Emerson gets $2 million aid gift

Leo Hindery Jr., a member of the Cable Industry Hall of Fame and current managing partner of InterMedia Partners, and his wife, Patti Wheeler Hindery, former executive vice president of SPEED channel, have made a $2 million gift to provide financial aid to socioeconomically disadvantaged students attending Emerson College. Many of the students supported by this endowment will be the first in their families to attend college.

“It’s critical for the good of the nation that the media industry attracts the best students and practitioners, and that they reflect in every aspect our nation’s diversity,” Hindery said. “In our careers, Patti and I have seen no school or institution which appreciates both this imperative and the media industry’s ethical responsibilities more than Emerson College.”

Approximately $1.75 million of the gift to Emerson will establish the Hindery Family Endowed Scholarship Fund to support need–based financial aid; $200,000 will assist qualifying students with out-of-pocket expenses for co-curricular activities such as film projects, travel for conferences, and research initiatives; and $10,000 a year for the next five years will support the Emerson College Annual Fund, one of the College’s most important fundraising priorities.

“I’m extremely grateful for this very generous donation that the Hinderys have made to the College,” said Emerson College President Lee Pelton. “Leo Hindery has a long and honorable track record of using his influence to promote equality, social justice, and economic development. The Hinderys’ scholarship fund will help Emerson build an even more representative student body, which will greatly benefit every student, our overall campus community, and the arts and communication industries to which our students aspire.”

“Patti and I want Emerson to have the wherewithal to make permanent President Pelton’s expressed commitment that the students and graduates of Emerson will always represent our nation’s diversity,” said Hindery.

Leo Hindery founded InterMedia Partners in 1988, which grew to become the nation’s ninth largest multiple cable system operator. In February 1997, he was elected president and CEO of Tele-Communications, Inc. (TCI) and Liberty Media, at the time the world’s largest combined cable television system operator and programming entity. In March 1999, TCI merged into AT&T and he became president and CEO of AT&T Broadband until he resigned in November 1999. In December 1999, he was elected chairman and CEO of GlobalCenter Inc., a major Internet services company, which in January 2001 merged into Exodus Communications, Inc. From 2001 until October 2004, he was the founding chairman and CEO of The YES Network, the regional television home of the New York Yankees. In early 2005, he reconstituted InterMedia Partners.

Mr. Hindery, formerly chairman of the National Cable Television Association (NCTA) and of C-SPAN, has been recognized as one of the cable industry’s “25 Most Influential Executives over the Past 25 Years” and one of the “30 Individuals with the Most Significant Impact on Cable’s Early History.” A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, he is a Director of Common Cause New York, the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University, the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council, and the Paley Center for Media and Teach for America. He is also a member of the Board of Visitors of the Columbia School of Journalism.

Mr. Hindery has received the Joel A. Berger Award for his leadership in AIDS and HIV initiatives; the Founders Award from the Asia Society for his efforts in the international fight against AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria; the Keeper of the Dream Award from the National Action Network for his efforts on behalf of equality and workers’ rights; the Individual Achievement Award of the Hispanic Federation; and the John Gardner Lifetime Achievement Award from Common Cause. In addition, he has been inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Minority Media & Telecom Council.

Mr. Hindery is the author of It Takes a CEO: It’s Time to Lead With Integrity (Free Press, 2005) and The Biggest Game of All (Free Press, 2003). He has an MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and received an undergraduate degree from Seattle University. He has been named a Founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and, in 2003, he received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Emerson College.

Patti Wheeler Hindery was named executive vice president of programming and production at SPEED channel in November 2010. Having started her career at the age of 22 as a producer/director of live NASCAR races, she has produced every major racing series for every broadcast and cable network that’s ever covered motor sports. Before founding her own company, Wheeler Television, Inc., she served as director of motorsports and executive producer for TNN and earlier was president of World Sports Enterprises. She has been named one of NASCAR’s “Top 25 Most Powerful People” by the Charlotte Observer.