Larry Namer is an entertainment and media entrepreneur who, along with Alan Mruvka, founded E! Entertainment Television and Movies USA Magazine. He has also founded several other media companies around the globe and currently heads .
Biography
Namer attended Abraham Lincoln High School, graduating in 1966. He then attended Brooklyn College, graduating in 1971 with a degree in Economics. After graduation, he worked as an assistant cable splicer for what was then called Sterling Manhattan Cable which was later acquired by Time Inc. After several years as a technician, he became the . By age 25, he became the Director of Operations at Manhattan Cable and a year later was given sales and marketing. In 1979, he became Director of Corporate Development and was charged with building businesses derived from non-entertainment uses of the cable TV systems. He was recruited to become VP/General Manager of Valley Cable TV in Los Angeles. It was here that he became involved in the program department as well as corporate finance, and broadened his executive skills beyond managing the technical areas. Namer and his friend Alan Mruvka created a plan for a TV network named Movietime, that would eventually become E! Entertainment Television. Namer and Mruvka eventually sold their stake in the company, which is now owned by Comcast. In 1989, he was awarded the President's Award from the National Cable Television Association. While remaining on the Board of E!, he started a media company in Russia called Comspan Communications. The company promoted or produced several hundred rock concerts and brought the soap opera Santa Barbara to Russia. Additionally, the company was heavily involved in live sporting events and produced and promoted the Champions Tennis Tour with Conners, Mc Enroe, Borg and others. They also brought the Harlem Globetrotters to Russia in 1995 marking the first time the Globetrotters visited Russia in almost 50 years when Wilt Chamberlin was on that team. Namer has played a significant part in launching several other TV networks around the world and interactive television, serving as a consultant to Microsoft. After E!, Namer created and launched several companies in the United States and overseas, including Steeplechase Media, Comspan Communications, Comspan Russia, and, with Martin Pompadur and Jean Zhang, . In September 2011, Namer was named as the first recipient of the “Aaron Spelling Award” at 4th Annual Investment Seminar & Global Independence in Beverly Hills. In October 2011, Namer joined the Advisory Board of SuperBox Inc. Today, Namer is recognized as one of the world’s leading experts on new technology and how it is fundamentally altering the business of international media and entertainment. Among the companies that have enlisted his expertise are Microsoft, Paul Allen’s Digeo, World Digital Media Group, EchoStar and Sirius Radio network. Mr. Namer currently serves as President/CEO, Metan. Metan’s flagship series is Hello! Hollywood!, a weekly entertainment news series tailored to Chinese audiences, offering up the latest in celebrity, pop culture and lifestyle news. Since its launch in summer 2009, the series is now available on over 40 television stations in China and six in North America reaching over one billion Mandarin speaking viewers. Hello! Hollywood’s premier content is also available on 10 of China’s top online portals, reaching more than four million viewers weekly. Metan is currently adapting popular Western TV formats for localized versions, including 'Go Dance!' from Ukraine and 'Elite Model Search'. The company has also developed the original sitcom 'Return to Da Foo Tsun' and the Web series that has garnered an online audience of over seven million only one month since its launch. 'Return to Da Foo Tsun' has the distinction of being the first Chinese comedy to receive a nomination for the prestigious Television Asia Awards in 2013. Metan was instrumental in joining together top China production houses Mei Tian and H&R Century TV with Warner Brothers International Television Production and the creators of 'Gossip Girl' to develop a groundbreaking new teen drama series for China, to which Metan is also a consultant. He created the TV series Return To The Village Of Good Fortune which was broadcast on national TV via CCTV8. This marked the first time a western writer ever created a sitcom for Chinese television. The series ran 70 episodes and was nominated in the best comedy category at the Asia TV Awards in Singapore. Today Metan is co-creator of the new reality TV series The Bruce Lee Project which it is partnering with Keanu reeves production unit, Company Films, and with Shannon Lee the daughter of Bruce Lee. The series is set to debut in both China and India in early 2018. He is also a co-founder of Chinese brand management company Mingyian. Under Namer's direction, Metan and a coalition of North America’s top TV and film writers, recently joined forces to launch Metan Wen Zhi Ku, a joint venture linking Western writing talent with transmedia projects for the China market. Recently, he was named to the Board of Advisors of The Einstein Foundation.
