HOLLYWOOD RADIO & TELEVISION SOCIETY (HRTS) ANNOUNCES NEWLY ELECTED FOUNDATION BOARD MEMBERS
Foundation Aimed at Fostering More Diverse, Equitable & Inclusive TV and Entertainment Industry
LOS ANGELES, CA, May 1, 2024 –The Hollywood Radio and Television Society (HRTS) has announced its newly elected HRTS Foundation board members, comprised of a diverse group of leaders from across the TV and entertainment industry.
First established upon the 75th anniversary of The Hollywood Radio and Television Society in 2022, the HRTS Foundation is a standalone charity, whose mission is to foster a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive TV and entertainment industry.
HRTS Foundation President Phillippe Maigret (President & Managing Director – ITV Studios America) and HRTS Foundation Chairperson Melissa Grego announced today the following newly elected HRTS Foundation board members:
- Aimie Billon, Cause-Related Storytelling, Partnerships & Strategy Consultant
- Keely Cat-Wells, co-founder & CEO, Making Space
- Tony Jonas, Founder, Tony Jonas Productions and USC Professor
- Noriko Kelley, EVP, Programming Strategy, CBS Entertainment
- Dick Lippin, The Lippin Group Chairman, Chief Executive & Founder
- Frederic Richter, Writer, Researcher and NYU SPS Faculty
The new HRTS Foundation board members join existing HRTS Foundation directors Maigret, Grego, HRTS Foundation Secretary Robin Schwartz (President of Television, FilmNation Entertainment), HRTS President Odetta Watkins (Head of Drama Series, Amazon Studios), Dan Erlij (Senior Partner and Co-Head of the TV Literary Dept. at UTA), Scott Hervey (Shareholder – Weintraub Tobin Chediak Coleman Grodin Law Corporation), Jordan Levin (General Manager – Rooster Teeth) and Gary Marenzi (Founder/CEO—Marenzi & Associates). Additionally, Louie Ko (Senior Vice President, Sr. Relationship Manager, ENT Film) has been named Treasurer of the HRTS Foundation.
“We are thrilled to welcome this diverse and experienced group of industry executives to the HRTS Foundation Board,” said Foundation President Maigret. “This esteemed group, alongside many other dedicated HRTS members, will help us establish the next generation of voices in the entertainment industry and further build off the successes of the first year of the HRTS Fellowship.”
Added HRTS’ Grego, “These new HRTS Foundation board members have clearly demonstrated their support for our mission of fostering a more diverse, equitable and inclusive TV and entertainment industry. I am truly excited to have them join our existing board members as we move into our second year and further build on the momentum we’ve already created with the Foundation.”
The Foundation’s first initiative was the launch of the HRTS Fellowship Program. The HRTS Fellowship Program, which just welcomed its second class, is designed to help launch the careers of 10 Junior HRTS members and five student members annually.
The new HRTS Fellows include Lawnyá Benton (JHRTS), Isabella Boccasino (JHRTS), Grace Fang (JHRTS), LaCreshia Griffin-Pope (JHRTS), Petra Holness (JHRTS), Sana Hussein (JHRTS), Nadira Johnson (JHRTS), Ingrid Nin (JHRTS), Mackenzie Rohan (JHRTS) and Hankai Yan (JHRTS). The new student Fellows include Lauren Delisle (Academic), Alfredo (José) Facio, Jr. (Academic), Jessica Li (Academic), Tamar Sebesta (Academic) and Jee Hoon (Fred) Seo (Academic).
More about the new HRTS Foundation Board Members:
Aimie Billon focuses on cultivating relationships for nonprofit organizations, with a special focus in entertainment and creative community engagement, as well as how to message or amplify those engagements to the members and public at large. A native Angeleno, Billon has worked across various avenues of the entertainment community in production, wardrobe, and editorial, before moving into cause-related work. She was social impact agency Propper Daley’s founding employee and focused on overseeing entertainment industry activation through script integration, content creation, digital campaigns, and influencer engagement, before building out her own practice in 2018.
Billon has worked with clients such as Amnesty International, Got Your 6, Rock the Vote, The Clinton Foundation, Center for American Progress, Service Year, Understood, It’s On Us, Student Veterans of America, Human Rights Watch, Everytown for Gun Safety, Climate Reality Project, and many other exemplary organizations. Aimie has also worked with brands on their social good efforts including shooting PSAs in collaboration with rehearsals for the Academy Awards, GRAMMYs, and Emmys.
Keely Cat-Wells is an entrepreneur and Disability Rights Advocate. While in the hospital, she founded a company that evolved into C Talent. Acquired by Whalar in 2022, C Talent represents disabled talent, reshaping perceptions of disability. Under her leadership, C Talent had an artist roster with a combined following of over 50 million people and placed talent in thousands of projects for some of the world’s largest brands. The acquisition marked a significant investment in Disabled talent and a pivotal milestone for the creator industry.
Following the acquisition, Keely established Making Space, a venture-backed, accessible talent acquisition and learning platform for companies to train, access and retain pre qualified disabled talent pools. Making Space creates tangible pathways to employment and career advancement through employer-supported education. In collaboration with award-winning Disability Rights Advocate Sophie Morgan, Keely co-founded Making Space Media, a division of Making Space. They produce film, TV, and promotional content that centers the Disabled voice. Making Space Media has secured a first-look deal with Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine.
Tony Jonas is one of the television industry’s most respected executive producers and television studio executives. A veteran of over 30 years in the entertainment business, he currently heads up his own TV production company, Tony Jonas Productions, Inc. (TJP.) Jonas concurrently serves as a professor at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, where he teaches Master’s courses for both writing and producing television series—most recently helping guide his grad students to win 2023’s prestigious national competition: the Television Academy’s College Emmy Award for Best Drama. Jonas formerly served as President of Warner Bros. Television, where under his leadership, the studio was the largest supplier of network prime time programs for four straight years. During his tenure at Warner Bros., Jonas oversaw production on such hits as THE WEST WING, ER, FRIENDS, FAMILY MATTERS, STEP BY STEP, FULL HOUSE and HANGIN’ WITH MR. COOPER.
In January, Noriko Kelley was promoted to Executive Vice President, Program Planning & Scheduling, CBS Entertainment, becoming the first-ever female head of scheduling for any broadcast television network. Kelley’s primary responsibility is overseeing the program planning and scheduling of all primetime programming for the CBS Television Network. She also supervises coordination between CBS programming divisions and the network’s respective operations in sales, marketing, affiliate relations, news, sports and research, as well as with the CBS Television Stations Group. Previously, Kelley was Senior Vice President, Program Planning & Scheduling at CBS since August 2012. Prior to that, she was Vice President, Program Planning & Scheduling at CBS since April 2010, playing a role in many of the network’s successful scheduling moves. Kelley started at CBS as a director in the same department in May 2007.
Richard (Dick) B. Lippin is chairman, chief executive and founder of The Lippin Group, an international entertainment/communications public relations and marketing organization with wholly owned and operated offices in Los Angeles, New York and London. Lippin has over 35 years in the industry, specializing in entertainment and media covering television, music, film, digital media, Podcasts, DVD/video, licensing and merchandising and investor relations. Over the years, Lippin has served as a close strategic advisor to some of the world’s most prestigious companies and associations in the United States and countries around the globe. Prior to entering the public relations industry, he worked on Wall Street in both the investment and regulatory areas of the financial world.
Frederic Richter is a researcher, writer, producer, and educator. He has worked on projects for HBO, NETFLIX, Amazon, Showtime, MGM, Universal Television, Focus Features, FX/Disney, CNN, History Channel, and Discovery as well as many independent film projects. Film and television projects he has worked on as a researcher, and archival specialist include CREED III, COCAINE BEAR as well as the upcoming films, BAG MAN, RELAY, and ATLAS. In TV, he has worked on such series as HBO’s WINNING TIME, and BARRY, Prime Video’s THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL and Showtime’s Emmy-nominated ESCAPE AT DANNEMORA. As a writer, his credits include the CNN series JERUSALEM: CITY OF FAITH AND FURY. Richter is the archival producer on the upcoming independent documentary feature film BEHIND THE LINES, which features Annette Benning as narrator. He is a faculty member at NYU SPS, and has taught workshops at Sarah Lawrence College, NYU, NYU Production Lab and The Ghetto Film School.
Louie Ko is a senior relationship manager in the Entertainment Division at City National Bank.
With over 8 years of experience in entertainment financing, he is responsible for sourcing,
structuring and negotiating senior debt financing for leading entertainment production and
distribution companies as well as for single picture projects. Louie lives in Palos Verdes with his
wife and two kids.
About HRTS
Led by a Board of Directors comprising TV and entertainment’s most distinguished leaders, Hollywood Radio & Television Society is the premier networking, education and mentorship association in the industry. Our membership community includes 50+ Corporate Members and 2100+ individual members, representing the top companies across the landscape. We build on HRTS’ rich, 75-year tradition of providing an unparalleled forum for conversation and community through events, our best-in-class mentorship program and other initiatives for professionals at all career stages — from student to C-suite — in Los Angeles, NYC and around the world.
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