Paula Williams Madison is an American journalist, writer, businessperson, executive and a former

NBCUniversal NBCUniversal Media, LLC is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate corporation owned by Comcast and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States. NBCUniversal is primari ...

executive who is now CEO of a family investment group based in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. On May 20, 2011, she retired from NBC after more than 35 years in the news media. She is currently the Chairman and CEO of Madison Media Management LLC, a Los Angeles-based media consultancy company with global reach.

Personal life

Madison grew up in

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street (Manhattan), 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and 110th Street (Manhattan), ...

with her brothers Elrick and Howard. Their mother, Nell Vera Lowe, was a Jamaican immigrant and single parent. Madison and her brothers founded Williams Holdings, a real estate investment firm and later bought a majority share of

The Africa Channel The Africa Channel is a cable and streaming channel focusing on travel, lifestyle, and culture documentaries. The channel covers the lands, people, culture, and history of Africa. Co-founded by Zimbabwean James Makawa, the Africa Channel launched i ...

. The company also bought the

Los Angeles Sparks The Los Angeles Sparks (LA Sparks) are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Sparks compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The team was foun ...

, which they sold in 2014 to

Magic Johnson Earvin "Magic" Johnson Jr. (born August 14, 1959) is an American former professional basketball player. He is often regarded as the greatest point guard of all-time and has been compared with Stephen Curry. Johnson played 13 seasons in the ...

. Madison was named one of the "75 Most Powerful African Americans in Corporate America" by ''

Black Enterprise ''Black Enterprise'' is a black-owned multimedia company. Since the 1970s, its flagship product ''Black Enterprise'' magazine has covered African-American businesses with a readership of 3.7 million. The company was founded in 1970 by Earl G ...

'' magazine in 2005 and in 2014 as one of the Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business. She is of African and

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...

descent. In 2015, she wrote the book ''Finding Samuel Lowe: China, Jamaica, Harlem'' about her grandfather's life and travels and her own visit to

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

. She began research for the book shortly after retiring from NBC. In 2015, Madison was recognized by

East West Players East West Players is an Asian American theatre organization in Los Angeles, founded in 1965. As the nation's first professional Asian American theatre organization, East West Players continues to produce works and educational programs that give v ...

for her contributions to the Asian American community, in particular for her documentary '' Finding Samuel Lowe: From Harlem to China'', which chronicled the journey she and her brothers went on to rediscover their estranged father's side of the family.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Madison, Paula 1953 births NBC executives Women television executives African-American businesspeople American people of Chinese descent American people of Jamaican descent Living people People from Harlem People from Los Angeles Los Angeles Sparks owners Vassar College alumni American businesspeople African-American television 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people