Scott M. Mills (born c. 1969) is an American business executive. He is chief executive officer of

BET Black Entertainment Television (acronym BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting African-American audiences. It is owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global via BET Networks and has offices in New York City, Los ...

Early life

Mills was born around 1969. His mother was a businesswoman and his father was a physician from Long Island, New York. When he was ten years old, Mills realized he wanted to be a businessman. He was inspired by John H. Johnson, whom he calls a hero. Mills got his early education at the

Waldorf School Waldorf education, also known as Steiner education, is based on the educational philosophy of Rudolf Steiner, the founder of anthroposophy. Its educational style is holistic, intended to develop pupils' intellectual, artistic, and practical ...

of Garden City, New York. He attended the

Wharton School The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in P ...

, where he earned a degree in economics.

Career

After graduating college, Mills worked as deputy treasurer for the City of Philadelphia. He eventually became an

investment banker Investment banking pertains to certain activities of a financial services company or a corporate division that consist in advisory-based financial transactions on behalf of individuals, corporations, and governments. Traditionally associated with ...

. During that time, he got to know Robert L. Johnson, the founder of

. Eventually, Johnson hired Mills to work at BET. He credited Johnson with teaching him how to operate a business, calling his time with Johnson the "Bob Johnson School of Entrepreneurship". Mills has a 20 year history of working at

Viacom Viacom, an abbreviation of Video and Audio Communications, may refer to: * Viacom (1952–2006), a former American media conglomerate * Viacom (2005–2019), a former company spun off from the original Viacom * Viacom18, a joint venture between Par ...

. He was executive vice president and chief administrative officer at Viacom for five years. Prior to that, he was chief operating officer at for BET Networks. During his earlier time at BET, he launched BET's mobile and digital operations and

BET Her BET Her (formerly Centric) is an American basic cable television network owned by Paramount Media Networks. The network is a spin-off of BET with a focus on general entertainment targeting African-American women. The channel originally launched ...

. Mills became president of BET Networks in December 2017, replacing

Debra L. Lee Debra L. Lee (born August 8, 1954) is an American businesswoman. She was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of BET, the parent company for Black Entertainment Television from 2005 to May 28, 2018. Lee has sat on the board of directors for ...

. In November 2021, Mills was named chief executive officer of BET.

Personal life

Mills is married to Iva Mills. They used to live in

Bethesda, Maryland Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland. It is located just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House (1820, rebuilt 1849), which in ...

References

External links

"BET’s Scott Mills on Providing a Platform"
from '' Multichannel News''
"Encouraged by corporate America’s response to unrest: BET Networks pres."
from

CNBC CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk sho ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mills, Scott Living people 21st-century American businesspeople BET Networks Paramount Global people Year of birth missing (living people)