George L. Miles

Who is George L. Miles?

George L. Miles, Jr. is President and CEO of WQED Multimedia, the Emmy Award-winning public broadcaster for southwestern Pennsylvania. WQED Multimedia is the parent company of WQED tv13 (PBS), WQEX tv16 , WQED fm89.3, WQEJ fm89.7/Johnstown, a publishing division that includes PITTSBURGH magazine, local and national television and radio productions, www.wqed.org and the WQED Education and Community Resource Center. Mr. Miles arrived in Pittsburgh in September 1994 as President and CEO of what was then called QED Communications, and he assembled a new management team to reorganize the company and to reconnect with the community. He restructured the organization to be more flexible in the changing telecommunications market, and later he consolidated separate entities into a seamless multimedia enterprise to take advantage of cross-functional disciplines. WQED Multimedia's five decades of excellence in television production includes local and national productions, like The War That Made America, as well as national PBS programs like Doo Wop 50, the most successful fund raising special in PBS history; Doo Wop 51, Rock, Rhythm and Doo Wop; and Rhythm and Blues 40, Love, Rhythm Soul, Timeless Music and This Land is Our Land, which are all part of WQED's American Soundtrack Series. WQED is also the home of Rick Sebak's All-American Documentaries like A Cemetery Special; Unusual Buildings and Other Roadside Stuff; Sandwiches That You Will Like; A Flea Market Documentary; A Hot Dog Program; Great Old Amusement Parks; An Ice Cream Show; and Shore Things. WQED's America's Home Cooking series features WQED's Chris Fennimore sharing recipes on a cooking show with viewers around the country. The centerpiece of WQED's local programming is On Q Magazine, an Emmy Award-winning daily news and public affairs program, which premiered in January 2000. Other local productions include Black Horizons, QED Cooks, Live From Studio A, and Dave and Dave's Excellent Adventures. WQED pioneered the concept of the local history special and now counts 24 episodes in The Pittsburgh History Series and Pittsburgh Home Video collection. From 1984 to 1994, Mr. Miles was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of WNET/Thirteen in New York, where he was directly responsible for day-to- day operations of the PBS flagship station. Prior to his WNET assignment, he was Business Manager and Controller of KDKA-TV and KDKA Radio in Pittsburgh; Controller and Station Manager of WPCQ in Charlotte; Vice President and Controller of Westinghouse Broadcasting Television Group in New York; and Station Manager of WBZ-TV in Boston. Mr. Miles' experience also includes work as a contract auditor for the U.S. Department of Defense. From 1964 to 1966 he was in the U.S. Army, serving six months in Vietnam. In 1969, Mr. Miles joined the accounting firm of Touche Ross Co., serving as manager until 1978. Mr. Miles, a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), earned a B.A. in accounting from Seton Hall University, and an MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University. In 2002, he received an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Business Administration from Robert Morris University. In 1989 he received an honorary Doctor of Law degree from St. Joseph's College, and he was honored with the Pinnacle Award for outstanding achievement as an alumnus from Fairleigh Dickinson University. In 2006, he was named one of the Fifty Most Influential African Americans by The New Pittsburgh Courier, one of the country's oldest and most prestigious African American newspapers. He sits on the Board of Directors of American International Group, Inc. (AIG); Harley-Davidson, Inc.; WESCO International, Inc.; Equitable Resources, Inc.; HFF,Inc.; Chester Engineers, Inc.; University of Pittsburgh; Allegheny Conference on Community Development; UPMC Health System; and is on the...