Donna Person is Senior Director of Strategy and Business Development for BET, Black Entertainment Television. In this position, she works closely with various departments to develop and implement strategic initiatives which include negotiating business partnerships and joint ventures. Donna’s past work includes the business planning behind the launch of Centric – BET’s newest channel – and development of a programming strategy that resulted in a 20% ratings increase. She also negotiated partnerships with Verizon’s VCast, designed a ratings growth strategy for the network’s award shows, and developed an operational plan for BET’s digital ad network.
Prior to joining BET in April of 2007, Donna was Vice President in the Public Finance group of Lehman Brothers. While at Lehman, Donna’s clients included state and local government as well as utility companies. She was responsible for securing financing deals for clients, developing long-term financial plans, structuring debt offerings, and managing financing teams. She worked on the financing of green power facilities in the Midwest and the multi-phase expansion of Miami International Airport.
A native of the DC Metropolitan area, Donna is a trained chemist with a BS from University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) and a MS from the University of California, Berkeley. She is an alum of the Meyerhoff Scholarship Program and Bell Laboratories Fellowship Program. She also sits on the Board of Directors for collage Dance collective, is a member of the North West Columbia Heights Community Association, and is Treasurer for the Meyerhoff Alumni Association.
