Robert Gerrard
General Counsel
Scripps Networks, Inc., a subsidiary of The E. W. Scripps Company, is a leading provider of content and advertising services via the television and Internet. Its portfolio of networks reach 116 companies, and include popular cable networks such as Home & Garden Television (HGTV), Food Network, DIY Network, FINE LIVING, Great American Country (GAC) and electronic retailer Shop At Home. Scripps Networks branded lifestyle programming is available on demand in more than 12 million households and 14 million subscribers have opted to receive Scripps Networks-branded e-newsletters. These networks and their companion web sites generated nearly $725 million in operating revenue in 2004, accounting for one-third of the company’s overall revenue stream.
Executive Vice President and General Counsel Robert J. Gerrard, Jr., leads a small but diverse team of nine attorneys: four are minorities and two are women. He began forming the legal department in 1997 and his attorneys are involved in virtually every aspect of the company’s business.”A company benefits from a diverse workforce because of the various opinions and experiences each employee brings to the table,” says Gerrard. “When people from all walks of life work together and share their ideas, our clients, consumers and employees reap the benefits.” Gerrard’s commitment to inclusiveness was recognized when he was awarded the prestigious “Stanley B. Thomas Lifetime Achievement” Award by the National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications (NAMIC), which is given to the individual who throughout a career has most lived the vision and purpose of NAMIC.
Scripps Networks Diversity Committee was formed to help the company incorporate diversity into all of its business practices including hiring, on-air talent, vendor selection and marketing. The committee’s makeup reflects its belief that commitment to diversity must start at the top: Scripps Networks President John Lansing chairs the committee, which includes members of the company’s executive committee and other key executives.
Scripps Networks commitment to inclusiveness, while grounded in the present, looks to the future: the company anticipates launching a Spanish language network which follows the format of its popular lifestyle channels. When parent company E.W. Scripps donated $10 million to Hampton University, a historically black college in Virginia, to launch the Scripps (Jack) Howard School of Journalism & Communications, Scripps Networks welcomed interns from Hampton in its Knoxville headquarters. Scripps has cultivated alliances with a range of local and national organizations that promote diversity and inclusion, such as NAMIC, Hispanic Foundation for the Arts, the Knoxville Urban League, Black Enterprise, Urban Latino magazines, Knoxville 100 Black Men, Women in Cable and Telecommunications (WICT), Spelman College Women of Color Conference, and the Working Mother Media Women of Color Conference.
Scripps Networks was recognized by the WICT and the Working Mother Media PAR Initiative survey for its commitment to pay equity for women.
At press time, the N.Y. dinners had not been held. Group photos of the award winners for the Northeast region will appear in the Jan./Feb. 2006 issue of Diversity & the Bar®.
From the November/December 2005 issue of Diversity & The Bar®