Gary Gannaway

Gary Gannaway (born Albert Carlyle Gannaway III on July 30, 1954) is an American businessman, entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist.^[1] Through his venture capitalist firm Gannaway Group, he has invested in various companies with interests that expand cinema, television, technology, security, advertising, gaming, art, and publishing.^[2] Gannaway received the prestige Entrepreneur of the Year Award from Merrill Lynch, Ernst & Young and Inc. Magazine in its inaugural year.^[1][3]

Early life

Gannaway was born Albert Carlyle Gannaway III in Beverly Hills, California on July 30, 1954, the son of Albert Carlyle Gannaway Jr. and Dana Gibson Gannaway. ^[4] Albert was an accomplished businessman. He controlled Gannaway Corporation and produced several well known motion picture films along with the "Stars of the Grand Ole Opry" which featured many legendary country music stars including Chet Atkins, Marty Robbins, Minnie Pearl and many others. ^[5] Albert was the first to produce a television series using 35mm color film when television was exclusively in black and white. ^[6] Albert was also a famous songwriter who wrote for Nat King Cole, Bob Hope, Frankie Lane and many others.^[7]

His mother, Dana Gannaway, is a former Vogue model and Budweiser Girl,^[8] Gannaway is best known for the "Stars of the Grand Ole Opry" which his two grandchildren now own. From his father, Gary learned the fundamentals of business.^[9] By the time Gary turned fourteen, he regularly sat in on board meetings of his father's company and spent his summers in Virginia with his paternal grandparents to learn the business.^[10]

Gannaway attended Castle Heights Military Academy in Tennessee followed by three years of service in the Marine Corps.^[4][11] In 1974, Gannaway was one of 18 men in the Marines Elite Force Recon.^[4]

Career

Early career

After the Marines, Gannaway joined Metromedia Producers Corporation and quickly became the top seller.

In June 1980 Gannaway left Metromedia to join his father's syndication company, specifically selling his father's show, Country Classics. He went on to sell Time-Life shows as well, including G.I. Diary and Wild, Wild World of Animals. His experience selling syndication ultimately led to Gannaway founding Genesis Entertainment three years later with his own capital.

Genesis Entertainment

By the time of the sale to Ron Perelman in 1994 Genesis had launched 17 TV pilots into series and owned the rights to shows including The Whoopi Goldberg Show, The Best of National Geographic, Highway to Heaven, The Judge, Biker Mice from Mars, Paradise Beach, and Real Stories of the Highway Patrol.^[12][13] Genesis became the first company to launch 100 percent of its pilots in an industry where, at the time, only 3 percent of TV pilots made it to series.^[14] With Classic Country in 1983, Genesis was the first syndication company to provide co-op dollars to stations, which were then used to help promote the show.^[11] Genesis is believed to be one of the first syndication companies to service the ad sales department of participating stations, helping the stations make their local ad sales, research the local market, and develop sales programs to attract upscale advertisers.^[14]

Gannaway introduced the marketing concept of bartering off-network series in the late afternoon/early evening timeslot with Highway to Heaven in 1989.^[15] Instead of paying Genesis in cash, stations would get seven minutes of local advertising per episode and give Genesis five.^[4] A number of major series, including Columbia Pictures TV hit sitcom Designing Women and Warner Bros. Family Matters have been marketed on a barter basis.^[15] Gannaway's marketing efforts and contributions helped Genesis become one of the largest suppliers of national syndication ad units in the early 1990s. During the 1992-93 TV season, Genesis sold 9,412 30-second spots to national advertisers.^[14]

Using capital from the sale of Genesis, a few years later, Gannaway founded Worldnow.

WorldNow

In 1998, Gannaway founded WorldNow. which became the leading provider of digital content management and monetization platforms, recognized for its patent-pending Studio Gateway platform, which unifies linear and digital workflows to ultimately enable customers to exceed their goals in content delivery and monetization on all screens. WorldNow's proprietary technology provides TV broadcasters, newspapers, and other media companies with the digital tools and national advertising representation needed to launch websites that support videos and complement the companies' traditional services.^[3][12] The technology platform developed by WorldNow is a cloud-based, Saas, Paas, Iaas platform that unifies CMS, mobile, video management and publishing. To this day, the technology developed at WorldNow is unparalleled in its use for broadcasters as a means of driving audience and revenue.

Awards, Recognition and Achievement

In 1992 Merrill Lynch, Ernst & Young, and Inc. magazine named Gannaway "Entertainment Entrepreneur of the Year."^[16] It was the first time the trio had ever named an Entrepreneur of the Year from the entertainment business.^[15]

Gannaway sat on the Board of the Department of Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins for ten years.

In 2009 Gannaway was chosen by Wharton University to participate in its Entrepreneur-in-Residence program, mentoring undergraduates and MBA candidates then considering careers as entrepreneurs.^[15]

In January 2015 WorldNow received top honors for its innovation and product advancement by the Business Intelligence Group. Worldnow was recognized for its patent-pending Studio Gateway platform, which unifies linear and digital workflows to ultimately enable customers to exceed their goals in content delivery and monetization on all screens.

References