Neil Blackley

NEIL BLACKLEY is the head of the UK and European Media Research Team at
Merrill Lynch. Since joining Merrill Lynch in 1996, he has developed a
European Media team of some 20 people based in six countries, including
10 analysts, covering Broadcasting, Radio, Pay-TV, Cable and Satellite,
Music, Film, Consumer and Business/Professional Publishing, Advertising
Agencies and Marketing Services companies. In addition, over the last
four years he has helped to develop the ML European Media banking
franchise, with many successful IPOs, secondary offerings and M&A
transactions, specifically involving Telewest, UPC, VNU, PT Multimedia,
MIH, StudioCanal, Independent News & Media, RTL Group, United News &
Media and Viva, as well as aiding WPP Group in its acquisition of Young
& Rubicam, and Canal+ in its three way merger with Vivendi and Seagram.
Mr Blackley’s team was ranked number one in Pan European coverage in the
Institutional Investor polls in 1999 and 2000. He joined Merrill Lynch
in 1996 from Goldman Sachs where he led the flotation of BSkyB in 1994
and the secondary offering for Pearson in 1995. Prior to joining Goldman
Sachs, he was the number one ranked media analyst in 1991, 1992, and
1993 while at James Capel, where he worked for 10 years. Before that he
had worked in fund management, shipping and civil engineering. He holds
an MBA from the London Business School and a BSc (Eng) from the Imperial
College of Science and Technology.