About

David Polakoff’s media/entertainment industry experience and expertise results from his tenures in senior financial and development roles with Ernst & Young, HBO/Time Warner, Granada America/itv plc, independent consulting, and multi-channel network, IconicTV.  He is a decision-maker, combining analytic and intuitive factors, who has achieved performance and profitability based results in domestic, international, start-up, mature, traditional and digital media environments.

Whether launching HBO channels internationally, enhancing Granada’s television production profitability, or developing the Warner Channel ad sales, commercial, and programming departments to increase revenue, David collaborates with operating departments as the financial partner.  David works with management to balance the imaginative with fiscal realities and pragmatic judgment; David has an understanding of when to push; and when to pull back.  David reduces complexity into simplified understanding.

David provides media/entertainment company executive management teams with

• Reliability and confidence in strategic growth;
• Financial management;
• An appreciation and understanding of creative needs and processes;
• An eye to the future with a handle on the present; and
• A rapport that is compatible, functional, and cooperative.

Through David’s blog postings, Windmills of My Immediate Mind, David exhibits his thought leadership, where a repeated theme is focus on the consumer to drive revenue and brand loyalty.  David is passionate and astute about the current media / entertainment marketplace and empathetic of how strategic decision making impacts the consumer experience and company performance.  David’s ability to simplify complex issues, in an affable style, is a recurring characterization in the recommendations presented in his LinkedIn page.  David is a dedicated collaborator; highly regarded for readily forging effective relationships with all levels of internal/external management and staff.

David’s expertise includes:   Financial Operations, Strategic Planning, Business Operations, Project Management, Business Development, Financial Planning & Analysis, Plan Execution, Process Improvement, and Accounting/Budgeting/Forecasting.  See also Services in this website, which includes past achievements.

David is a graduate of Lehigh University, where he continues to serve the university in several volunteer alumni capacities, including past service to its Board of Trustees, amongst several leadership roles.  David is the founder and chairperson of LUMECA, a B2B group for Lehigh’s alumni in the media, entertainment, and communications industry.

David is an amateur drummer and blues harmonica player with OTTO.  David is a certified ASA bareboat sailor and certified ASA basic sailing instructor.  David holds a US Coast Guard merchant mariner’s license and serves as a sailboat charter captain.   David’s blog/website for sailing and celebration of the New York City area of the Hudson River is:  North River, Sail New York.

Email  David@dpolakoff.com