Consumer >> CEO Interviews >> February 2, 2004
FRED T. KLINKHAMMER is President and Chief Executive Officer of Central
European Media Enterprises Ltd. He joined the company in 1998 as
Executive Vice President and COO and became President in 1999. He has an
enviable track record as the leader of companies facing startup or
turnaround challenges. Over the past 25 years he has led new ventures
and reinvented others as Vice President and General Manager of Citytv,
Toronto, President and CEO of First Choice the Movie Network and
President and CEO of IMAX Corporation. He created and then became CEO of
MediaLinx, the multimedia arm of Bell Canada Enterprises, and founded
the largest Internet service provider in Canada (Sympatico). Mr.
Klinkhammer received his early training with marketing giant Procter &
Gamble and then Canada's premier print and communications company
Maclean Hunter. He helped create the highly successful Citytv and then
built the world's first 140 channel cable system while CEO of Cablenet.
He is perhaps best known for the dramatic market repositioning and
subsequent turnaround of First Choice pay television, the creation of
Sympatico, Canada's largest Internet Service Provider and of course the
Phoenix-like transformation of Central European Media Enterprises. As
President of IMAX he took the company from documentary and world's fair
specialty movie maker to a mainstream entertainment player. During his
tenure, IMAX introduced electronic 3D imaging, created the first Sony
IMAX theatre and produced its first feature length films and began the
move to more commercially based theatres. Mr. Klinkhammer's
contributions were recognized in 1989 with the Canadian Film and
Television Production Association's Gold Personal Achievement Award. He
was a founding member of the Canadian Journalism Association and a
Director of the Russia-Canada Trade Council. He is a graduate in
Business Administration from Ryerson University, a CMA and PMgr. Profile
Enterprises?
Mr. Klinkhammer: The company is dedicated to operating in Central and
Eastern Europe. We have very little
