Robert L. Johnson

Robert L. "Bob" Johnson ( born April 8, 1946 in Hickory, Mississippi) is an American entrepreneur, founder of the television channel Black Entertainment Television ( BET) and former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. He is currently chairman and founder of the RLJ Development and former majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats, a basketball team of professional league NBA.

In 2001, Johnson became the first African American billionaire, and thus also the first black man to be entered into the Forbes list of richest people.

Biography

Johnson spent nearly his entire childhood in Freeport, Illinois. He was the ninth of ten children of the couple, Archie and Edna Johnson. 1964 studied Johnson at the Freeport High School and then history at the University of Illinois; where he finished his studies in 1968 with a bachelor 's degree. During his time at the University of Illinois Johnson was a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity. He earned a Master's Degree in International Affairs of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

From 1969 to 2002 he was married to Sheila Johnson and got with her two children: Paige Johnson ( * 1986) and Brett Johnson (* 1990).

He and his wife founded the entertainment network BET. The company was sold to Viacom in 2003.

Black Entertainment Television

In 1991, the first BET company on the New York Stock Exchange was recorded. From 2007 BET reaches more than 65 million U.S. real estate and expanded into other BET -related television station that the BET Networks: BETJund digital cable channels BET Hip- Hop and BET Gospel.

In 2002, the Johnson Family took over all its publicly traded shares. In 2003, BET was no longer in his possession. Viacom bought BET for $ 3 billion. Johnson's involvement made ​​a figure of over one billion dollars, making him the richest black people in the United States to renounce the title to Oprah Winfrey. Johnson was still six years Chief Executive Officer ( CEO) and Chief Executive Officer of the company. In 2005, Johnson left the office of the President and Chief Executive Officer from. He was succeeded by Debra L. Lee, former vice president of BET.

Other Projects

In the fall of 2006, Johnson founded Our Stories Films, a film studio. His partner is Harvey Weinstein.