(photo by Devon Cass)

Deborah Esayian was born and raised in Wilmington, Delaware and attended the University of Virginia where she graduated in 1984 with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. At graduation she received two awards for the Student Contributing Most to the School of Nursing and the Student Contributing Most to the University. While in college she served on many committees and held leadership positions within the student body. In her senior year she was President of the School of Nursing and Vice-Chair of the University’s revered Honor Committee.

Following graduation she specialized in pediatrics and went to work as a Neonatal Intensive Care nurse at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She moved to San Diego and worked at San Diego Children’s Hospital prior to entering graduate school at Washington University in St. Louis.

Her path to becoming a hospital administrator was derailed after receiving the offer of an internship at Procter and Gamble in the summer between her first and second year in the graduate business school. A successful experience there led to a job offer after completing the Masters program in Business Administration, and she decided to pursue a career in consumer packaged goods marketing instead.

She graduated from Washington University with an MBA in 1988 winning the Hubert C. Moog award for Student Most Likely to Succeed in Business. She also wrote, directed and produced a 60 minute film about the graduate school experience. This video raised $50,000 in donations to the school as part of a special graduation promotion.

At Procter and Gamble she quickly rose up through the ranks of Brand Management working on the brands Pampers®, Formula 44®, VapoRub®, Sinex®, Nyquil® and many others. After 3 years she moved to Novartis Pharmaceuticals where she managed Fiberall®, Doan’s® and Transderm Scop®.

In fall of 1993 Deborah received a call about an entrepreneurial assignment to solve a marketing problem within the radio industry. After studying the opportunity, she wrote a business plan and presented it to a board of broadcasting executives. They offered her a contract on the spot, and she founded and created the new business development venture Next Generation Radio with a mission to bring targeted advertising to teens and young adults back to radio. Based in New York City, the company was one of the first successful collaborations of competing broadcasting companies and their national representative firms. Deborah’s skill in uniting the different groups and leading them forward as one defined the potential of the organization. Next Generation Radio’s efforts spanned 13 years and accounted for hundreds of millions of dollars in new and regained business for the radio industry.

Fascinated with local broadcasting, Deborah sought a management position at a large radio station serving 6 million people in the Philadelphia/Wilmington marketplace where she could learn more about how stations operate. It was during this assignment in 1998 that she became intrigued by the opportunities the internet could bring to the radio industry. She experimented with an advertising model and was recruited by Emmis Communications in January 2000 to help the company develop interactive revenue strategies. She was transferred to Chicago in 2001 and began working with a business partner on architecting an interactive strategy for Emmis properties. By 2003 she and her business partner had founded Emmis Interactive and built the first and most profitable internet business model for local media. Over the next five years Emmis Interactive fueled ever increasing interactive revenues for Emmis Communications’ 23 radio stations and started attracting the attention of other broadcasters.

Ever the pioneer, Deborah produced the world’s first interactive, pay-per-view piano master class from Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in 2005. It was called The Worlds’ Largest Piano Lesson, and she began experimenting with webcasting in the entertainment industry from that point on.

In 2006, Canadian broadcasting company Corus Entertainment inquired about licensing the Emmis Interactive technology and sales training which spurred the first round of funding for Emmis Interactive’s expansion. Emmis Interactive, Inc. became a separate company of its own in March 2008 and currently powers the websites of over 150 broadcast, publishing and affinity/special interest group brands worldwide. Deborah and her business partner are co-Presidents and oversee a staff of 60 based in Chicago. They are involved in raising their second round of venture funding to fuel further expansion into several different marketplace segments.

Recognized in 2009 as one of the Most Influential Women in Broadcasting as well as one of Tomorrow’s Top 40 who play a significant role in shaping the future of broadcasting, she is best known for her skill in financing and managing creative projects with strong investor return.

In 2009 she began working on the release of Sandstorm© founding U.S. based Requisite Films (www.requisitefilm.com) with Michael Mahonen. The mission for Requisite Films is to produce entertaining and enlightening films of integrity that awaken conscience and inspire compassion.

Deborah maintains dual residency in the United States and Canada.