Former co-chairman of Disney Media Networks presents Thomas Colloquium

Ben Sherwood, the former co-chairman of Disney Media Networks, president of Disney ABC Television Group and president of ABC News, presents at the Youngstown State University Thomas Colloquium 7 p.m. March 11 at Stambaugh Auditorium.

Admission to the lecture is free, but tickets are required. Tickets are available, beginning January 22, at the Stambaugh Auditorium box office or online.

While at The Walt Disney Company, Sherwood oversaw a diverse portfolio of global entertainment and news properties, including the ABC Television Network, ABC News, the ABC Owned Television Stations, the Disney Channels Worldwide, Freeform, and Disney’s ownership interest in Hulu and A and E Television Networks.

Sherwood managed a $12 billion business with 12,000 employees responsible for the creation of more than 25,000 hours of original content every year. Leading the organization through a period of rapid disruption, with new streaming services and technology upending business models and consumer behavior, Sherwood and his team consistently delivered outstanding results measured in profitability, cultural relevance and creative excellence.

In addition to his career in media, Sherwood is an acclaimed author of fiction and non-fiction. In 2010, he wrote “The Survivors Club,” a New York Times bestseller about the science of overcoming extraordinary adversity. Sherwood has also written three successful novels including “The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud”, “The Man Who Ate the 747” and “Red Mercury”, each of which were optioned for a TV show or movie.

YSU, through an endowment established by Paul J. and Marguerite K. Thomas, began the annual “Colloquium on Free Enterprise” in 1981. Reflecting the Thomases’ involvement in the business community and their interest in the community-at-large, the Colloquium fosters ideas that are conducive to the growth of the free enterprise system. It promotes free enterprise as a viable force in the U.S. economy. The aims of the Colloquium are: to provide a series of outstanding lectures or workshops by recognized leaders in business, economics, and finance for both the public and the academic community, to provide a library for use by business people, students, and citizens of the community, to serve as a clearing house for the exchange of ideas to foster common goals of industry, business, and finance in the free enterprise system, and to stimulate the thinking and long-range planning of business, government, and individuals on ways to foster the growth of free enterprise.