Alan Cole-Ford

Who is Alan Cole-Ford?

Alan Cole-Ford has run business development and corporate strategy

portfolios for two of the biggest and best-known media companies in the

world, MGM/UA and Paramount. He also played a role in the noteworthy

tradesale acquisitions ($1.3b/$6.6b) of both organizations.

As Exec V.P. of MGM Inc., he helped to engineer the successful

turnaround and subsequent sale of the company to financier Kirk

Kerkorian. During that time, he also ran two of the studio's

fastest-growing business units, the Consumer Products/Licensing Group

as well as its Interactive Media/Videogames Division.

On the heels of MGM's sale, Cole-Ford spent two years as CEO of NVST Inc., a Seattle-based private equity research firm.

Previously, he had served nearly ten years in the Paramount

organization in a variety of posts, including V.P. Video Division,

Senior V.P. of its Television Group, and ultimately Vice-President of

its NYC-based parent company, Gulf+Western, leading up to its eventual

acquisition by Viacom. During his studio tenure, he also launched and

managed joint ventures with ATT, Dow Jones, Sega, GTE, MIT’s

Medialab and Ziff-Davis Publishing. Prior to joining Paramount, he

spent over four years as a senior analyst with the renowned

financial-valuation and consulting firm of Paul Kagan Associates.

During that time, Cole-Ford’s commentaries on various aspects of media

finance were widely quoted in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times,

and Barron’s, as well as on ABC-TV’s “Nightline” and the

“MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour”.

Since 2002, Cole-Ford has traveled extensively and served as an

advisor to a wide variety of media/content firms including VNU/A.C.

Nielsen (Netherlands), Hachette-Filipacchi (Paris), Second City

Inc.(Toronto), CMG Worldwide (Indianapolis), Leavesden Studios

(London), DKH Media (Kuala Lumpur), and eChinaCash (Beijing). Over the

past 18 months, his focus has been on developing markets, particularly

China, where he currently heads the Advisory Board of Beijing-based

eChinaCash Inc. Cole-Ford's business dealings in Asia trace as far back

as 1989, when he led Paramount's involvement in the successful

consortium-backed bid for the cable-tv programming franchise from the

Hong Kong government, alongside partners such as Wharf Holdings,

Raymond Kwok's SHK Industries, Golden Harvest, and Sir Run Run Shaw.