Redefiners
Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
07 May 2025
Many of us have heard the expression “doing good is good for business.” In this episode, Simon Kingston sits down with former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy about how he put this concept into practice on a truly global scale. Bill takes us on his journey of how he redefined broadcast television, launching the most channels in television history with more than 200 global channels and 20 brands, including MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, and numerous others. He discusses how and why he started MTV’s Staying Alive Foundation, Suga, and other social responsibility initiatives to realize the ethos of “doing good is good for business.” And Bill shares his journey from West Point to MTV to GAVI and beyond. We'll also hear from Andrew White, a leadership advisor who specializes in executive assessment and development, who will discuss why curiosity and adaptability are essential leadership traits in today's business environment. Four things you’ll learn from this episode: Why doing good is good for business and how to achieve it at scale How to navigate the various challenges when launching a media startup How to deal with uncertainty and risk to realize global growth How to adapt a business background to serve in global non-profits and NGOs If you enjoyed this episode, you might also like these Redefiners episodes:Talking Transformational Leadership with RRA’s CEO Constantine Alexandrakis Leadership Lounge: Boardroom Bound: How to Navigate Your Journey from Executive to Board Director Action Creates Hope: A Conversation with IRC President and CEO David Miliband Leadership Lounge: How to develop your personal leadership brand The Business of Football with Los Angeles Rams COO Kevin Demoff Leadership Lounge: Advice on when—and how—to weigh in on social issues
Full Episode
Call them changemakers. Call them rule breakers.
We call them Redefiners.
Hi, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of Redefiners. I'm Simon Kingston, a leadership advisor at Russell Reynolds Associates. Before we get started today's episode, just a quick reminder to our listeners that you can find all episodes of Redefiners and Leadership Lounge on YouTube.
If you're currently watching Redefiners on YouTube, just hit that subscribe button below so you don't miss an episode. And for our audio listeners, don't forget to rate Redefiners wherever you get your podcasts. We love to hear and see your feedback. Many of us have heard the expression, doing good is good for business.
And studies and our own experience teach us that the companies that really engage in adding to their communities and sometimes to the global community are stronger and more successful in the long term. Our guest today is someone who's been an embodiment of that philosophy and has put the concept of doing good is good for business into action on a really global and international scale.
Not just a redefiner, he's a definer of at least one of the industries through which he's moved, as we'll hear. And when it comes to corporate social impact, he's someone who's guided a global media company to redefine how people think about and act, particularly on urgent public health issues.
He's also somebody I've had the privilege of getting to know as a client and as a guide over a number of years, and I have immense respect for what he's achieved in the course of his career. It's a real pleasure to welcome Bill Rohde to Redefine Us today. He's the former chair and CEO of MTV International.
Bill launched the greatest number of channels in television history, and he built a global operation of 200 channels and 20 brands, including household names like MTV, Nickelodeon, and Comedy Central. And that's just scratching the surface. He founded and chaired MTV's Staying Alive Foundation, the longest multimedia campaign to fight the AIDS epidemic.
And expanding on that work in the fight against HIV and AIDS, he was appointed the first ambassador of UNAIDS, and he was a founding member and chair of the Global Business Coalition on HIV-AIDS. He was also appointed the founding chair of the Global Media AIDS Initiative.
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