Geraldine Laybourne
| Geraldine Laybourne | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Geraldine Bond May 19, 1947 Martinsville, New Jersey |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur |
Geraldine Laybourne (born May 19, 1947) is an American serial entrepreneur in media and technology. She led the team that created Nickelodeon in the 80's and 90's and co-founded Oxygen Media. She is co-founder of a tech startup for the creative generation named Katapult.
Laybourne was born Geraldine Bond on May 19, 1947 in Martinsville, New Jersey, a rural community of about 400. She is the second of four children, born to a former radio writer/actress and community organizer and a stock broker.
Laybourne earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art History from Vassar College. After graduation, she went to work for an architectural firm in Philadelphia. Eventually, she earned a Master of Science degree in Elementary Education from the University of Pennsylvania.
In 1980, Laybourne signed on as program manager at the year-old network, where she initiated the focus-group approach to programming.
Laybourne was one of the first people to focus on television programming for kids. She spent 15 years at Nickelodeon, taking over the management of the network, and started accepting advertising for the network, in 1984.
Laybourne and her team were responsible for creating and building the Nickelodeon brand, launching Nick at Nite and expanding the network by establishing it in other countries, developing theme parks and creating Nickelodeon magazine, movie, toy and publishing divisions.
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. The network had a 40% profit margin and explosive growth every year.
Laybourne built Nickelodeon into the first global television network to profit from selling advertising targeted towards children. Her programming approach, which made a point of talking to children as equals, built the tiny cable network, which had only five employees in 1980, into an $8 billion business.
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