What was your first “big break”? Or, what is the most significant experience you had that made it possible for your success today?

First break was pitching the president of Lorne Michaels' production company on a project while still in graduate school at NYU. They liked the pitch well enough that they hired me on the spot to join the company. I stayed with the company for the next ten years. I started as a manager and ultimately wound up as the Vice President of Marketing and Business Development.

Are there any ways that you feel Georgetown especially prepared you for what you are doing now?

Georgetown afforded me the obvious academic benefits to prepare for what I'm doing now. Additionally, Georgetown's unique setting in metropolitan Washington provides valuable experience on how to handle the socioeconomic realities of getting out there and working in a city. I think this is a major head start as compared against folks who have squirreled themselves away up in Vermont somewhere for College.

What is your best advice to those who are starting out in your field?

Make sacrifice part of your strategy and take heart that most of the time meritocracy is still the way it works. On a practical level, you have to commit to living in NY or LA.

Can you share some information about one of your current or upcoming projects that you are most excited about and why?

I have a National Lampoon television project in development now that has gotten excellent response in the marketplace. Seeing ideas grow from infancy into production is a lot of fun. Among our classic entertainment properties, we just celebrated the 25th Anniversary of "National Lampoon's Animal House" with a new Collector's edition DVD. The new DVD just reached the #2 position on the national charts of top-selling DVDs.

What trend(s) do you think may emerge to bring change to your business five or ten years from now?

The ongoing policy debate concerning the extent of the FCC's regulation of the media business will be the defining issue for this business for the next ten years. How the media companies and the public deal with issues of consolidation and monopoly will be the key issue to watch.



Neil McGinness, is Vice President for National Lampoon. McGinness grows National Lampoon's business by creating new projects and enhancing current business lines across multiple media including: television, radio, publishing, online, and on-college campuses through its newly acquired college cable television network. Before joining National Lampoon, McGinness spent 10 years working for Lorne Michaels' company, Broadway Video Entertainment eventually becoming Vice President for Marketing & Business Development. McGinness holds a master's degree from NYU's Institute of Film and Television (Tisch School) and received a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University in Classics.