Jonathan M. Tisch Backs Walnut Hill Media, LLC -- New Company Investing in Media Ventures and Developing Creative Content with Partners and Co-Investors
NEW YORK--(Business Wire)--
Walnut Hill Media, LLC, today announced its formation, a privately
held company backed by Tisch.
The co-founders of Walnut Hill Media are Jonathan M. Tisch, whose
role as Chairman and CEO of Loews Hotels remains the same, and Jeffrey
Stewart. Stewart will serve as the company's primary managing
executive. Walnut Hill Media will act as a catalyst investor for
selectively evaluated media deals.
In addition to making strategic investments, Walnut Hill Media
will participate in the creation, production, distribution and other
utilization of film, television, on-line, and other visual and audio
content. With its extensive management experience, strong
relationships in business, media and government, Walnut Hill Media
will provide guidance related to its investments and for its partners;
the company is also well positioned to play a role in the growing
branded content market.
"At Walnut Hill Media, we have a clear mission to create
sustainable business relationships that further the success of all
involved. We recognize that this mission can only be fulfilled when an
investment is made not only in a business idea, but in people," said
Jeffrey Stewart.
"We're very excited about the creation of Walnut Hill Media and
what it will do in the rapidly developing media space. With Jeff's
leadership, his business sense and long-standing relationships with so
many talented people across different business sectors, I am confident
Walnut Hill Media will do highly successful work with great partners,"
said Jonathan Tisch.
The company has made an initial multi-million dollar investment in
Tribeca Enterprises, the parent company of the Tribeca Film Festival
and related entities. This investment will be used to expand Tribeca's
media activities under the Tribeca Film brand and make the brand
accessible to consumers on a global level.
Walnut Hill Media has also recently invested in the greatly
anticipated first-run syndicated television show, Family Court with
Judge Penny, which is being produced with 44 Blue Productions and
distributed by Program Partners, Inc. This partnership originated from
an introduction made by William Morris Agency, the agency representing
the new show.
Family Court with Judge Penny is a family court show hosted by
judge and former lawyer Penny Brown Reynolds. The series features
Reynolds presiding over cases where a serious breakdown in the family
unit is occurring. As an impoverished child raised by a single mother,
Judge Penny brings her own perspective to each family case. As a
minister as well, Reynolds has a unique approach in addressing the
deeper family issues from the bench. Prior to its first week on air,
the series was sold in over 80% of television markets in the U.S.
Walnut Hill Media is producing, with Plum TV, additional episodes
of its own television series, Beyond the Boardroom with Jonathan
Tisch, a series of one-on-one conversations with America's preeminent
business leaders. The show will air nationally and on Plum TV. Beyond
the Boardroom is sponsored by PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
Some of Tisch's Beyond the Boardroom past guests have included Ken
Chenault, Barry Diller, Ann Moore, Dick Parsons, Ian Schrager, Howard
Schultz, Donald Trump and Mort Zuckerman. As a CEO, Tisch brings his
own insight into the life, work and demands of those he interviews
allowing for conversations that are personal, candid and thoughtful.
The interviews go beyond day-to-day business, revealing something
unique about each CEO and what brought them to the top of their field.
Jeffrey Stewart continues to serve as an Executive Producer of the
program.
What is 'Walnut Hill'?
Tisch and Stewart, both graduates of Tufts University, named the
company for the 20-acre plot of land, Walnut Hill, which today makes
up the heart of their alma mater's campus. The land was donated
approximately 150 years ago by American businessman, Charles Tufts,
who wanted to "set a light upon the Hill," at one of the highest
points outside of Boston. The Tufts values of opportunity,
responsibility and community will be the guiding principles of Walnut
Hill Media.
About Jonathan M. Tisch
Jonathan M. Tisch is Co-Chairman of the Board and a member of the
Office of the President of Loews Corporation, one of the largest
diversified financial holding companies in the U.S., and is also
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of its subsidiary, Loews Hotels.
As Chairman and CEO, Tisch has engineered Loews Hotels' expansion and
emergence as a leading luxury hotel chain by infusing the properties
with a widely praised corporate culture that places a high value on
partnerships. His leadership philosophy, explored in his best-selling
book, The Power of We: Succeeding Through Partnerships, provides a
blueprint for achieving enduring success through partnerships that
empower employees, satisfy customers, contribute to communities, and
improve the bottom line. His best-seller follow-up book, Chocolates on
the Pillow Aren't Enough: Reinventing the Customer Experience,
nominated for a Quill Award as one of the five best business books of
2007, offers a detailed look at how the right customer experience can
produce long-lasting success for any organization.
Recognized as a national leader of the multi-billion dollar travel
and tourism industry, in 2003, Tisch was appointed to the United
States Department of Commerce U.S. Travel and Tourism Advisory Board.
Tisch has served as Chairman of the Travel Business Roundtable since
1995, and is the former Chair of NYC & Company, New York City's
tourism marketing agency.
About Jeffrey Stewart
Jeffrey Stewart is a Partner and Managing Director of Walnut Hill
Media. Prior to the company's creation, Stewart served as the SVP,
Communications and Public Affairs for Loews Hotels & Chief of Staff to
the Chairman. Prior to this role at the company, Stewart was Director
of Development. Stewart has played an active role in the travel and
tourism industry where he serves on the Board of Directors of the
Travel Business Roundtable. A regular spokesperson for the industry,
he has testified before the United States Congress and has been quoted
in leading publications on the importance of a vibrant travel and
tourism industry.
Following September 11, 2001, Stewart served as Staff Director of
New York Rising, a special emergency task-force set up to stabilize
and revive the $25 billion local travel and tourism industry. Stewart
is on the board of New York City's Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.
He is also on the Steering Committee of the Association for a Better
New York (ABNY) and serves on the Board of Tisch College at Tufts and
the University's Alumni Council.
Stewart served as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of
New York. Prior to joining Loews Hotels, Stewart was the Finance
Director and a senior aide to United States Senator Charles Schumer,
raising more money at the time than for any other senate race in
history.
Stewart graduated from Tufts University in Medford, MA in 1990 and
from Fordham University School of Law in New York City in 1993.
About Jen Farley
Jen Farley joins Walnut Hill Media as a Vice President,
Communications, reporting to Jeffrey Stewart. Most recently, Farley
was a Communications Director for CBS News. Just prior to joining CBS
in 2006, Farley worked for Weber Shandwick, one of the world's leading
global public relations firms, where she provided media strategy to
clients including former President Bill Clinton and the William J.
Clinton Foundation, Bill Gates and the Microsoft Corporation, several
CEOs and companies on global consumer launches, brand positioning,
earnings, internal communications programs and crisis communications.
Farley provided media counsel to several world leaders on special
projects, including Prince Albert of Monaco on the creation of a
consortium of America's great journalists; and King Abdullah II of
Jordan and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, on their joint effort to bring
together the world's greatest minds at one gathering, The Petra
Conference, a conference of Nobel Laureates in Petra, Jordan. The
conference is now in its fourth year.
Farley was a financial freelance editor for many years, a writer
for Fox News and has been published in national newspapers. She also
worked in investment banking in the late 1990s.
Farley graduated from St. John's University in Jamaica, New York
in 1993 and received a Master's degree in Journalism from Columbia
University in New York City in 2002.
Walnut Hill Media
Jen Farley, 212-521-2812
Copyright Business Wire 2008
