off-network, dramatic series New York Undercover.
Mr. Walton was Vice President of Marketing and a founding partner in the film distribution company KJM3 Entertainment Group. In 1992, they developed the successful distribution and promotional strategy for Julie Dash's Daughters of the Dust. They were also the U.S. distributors for a number of other independent films from Africa and the Caribbean, notably, The Man By The Shore, Rude, More Time and Neria.
Prior to this, Mr. Walton spent over ten years with the CBS Television Network in New York holding various management positions in sales, marketing and finance. He was the first management trainee at the network and his first assignment was as a market analyst, providing support to new business efforts. By the time he left CBS, Mr. Walton was responsible for marketing network television news, daytime, late night and children's programs to a roster of major advertisers and their ad agencies with billings in excess of $75 million.
Mr. Walton was also a AAAA (MAIP) intern in account management at the ad agency of D'Arcy, MacManus & Masius and a staff writer for Encore magazine.
He is currently an adjunct instructor in media management at Fordham University's Graduate School of Business, a member of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and Board Vice Chairman at the Frederick Douglass Creative Arts Center.
Mr. Walton holds a BS in journalism from Boston University and received a Master's from the Yale School of Management.
He has been traveling to Africa for leisure and business for the past twenty years.

Oluwatoyin Subair
Founder and CEO, HiTV

Mr. Oluwatoyin Subair was born on the 12th of August, 1969 to Abiodun and Adiat Subair. He grew up going to School in Lagos and Kaduna and obtained his LL.B. from Lagos State University in Nigeria. He was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1992. An intellectual Property lawyer with over 17 years post qualification experience in Litigation and Copyright Law in Nigeria, he started his legal career as Legal Counsel in a leading law firm as counsel in the chambers of Prof. A.B Kasunmu S.A.N where he went through three years of intensive training in general litigation. Thereafter, he joined the firm of Adepetun, Caxton-Martins & Agbor with major interest in the commercial sector where he was the head of their litigation and commercial transaction department. He pioneered the set up of Abraham & Co, a leading commercial law and Intellectual property firm where he was the principal partner. 
 
As a Lawyer, he represented companies like Microsoft, HP, Nigerian Television Authority, Multichoice, MNET, NuMetro, etc and local exclusive licensees of Integrity Music, Turner Broadcasting systems and numerous local right owners including music groups, actors and film production companies.
 
As a business man, he pioneered the setting up of NuMetro West Africa to represent the American studios in the distribution of their films in West Africa. He also set up Kola Music Publishing ltd which now acts as sub-publishers for EMI Publishing and Universal Publishing in Nigeria. He organizes educational seminars on entertainment known as ‘’All Rights Reserved’’ in Nigeria. He continues to make representations at various forums on behalf of some of the world's biggest names in the media, entertainment and information technology industries.
He set up and is the Chairman of Integrated Leisure Property Company; a pioneering initiative to set up local cinema multiplexes to act as a window of distribution of local movies.
In 2006 he left the legal practice to set up and run HiTV Limited, another pioneering initiative in Nigeria to build the fasted growing PayTV Company in Africa. For this he won the prestigious This Day Awards in 2008 for the young Manage of the year, City People Young entrepreneur of the Year award, amongst various other awards.
As a philanthropist, he is the Founder and Chairman board of Trustees of Link a Child, a non-profit organization founded over five years ago with the aim of increasing the awareness of the plight of orphans by dissipating information available to potential donors within and outside Nigeria through various avenues. In recognition of the contribution of Linkachild for the cause of the less privileged, the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations awarded Linkachild the 2007 SOCIAL ENTERPRISE AWARD, for its work with orphans and the less privileged.
 
He became a Christian in 1995, and has taken up key roles to propagate the gospel both locally and internationally. He speaks as believer, role model and motivational speaker in various Churches, seminars, Business Forums and groups.
 
He got married to Ajibabi in March 2002, and they are blessed with Motifefoluwa and Oreofeoluwa, who are 5 and 4 years old respectively.
 

Naetochukwu Chikwe "Naeto C"
Recording Artist, Storm 360

Naetochukwu Chikwe "Naeto C" was born in Houston, Texas and spent his earlier years growing up in England and Nigeria within a household highly influenced by music. His passion for music grew fast and was articulated into other creative art forms, most specifically poetry, which took him to various competitions and earned him accolades as a young poet during his earlier years. Naeto attended Atlantic Hall Secondary School, Epe Lagos and later moved to the United States to further his higher education in SUNY Old Westbury and a year later, George Washington University.
 
While in the States, Naeto linked up with Uzikwendu and his brother, Ikechukwu, an up and coming Hip Hop artist out of Washington Heights, NY. The trio formed the World Famous Akademy. While in the States, Naeto C recorded over 40 songs as a solo artist and about 25
songs with the World Famous Akademy as a group.
 
Naeto graduated in 2004 with a B Sc. in Biology from George Washington University. His original intention was to pursue a professional career within the medical field, but opted to drop the medical career path and follow one that would be more accommodating to his creative side. His budding sense of self-employment, being an entrepreneur, and his numerous business ideas were catalysts to making a career change, however, furthering his educational background still remained a priority.
 
Naeto’s hit singles include, “You Know My P” and “Kini Big Deal”. He recently opened the show for American singer, R. Kelly at the ThisDay music festival in South Africa. He was also a judge on Emcee Africa 2009 in Mozambique and is co-host of a new TV series called Jamrock 5. He was a presenter in 2009 MTV MAMA Awards in Kenya. Since launching his music career, awards Naeto has won include: HHWA Best Hip Hop Single 2009, Sound City Best Male Video 2009, and Best Male New Act at the 2008 MTV MAMA Awards.
 
Naeto is currently studying for a Master’s Degree in Oil & Gas at the University of Dundee and also recording material for the release of his next album titled “Super C Season”. From his next album, he has released two singles: “Successful” and “Ako Mi Ti Poju”.


Anita Elberse - Moderator
Associate Professor, Harvard Business School

Anita Elberse is an Associate Professor of Business Administration in the Marketing unit at Harvard Business School.
Professor Elberse develops and teaches a course on Strategic Marketing in Creative Industries, covering the businesses of entertainment, media and sports, for second-year MBA students. Her course is featured in Variety's 2008 Entertainment Education report. She also teaches in Strategic Marketing Management, Taking Marketing Digital, and other short programs for executives, and previously taught Marketing to first-year MBA students. 
In her research, professor Elberse primarily aims to understand what drives the success of products in the media, entertainment, sports, and other creative industries, and how firms can develop effective marketing strategies for such products. She is acclaimed for her work on digital-media strategies. Her wider areas of study include the diffusion of innovations, the impact of digital technology on marketing practice, and the application of econometric modeling techniques to marketing problems. 
Her work has been published in a number of journals, including the Harvard Business Review, Marketing Science, the Journal of Marketing, and the Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics. Her research has also appeared or been covered in leading print and broadcast media. Professor Elberse consults with a range of media and entertainment companies, and has conducted case studies on many firms in that area, including Comcast, Hulu, Grand Central Publishing, Marvel Enterprises, MGM, Octone Records, Radiohead, Sony, and The CW. Other case studies focus on the marketing of New York City, the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, Marquee, the Metropolitan Opera, soccer clubs Real Madrid and Boca Juniors, and superstar athletes LeBron James and Maria Sharapova.
Prior to joining Harvard Business School, professor Elberse was a Visiting Fellow and Lecturer at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. She holds a PhD from London Business School, an MA in Communication from the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California, and an MA in Communication Science from the University of Amsterdam (cum laude). A native of The Netherlands, she has been awarded a Netherland-America Foundation / Fulbright Fellowship and a Lloyd's of London Business Scholarship.