Geraldine Laybourne is a media leader and entrepreneur. Her first venture was the Media Center for Children, which she co-founded because she was concerned about the media her children were watching. She was later hired as a program manager at Nickelodeon, a year-old network, where she initiated the focus-group approach to programming. Geraldine was one of the first people to focus on television programming for kids. Under her leadership, Nickelodeon became the top-rated 24-hour cable programming service and won Emmy Awards, Peabody Awards, CableACE Awards and Parents’ Choice Awards. Geraldine then became president of Disney-ABC Cable Networks. Geraldine partnered with Oprah Winfrey and Carsey-Werner Productions to create Oxygen Media, a cable TV company dedicated to creating television and Internet programming for women, which premiered to 10 million subscribers. At the end of Geraldine’s tenure, Oxygen had 270,000 prime-time weekday viewers in 74 million homes.

Geraldine started a mentoring program, Global Women’s Mentoring Walks, which pairs established and emerging women professionals to engage in mentoring partnerships in communities across the globe.

Geraldine holds a BA degree from Vassar College.