An Entrepreneurial Spirit: Debra Lee

According to the Associated Press she is the highest ranking African-American female executive at Viacom. Viacom is the largest cable programming company in the world. It is the umbrella that operates the family of MTV, B.E.T, VH1,Paramount, Nickelodeon, Spike television and many other popular television brands and networks. Viacom accounts for one fifth of American television viewing. The name of Viacom's high-ranking executive is Debra Lee and even as a woman she holds the title of ChairMan and CEO of BET Holdings Inc.

Before becoming a trailblazer and leader in television, Debra Lee was a director at Marriott International, Revlon Inc, Eastman Kodak and WGL Holding. Lee attended Brown before graduating from Harvard's prestigious Law School. After working at the Washington D. C-based firm of Steptoe and Johnson, Lee took a risk by leaving the firm and going into the unpredictable world of television. She became vice president of BET in 1986. BET was reaching over 100 million viewers through its various mediums but was privately owned.

Lee played a vital role in making BET public on the famous New York Stock Exchange where Wall Street's financial analysts, brokers and bankers will do just about anything to gain and increase visibility, exposure and capital for their companies. Visibility is exactly what this powerful mogul brought to BET Holdings Inc. Lee is credited with being a key player in the historic negotiations that resulted in Viacom purchasing BET Holdings Inc. for an unprecedented three billion dollars. With a no-nonsense attitude, Lee has been expanding BET while diversifying its enormous portfolio, giving the network a slight facial by cleaning up gray areas without drastically changing its actual core foundation and overall appearance.

The sharp dressed fly' executive as Mary J Blige stated responded to consumer needs and complaints about catering to a more mature audience outside of its hip- hop driven 18-34 year-old target market. Lee has added branches and original programming to BET. Lee developed BETJ, for the laid back soul-driven, passionate, diverse international audience and BET Gospel for Sunday's best holy rollers, pulpit seaters and spiritually seeking audiences. Amen! ;) The savvy business woman has added other programs catering to a market audience who were unhappy and angry because they felt left out of BET's priority.

Lee recently announced the launch of a new channel for BET entitled Centric. According to Variety, Lee credits the election of President Obama and the movement of change in our society in implementing what has already been occurring in recent months at the network. Focusing on a more mature, older audience, Centric is slated to debut in the homes of 45 million American within the next year. Lee told advertisers that this is "the perfect time for BET Networks to re-examine where we are as a company and what we can be for our audience" Lee further explained that the networks "reinvigorated approach is built on supporting families, embracing and encouraging their dreams, focusing on the issues that are important to them and presenting the freshest talent and entertainment."

Adding to her business profile is the fact that the mogul seems to have obviously managed to muscle her great relationships with networks such as HBO, the CW, Warner Brothers and others by luring various stations to license their original shows to BET. Shows such as The Wire, The Corner, The Smart Guy, and producer and writer, Mara Brock Akil's female favorites: Girlfriends and The Game have found a home at BET. Televising original programming has opened up opportunities for many other black writers, producers and independent filmmakers such as Akil. On BET J's Real Life Divas, Tracey Edmonds stated that she has been given the opportunity to develop her ideas into series' with the partnership of B.E.T. Other urban television favorites that showcase Black life in its diverse actuality both physically and economically have experienced a rejuvenation of sort. Re-energizing classic shows with a fresh marketing direction has gained viewers and shares for the globally syndicated network at a time when other networks and programs are suffering in the recession.

Under Lee's direction, the BET brand is evolving into being more then just a music video channel but a source for various entertainment icluding movies. BET is allowing viewers to see their favorite urban classics from filmmakers such as Ice Cube, Hype Williams, Spike Lee, John Singleton and Tyler Perry who all shared a common vision in their artistry and goals, leaving a lasting imprint on Hollywood that can now be seen on television.

Along with fun entertainment, Lee stated to the Brown Daily Herald, that she wanted BET to be "entertaining and educating." Understanding the 719 billion dollar buying power of the Urban market's powerful influence to set the trend of what becomes acceptable to the mainstream is also key in the power of educating that audience to become leaders. At a time when it was still taboo to speak about the HIV/AIDS epidemic, BET addressed the issue as early as 1988 on shows like Teen Summit which focused on relationships, empowerment, self-esteem and teen-pregnancy amongst other issues affecting young people. BET also incorporated those real life issues including domestic violence, police brutality, politics and education in other current programs such as 106 and Park, Keyshia Cole's The Way It Is, BET News (including documentaries) and their town hall forums that discuss challenging problems and offer solutions to the obstacles that face our communities.

Lee believes it is the responsibility of the media to educate our communities and lauched The Rap It Up campaign to stress the importance of practicing safe sex or complete abstinence for those who are not emotionally developed to handle all the aspects of being in intimate relationships. "This PSA campaign is our way of breaking the silence when it comes to AIDS/HIV in the Black community," wrote Lee in a commentary published on Black AIDS.org "Silence has been a deadly weapon in the spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the African-American community."

Debra Lee grew up Greensboro, North Carolina at a time when segregation was just a law to follow in our society. Segregation was built on the principal that people of color were less then and women were also less then but Lee shows us that in actuality we are more then. We are more then we think we are, more then we feel we are, more then we aspire to be, and much more then what we often settle for. A few decades ago there were no women executives in television and today the highest ranking CEO of the biggest company in Cable television is in fact a woman. Powerful, fierce, articulate and well-respected, Debra Lee's drive to succeed despite any challenges has set the bar for other women to follow and opened up doors breaking barriers for women to continue in the path that she has created. Lee is another great woman who shows us that we can not define ourselves by our obstacles but rather by how we overcome our obstacles. The Chief Executive and Mogul teaches us that developing positive relationships while maximizing on our strengths and minimizing our weaknesses is how we become phenomenal women. Focusing on what is important and being completely oblivious to what is not is how we can become assets and not expenses to our culture and community and that is an an Entrepreneurial Spirit.