Yale School of Management - Alumni Leaders

"Yale SOM granted me much more than a classic business school education. A top-tier faculty and a cohesive group of interesting students, coupled with the opportunity to explore the greater Yale community, made my experience perpetually stimulating and rewarding. Throughout my career, while at CBS or as an entrepreneur, I have valued the skill set I attained there along with the professional and personal friendships I developed. Over twenty-five years later, I can still say that I made the best choice."

Mr. Walton is Executive Vice President for Sponsorship and Corporate Development at The Africa Channel, a new independent cable television network that brings American television viewers closer to daily life on the African continent. In his role, Mr. Walton is responsible for all advertising sales and sponsorship activities as well as with developing relationships with key organizations operating in the African arena.

Mr. Walton has over 20 years of experience in advertising sales, TV and film distribution, marketing and general management. Before joining The Africa Channel, Mr. Walton was President and CEO of Onyx Media Group International, Inc., a New York-based advertising sales and TV program distribution company, he co-founded. For fifteen years, Onyx secured sponsorship and distribution, domestic and international, for over 50 television programs, aimed at both general audiences and multicultural viewers. Over the years Onyx's client roster included: Post-Newsweek Stations Group, Cowles Enthusiast Media, Black Entertainment Television, CBS New Media, SI Communications and the Hispanic Heritage Awards Foundation. In 2003, his company syndicated the off-network, dramatic series New York Undercover.

Mr. Walton was Vice President of Marketing and a founding partner in the film distribution company KJM3 Entertainment Group. In 1992, they developed the successful distribution and promotional strategy for Julie Dash's Daughters of the Dust. They were also the U.S. distributors for a number of other independent films from Africa and the Caribbean, notably, The Man By The Shore, Rude, More Time, and
Neria.

Prior to this, Mr. Walton spent over ten years with the CBS Television Network in New York holding various management positions in sales, marketing and finance. He was the first management trainee at the network and his first assignment was as a market analyst, providing support to new business efforts. By the time he left CBS, Mr. Walton was responsible for marketing network television news, daytime, late night and children's programs to a roster of major advertisers and their ad agencies with billings in excess of $75 million.

Mr. Walton was also a AAAA (MAIP) intern in account management at the ad agency of D'Arcy, MacManus & Masius and a staff writer for Encore magazine.

He is currently an adjunct instructor in media management at Fordham University's Graduate School of Business, a member of the Board of Directors for Sister Cities International, and Board Vice Chairman at the Frederick Douglass Creative Arts Center.

Mr. Walton holds a BS in journalism from Boston University and received an MPPM from the Yale School of Management.

He has been traveling to Africa for leisure and business for the past twenty years.