Executive Leadership Development Program

Program Background

NAMIC’s Executive Leadership Development Program was launched in Fall 2001 as a direct, positive outcome of NAMIC’s groundbreaking 1999 research study, “A Look Toward Advancement: Minority Employment in Cable,” which noted that people of color are severely underrepresented in the cable industry’s executive suites. The analysis also revealed only five percent representation by persons of color in upper-level management positions (senior vice president to CEO) among responding cable operators and programmers.

NAMIC members polled for the study registered concern about this lack of representation by people of color in the industry’s upper ranks. They also expressed a strong interest in NAMIC-sponsored programs that would help them develop their potential to gain access to the industry’s executive suites.

The NAMIC 2006 employment research (Phase IV of the Benchmarking Study done in partnership with DiversityInc) revealed an improvement of 7 percentage points in the representation of people of color in senior management positions over Phase III results, published in 2004. This, however, was accompanied by persistent impediments to recruiting and retaining managers of color - particularly in the middle and lower levels — thereby inhibiting the development of a pipeline of next-generation executives.

Senior executives have frequently expressed dismay at the difficulty in locating, either internally or externally, qualified candidates of color for these position levels within their companies. In 2001 the NAMIC Board of Directors, in response to these and other survey results, approved the creation of an Executive Leadership Development Program for NAMIC members.

The Executive Leadership Development Program would not have been possible without the support of Tom Freston, former co-president and COO of Viacom, Inc. Mr. Freston’s vision, together with a generous gift from MTV Networks, provided NAMIC with the momentum and fiscal support to take the important first steps toward establishing this program. After six highly successful classes, the NAMIC ELDP is praised as a prestigious industry staple.

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