On this edition of In Black America, producer/host John L. Hanson Jr. presents his second, and final, discussion with Paula Williams Madison, Chairman and CEO of Madison Media Management LLC and Williams Group Holding LLC, a Chicago-based, family-owned company, which has significant investment in media – The African Channel. Madison has moved from award-winning journalist to history-making top executive at NBCUniversal. Today, she is the chairman and CEO of the LA Sparks, and a member of the WNBA Board of Governors. Also she recently was appointed to the Board of Commissioners of the Los Angeles Police Department.
Madison began her career as a newspaper reporter in New York and Dallas/Fort Worth. After a few years at television stations in Texas and Oklahoma, she returned to her native New York City by joining NBC's owned and operated station WNBC in 1989 as Assistant News Director. Madison rose to the station's Vice President and News Director in March 1996.
During her 22 years with NBCU, she held a number of successful leadership roles, including President and General Manager of NBC4 Los Angeles, Los Angeles Regional General Manager for NBCU’sTelemundo TV stations and Vice President and News Director of NBC4 New York.
In 2007, she was appointed to lead diversity for NBCU. It was the first time a company executive assumed a full-time responsibility as the business-lead for diversity. That same year, Madison was named a Company Officer for GE, then the parent company of NBCU, now operated by the Comcast Corporation.