FOX Promotes Nicole A. Bernard to Executive Vice President, Audience Strategy

Nicole A. Bernard has been promoted to Executive Vice President, Audience Strategy, for The FOX Group, it was announced today by Joe Earley, Chief Operating Officer, FOX Television Group. FOX Audience Strategy is a department within 21st Century FOX designed to identify programming and operational opportunities that reflect diverse perspectives across all of its entertainment platforms.

"Nicole and her team continue to cultivate an incredibly productive, ongoing dialogue about who our audiences are and how to better serve them, and, more importantly, they've turned those conversations into action," said Earley. "With her strategic leadership, we will continue making strides in achieving a diverse mix of people and viewpoints, in front of and behind the camera, as well as within our own ranks, which is a huge priority for Fox."

As head of audience strategy, Ms. Bernard has collaborated with senior leaders across 21st Century Fox's Los Angeles-based entertainment business units (filmed entertainment, broadcast television, cable television and digital media) in launching strategic initiatives to ensure that policies, content and operations reflect broadening audiences. In this role, Ms. Bernard and team developed and launched the FOX Writer's Intensive, which is designed to nurture the careers of experienced writers with diverse voices and backgrounds, and create a strong pipeline of talent for potential staffing on FOX productions. She also expanded the company's annual Seizing Opportunities Forum - now entering its fourth year - to become an annual cross-industry platform aimed at shifting perceptions and promoting inclusion across all areas of the entertainment business.

Most recently, Ms. Bernard spearheaded the 21st Century FOX Global Directors Initiative, which focuses on cultivating emerging and established directors and amplifying female perspectives across features and episodic television. In addition, under Ms. Bernard's leadership, the FOX Audience Strategy team developed and launched the Fox| HBCU Media Alliance, a professional organization aimed at engaging the vast African-American creative and executive workforce; and the FOX Inspired Series, a community engagement platform designed to align core community values and FOX business goals.

Ms. Bernard was appointed Senior Vice President, Audience Strategy in 2011 and previously headed up the broadcast standards department for FOX Broadcasting Company (FOX). Prior to joining FOX in 2005, Ms. Bernard was Senior Vice President, New Business Development for New York's Apollo Theater Foundation, where she was responsible for all new business development opportunities for one of the nation's most historic and recognizable African-American brands. She was also an attorney of counsel at Davis, Shapiro & Lewit in New York, where she specialized in assisting musical artists, industry executives and recording companies to expand their brands into other entertainment platforms.

Prior to entering private practice, Ms. Bernard worked with MCA Records in New York, where she scouted, identified and developed new artists. She began her entertainment career at Uptown/MCA Records as Director of Business Affairs, negotiating new artist, publishing, production, joint venture and label agreements, as well as coordinating soundtrack and compilation acquisitions and licenses.

Ms. Bernard earned a bachelor's degree in Broadcast Journalism/Communications from Howard University in Washington, D.C., and holds a Juris Doctor degree from Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C.

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