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Brandon Burgess, Chief Executive Officer of ION Media Networks, is an experienced television media executive with an expansive strategic and operational understanding of the television media landscape, as well as an accomplished strategic track record. Mr. Burgess most recently serviced as Executive Vice President, Business Development & International Channels for NBC Universal, where he was credited with a series of strategic moves that evolved the formerly U.S.-focused NBC broadcast network into the integrated global multimedia portfolio NBC Universal is today.
Mr. Burgess was instrumental to the recent merger of NBC and Universal Entertainment and the restructuring of Rainbow Media, which gave NBC its first entertainment cable channel, Bravo. He also helped launch NBC Universal Global Networks’ first free to air television network outside the United States, Das VIERTE, in Germany in September 2005. His credentials also include extensive work in broadcasting, having played a central role in growing NBC’s owned-and-operated stations group from 13 to 30 stations.
During his tenure at NBC, he served as co-head of the NBC Network Affiliate Futures Committee, which was established to develop innovative growth projects in collaboration with NBC-affiliated stations. This initiative produced the NBCOlympics.com online multimedia venture joined by more than 200 NBC affiliate stations, as well as NBC Weather Plus, the first U.S. nationwide digital multicast broadcast network, through a joint venture he arranged between NBC and its broadcast affiliates.
Mr. Burgess' prior NBC positions include Chief Financial Officer for the NBC Television Network and Director of Business Development. Before joining NBC, Burgess worked in the Investment Banking Division at Goldman Sachs in London and Frankfurt, focusing on real estate and corporate finance. Subsequently, he worked in PepsiCo's Corporate Planning group in Purchase, New York.
Raised and educated in Germany, Burgess is a graduate of the European Business School and holds a master of business administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He is recognized by the World Economic Forum as a "Young Global Leader" and is a member of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and the Columbia Business School Media Forum. | 