Louis Carr, President of Media Sales, at Black Entertainment Television (BET) Networks, is one of the most influential and prominent African Americans in both media and marketing industries. He has been responsible for more advertising dollars targeted towards the African-American consumer markets, than any other professional or company. In 2016, he celebrated his 30^th year anniversary with BET. In the same year, he earned the Diversity Award from the Hyatt Corporation and another Lifetime Achievement Award from the Patricia Martin Legacy celebration honoring his work around diversity from both personal and professional standpoints. Carr has also been listed on NAMIC’s Most Influential African Americans list in the cable industry several times.

Utilizing his B.A. in Journalism from Drake University, Louis Carr has become a compelling author, writing two books titled Dirty Little Secrets and The Little Black Book: Daily Motivations for Business and Personal Growth. His engaging books share anecdotes from his captivating success story. These nuggets of wisdom were written with the intent of paying it forward and telling his individual story. Throughout childhood and along his career path, Carr acknowledges the encouragement and help received by others who deemed him “special” even before he believed it himself. Undoubtedly, Carr openly lays out his own roadmap to greatness with sure fire tips to aid students, business professionals and those in pursuit of self-purpose to get to the next level. He most recently became a TEDx Speaker, emphasizing “The Necessity of Being Uncomfortable”.

He has served on boards of the Ad Council; International Radio and Television Society (IRTS); American Advertising Federation (AAF); and the Video Advertising Board (VAB), formerly the CAB. He currently serves on the board of the Boys Hope Girls Hope and the United States Track and Field Foundation.

He is a dedicated mentor and benevolent philanthropist. Devoted to diversity, Mr. Carr has hired more people of color than any other executive or company within the media industry. Additionally, for more than fourteen years, the Louis Carr Internship Foundation (LCIF) has dedicated its efforts to improve diversity in corporate America. By placing undergraduate students of color in paid summer internships, Louis further demonstrates his commitment to helping others gain exposure and experience.

Jeanine D. Liburd is the Chief Social Impact and Communications Officer for BET, a unit of Paramount Global, the leading provider of quality content for the African American audience and consumers of Black culture globally. In her role, Liburd leads and elevates a portfolio of multiplatform social change initiatives that empowers the BET audience to have an impact on the critical issues facing the Black community today. Additionally, she leads the company's corporate communications, internal communications, social responsibility, and events teams. Liburd is based in New York and reports to Scott Mills, President of BET.

Liburd develops initiatives that aim to empower and measurably impact the Black community. In 2020, she built several action-oriented impact campaigns – including BET’s COVID relief effort, in partnership with United Way Worldwide, raising over $19 million in emergency relief.  She created the company’s signature civic engagement campaign – Reclaim Your Vote and National Black Voter Day in partnership with the National Urban League and led the company’s response in the aftermath of George Floyd, with the creation of the Content for Change initiative focused on utilizing media to help combat racism and racial inequities in America.  Notably, ViacomCBS has adopted this campaign company-wide.

Liburd also spearheads the network’s social impact conference, META (Media, Entertainment and Technology Alliance) designed, to explore how the most influential people and platforms across these sectors can work together to positively impact outcomes for the African American community.

Previously, Liburd served as Chief Marketing & Communications Officer for BET where she oversaw all facets of strategic and creative brand development. She successfully led the launch and roll-out campaigns for BET+, the preeminent streaming service for the black audience, as well as various shows and specials including The BET Awards, The New Edition Story, American Soul, Black Girls Rock and Boomerang. Her leadership and deep consumer insights resulted in award-winning creative campaigns and innovative marketing strategies garnering increased ratings, visibility, and brand recognition for the network.

She joined BET in 2007 as Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications after working with a number of Viacom divisions under the Viacom banner.  She was Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications for Viacom, where she oversaw all media relations initiatives for the company’s business units.  Prior to that, she was Vice President of Communications for MTV Networks. Liburd joined Viacom in 2000 from strategic communications firm, Robinson Lerer Montgomery where she worked with clients such as Oxygen, CNBC, AOL and Showtime.

Affiliated with a number of professional, civic and cultural organizations, Liburd serves on the Atlantic Health System Board of Trustees, the board of Color Comm, the ADWEEK Steering Committee, the Corporate Advisory Council for the Congressional Black Caucus, and has previously served on the Apollo EmpowHER steering committee and the Board of Directors for the Weeksville Heritage Center in Brooklyn.  She is a highly sought-after speaker, most recently delivering the keynote address at the 2020 Communications Week conference.

Liburd’s accomplishments have been recognized with several industry awards including the 2021 Girl Scouts of Greater New York’s Gold Achievement Award, the 2020 Multichannel News Wonder Woman Award, the 2019 New York Women in Communications Matrix Award, the 2018 Alliance for Women in Media Gracie Award, the 2018 Black Women in Media Award, the 2016 ColorComm Circle Award as well as a consistent presence on CableFax’s Most Influential Minorities and the Brand Innovators top 100 women lists. Her philanthropic efforts have also been acknowledged, most recently with the 2020 Dance Theater of Harlem Virtuoso Award.

Before her career in communications, Liburd worked on urban and family policy at the local and national levels, holding positions at the Department of General Services under the David Dinkins administration, and with the Department of Health and Human Services and The White House under the Clinton administration. She is a graduate of Vassar College and holds an M.S. in Urban Policy from The New School University for Social Research.

Constance M. Orlando is an award-winning media executive recently named Executive Vice President of Specials, Music Programming & Music Strategy at BET Networks, a unit of Viacom Inc.. A pop culture visionary, Ms. Orlando oversees all genres of original programming, including scripted offerings “The Quad,” “Being Mary Jane,” and specials including, Black Girls Rock! and ratings juggernaut BET Awards. Ms. Orlando also leads the BET News department, overseeing critically acclaimed specials on Ferguson and Baltimore. She also ushered BET into the documentary space with BET Truth Series, which in its inaugural year produced award-winning projects Katrina 10 Years Later, Muhammad Ali: The People’s Champ and Stay Woke.

Ms. Orlando previous roles with BET include Senior Vice President of Specials, Music Programming and News, and VP of Original Programming. Ms. Orlando was part of the network’s largest expansion into original programming in its history. Her ability to lead, inspire and create hits resulted in a list of accomplishments including BET Presents: Love & Happiness, an Obama Celebration, Sunday Best, TD Jakes Presents: Mind, Body, & Soul, The Steve Harvey Project, Monica: Still Standing and scripted series The Game, which scored record-breaking ratings.

Ms. Orlando is Executive Producer of all tentpole events, including the BET Awards, the #1 program in cable television history among AA viewers and a top 10 awards show on television amongst total viewers. 

Prior to joining BET Networks, the Syracuse University graduate ran her own full service production company, CMO Productions, Inc. While running CMO, Orlando served as Executive Producer of award-winning director Hype Williams’ Big Dog Films. Among CMO’s crowning triumphs was a partnership with music icon and businessman Jay-Z to produce the first of its kind, direct-to-video movie soundtrack The Streets Is Watching.

Outside of work, Orlando is passionate about advocating for and providing support to women and children in need, so in 1998 she launched a non-profit foundation, ‘Just The Girls’. She also serves on the Advisory Board for Clark Atlanta University’s TV department as the Programming Committee Chair. Orlando accolades include NAMIC’s “Top 40 Under 40”. Her work has earned her nine NAACP Image Awards (“The Mo’Nique Show” 2010, “Sunday Best” 2011, “Black Girls Rock!” 2012/2013/2014/2016, “The Game” 2012, "Ali: The People’s Champ" 2015, and Love & Happiness: an Obama celebration 2016), and five NAMIC Vision Awards (“Black Girls Rock!”).

Devin Griffin is the Executive Vice President and General Manager, BET+. The subscription video-on-demand service focused on the African American audience, BET+, will feature more than 2,000 hours of premium content including exclusive new original programming and fan-favorite series, movies, and specials from BET Networks, world-renowned creator Tyler Perry, and a host of leading African American content creators. Griffin reports to Scott Mills, President of BET Networks. Griffin is based in Los Angeles. In his role, Griffin manages  the BET+ P&L and oversee business strategy & operations, including original programming, content acquisitions, marketing, distribution, planning and analysis.

Prior to BET+, Devin was a Producer and Executive Vice President of Story Lab US, where he co-founded and led the company’s foray into premium long-form content development.  In less than a year, he developed original series with Anonymous Content, ITV, Stephen David Entertainment, and the NBA Players Association.

Previously, Devin served in various senior content roles at Netflix. He formed and led the company’s unscripted group, commissioning and/or executive producing over 40 series, including: the Emmy Award-winning Queer Eye, The Confession Tapes, Michael Jordan: The Last Dance, the Peabody-winning Hip-Hop Evolution, Shot in the Dark, and The Toys That Made Us. During his tenure at Netflix, Devin also worked extensively on scripted drama, comedy, sci-fi, and anime. Devin brought a distinctive curatorial lens to the service, programming global hits such as the Emmy Award-winning Black Mirror, Designated Survivor, Chewing Gum, Z Nation, Wentworth, Van Helsing, Danger 5, Seven Deadly Sins and original stand-up specials fromTom Segura, Chelsea Peretti, and Wyatt Cenac, among others.

Earlier in his career Devin served as Head of Business Development at Broadway Video, the production company of legendary producer Lorne Michaels. There, Devin conceptualized, co-founded, and oversaw Above Average, a premium comedy network and studio.  He has also held key roles at the National Basketball Association and at Silver Chalice Ventures.

Devin holds a BA from Stanford and an MBA from Wharton. He resides in Los Angeles with his wife, Sarah, and two young children.

Kimberly Paige is a seasoned executive with more than 25 years of general management, strategy, innovation, and brand marketing experience with a proven track record of building billion-dollar Fortune 500 brands.

Paige is Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for BET Networks.  Paige is responsible for managing and implementing brand strategy across all platforms, including the BET and BET Her linear networks, BET+, BET Digital, BET Social and BET Experience.  Paige also leads BET’s awarding-winning Brand Creative Team, best-in-class Consumer Insights & Analytics Team and all Media Planning.   In addition, she stewards BET’s Live Events business. Paige reports to Scott Mills, President of BET Networks.

Most recently, Paige was the Chief Operating and Brand-Building Officer at Sundial Brands, a leading skincare and haircare manufacturer renowned for its innovative use of high-quality, culturally authentic natural ingredients, and maker of SheaMoisture, Nubian Heritage, Madam C.J. Walker Beauty Culture, and nyakio™. Paige managed the overall strategic direction of the company and led the business planning for continued growth, including the existing product portfolio, new and innovative products and line extensions, and built the business in existing and new channels. She was responsible for operations, which included end-to-end supply chain, marketing and sales, and continually assessed the organization and infrastructure for company growth.

She joined Sundial from her previous role as Chief Marketing Officer of Coty, Inc. where she stewarded the repositioning of several flagship brands.

Prior to Coty, Paige spent 17 years at The Coca Cola Company where she led several businesses to unparalleled revenue growth while driving brand loyalty for brands including Sprite, Fanta, SmartWater and more. In addition to multiple brand leadership roles, she was Vice President & CMO of Coca-Cola’s Ventures & Emerging Brands, where she led innovation and marketing support for emerging and recently acquired brands. Prior to that, Paige co-founded and was President of Kickoff Marketing, a strategic planning and brand consulting firm where she drove profitable growth and assessed new business venture opportunities for a variety of consumer brands and non-profit organizations. Paige began her career at Procter and Gamble, where she worked in brand management and drove results for the largest division of the company (formerly Package Soap and Detergent).

About BET Networks

BET Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIA, VIA.B), is the nation's leading provider of quality entertainment, music, news and public affairs television programming for the African-American audience. The primary BET channel is in nearly 85 million households and can be seen in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom, sub-Saharan Africa and France. BET is the dominant African-American consumer brand with a diverse group of business extensions including BET.com, a leading Internet destination for Black entertainment, music, culture, and news; BET HER, a 24-hour entertainment network targeting the African-American woman; BET Music Networks - BET Jams, BET Soul and BET Gospel; BET Home Entertainment; BET Live, BET’s growing festival business; BET Mobile, which provides ringtones, games and video content for wireless devices; and BET International, which operates BET Networks around the globe.

Contact:

Luis Defrank

Luis.defrank@bet.net

212-205-3156