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Charles W. Banta
President, Mercury Capital Partners. Between his two years at Harvard Business School, Mr. Banta worked for
Time, Inc. developing a cable TV strategy for the company. In 1974 he co-founded Community Pacific Broadcasting
which was based in Monterey, CA and which owned radio stations in Alaska, Washington State, Oregon and
California. In 1989 Mr. Banta ran Rich Communications based in Buffalo, NY. In 1990 he became Group Head
of Greater Media's radio division, the 10th largest radio group in the U.S. at the time, overseeing stations in Los
Angeles, Detroit, Philadelphia, New Jersey, Long Island, Washington D.C. and Boston. In 1994 Mr. Banta founded
Mercury Radio Communications and acquired radio stations in Buffalo, NY and Philadelphia, PA. In October,
2000 he founded Mercury Capital Partners, a private equity fund focused on a variety of media investments. Mr.
Banta received his BA from Yale University (Magna Cum Laude) in 1970 and his MBA from Harvard Business
School in 1972. |
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C. Teo Balbach
Principal of Mercury Capital Partners II and Mercury Capital Partners III. After college in 1991 he was a research associate in the Harvard Economics department for Department Chairman Dale Jorgenson. From
1992 to 1995 Mr. Balbach worked as a programmer-analyst for Kenan Systems, which developed expert systems,
custom software systems, and telecommunications billing systems. During his business school summer, Mr.
Balbach worked as a Program Manager for Microsoft and participated in shipping Windows NT 4.0. After
business school, Mr. Balbach worked for Reciprocal, a SoftBank Group company and a pioneer in Digital Rights
Management and secure digital media distribution over the Internet. Mr. Balbach joined Mercury Capital
Partners in 2001. Mr. Balbach received his BA in economics from Harvard University (Magna Cum Laude) in
1991 and his MBA from the Tuck School at Dartmouth in 1997. |
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Allan I. Grafman
Principal of Mercury Capital Partners III. From 1971 to 1975 Mr. Grafman worked for Century Broadcasting, a well-known radio group founded by his father and his uncle with properties in major markets like Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston and St. Louis. He then pursued his own media career. From 1975 until 1980
Mr. Grafman attended Columbia University, where he attended Columbia University's School of International
Affairs as an International Fellow and received an MBA (Beta Gamma Sigma). Between 1980 and 1983 he oversaw
the development of new broadband technologies and new entertainment channels in the cable TV division
at Capital Cities/ABC. From 1983 to 1996 Mr. Grafman started up a series of new ventures for the Tribune
Company's Entertainment Division. In 1997 he was EVP/CFO of Hallmark Entertainment. Between 2000 and
2001 he served as President of Modelwire (an Internet technology company). From 2001 to 2003 Mr. Grafman
served as President of AllMedia Ventures (a private equity business development company). From 2003-2005 he
served as President of Archie Comics Entertainment. Mr. Grafman received a BA (Phi Beta Kappa) from Indiana
University and an MBA (Beta Gamma Sigma honors) from Columbia University. |
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Peter S. Handy
Principal of Mercury Capital Partners III. Between 1980 and 1989 Mr. Handy held top management positions in
two major radio groups: Sconnix Communications and Pyramid Broadcasting. In 1990 Mr. Handy was one
of the founders of Star Media Group, a media brokerage firm that has engaged in over $18 billion of media
transactions over the last 12 years. He joined Mercury Capital Partners III as a Principal in 2004. Mr. Handy
received his BA from Union College in 1979. |
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Sandra A. Miller
Controller and Principal of Mercury Capital Partners II and Mercury Capital Partners III. She has been
employed in the media business for over 30 years. Ms. Miller worked as Business Manager at a variety of radio
groups from 1971 to 1977. Ms. Miller was the Business Manager at WUTV-TV in Buffalo, NY, from 1977 to
1986. Ms. Miller served as the Controller for Singer Advertising, a major regional advertising agency based
in Buffalo, NY, between 1987 and 1989. In 1989 she was hired by Mr. Banta as Controller of WGR-AM/
WGRF-FM in Buffalo, NY, owned by Rich Communications. In 1995 Ms. Miller was again hired by Mr. Banta
as Controller of Mercury Radio Communications. In 2000 Ms. Miller became a Principal of Mercury Capital
Partners. Ms. Miller received her BA from Niagara University in 1985 where she majored in Accounting. |
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