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Comcast's Amy Banse is a lawyer unchained
Amy Banse followed in her late father's footsteps, as did one of her brothers, when she became an attorney.
"My father was one of my earliest idols," Philadelphia-bred Banse, 42, said. "He was general counsel for Merck [& Co.] for many years. He was a lawyer, and there is no question that is the reason I went to law school."
Banse, a graduate of Harvard University and then Temple Law School, joined Comcast Corp. in 1991 as an in-house attorney in the MSO's programming department. But Banse was soon itching to become more involved in the nuts and bolts of the business, to go beyond her lawyerly duties. Comcast president Brian Roberts gave her that chance and her star has continued to rise.
From 1994 to 1997, Banse worked on Comcast's deals to invest in cable-network assets, including E! Entertainment Television, The Golf Channel, Speedvision and Outdoor Life. With that portfolio expanding, Banse told Roberts that Comcast needed one person to manage it.
"He said, `Fine, you do it,"' Banse recalled. "And I said great because I didn't want to stay a lawyer. I very much wanted to make the transition into being a business person. And I jumped on the opportunity."
From 1997 on, Banse has served as vice president and head of Comcast's programming investment department, the person in charge of the company's video channel assets. And today, with Comcast vowing to launch a...