V I D E O • A G E AP R I L 2 0 1 1 42 (Continued from Page 40) Father & Daughter Teams (her father started as an actor), so in 1999 Carlos helped her to be cast in a telenovelaforUnivision,whichlaunched her acting career in Hollywood. When Carlos became president of Spanishlanguage TV network CaribeVision in 2007, he gave Caroline a job hosting for a half-hour entertainment show. On April 23, 2011 Carlos Barba will receive an award in New York City from the Association of Entertainment Critics, for his 50 years in the television business. SILVIO ANDMARIA ELVIRA (MARINA) BERLUSCONI Silvio and Maria Elvira (Marina) Berlusconi Silvio Berlusconi is a 75-year-old Italian broadcaster-turned politician who’s the largest shareholder (38.62 percent) of publicly traded multimedia group Mediaset, which, in turn, owns TV networks in Italy and Spain, and also controls Endemol. Berlusconi is the majority owner of Mediaset through his family’s investment group,FininvestHolding,whichischaired by his Milan-born 45-year-old daughter, Maria Elvira (Marina). Marina is also chairman of the Mondadori Publishing Group, which is owned by Fininvest, and Mediaset’s board member. In addition, in the entertainment sector, Fininvest owns Medusa, a film production and distribution company. Berlusconi, who’s now worth U.S.$9 billion, founded Fininvest in 1978 and, in 1996 placed all his film and TV properties in theMediasetGroup as a public company traded on the Milan Stock Exchange, now worth an estimated $9 billion with annual revenues of $4 billion. After working with her father in several capacities, Marina (who is the oldest of Silvio’s five children) became vice-chairman of Fininvest in 1996, in 2003 was appointed chairman of Mondadori and, in 2005, chairman of Fininvest. According to semi-official documents, Marina began taking an interest in Fininvest in 1991, at the age of 25. She started college (studying law and political science) but never graduated, commenting that attending her father’s business meetings was more educational than college. In an interview, Marina acknowledged, “I’m here because my name is Berlusconi, but as a Berlusconi I could also be doing something else.” Marina is considered her father’s closest ally both in business and in the political arena where Silvio reportedly wants her to succeed him as Prime Minister and party leader. According to several news accounts, in 1998 Marina strongly objected to the potential sale of Mediaset to Rupert Murdoch (who owns Sky Italia in Italy and is now considered Mediaset’s major competitor). Forbes listed Marina as the 48th most powerful woman in the world (on the same level as the U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama), controlling a financial empire worth an estimated $10 billion. Marina has two children and is married to a former first dancer of La Scala. Her father, on the other hand, after two marriages, is single. ETTORE ANDMATILDE BERNABEI Ettore and Matilde Bernabei Ettore Bernabei founded Rome, Italybased LUX Vide, the largest producer of fiction programs in Italy, in 1991 with the help of three financial investors. At that time Bernabei was 70 years old. He had stepped down as president of RAI, Italy’s state broadcaster, 17 years earlier after occupying the position for 13 years. To veterans of the Italian political and media worlds, the name Bernabei opens doors. In addition to having been a former editor of daily newspapers and a political force in the long-ruling (but now discredited) Christian Democrat party, he is a Vatican insider. In 1992 he urged his then 38-year-old daughter Matilde to join him as CEO, a surprising move since she thought her father would prefer one of his other seven living children (one daughter was deceased). In a 1997 VideoAge interview, Matilde complained that, when she was growing up, “It was understood that her five brothers would go out and work and she and her sisters would get married and stay at home.” While the boys were encouraged to become fluent in several languages, Matilde lamented her lack of early foreign language training. Matilde Bernabei started as a journalist for the weekly newsmagazine Panorama, and, at the age of 24, she was appointed secretary general of ASIP, in charge of the creation of technical cooperation programs with developing countries. In 1980 she joined Montedison as manager of the group’s job creation program. In 1984, she became the Strategy and Development director of the Montedison’s newly created Iniziativa Me.Ta., which in three years became the third largest Italian financial holding. Before joining her father at LUX Vide, in 1987 she became managing director of the publishing company Il Messaggero. Today, at LUXVide, Matilde is assisted by her youngest brother Luca, who is the head of Production. Ettore is now LUX Vide’s honorary chairman, while his daughter Matilde is chairman. Over the years LUX Vide has produced some 80 programs (about 500 hours) between series, miniseries and TVmovies, but it doesn’t have its own distribution operation, relying instead on RAI. With 44.3 percent ownership, LUX Vide is still solidly in the Bernabei family’s hands, while 35.7 percent is owned by International Entertainment, a subsidiary of Intesa Bank, with the balance owned by Tarak Ben Ammar. JAMES ROBERT (JR) AND HEATHER A. SHAW Heather and JR Shaw James Robert (JR) Shaw, 77, executive chairman of Shaw Communications, entered the TV business in 1970 to provide cable TV service to Edmonton. In 1983 the company went public and, in 1995, was renamed Shaw Cablesystems and moved to Calgary. In the same period he legally changed his name to JR. Today, Shaw Communications is a C$3.7 billion a year group that provides telephone, Internet and television services. Last October Shaw acquired Canwest, a major Canadian broadcasting radio and TV company based in Winnipeg and reorganized it under a division called Shaw Media. All of JR’s four children — Jim, Heather, Julie and Brad — are involved in the group. His oldest son Jim, now 53, took over Shaw as CEO in 1998, however, last November, Jim’s younger brother Brad, 46, became CEO, while Jim continues as non-executive vice chairman and a member of the board. JR Shaw also founded Corus Entertainment. The company was built from the media assets originally owned by Shaw Communications, and spun off as a separate, publicly-traded company in 1999. Today, Corus owns 50 radio stations, several speciality TV channels and production and distribution companies such as Nelvana, generating annual revenues of C$769 million. JR remains Corus’ primary shareholder through Corus’ class A voting shares, the majority of which he holds. Since Corus’ inception, Heather Shaw, now 51, has been the company’s executive chairman. Previously, she was president of Shaw Advertising Services and, in 1995, president of Shaw’s Digital Music Express Canada Ltd. and an officer and member of the board of Shaw Communications. Since 2008, Heather’s younger sister, Julie, now 49, has served as vice chairman. She first joined the Shaw group in 1986. In 2001, Heather Shaw was listed inThe Financial Post’s “Power 50” — the 50 most powerful women in Canadian business. OLA ANDBENEDICTE STEINSRUD When, at the age of 38, Ola Steinsrud co-founded TVNorge, Norway’s first private TV station with three other people, in 1987, his daughter Benedicte was four years old. A year later, when the station actually went on the air, the little girl was often asked by her father to appear whenever needed on shows or music videos that he produced. As a teenager Benedicte was asked by her dad to sit in the conference room to watch programs and give feedback. Subsequently, in 1996 the station was sold to SBS and now is wholly owned by ProSiebenSat1. Ola stayed with TVNorge until 2006 and Benedicte, his oldest child (hehasthreedaughters),joinedthenetwork a year later, after attending the American School outside London, graduating with a degree in Journalism, Film and Broadcasting and moving to Los Angeles to work for distribution company GRB. Today, she’s in the acquisition department for TVNorge’s FEM and MAX. Ola began as a Communications Engineer graduate in Oslo in 1973. After working for the nation’s telecom company, he moved to New York City at the entertainment division at ABC TV network in 1987. He later became a programming and acquisition executive for the network. Before going to New York, Ola went to Surrey, outside London, to take a production course sponsored by Sony and the BBC. Ola brought the U.S. business model to TVNorge. Originally TVNorge broadcast via satellite and cable, later they had some local affiliates whichwere using 5:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.- 8:30 p.m. for local programming, while the rest of the schedule was provided by TVNorge. This arrangement ended in 2009 with the analog switch off.
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