Company Info
Management
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Former Vice President Al Gore is chairman of Current TV, an Emmy award winning, independently owned cable and satellite television news network. He also serves as chairman of Generation Investment Management, a firm that is focused on a new approach to sustainable investing.
Al Gore is chairman of The Climate Reality Project, a non-profit he founded to educate citizens in the U.S. and around the world about solutions to the climate crisis. He is a member of the board of directors of Apple and a partner with the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
Al Gore was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1976, 1978, 1980 and 1982 and the U.S. Senate in 1984 and 1990. He was inaugurated as the forty-fifth vice president of the United States on January 20, 1993, and served eight years. During the Administration, Al Gore was a central member of President Clinton's economic team. He served as President of the Senate, a Cabinet member, a member of the National Security Council, and as the leader of a wide range of Administration initiatives.
He is the author of the bestsellers Earth in the Balance, An Inconvenient Truth, Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis and is the subject of an Oscar-winning documentary. Al Gore is the co-winner, with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for “informing the world of the dangers posed by climate change.”
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Joel Hyatt, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Current Media, has guided the network's development since its inception, achieving recognition for the company's innovative approach to producing and programming content by and for its audience. Under Hyatt's leadership, Current TV has grown to 70 million subscriber households, expanded internationally, received two Emmy® Awards, the youngest network ever to win an Emmy, and won virtually every other journalistic award for outstanding investigative journalism.
In May 2007, Hyatt was elected to the Board of Directors of Hewlett-Packard, on which he served until early 2011. He also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Brookings Institution and Stanford University Hospital. Previous to Current, he co-founded and led Hyatt Legal Services, which provided low-cost services to middle and lower-income families. Hyatt also created, founded and built Hyatt Legal Plans into America's largest provider of employer-sponsored group legal plans, before selling the company to MetLife.
Hyatt served on the faculty at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business from 1998 to 2003, where his courses on entrepreneurship were among the most popular at the school. He also served as National Finance Chair for the Democratic Party in 2000. BusinessWeek recognized Hyatt as one of the top 50 business leaders in the United States.
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David Bohrman was appointed President of Current TV on August 8, 2011. Bohrman is known for combining news programming expertise, keen technical acumen and a penchant for innovation to capture some of the world’s most profound and important events on television. His career has spanned three decades and has included producer and executive jobs at CNN, NBC News, and ABCNews.
Bohrman’s award-winning television programming includes producing coverage of Presidential elections, political conventions, and Presidential debates. He is widely known for producing CNN's award-winning coverage of the 2008 Election year, creating CNN’s “magic wall” for John King, the YouTube Debates, “The Situation Room” for Wolf Blitzer, NewsNight with Aaron Brown, The Site and Imus in the Morning on MSNBC, and World News Now at ABC News, in addition to being a member of the original staff of Nightline with Ted Koppel in 1980. He also created the first new media division of a major media company, ABC News InterActive in 1989.
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Paul Hollerbach, Chief Financial Officer, joined Current in 2007. He is responsible for overseeing Current's finance & accounting, human resources, business affairs and real estate operations. Prior to Current, Hollerbach spent nearly 10 years at Yahoo! where he held a broad range of senior financial roles, including Vice President, Finance and Investor Relations and Vice President, Corporate Controller. During his time at Yahoo!, Hollerbach helped build a world-class finance organization as the company scaled to a multi-billion dollar industry leader. While there, he was also responsible for the company's worldwide financial planning group as well as leading all investor communications. Prior to Yahoo!, Hollerbach worked at Silicon Graphics Inc., KPMG LLP and Ernst & Young LLP. He is a licensed CPA in California.
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In his role as EVP, Production, Baker oversees the building of new live production capabilities and facilities for Current’s news analysis and political commentary programming. Baker is a broadcast and cable news veteran with more than twenty years experience in guiding and launching the creative, technical and operational aspects of live and recorded broadcast and digital programming.
Baker most recently served as Executive Producer for primetime and weekend programming at Fox Business Network, where as part of that start-up network’s launch, he created, developed and launched seven new programs. Prior to that role, he was Executive Producer at CNBC, where he developed and launched several cross-platform programming initiatives, including “Conversations with Michael Eisner” and an interview show with Maria Bartiromo. Baker also worked at CNN for five years as a Senior Executive Producer for “360 With Anderson Cooper,” as well as Senior Producer on “Newsnight With Aaron Brown.” He also had senior roles at broadband entertainment network Centerseat.com, and as Senior Producer for news content at ABC News shows including “Good Morning America,” and “World News This Morning,” among others. Baker was also an Emmy Award®-winning Producer, Executive Producer and News Director at WNBC-TV in New York.
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In her role as EVP, Programming, Lewis drives the network’s strategy on news analysis and political commentary with an initial focus on building out Current’s primetime programming block. Lewis was most recently Executive Producer of PBS’s weekly news magazine, “Need to Know,” and brings significant experience in broadcast news, digital content and new programming launches to Current.
Prior to PBS, Lewis was co-creator of Air America Radio and served as its senior programming executive until 2006. Lewis also created and launched several shows at CNN, including the prime time program “Greenfield at Large” and was executive producer of “American Morning” with Paula Zahn. While at CNN, she also executive produced New York based coverage during the initial months of the Iraq war in 2003. Prior to CNN, Lewis executive produced numerous news programs at ABC News, most notably “Good Morning America” from 1997-1998. Lewis began her career as a news writer and producer at NBC Radio, where she was also an on air reporter on news and feature programs. She was the first woman in the country to executive produce a daily news program when she was named executive producer of “NBC News at Sunrise,” and later produced “Real Life with Jane Pauley,” among other programs.
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Ken Ripley is Current's Executive Vice President, Advertising Sales, partnering with top global brands and agencies to reach Current Media's coveted influencer demographic. Prior to joining Current, Ripley was Executive Vice President of Global Advertising Sales for IGA Worldwide, Inc., a leading independent in-game advertising company. While at IGA, he oversaw a sales organization that worked with more than 100 companies to tailor messages specifically to in-game audiences.
Prior to his tenure at IGA, Ripley was Vice President, Sales Development for Discovery Communications where he built a new sales division, bringing in more than 40 new national TV advertising clients. Previously, he was national sales manager for Discovery's Emerging Network group including: Discovery HD Theater, Discovery Home, Discovery Times, The Science Channel, The Military Channel, Discovery Kids Channel and Discovery Kids on NBC.
Ripley has also served as Vice President Advertiser Sales for TiVo, Inc., where he launched TiVovision, interactive television's first marketing system for advertiser on-demand messaging and signed numerous charter advertisers. Before TiVo, Ripley was Vice President, Advertiser Sales for Columbia TriStar Television where he managed sales for DirecTV's and Game Show Network's ad sales efforts.
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David Harleston is Executive Vice President, Business and Legal Affairs for Current Media. He joined the company the year it launched in 2005 and has since overseen Current’s global Business Affairs through its growth in the US, as well as Current’s operations in Italy, the UK, Ireland and South Africa. Prior to Current, Harleston led Business Affairs for children’s animation producer Nelvana. For several years, Harleston held a variety of leadership roles in the music industry, beginning with Sony Music Entertainment, and later, Def Jam Recordings, where he served as President of the label, as well as MCA/Universal. Harleston began his career at Simpson Thacher and Bartlett following a clerkship with Hon. Stephen Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School.
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Courtney Menzel is the Executive Vice President of Distribution for Current. Previously, Ms. Menzel served as the Senior Vice President of Content Distribution and Marketing at MTV Networks. During her 14 years at MTV Networks she developed strategic relationships with the major cable, satellite and telecommunications operators, building distribution for a number of networks including TV Land, Comedy Central, MTV2, CMT, Logo and BET. She led partnership negotiations with affiliates and forged key marketing initiatives with them, such as a multi-platform music partnership with Comcast Communications and VH1 Storytellers. Most recently, Ms. Menzel was tapped to head the distribution and marketing strategy for EPIX, the joint venture involving Viacom’s Paramount, Lionsgate and MGM. In less than a year, Menzel and her team grew distribution of EPIX to 30 million available homes including deals with Verizon FiOS, Cox Communications, Charter Communications, Mediacom and Dish Networks. Ms. Menzel also previously managed all local ad sales marketing for Cox Communications. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from the University of Delaware.