Paula Williams Madison () is an American journalist, writer, businessperson, executive and a former

NBCUniversal NBCUniversal Media, LLC (abbreviated as NBCU and Trade name, doing business as NBCUniversal or Comcast NBCUniversal since 2013) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media and Show business, entertainment conglomerate (comp ...

executive who is now CEO of a family investment group based in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. On May 20, 2011, she retired from NBC after more than 35 years in the news media. She is currently the chairman and CEO of Madison Media Management LLC, a Los Angeles–based media consultancy company with global reach.

Personal life

Madison grew up in

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater ...

with her brothers Elrick and Howard. Their mother, Nell Vera Lowe Williams (), was a Jamaican immigrant and single parent. Madison and her brothers founded Williams Holdings, a real estate investment firm and later bought a majority share of

The Africa Channel The Africa Channel is a cable and streaming channel focusing on travel, lifestyle, and culture documentaries. The channel covers the lands, people, culture, and history of Africa. Co-founded by Zimbabwean James Makawa, who had prior experience in t ...

. The company also bought the

Los Angeles Sparks The Los Angeles Sparks are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Sparks compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member of the Western Conference. The team plays its home games at Crypto.co ...

, which they sold in 2014 to

Magic Johnson Earvin "Magic" Johnson Jr. (born August 14, 1959) is an American businessman and former professional basketball player. Often regarded as the greatest point guard of all time, Johnson List of NBA players who have spent their entire career w ...

. Madison was named one of the "75 Most Powerful African Americans in Corporate America" by ''

Black Enterprise ''Black Enterprise'' (stylized in all caps) is an American multimedia company. A Black-owned business since the 1970s, its flagship product ''Black Enterprise'' magazine has covered African American businesses with a readership of 3.7 mil ...

'' magazine in 2005 and in 2014 as one of the Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business. She is of African and

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka-speaking Chinese, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas, are a southern Han Chinese subgroup whose principal settlements and ancestral homes are dispersed widely across the provinces of southern China ...

descent. In 2015, she wrote the book ''Finding Samuel Lowe: China, Jamaica, Harlem'' about her grandfather's life and travels and her own visit to

Guangdong ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

. She began research for the book shortly after retiring from NBC. In 2015, Madison was recognized by

East West Players East West Players is an Asian American theatre organization in Los Angeles, founded in 1965. As the nation's first professional Asian American theatre organization, East West Players continues to produce works and educational programs that give ...

for her contributions to the Asian American community, in particular for her documentary '' Finding Samuel Lowe: From Harlem to China'', which chronicled the journey she and her brothers went on to rediscover their estranged father's side of the family.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Madison, Paula 1953 births NBC executives American women television executives 21st-century African-American businesspeople 21st-century American businesspeople American people of Chinese descent American writers of Jamaican descent Living people People from Harlem Journalists from Los Angeles Businesspeople from Los Angeles Los Angeles Sparks owners Vassar College alumni African-American television 20th-century African-American people