Univision and ABC News Roundtable Breakfast

The 2012 presidential election demonstrated what media executives have long understood: the fast-growing Hispanic population is transforming the political and cultural landscape of the US. To reach this crucial audience, Univision and ABC News have formed a multiplatform joint news venture aimed at English-speaking Hispanics, with plans to launch a linear TV channel in mid 2013. Univision News President Isaac Lee and ABC News President Ben Sherwood joined the Media Council for a Roundtable Breakfast exploring the new joint venture and the growing importance of Hispanic media consumers.

This event was streamed live by our partners at FORA.tv.

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Isaac Lee is president of news for Univision Communications Inc., the leading media company serving Hispanic America. Lee is responsible for leading the company’s news division, including strategic and editorial oversight of programming and production across the Univision Networks, Univision Local Media, and Univision Interactive Media. He most recently founded and served as chairman and editor in chief of influential magazine PODER. He spent the past 14 years in editorial roles leading top journalistic teams at prominent publications serving Spanish-speaking audiences in the US and Latin America.

Ben Sherwood 

Ben Sherwood was named president of ABC News in December 2010. He is responsible for all aspects of ABC News’ broadcasts, including World News Tonight with Diane Sawyer, Nightline, Good Morning America, 20/20, and This Week with George Stephanopoulos. In addition, Sherwood oversees ABC News Radio, ABCNEWS.com, satellite service NewsOne, and ABC News NOW. Under Sherwood’s leadership the News division is enjoying journalistic success and significant audience growth. In addition, during Sherwood’s tenure the News division has won some of the most prestigious honors in the industry, including George Polk, George Foster Peabody, Overseas Press Club, SPJ Sigma Delta Chi, and Investigative Reporters and Editors Awards. Sherwood launched his journalistic career in earnest when he joined ABC News in 1989, serving as an investigative associate producer and producer for ABC News’ PrimeTime Live with anchors Diane Sawyer and Sam Donaldson. In 1997 he joined NBC’s Nightly News with Tom Brokaw as broadcast producer responsible for “In Depth” reports, then senior producer, and ultimately senior broadcast producer, where he helped guide coverage of the September 11th attacks and the controversy in Florida during the 2000 presidential election. Sherwood returned to ABC News in April 2004 as executive producer of the network’s award-winning morning program, Good Morning America. he guided GMA to two of the most successful seasons in its history, while overseeing prize-winning coverage of the tsunami in Southeast Asia, the devastation of hurricane Katrina, and the presidential election of 2004. Over the years Sherwood’s journalism and non-fiction essays have been published in many respected publications, including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Newsweek, New Republic, Washington Monthly, Parade, and O magazine. He is the author of two critically acclaimed best-selling novels, The Man Who Ate the 747 (2000) and The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud (2004). His fiction has been published around the world in more than 15 languages. In July 2010, The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud was adapted as a feature film starring Zac Efron and was released by Universal Pictures under the title Charlie St. Cloud. Sherwood’s latest book, The Survivors Club, is a non-fiction exploration of the science and secrets behind who bounces back from everyday adversity and who doesn’t; who beats life-threatening disease and who succumbs; and who triumphs after economic hardship and who surrenders. The book became an instant New York Times bestseller, has been featured widely in print and on television and has been published around the world. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard College in 1986, Sherwood earned a BA degree in American government and history. From 1986 to 1989, as a Rhodes Scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford, he earned master’s degrees in British imperial history and development economics. Sherwood is a member of the advisory board of City Year Los Angeles and a member of the advisory board of the Center for Public Integrity in Washington, DC. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. He and his wife, Karen, live in New York with their two young boys.