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Apr 30, 2018 · Frank Mercado-Valdes. Broadcast executive Frank Mercado-Valdes was born on May 18, 1962 in New York City to Frank Mercado and Linda Valdes. At the age of fifteen, Mercado-Valdes became the Florida Junior Olympic boxing champion, and won the state’s Golden Gloves Lightweight Championship in 1979.
Frank Mercado-Valdes, 33. General Partner, African Heritage Movie Network. Tweet. More. Several years ago, Frank Mercado-Valdes noticed how well syndicated movies did with African-American...
- Sought Business Opportunities
- Launched African Heritage Network
- Started Ethnic Television Empire
- Focused on The Future
- Sources
Born on May 18, 1962, in New York, Frank Marcelino Mercado-Valdes was raised by his mother, Lidia Valdes, and her Cuban grandparents. His Puerto Rican father, Frank Mercado, was absent from the picture. At the age of 11, Mercado-Valdes and his mother left their tough South Bronx neighborhood for an equally tough barrio in Miami, Florida, where the ...
“I loved watching old black movies,” he told Black Enterprise, “but I never could find any of them on local television.” Nor on video store shelves. An idea began to form. If he could buy the syndication rights to films such as Cotton Comes to Harlem, Porgy ’n Bess, and Shaft, he could package them into a movie-of-the-month format and offer them to...
Mercado-Valdes’s next coup came in 1996, when he successfully negotiated the weekend syndication rights of the popular police drama New York Undercover. With the $8.5 million purchase, the African Heritage Network made history, becoming the first minority-owned company to purchase a major network series for syndication. By 1998 Mercado-Valdes had s...
Mercado-Valdes had developed THN into a force to be reckoned with. Some high-powered media players in Harlem discovered this in 2003, when the entrepreneur wrested syndication and production control of the long-running Showtime at the Apollo from its original creators. Percy Sutton was considered an icon in Harlem for having restored the historic A...
Periodicals
Black Enterprise, February 2001; January 2003. Crain’s New York Business, August 31, 1998, p. 9. Hollywood Reporter, January 28, 2002, p. 12. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News, February 18, 2003.
On-line
“40 under 40,” Network Journal, www.tnj.com/articless/tnjevent/40/mercado.html (December 23, 2003). “African Heritage Movie Network Finds Niche,” Black Enterprise, www.blackenterprise.com/Archiveopen.asp?source=/archive1997/08/0897-08.htm (December 23, 2003). “Black Programming By Any Other Name,” Black Enterprise, www.blackenterprise.com/Archiveopen.asp?source=/articles/01232002jj.html (December 23, 2003). “Young Millionaires Part II,” Entrepreneur Magazine, www.entrepreneur.com/mag/article/...
View Frank Mercado-Valdes’ profile on LinkedIn, a professional community of 1 billion members.
- Executive Director
- San Juan Hill Partners LLC
Mar 30, 2001 · They range from Earl Graves Sr., CEO and chairman of Black Enterprise magazine, who gives $100,000 to NAN each year, to Frank Mercado-Valdez, founder of the African Heritage Network, who ...
Apr 1, 2005 · Now it’s emerged from bankruptcy as a new entity that, while still black-owned, finds Frank Mercado-Valdes, the company’s charismatic founder and CEO, out of the driver’s seat.
Broadcast executive Frank Mercado-Valdes was born on May 18, 1962 in New York City to Frank Mercado and Linda Valdes. At the age of fifteen, Mercado-Valdes became the Florida Junior Olympic boxing champion, and won the state’s Golden Gloves Lightweight Championship in 1979.
