Paxton Baker
Encyclopedia
Paxton K. Baker is the Executive Vice President and General Manager of Centric (formerly BETJ), a BET
and MTV
network targeting African American
and multicultural adults. Baker is also President of BET Event Productions, which produces music festivals, TV awards shows, specials and concerts throughout the world. He has produced numerous television shows and home videos and released over 40 DVD and CD titles.
Marketing Council where he leads over 35 senior marketing and sales executives across all Viacom
properties, focusing on training, best practices and strengthening brand partnerships. In 2008 he co-founded the Viacom
Programming Council, composed of senior programmers from BET
Networks, MTV
Networks and Paramount Pictures
. Baker is also a member of the Viacom Corporate Responsibility Council. In July of 2006, he became a founding partner and minority owner of the Washington Nationals
a Major League Baseball team.
As the General Manager of Centric, Baker has led programming initiatives that continue to win numerous awards, including a local Emmy Award, a GLAAD special recognition award for “fair and inclusive” programming, a NAMIC award for the show “My Two Cents”, a NAMIC
Vision Award for the series “Lens on Talent”, and multiple Telly Awards
. He has also produced two Grammy nominated solo albums (BeBe Winans
' “Live and Up Close” and “Cherch”). Baker was also the Executive Producer of the 2003 and 2004 Source Awards, and is the Executive Producer of the BET and Centric’s Soul Train Music Awards
, the second highest rated special on BET Network for 2009 and 2010.
Baker is Chairman of The United States Congressional Award (The US Congress’ only official designated charity), and sits on the boards of The United States Senate Preservation Trust, Thelonious Monk
Institute of Jazz, Asia Jazz Festival Organization and the Military Bowl (a BCS Game).
Prior to joining BET (first as a consultant, then as GM in 1999), Baker was President and Founder of PKB Arts & Entertainment, which was incorporated in 1988. The company produced and booked talent for the Aruba Jazz and Latin Music Festival; the Amsterdam Drum Jazz Festival; Trinidad Pan Jazz Festival; and toured acts such as Gloria Estefan
, Herbie Hancock
, Carlos Santana
and Wynton Marsalis
throughout the Caribbean
, Africa
, South America
and Europe
. PKB Arts and Entertainment was purchased by BET
in April 2000, retaining Baker as President of the newly formed company, BET
Event Productions. The company has produced events in the following locations: Anguilla
, Barbados
, Bermuda
, Cayman Islands
, Ghana
, Jamaica
, J&R Music & Computer World (New York City
), Iceland
, South Africa
, and the Turks and Caicos Islands, as well as St. Lucia, which is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its jazz festival in 2011.
) have three children and live in Metropolitan Washington, D.C.
Bet
Bet or BET may refer to:* A wager in gambling* Basic Economics Test * Bet , the second letter in many Semitic alphabets, including Aramaic, Hebrew, Phoenician and Syriac* Brunauer-Emmett-Teller isotherm. See BET_theory...
and MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
network targeting African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
and multicultural adults. Baker is also President of BET Event Productions, which produces music festivals, TV awards shows, specials and concerts throughout the world. He has produced numerous television shows and home videos and released over 40 DVD and CD titles.
Career
In 2006 Baker was appointed Chairman of the ViacomViacom
Viacom Inc. , short for "Video & Audio Communications", is an American media conglomerate with interests primarily in, but not limited to, cinema and cable television...
Marketing Council where he leads over 35 senior marketing and sales executives across all Viacom
Viacom
Viacom Inc. , short for "Video & Audio Communications", is an American media conglomerate with interests primarily in, but not limited to, cinema and cable television...
properties, focusing on training, best practices and strengthening brand partnerships. In 2008 he co-founded the Viacom
Viacom
Viacom Inc. , short for "Video & Audio Communications", is an American media conglomerate with interests primarily in, but not limited to, cinema and cable television...
Programming Council, composed of senior programmers from BET
Bet
Bet or BET may refer to:* A wager in gambling* Basic Economics Test * Bet , the second letter in many Semitic alphabets, including Aramaic, Hebrew, Phoenician and Syriac* Brunauer-Emmett-Teller isotherm. See BET_theory...
Networks, MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
Networks and Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
. Baker is also a member of the Viacom Corporate Responsibility Council. In July of 2006, he became a founding partner and minority owner of the Washington Nationals
Washington Nationals
The Washington Nationals are a professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C. The Nationals are a member of the Eastern Division of the National League of Major League Baseball . The team moved into the newly built Nationals Park in 2008, after playing their first three seasons in RFK Stadium...
a Major League Baseball team.
As the General Manager of Centric, Baker has led programming initiatives that continue to win numerous awards, including a local Emmy Award, a GLAAD special recognition award for “fair and inclusive” programming, a NAMIC award for the show “My Two Cents”, a NAMIC
NAMIC
NAMIC is a 5-letter acronym that may mean:* National Association of Minorities in Cable* National Association of Minorities in Communications* National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Communications...
Vision Award for the series “Lens on Talent”, and multiple Telly Awards
Telly Awards
The Telly Award is an award presented by the namesake, New York City-based organization. The stated purpose of the award is to "honor the very best local, regional, and cable television commercials and programs, as well as the finest video and film productions, and work created for the Web." The...
. He has also produced two Grammy nominated solo albums (BeBe Winans
BeBe Winans
Benjamin "BeBe" Winans is a gospel and R&B singer. He is a member of the noted Winans family, most members of which are also gospel artists.-The PTL Club:...
' “Live and Up Close” and “Cherch”). Baker was also the Executive Producer of the 2003 and 2004 Source Awards, and is the Executive Producer of the BET and Centric’s Soul Train Music Awards
Soul Train Music Awards
The Soul Train Music Awards is an annual award show which previously aired in national television syndication, and honors the best in Black music and entertainment...
, the second highest rated special on BET Network for 2009 and 2010.
Baker is Chairman of The United States Congressional Award (The US Congress’ only official designated charity), and sits on the boards of The United States Senate Preservation Trust, Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser"...
Institute of Jazz, Asia Jazz Festival Organization and the Military Bowl (a BCS Game).
Prior to joining BET (first as a consultant, then as GM in 1999), Baker was President and Founder of PKB Arts & Entertainment, which was incorporated in 1988. The company produced and booked talent for the Aruba Jazz and Latin Music Festival; the Amsterdam Drum Jazz Festival; Trinidad Pan Jazz Festival; and toured acts such as Gloria Estefan
Gloria Estefan
Gloria María Milagrosa Fajardo García de Estefan; known professionally as Gloria Estefan is a Cuban-born American singer, songwriter, and actress. Known as the "Queen Of Latin Pop", she is in the top 100 best selling music artists with over 100 million albums sold worldwide, 31.5 million of those...
, Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
, Carlos Santana
Carlos Santana
Carlos Augusto Alves Santana is a Mexican rock guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered rock, salsa and jazz fusion...
and Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Learson Marsalis is a trumpeter, composer, bandleader, music educator, and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Marsalis has promoted the appreciation of classical and jazz music often to young audiences...
throughout the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
, Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. PKB Arts and Entertainment was purchased by BET
Bet
Bet or BET may refer to:* A wager in gambling* Basic Economics Test * Bet , the second letter in many Semitic alphabets, including Aramaic, Hebrew, Phoenician and Syriac* Brunauer-Emmett-Teller isotherm. See BET_theory...
in April 2000, retaining Baker as President of the newly formed company, BET
Bet
Bet or BET may refer to:* A wager in gambling* Basic Economics Test * Bet , the second letter in many Semitic alphabets, including Aramaic, Hebrew, Phoenician and Syriac* Brunauer-Emmett-Teller isotherm. See BET_theory...
Event Productions. The company has produced events in the following locations: Anguilla
Anguilla
Anguilla is a British overseas territory and overseas territory of the European Union in the Caribbean. It is one of the most northerly of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles, lying east of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and directly north of Saint Martin...
, Barbados
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
, Bermuda
Bermuda
Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...
, Cayman Islands
Cayman Islands
The Cayman Islands is a British Overseas Territory and overseas territory of the European Union located in the western Caribbean Sea. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac, and Little Cayman, located south of Cuba and northwest of Jamaica...
, Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
, Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
, J&R Music & Computer World (New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
), Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, and the Turks and Caicos Islands, as well as St. Lucia, which is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its jazz festival in 2011.
Personal life
Baker and his wife Rachel (formerly Rachel StuartRachel Stuart
Rachel Stuart is a Jamaican-Canadian model, actress and television personality.-Personal life:Stuart attended Mohawk College. Rachel Stuart is married to Paxton Baker, vice president of BET Digital Networks and has three children...
) have three children and live in Metropolitan Washington, D.C.
External links
- http://www.bet.com/
- http://www.centrictv.com/
- http://www.viacom.com/Pages/default.aspx
- http://washington.nationals.mlb.com/index.jsp?c_id=was
- http://www.monkinstitute.org/
- http://www.congressionalaward.org/index.php