In this week’s Deep Dive episode, host Chris Wright joins Bill Roedy, former chairman and chief executive of MTV Networks International. Bill and his team built a global operation comprising 200 channels and 20 brands in 200 countries.
Friends,
Monday was a solemn day of remembrance and thanksgiving for all those who have served our country and made the ultimate sacrifice. After an aerial photo shoot in Leesburg, VA I made a point of stopping on my way through DC to visit the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial. I’ve done this literally a few hundred times, the first of which was the day of dedication back in 1982. Visits there have always been emotional to me. I think that it was somewhere around my 100th visit that I managed not to break down in tears for those lost in that politically-charged war.
Yesterday was a little different. I found a great parking space on 22nd Street NW, just off Constitution Ave and directly opposite the memorial. The next difference was that I approached the VVM from the West end, where all of my previous visits were approached from the East. The next difference was the signage promoting the new Mobile App (VVMF Mobile Tour, for iPhone or Android). This is a wonderful app that eliminates the need to page through the well-used paper directories found around the Memorial. It provides not only the panel and line number locatoin of their name, but also a wealth of information about the deceased veteran.
Read more: Memorial Day 2021 at the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial (VVM)
General Petraeus grew up in Cornwall-on-Hudson, just 7 miles from West Point.
His father was a Dutch sea captain who, unable to get back into port in Rotterdam during the war, joined the US merchant navy. His mother was a librarian from Brooklyn. He enjoyed many “broadening cultural experiences” as a kid, but his father was “all about results” – giving him a healthy dose of reality from an early age.
Read more: Global perspective from General Petraeus in conversation with Bill Roedy
From the West Point Center for Oral History
Joined the amfAR board in October 2010. Serves on the board development and communications/social media/marketing committees. Is active in a wide range of corporate social responsibility issues, particularly those that target young people.
Bill Roedy built MTV from the ground upwards and retired as its hugely successful CEO. The Harvard MBA shares his secrets to success - and views on MBA degrees for today's entrepreneurs.
Meet the Cable Hall of Fame Honorees Past and Present
Learn more about current and past Cable Hall of Fame inductees. Included here are the inductee bios, tribute videos, and related Cable Hall of Fame media. Please note that all title and biographical information is current as of the date of induction. Inductees are selected by an anonymous committee of cable executives based on criteria including leadership and innovation.
Read more: TowerBrook recognised for diversity and inclusion efforts
Read more: International Center for Research on Women’s (ICRW) Innovation Award
Bill Roedy has been selected as a Distinguished Graduate of the US Military Academy, West Point, NY.
The Distinguished Graduate Award (DGA) is to be given to graduates of the United States Military Academy whose character, distinguished service, and stature draw wholesome comparison to the qualities for which West Point strives, in keeping with its motto: “Duty, Honor, Country.”
Read more: BILL ROEDY SELECTED AS DISTINGUISHED GRADUATE OF WEST POINT
Read more: amfAR Announces the Election of William H. Roedy as Chairman of the Board
Celebratory party at Fudan Think Tank Building on May 26th.
Northern Lights at Peach Flower Hill – A Norwegian Family in love with China (in Chinese) was recently published by Dagfinn Høybråten at Fundan Universtiy Press.
General David H. Petraeus to speak at Churchill Fellows Weekend 2017, at the National Churchill Museum in Fulton, Missouri.
Read more: General David H. Petraeus, Churchill Fellows Weekend 2017
Eight prominent leaders, including former MTV Chairman and CEO William Roedy, Gen. David H. Petraeus and Westminster President Benjamin Ola. Akande have been inducted into the Association of Churchill Fellows at Westminster College on April 4th 2017.
(Article originally published on Westminster College Website)
Along with other inductees, they became members of the prestigious association during a solemn ceremony over the weekend in the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury, which also serves as the home of the National Churchill Museum. Acting as Senior Fellow, Winston Churchill’s granddaughter, noted artist and sculptor Edwina Sandys, M.B.E. bestowed the honor on the new inductees.
Read more: An MTV Chief, a General, and President Are Among the New Churchill Fellows
Read more: amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research | Countdown to a Cure
The 33rd International Churchill Conference, “Churchill: Friends and Contemporaries”, was held in the historic Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC on 27–29 October 2016. The Conference focused on the myriad and fascinating relationships between Churchill and his wide range of friends and contemporaries – from politicians to soldiers, statesmen to writers, friends to family members.
By Bill Roedy, MTV Networks International, Former President (ret.); Board Director and Co-Founder, GBCHealth
Bolstered by the global multisector response to Ebola and Zika over the past two years, I have found myself reflecting on the origins of business engagement in the HIV/AIDS pandemic when MTV Networks and the Financial Times came together with four large pharmaceutical companies to start the Global Business Council, which eventually became GBCHealth.
Since 1995, HIV/AIDS-related deaths in the US have dropped by 85 percent. 17 million people now have access to lifesaving HIV treatment and 5.5 million deaths have been averted globally from 1995 to 2012. These milestones were achieved in no small part with the support of the private sector through the dedicated mobilization of resources and expertise for on-the-ground impact. During this period, businesses have provided less costly ARVs for distribution, created inclusive workplace policies to guard against discrimination and created award winning public-private awareness campaigns about the virus and disease.
The Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame is widely accepted within the broadcast industry as the gold standard – it is the highest award of its kind to be bestowed upon the pioneers, visionaries and stars of the electronic art
Since 1998, 108 men and women have been inducted into the Cable Hall of Fame.
Bill Roedy, former CEO of MTV, explains why he is passionate in the fight to end pneumonia, a preventable disease.
Bill Roedy with Pentavalent vaccine which has been administered to 400 million children as of 2013 in Dar-es-Salaam, GAVI, Tanzania, November 2013
Read more: The WPD Generation: Moving the needle to fight childhood disease
Bill Roedy was invited to attended the 'Life Ball 2014 - Press Conference' at Hotel Imperial on May 31, 2014 in Vienna, Austria.
The Life Ball, which takes place annually inside Vienna City Hall, is one of the biggest AIDS charity events in the world.
The aim: to help affected people in an unconventional way and to fight against the taboo status of HIV/AIDS in our society. Therefore, Life Ball is an exuberant festivity that celebrates life and makes a loud statement in the fight against HIV and AIDS – resounding across the boundaries of Vienna and Austria.
Every child deserves an equal shot at beginning his or her life healthy and safe. But the reality is that a vast number of children - simply because of where they were born - are vulnerable to deadly diseases that have largely been muted in the rest of the world thanks to the power of vaccines.
Kids in wealthier countries are protected from measles, whooping cough, tetanus and deadly diarrhea, for example. But those who happen to be born in poorer countries often are not.
We in the corporate world can help fix this. In fact, I am convinced that the only way to ensure equal access to vaccines for all of the world’s children is through business-driven solutions.
Read more: Corporate Commitment to Improving the World Through Vaccines
Martha lives in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. As a mother and grandmother, she is a main caretaker of her family. Martha has cervical cancer. It will probably kill her if the cobalt radiation therapy does not do more harm to her fragile body. Martha is just one of the more than 6,200 Tanzanian women who are diagnosed every year with cervical cancer, this east African country’s most common cancer.
Cervical cancer is not a major killer in richer countries – it takes the lives of about 10 percent of the women who contract it. But in poorer countries like Tanzania and across Africa, Asia and Latin America, hundreds of thousands of women die every year.
Read more: Celebrating International Women’s Day? saving the lives of women
Read more: Saving Lives: Could There Be Any Better Return on Investment?
Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and chair of the board of GAVI (Global Alliance for Vaccinations and Immunizations), asked Bill to become that foundation’s first envoy/ambassador. Bill helps raise to raise Gavi's profile & awareness about the importance of childhood vaccines in the fight against major killers like pneumonia and diarrhoeal diseases.
Read more: Bill Roedy takes up fight against childhood disease
In January 2011 General Kofi Annan appointed Bill Roedy as founding chair of the Global Media AIDS Initiative Leadership Committee. The Global Media AIDS Initiative (GMAI) is an umbrella organization that unites and motivates media companies around the world to use their influence, resources, and creative talent to address AIDS.
Read more: General Kofi Annan appoints Global Media AIDS Initiative Founding Chair
From missiles to music. From the iron curtain to the red carpet.” Bill Roedy says he has finally “coined” his unconventional career as he exits MTV after spending three decades masterminding the music channel’s global expansion.
The outgoing president of Viacom’s MTV Networks International, began his working life as a platoon leader in Vietnam – having studied at US military academy West Point. He later became a NATO missile commander.
“One of the first issues I had to deal [in Vietnam] with was a firebase overrun by a chemical attack. A US soldier had taken a drug overdose. I didn’t know what it was, I wasn’t trained for that. I called the medic back in and I was scalded the next day for jeopardising a helicopter crew who told me this was the norm.”
From this harrowing insight into the state of morale in Vietnam in the 1970s, to discuss his exit from the global business he built, Roedy appears almost emotionless.
Forty years on and he has kept the soldier-like qualities he probably acquired to survive in an environment where death and destruction are pervasive.
Originally published June 9, 2017
Read the full article on The Daily Telegraphy
Celebrating Dagfinn's tenure as Chairman, Gavi, and the ambition of leaving no child behind in the quest for vaccinations against life-threatening diseases.
As Gavi Board Chair 2011-2015, Dagfinn Høybråten guided the public-private partnership in its fight to ensure equitable access to vaccines for all the world’s children.
Bill appears in this documentary, telling the story of what has, and is being done to reach “The Fifth Child”, and the people who work tirelessly to fulfill this mission.
Bill talks to Dylan Ratigan about the Youth Vote.
Bill talks to CNBC, First In Business Worldwide about his book What Makes Business Rock, the media and business.
Bill lays out the challenges of bringing the cable TV model to a range of cultures & talks about his book What Makes Business Rock.
Bill Roedy joins The Business to discuss the meteoric rise of the MTV entertainment company.
Bill talks to Murnaghan on Sky News about What Makes Business Rock, his work in the Global Health Sector including the new vaccinations developed by GAVI.
CNN talks to Bill about his book What Makes Business Rock.
The Roedy family climbed Mount Kilimanjaro to raise awareness and funds for initiatives such as MTV Staying Alive, Seeds of Peace, mUNAIDS, GAVI & amfAR.
On 12th April 2014, Bill & the Roedy family successfully reached the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. The party included Tiger, age 10, and Rocky, age 12, who are both among the youngest to achieve the summit.
Read more: Bill & Family reach the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro
Bill Roedy built MTV from the ground upwards and retired as its hugely successful CEO. The Harvard MBA shares his secrets to success - and views on MBA degrees for today's entrepreneurs. By Seb Murray
Originally published March 20, 2014
Read the full article on Business Because
On Sunday 6th April the Roedy’s start their 5 day ascend to the highest mountain in Africa and the highest free standing mountain in the world, at 19,341 feet!
We will raise money for two important charities. ‘Seeds of Peace’ and ‘The Staying Alive Foundation’. Noa and Liam have been actively involved already, with Liam becoming a ‘Seed’ last summer and Noa working for the Staying Alive Foundation during her last year of High School. This will be Rocky’s and Tiger’s first opportunity to help raise awareness, and what an exciting and challenging one at that, being only 12 and 10 years old!
Read more: The Roedy’s are climbing Mount Kilimanjaro on Sunday 6th April, 2014!
Bill Roedy is famous for growing MTV International Networks across the world; taking it from a tiny London outpost to more than 200 countries and 2 billion viewers. But his campaign to fight AIDS worldwide is proving to be his biggest battle yet. By Hannah Prevett & Emilie Sandy.
Originally published December 2, 2013
Read the full article on Elite Business
Headphones, a camera, a second purse for foreign currency and a book - some of Ayesha Durgahee's travel essentials
Originally published March 9, 2012
Read the full article on CNN
Bill gives travel tips to The Wall Street Journal's Patrick Brzeski.
Originally published March 8, 2012
Read the full article on The Wall Street Journal
Bill talks to Dan Schawabel of Forbes Magazine about his book What Makes Business Rock "how he got his cool job, how he made MTV appeal to different countries and more."
Originally published October 28, 2011
Read the full article on Forbes Magazine
In his new book, What Makes Business Rock, Roedy talks about contemporary music history as well as the story of the business behind the music. In a phone interview from Miami, US, Roedy spoke to Mint about his pet strategies—localize and break all rules. Edited excerpts:
Originally published September 9, 2011
Read the full article on Mint
The man behind the music video on being raised by women, serving in Vietnam and making a break from MTV talks to Hannah Prevett for Management Today.
Originally published September 1, 2011
Read the full article on Management Today
After earning a Bronze Star in Vietnam, Bill Roedy took on a different sort of challenge – he brought MTV to the rest of the world. IT MAY COME as something of a surprise to find that the lowbrow-teen-soundbite-attention-deficit MTV was inspired by what happened in the killing fields of Vietnam, but that is exactly how the former head of the network, Bill Roedy, explains how he grew the music channel across 165 countries and left it with a potential audience of two billion people.
Originally published August 26, 2011
Read the full article on The Irish Times
What is the future of television? How is the structure of television programming going to change? Will people be watching TV rather than Internet TV? How will TV-on-demand affect the industry?
Originally published July 3, 2011
Read the full article on The Hindu Business Line
If global health had rock legends, Bill Roedy would be in its hall of fame. The former MTV boss, who ensured that the music channel network went global, joined forces long ago with the UN to invent innovative ways of raising HIV awareness among young people. Now, he has taken on the challenge of raising the profile of vaccines, by becoming the GAVI Alliance's first global Envoy.
Originally published June 11, 2011
Read the full article on The Lancet
As business how-to books go, there are few as entertaining as Bill Roedy‘s “What Makes Business Rock.”
Originally published May 26, 2011
Read the full article on New York Post
As the former head of MTV Networks International, Bill Roedy drew on his military career to build a youth entertainment business across 165 countries with an audience of millions -- and he had fun along the way.
Originally published May 12, 2011
Read the full article on New York Times/Reuters
Bill Roedy grew up memorizing the TV Guide in Miami. After a career atop MTV and decades of AIDS activism, he’s trying to generate some celebrity buzz for immunizations.
Originally published February 28, 2011
Read the full article on Miami Herald
Originally published January 29, 2011
Read the full article on The Telegraph
Read more: Bill presents the MTV ‘Free Your Mind’ Award to Mikhail Gorbachev
Originally published November 15, 2009
Read the full article on The Independent
Dedicated globalist Bill Roedy is chairman and CEO of MTV Networks International talks to British Airways Life magazine
Originally published November 12, 2009
Read the full article on British Airways Life
Originally published November 6, 2009
Read the full article on Financial Times
In 1989, MTV stole a march on news channels when they broadcast the fall of the Berlin wall.
Originally published November 2, 2009
Read the full article on The Guardian
For Katy Perry, learning can be fun! The singer, hosting MTV's European Music Awards for a second consecutive year, said that Thursday's show is a chance to combine performances by artists like U2, Foo Fighters and Leona Lewis with a remembrance of the 20th anniversary of the Nov. 9 fall of the Berlin Wall.
Originally published April 11, 2009
Read the full article on Today.com
Originally published February 18, 2002
Read the full article on Bloomberg