3:45 PM - 5:00 PM
Keynote Roundtable
State of the Industry
Industry Leaders on Music, Film, TV and Technology
Thomas McGrath, Executive Vice President, Viacom Entertainment Group and President, Paramount Enterprises
Jonathan Taplin, President & CEO, Intertainer
John M. Mass, co-Head and Senior Vice President, William Morris Consulting
Moderator: Amy Bernstein, Senior Editor, Business 2.0
Thomas B. McGrath, Executive Vice President, Viacom Entertainment
Group: Thomas B. McGrath was appointed to the position of Executive Vice President, Viacom Entertainment Group, in 1994. Mr. McGrath is responsible for many of the principal business activities of the division, including Paramount’s exhibition interests: Famous Players in Canada and United Cinemas International, in 13 countries worldwide; Famous Music; Viacom Consumer Products, which handles licensing, merchandising, themed entertainment, and theatrical production; Paramount Parks, with parks in the U.S. and internationally; and Paramount Digital Entertainment. Mr. McGrath also oversees structured film financings, new business development, mergers and acquisitions, as well as Paramount’s operational departments, including Finance and Planning and Information Systems. He is based at Paramount studios in Los Angeles. The Viacom Entertainment Group comprises Paramount Pictures; Paramount Television, including Viacom Productions, Spelling Productions; Viacom’s motion picture theater operations; and Simon and Shuster book publishers. Mr. McGrath was formerly President of Time Warner International Broadcasting and Senior Vice President, New Business Development at Time Warner’s Home Box Office unit. Before that, Mr. McGrath served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Norman Lear’s Act III Communications. Mr. McGrath began his career in entertainment at Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. Mr. McGrath received a B.A. cum laude from Harvard University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.Jon Taplin has served as CEO of Intertainer since June 1996. Mr. Taplin
previously was Vice President in charge of Media Mergers and Acquisitions for Merrill Lynch Capital Markets from 1984-1989. Jon began his entertainment career in 1969 as Tour Manager for Bob Dylan and The Band. In 1973, he produced Martin Scorsese's first feature film, "Mean Streets," which was selected for the Cannes Film Festival. Between 1974 and 1996, he produced 12 feature films and 26 hours of television documentaries. Jon's films have been selected for the Cannes Film Festival 7 times, won Oscar and Golden Globe nominations, and his television work has won three Emmys.John M. Mass, Senior Vice President and co-Head, William Morris Consulting: John Mass is co-head of the William Morris Consulting group, a division of the William Morris Agency, which represents corporate clientele, from early stage technology firms to Fortune 500 companies. Founded by Mr. Mass and several other William Morris executives in 1992, the consulting group gives clients access to content and partnership opportunities across a broad range of entertainment platforms, helping them gain traction and visibility in an increasingly cluttered media marketplace. From project-specific initiatives to on-going consulting relationships, Mr. Mass works with clients in six areas: brand extension, content aggregation, technology dissemination, entertainment marketing, venue-based entertainment and strategic investments. Mr. Mass’s corporate clients include Anheuser-Busch, General Motors, Dennis Publishing (Maxim and Blender) and Texas Instruments, among others. Additionally, Mr. Mass is involved in the representation of several of William Morris’ motion picture and television clients. Prior to joining William Morris, Mr. Mass was director of corporate planning and communications at Triad Artists, Inc., where he was responsible for strategic planning and new business development, as well as the financing of feature films. Before joining Triad Artists, Mr. Mass was an associate in the investment-banking group at Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. While at Bear Stearns, he analyzed, structured and negotiated mergers and acquisitions, as well as divestitures, leverage buyouts, and debt and equity financing for entertainment and media companies. Mr. Mass holds an M.B.A from Northwestern University's J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management and an undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois.
Amy Bernstein: As a senior editor for Business 2.0, Amy Bernstein is responsible for the editorial direction of Business2.com, meshing the website's content with that of the print magazine. She also edits stories for the magazine. Before coming to Business 2.0, Bernstein served as an executive editor at The Industry Standard from 1999-2001. More recently, she worked as a consultant to the San Francisco Chronicle's business section, reporting to executive editor Phil Bronstein, and launched a newsletter about the videogame industry. She was on the startup team of Brill's Content and served as editorial director, and was at U.S. News and World Report from 1988 - 1997, where she was a writer and, in her last year, an assistant managing editor. Bernstein holds a BA in classics from Yale University.