Sid Cohen to take URI alumni behind TV distribution scene KINGSTON, R.I. — January 12, 2000 — If you live in or plan to visit the Boston area in early February, don’t miss the chance to hear Sid Cohen, University of Rhode Island class of 1955, now president of MGM Domestic Television Distribution. Cohen is the headliner for URI’s “Behind the Boston Scene,” which will be held Thursday, Feb. 3 at Le Meridien, 250 Franklin Ave. His talk, “Television Syndication: Game Shows to Talk Shows, Drama to Reality” is bound to be entertaining as well as enlightening. The breakfast and presentation will be held in the hotel’s Lafite Room beginning at 8 a.m. Cost is $20 per person. Reservations must be made by Jan. 21. Cohen’s talk launches the URI EXECUTIVE SERIES: Views from the Top, an expanding forum showcasing the achievements of URI alumni from business, communications, education, entertainment, finance, and politics. The series offers alumni and friends the opportunity to hear distinguished alumni talk about their careers as well as a chance to greet other alumni. The URI EXECUTIVE SERIES includes Behind the City Scenes in Boston, New York, and Washington, D.C., a year-round line-up of breakfast speaker programs and the annual CEO Leadership Forum which features high-profile alumni at a gala evening reception held in Providence. Cohen oversees marketing and distribution of MGM and United Artists products in the U.S. and Canada to all broadcast television markets, basic cable networks, features to network television, and pay TV in Canada. He is also responsible to MGM’s Advertiser Sales Division. Cohen is responsible for the distribution of such high-profile syndicated projects as The Outer Limits, the award-winning science fiction anthology series, Poltergeist The Legacy, Stargate SGI, and LAPD Life on the Beat. In addition, he created the successful concept of premiering programs on the Showtime Network and then placing them in a broadcast window, thereby generating an additional revenue stream. Cohen is responsible for licensing MGM’s library product and has negotiated significant agreements with major television programmers. They included placing In the Heat of the Night on TNT simultaneously with broadcast television on a strip basis while still licensed to the CBS Network. He also negotiated the deal with Lifetime Television for the airing of the heralded series Thirtysomething and launched two major film packages, Lion’s Pride and MGM Family Classics. “I’m constantly amazed at how much I learn at these events while also meeting new and old friends-it’s great,” said Gary Kullberg, ’63, chief executive officer, Kullberg Consulting Group, Integrated Marketing & Communications. Future speakers in the URI EXECUTIVE SERIES include Eric Roiter, class of 1970, senior vice president and general counsel for Fidelity Management and Research, who will give a presentation for another Behind the Boston Scene on May 11. The event will also be held at Le Meridien Boston beginning at 8 a.m. Also slated for the series is Lonny Unger, class of 1977, executive vice president, Worldwide Operations, Manning, Selvage & Lee Public Relations, who will be the guest speaker for Behind the New York City Scene on May 25 at the Grand Hyatt New York, beginning at 8 a.m. Next fall, Robert Russell, class of 1975, president of Rusco Steel Company, will speak at Behind the Boston Scene and Bill Marginson ’69, president and CEO of The Wiz, will speak at the CEO Leadership. URI’s highly successful speakers program have included the following high profile alumni: Doug D. Ramos, ’80, senior Equity Portfolio Manager for the Dreyfus Co.; William B. Gould IV ’58, chairman of the National Labor Relations Board; David J. Weiner ’62, executive vice president of finance and systems, MarMaxx Group; Richard Harrington ’73, president and CEO of The Thomson Corporation; Frank Feraco ’69, president of Textron; and Robert Crandall ’57, former chairman and CEO of American Airlines. NOTE TO EDITORS: There are 8,762 University of Rhode Island Alumni who live in Massachusetts. -xxx- For More Information: Jan Sawyer, 401-874-2116