•   Advisory Board

Advisory Board

 

George H.W. Bush
41st President of the United States
George Bush brought to the White House a dedication to traditional American values and a determination to direct them toward making the United States "a kinder and gentler nation." In his Inaugural Address he pledged in "a moment rich with promise" to use American strength as "a force for good."

Coming from a family with a tradition of public service, George Herbert Walker Bush felt the responsibility to make his contribution both in time of war and in peace. Born in Milton, Massachusetts, on June 12, 1924, he became a student leader at Phillips Academy in Andover. On his 18th birthday he enlisted in the armed forces. The youngest pilot in the Navy when he received his wings, he flew 58 combat missions during World War II. On one mission over the Pacific as a torpedo bomber pilot he was shot down by Japanese antiaircraft fire and was rescued from the water by a U. S. submarine. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for bravery in action. Mr. Bush next turned his energies toward completing his education and raising a family. In January 1945 he married Barbara Pierce. They had six children-- George, Robin (who died as a child), John (known as Jeb), Neil, Marvin, and Dorothy.

At Yale University he excelled both in sports and in his studies; he was captain of the baseball team and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. After graduation Bush embarked on a career in the oil industry of West Texas.
 
Like his father, Prescott Bush, who was elected a Senator from Connecticut in 1952, George became interested in public service and politics. He served two terms as a Representative to Congress from Texas. Twice he ran unsuccessfully for the Senate. Then he was appointed to a series of high-level positions: Ambassador to the United Nations, Chairman of the Republican National Committee, Chief of the U. S. Liaison Office in the People's Republic of China, and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

In 1980 Bush campaigned for the Republican nomination for President. He lost, but was chosen as a running mate by Ronald Reagan. As Vice President, Bush had responsibility in several domestic areas, including Federal deregulation and anti-drug programs, and visited scores of foreign countries. In 1988 Bush won the Republican nomination for President and, with Senator Dan Quayle of Indiana as his running mate, he defeated Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis in the general election.

Bush faced a dramatically changing world, as the Cold War ended after 40 bitter years, the Communist empire broke up, and the Berlin Wall fell. The Soviet Union ceased to exist; and reformist President Mikhail Gorbachev, whom Bush had supported, resigned. While Bush hailed the march of democracy, he insisted on restraint in U. S. policy toward the group of new nations.
In other areas of foreign policy, President Bush sent American troops into Panama to overthrow the corrupt regime of General Manuel Noriega, who was threatening the security of the canal and the Americans living there. Noriega was brought to the United States for trial as a drug trafficker.
Bush's greatest test came when Iraqi President Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, then threatened to move into Saudi Arabia. Vowing to free Kuwait, Bush rallied the United Nations, the U. S. people, and Congress and sent 425,000 American troops. They were joined by 118,000 troops from allied nations. After weeks of air and missile bombardment, the 100-hour land battle dubbed Desert Storm routed Iraq's million-man army.

Michael Grindon
President, SONY Pictures International Television
Michael Grindon has been President of Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI), a Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) company, since April 1995.

Mr. Grindon is responsible for all aspects of international television sales, marketing, syndication and worldwide pay television activities, including negotiation of all major sales agreements in territories around the world and the supervision of all U.S.-based SPTI sales and support personnel.

Mr. Grindon oversees SPTI’s growing network of channel investments, strategic television alliances and proprietary electronic distribution platforms now being established throughout the global marketplace, including AXN, the premiere action and adventure network now seen in over 87 million homes in 46 countries across Asia, Latin America, Europe and the Middle East. SPTI also owns a majority interest in the ANIMAX all-anime channels in Japan and Asia and Sony Entertainment Television (SET) branded platforms throughout Latin America and in India, the latter of which also provides original Hindi programming to over 29 million subscribers in the UK and United States, as well as throughout Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Australia. Also among SPTI’s channel investments are HBO Olé in Latin America and HBO Asia in the Far East.

In addition, Mr. Grindon manages SPTI’s rapidly expanding international production operations with signature and joint ventures in place in Europe, Asia, and Latin America.

Before his promotion, Mr. Grindon had been executive vice president of SPTI since 1991. He joined the Company in 1986 as director of international television sales and was named vice president and senior vice president over the next two years. In 1988, under his first full year of management, SPE's international television sales increased by more than 100 percent.

Previously, Mr. Grindon spent six years at HBO, first as manager, special markets, then as director of national accounts. Prior to HBO, Mr. Grindon served as a marketing analyst in the consumer video division of Time Life Films and as a systems analyst for Bechtel Corporation.

Mr. Grindon received a BA degree in economics from Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California, and a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration.

General the Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank, GCB, LVO, OBE

General Lord Guthrie was born on 17 November 1938.  He was educated at Harrow School and went to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in 1957 and was commissioned into the Welsh Guards in 1959.  He served with his Regiment as a young officer in the United Kingdom, Libya, Germany and Aden.  In 1966 he joined the SAS and served in the Middle East, Malaysia and East Africa.

In 1970 he returned to the Welsh Guards and for two years commanded an armoured infantry company in Germany.  After a year as a student at the Staff College, he served in the Ministry of Defence as the Assistant to the Head of the Army, the Chief of the General Staff.  From 1975-1977 he was the Brigade Major of the Household Division and from 1977-1980 he commanded the Welsh Guards in Berlin and Northern Ireland.

He was appointed as a Colonel to the branch overseeing operations worldwide and during his time there became briefly the Commander British Forces New Hebrides (Vanuatu) and recaptured the island of Espirito Santo, which had been taken over by insurgents.

In 1981 he was appointed Commander of the 4th Armoured Brigade in Munster, West Germany, following which he was Chief of Staff, Headquarters 1st British Corps in Bielefeld.

He became the General Officer Commanding the 2nd Infantry Division and North East District in 1985. In 1986 he became Colonel Commandant of the Intelligence Corps. After a further tour in the Ministry of Defence he became in succession the Commander of the 1st British Corps, the Northern Army Group, the British Army of the Rhine before becoming the Chief of the General Staff and finally the Chief of the Defence Staff (1997-2001).

He is Colonel of The Life Guards, Gold Stick to The Queen and Colonel Commandant of the SAS.

He is a Director of N M Rothschild ; Sons Limited; a Council Member of The International Institute of Strategic Studies; a Visiting Professor and Honorary Fellow of King’s College London University; Chairman of the Trustees of The Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives; a Member of the Steering Committee of The Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington DC.  He is President of The Army Benevolent Fund; Action Research; Federation of London Youth Clubs and a Governor of The Charterhouse, Clerkenwell.

He is married with two grown up sons.

A keen sportsman.  He played rugby for the Army.  Today he regularly rides and plays tennis.  He attends the opera as often as he can.

Andy Heyward
CEO, DIC Entertainment

Andy Heyward is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of DIC Entertainment and has been since its inception in 1982.
 
After graduating from UCLA in 1975, he joined Hanna-Barbera Productions, where he worked as a writer and story editor. During his five years with Hanna-Barbera, he was involved in the development and writing of numerous series.

In 1980 Heyward moved to France, where he joined DIC Audiovisual, a production company specializing in children's animated programming. Heyward's assignment was to develop new programs for the U.S. and foreign markets. One of the shows that Heyward developed while in France was "Inspector Gadget." In 1982, Heyward returned to Los Angeles to produce and sell DIC product in the American market. He subsequently led a management buyout of the company from its then owners Radio Television Luxembourg.

Under Heyward's leadership, DIC has produced more than 3000 half hours of family programming.
DIC works with all the major creators and advertisers in the kids' business including Nintendo, Sega, Hasbro, Mattel, Playmates, Bandai, and General Mills. Among the prominent series produced by DIC are Ghostbusters, Dennis the Menace, Madeline, Where On Earth Is Carmen Sandiego, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Captain Planet, Super Mario Brothers, Sonic the Hedgehog, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Hello Kitty, G.I. Joe, Action Man, Super Duper Sumos, Strawberry Shortcake, and Inspector Gadget.
In addition, DIC produced the first special on Barbie for Mattel, and, for McDonald's, the only special on Ronald McDonald. Among DIC's current production slate is Liberty's Kids, a series depicting the real adventures of the birth of democracy in America, for PBS. The series features the voices of Walter Cronkite, Michael Douglas, Billy Crystal, Dustin Hoffman, Ben Stiller, Annette Benning, Whoopi Goldberg, Arnold Schwartzeneggar, Liam Neeson, Sylvester Stallone, and Warren Buffett. The music is being performed by Aaron Carter.

In September of 1993, Capital Cities/ABC, Inc. and DIC formed a limited partnership. Then in February 1996, Capital Cities/ABC, Inc. was acquired by The Walt Disney Company in what was, at that time, the largest merger of entertainment companies ever recorded.
 
In 1995 DIC's "Where On Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?" won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Children's Program while "Madeline" won the Cable Ace Award for Outstanding Children's Series, and subsequently won its own Emmy. DIC-produced programs have been nominated for Emmys for the last five years. DIC not only ensures that its programs are always age-appropriate, but has been a leader in the recent industry-wide focus on program content. In 1994, DIC convened the National PTA, National Education Association, UCLA and producers from throughout the industry to draft the first voluntary set of program guidelines for children's television. In 1996, DIC hosted the first meeting between then FCC Chairman Reed Hundt and children's television producers.

DIC currently has programs on ABC, WB, FOX, NICKELODEON, PBS, DISNEY CHANNEL, CARTOON NETWORK, TOON DISNEY, as well as ongoing programming on all the major international broadcasters. This year DIC has launched the DIC Kids Network, an educationally compliant three hour weekly block of children's programs which is distributed on over 400 stations nationally.
Andy sits on numerous boards including the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Mediascope (an entertainment industry watchdog agency), and the Museum of Television and Radio. In 2002, Andy was awarded Outstanding Alumnae of the Year by UCLA.

Elbrun Kimmelman

Elbrun Kimmelman combines a professional background and expertise in advertising and marketing with her life-long experiences in travel and volunteerism, to work in the areas of education, community development, health and cultural preservation.

As a member of the New York marketing and advertising community for over 20 years, she worked on both the client and agency side of major companies for brands, products and corporate image, and as a strategic planner for new products, market definition, positioning and development. As a member of management, she was active in new business strategies and development.

In the 1970’s Elbrun began working in what has since become known as social marketing. She was a consultant to the governments of various developing nations on the use of American advertising and marketing techniques, for development and nation building programs. She implemented programs including, in-country feasibility studies, training of local administration and implementers, material development, testing and overall product evaluation. Projects were implemented for the governments of Ecuador, Brazil, the Philippines, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Dominican Republic, and the United States of America.

After marriage to Peter Kimmelman, who heads an established asset management firm, she retired from business to raise their two children and began to allocate increasing amounts of time to the non-for-profit sector.

In the last ten years, Elbrun has spent one to two months a year in India. First, developing a program for American high school students to learn about Indian culture and second, organizing and raising funds to restore a former British Residency which now houses the oldest women’s liberal arts college in South India of more than 5,000 Hindu and Muslim students.

Elbrun continues to participate in foreign fact-finding missions and currently works for a wide variety of organizations, including Friends of Osmania Women’s College, Hyderabad (Founder and President), Foreign Policy Association (Trustee), American Associates of the National Galleries of Scotland (Founder and President), Pasteur Institute (Trustee and Advisor), American Turkish Society (Trustee), New York Council on the Humanities (Trustee and Committee Member).

Elbrun was raised in New York City in the winters and in northern Minnesota in the summers. She attended Hunter, a public school for gifted children, and went on to graduate from Hunter College with a B.S. in Economics.

For most of her life she spent three to four months a year traveling and working throughout the world. A long time lover of India, Elbrun Kimmelman has long been involved in reaching out to the world to teach, to learn, to help and to share. She is a world citizen and a full time volunteer.

Rajan Bharti Mittal
Managing Director, Bharti Enterprises

Rajan Bharti Mittal is the Managing Director of Bharti Enterprises - Bharti Enterprises is one of India’s leading business groups with interests in telecom, agri business, insurance and retail. Bharti has been a pioneering force in the telecom sector with many firsts and innovations to its credit. Bharti Airtel Limited, a group company, is one of India’s leading private sector providers of telecommunications services with an aggregate of 44.67 million customers as of end of June 2007 spanning mobile, fixed line, broadband and enterprise services. Bharti Airtel was recently ranked amongst the best performing companies in the world in the BusinessWeek IT 100 list 2007. Bharti Teletech is the country’s largest manufacturer and exporter of telephone terminals. Bharti has a joint venture with ELRo Holdings India Ltd. – ‘FieldFresh Foods Pvt. Ltd’ - for global distribution of fresh fruits and vegetables. Bharti also has a joint venture - ‘Bharti AXA Life Insurance Company Ltd.’ - with AXA, world leader in financial protection and wealth management. Bharti has recently forayed into the retail business under a company called Bharti Retail Pvt. Ltd. It also has an MoU with Wal-Mart for the cash & carry business. Airtel provides end-to-end telecom solutions to corporate customers and national & international long distance services to carriers. Airtel’s high-speed optic fibre network currently spans over 40,000 kms covering all the major cities in the country. The company has two international landing stations in Chennai that connects two submarine cable systems - i2i to Singapore and SEA-ME-WE-4 to Europe. Airtel is also providing telecom services outside India in Seychelles and Jersey in Channel Islands.

Rajan is an alumnus of Harvard Business School, Boston, USA.

Rajan born on 5th January, 1960, joined Bharti Enterprises after graduating from Punjab University. He is actively involved in overseeing the activities of the group at the corporate level and has rich experience in marketing activities.

Rajan is the Chairman of FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry) Retail Committee and Member of FICCI’s Executive & Steering Committees. He is a Member of the Managing Committee and Standing Committees of PHDCCI. He is also a Member of the Council of Management of All India Management Association and a Member of Executive Committee of International Chambers of Commerce – India Chapter. He was the Chairman of FICCI Telecom Committee in 2001, 2002 and 2003 and Chairman of Telecom & IT Committee in 2004 & 2005 and Chairman of Infrastructure Committee in 2006. He was the past President of Association of Basic Telecom Operators (now its known as Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India - AUSPI) during the period 1999-2000.

Reddy S. Jay Reddy
Chairman, The Corbisco Group

Mr. Reddy is a highly experienced Investment Banker, Corporate Strategist, and Investment Professional, whose background includes nearly two-decades in all aspects of Wall Street Finance, Venture Management, and Corporate Advisory Services.

Presently, Mr. Reddy serves as the Chairman and Managing Director of “The CORBISCO Group;” a Los Angeles based “Private Equity and Advisory Services” firm involved with fast growing companies in nearly all segments of the Media spectrum. These companies include emergent as well as established businesses in the Motion Picture, Television Broadcasting, Television Production, Radio Broadcasting, Newspaper Publishing, Magazine Publication, New Media, Internet Television, IPTV, and Media-Tech sectors. Among CORBISCO’s recent affiliations, is Universal MediaWorks Consortium™; a Hollywood based Private Equity and Media Holdings Company which Mr. Reddy developed at CORBISCO and co-founded with Indian Tennis legend & Media Entrepreneur, Mr. Vijay Amritraj, and Mr.Ian Jessel; a former President of Miramax Films. Over the next 5 years, Universal MediaWorks seeks to deploy close to $250 Million of proprietary and allied investment capital to create highly specialized “Filmed Entertainment Product” for a worldwide audience.

Previously, in a career spanning 1990 to 2007, Mr. Reddy worked with bulge-bracket Investment Banks as well as with boutique Venture Management & Corporate Advisory firms where he was engaged in all aspects of Wall Street Finance, Venture Investing, and Corporate Advisory Services. During this period, Mr. Reddy worked at Shearson Lehman / American Express, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley / Dean Witter, and Rhyss Jones Roethlisberger (RJR) BanCorp, where he last served as Managing Director. While with these establishments, Mr. Reddy was variously involved in M&A Advisory, Equity & Debt Syndication, and Capital Markets Advisory. Subsequently, Mr. Reddy was occupied in Venture Management with the Technology Incubator of a $3 Billion NASDAQ listed Media Technologies company. Thereafter, Mr. Reddy was engaged in Corporate Advisory with some of the fastest growing companies in the Media and New-Media sectors.

In addition to his commitments and contributions to the business world, Mr. Reddy has been closely involved with several worthy causes in the Social sector, and has made many noteworthy contributions to this end.

An avid sports enthusiast, Mr.Reddy was a founding Advisor of “The Champion’s Trust;” India’s largest and most prestigious non-profit Sports charity that was founded by 10-Time Tennis Grand Slam Doubles Champion, Mr. Mahesh Bhupathi. In November 2005, the Champion’s Trust was endowed by a $10 Million grant from Mr. Laxmi Niwas Mittal, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Mittal Steel, and was re-named the “Mittal Champion’s Trust.” Today, under Mr. Mittal’s continuing patronage, and Mr. Bhupathi’s close guidance, the Trust continues to provide an invaluable national service by developing future champions for the 2008 Olympic Games, and beyond. Separately, as a lifelong tennis fan, Mr. Reddy sponsored individual members of the Indian Davis Cup team between 1999 and 2003, and traveled to various parts of the world as a guest of the team. More recently, Mr. Reddy, in partnership with Mr. Mahesh Bhupathi, purchased the “Los Angeles Strings;” a professional tennis franchise of World Team Tennis™, previously owned and managed, between 1978 and 1992, by the Los Angeles Lakers™ organization. In 2004, the Los Angeles Franchise was acquired by the World Team Tennis™ organization lead by tennis great, Ms. Billie Jean King, and WTT Commissioner, Ms. Ilana Kloss.

Mr. Reddy serves with various Non-Profit, Charitable, and Civic Organizations worldwide, and in recognition of his contributions in the Corporate and Social sectors, has been honored by representatives of various public, private, and governmental undertakings, in India and the USA., including by two Prime Ministers of India and various American Civic Leaders, among others.

Nominated to be a Young Global Leader (under 40) of the World Economic Forum, Mr. Reddy and his wife live in Los Angeles, California and, additionally, divide their time between Asia and Europe. Mr. Reddy has a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, with distinction, a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management, and an MBA in Finance.

Sir Evelyn Robert de Rothschild

Sir Evelyn Robert de Rothschild hails from one of  the most prominent banking familes of England.

Sir Rothschild has been the Chairman of the The Economist from 1972 to 1989. He served as the Director of IBM UK Holdings Plc. 1972-1995, Executive chairman NM Rothschild & Sons, London 1976-2003. Chairman of the Delegacy of St Mary's Hospital Medical School from 1977 to 1988. Chairman United Racecourses from 1977 to 1994. Director De Beers Consolidated Mines from 1977 to 1994. Co-founded the Interfaith consultations between Jews, Christians, and Muslims in 1984, together with HRH Duke of Edinburgh and HRH Crown Prince El Hassan. 

Sir Rothschild has been the Chairman of the British Merchant Banking & Securities House Association 1985-1989. Governor of the Imperial College of London from 1988 to 1998 and governor of the London School of Economics.

In 1989 Sir Evelyn de Rothschild became a Knight of the British Empire.