Turner's Mark Lazarus: Succeeding Through Teamwork and Lots of Laughs

quotLaughter is the best medicine I take great joy in making people laughquot says Turner Entertainment Group president Mark Lazarus Mark is responsible for making millions laugh daily through tbs and Cartoon Network but his own brand of selfdeprecating humor tends more toward jokes about the kid from Westchester who played hockey almost didn39t make it through high school went to Vanderbilt quotwhere the number of Jews is like the Nielsen sample very smallquot likes to hunt and fish and is a major NASCAR Atlanta Braves and New York Giants fanquotPeople don39t laugh enoughquot Mark told me during our lunch at Michael39s as Maria Shriver and her guests were visibly and loudly cracking up at table one quotNot everything is a joke but having a sense of humor is important to being well rounded It39s an important emotionquotMark39s humor almost cost him his job in his first meeting with Turner Broadcasting39s thenpresident Jamie Kellner Years before Kellner had been responsible for firing Mark39s dad the legendary John Lazarus at Fox TV where he was the first head of sales As he shook hands with Kellner Mark joked quotare you going to fire me tooquot Kellner was not best known for his own sense of humor but a year later Mark was promoted and has been successively elevated to his current position by former Turner president Steve Heyer and current president Phil KentAs a media industry legacy his brother Peter heads sports sales at NBC and brother Craig is a senior producer for ESPN Mark had little difficulty getting his first job as an assistant media planner at Backer ampamp Spielvogel Agency But he admits his dad and mom were uncertain he39d successfully navigate high school and college quotI guess you can say I was distracted and interested in things other than schoolquot he admitted as Rosie O39Donnell loudly criticized Broadway critics to Liz Smith at a nearby table Note to Rosie I gave her show quotTabooquot 4 12 jacks out of 5quotLet39s just say my first junior year didn39t takequot Mark laughed quotI made a decision with my parents to 39follow a different path39 and went to the Gunnery School a boarding school in Connecticut It was definitely a change I learned about both being on my own and living with others made good friends played hockey lacrosse and football and 11th grade was much easier the second time so I did well It was the best decision I ever madequotChoosing between his dad39s alma mater the University of Vermont and Vanderbilt Mark liked the idea of a southern school and spent four years in Nashville joining Sigma Chi where he was rush chairman quotqualifying me for salesquot and ran the kitchen quotqualifying me to eatquot So his move five years ago from New York to Atlanta with his wife who he met during their first year of college and married sixteen years ago and children ten year old son who39s into hunting and fishing seven year old daughter who39s a softball star and three year old son who plays quotmagnet soccerquot was a relatively comfortable transitionquotI39m a rehabilitated New Yorker living in Atlantaquot Mark jokes quotI love that you can see your house during daylight I can go home have a normal life with my family and then go back out and have a business dinner Atlanta has a growing arts community and you can get involved in philanthropic work and really make a difference in the communityquotThe personal causes he champions include the Mary Hall Freedom House a shelter for women and children founded by Lucy Hall whose family worked for Mark39s grandmother and who he has known for more than 30 years He39s also actively involved with the March of Dimes the Boys and Girls Clubs of America the High Museum the Path Foundation creating green space for a safe environment and the Benefits of Laughter adult mental health facility Corporately he actively supports Cartoon Network39s quotGet Animatedquot healthy lifestyle initiative and is cochairman of the committee organized to bring the NASCAR Hall of Fame to AtlantaWhile he39s obviously passionate about sports Mark grew up watching quotThe Brady Bunchquot quotSpeed Racerquot and quotThe Partridge Familyquot Today he watches movies news and quotsurfs a lotquot but his favorite show is quotWest Wingquot and he admits to quotwatching 39Desperate Housewives39 to keep my marriage intact I love shows that are about relationshipsquot he says quotIt39s important to understand and examine relationships and motivationsquotMark believes understanding relationships is relevant to our business where quotthe greatest challenge is predicting consumer behavior in a tough competitive environment Understanding how to build strong relationships is basic You have to earn credibility with viewers the creative community and with marketers and agencies We need to grow our existing platforms while we build programs for wireless broadband and videoondemand We need to develop the perfect mix of acquired original and sports programming on tbs and TNT and we need to relate to kids who have a different mindset and want new original stuffquotRelationships among the employees at Turner Broadcasting are equally important Mark added After CNN founder Reese Schoenfeld stopped by to say hello Mark acknowledged quotthe company and the industry miss Ted Turner who was a provocative spirit But he established a policy of management being accessible and supportive that39s still in place I want our culture to center around employees feeling Turner is a great place to work where we have open communications where they have opportunities to succeed and grow where they get support for what they care about outside the company and where they can tell their friends and families they love their jobsquotMark understands the role of humor of commitment and responsibility of relationships and feelings of traditions and legacy and of taking risks and forging a new path when necessary His climb to the senior ranks of the media industry at only 41 hasn39t been as meteoric as it might seem He attributes it to a team he39s worked with for 15 years at Turner and with whom he shares quotvery close relationships andquot he adds quota lot of laughsquotTo contact Mark Lazarus send an email to contactmediavillagecom

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Turner's Mark Lazarus: Succeeding Through Teamwork and Lots of Laughs

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