CBA alumni awards honor success, commitment

Honorary Alumni Award
Andre Blay

Andre Blay is considered the father of the home video industry, not only for being first, but also for his innovation in marketing and programming.

He co-founded Stereodyne Inc. in 1966, the nation’s first eight-track and cassette duplication company and then founded Magnetic Video Corporation, which became the world’s first marketer of prerecorded videocassettes, creating today’s home video industry. Nine years later, the company first licensed, marketed, and distributed half-inch videotape cassettes to consumers.

In 1979, Twentieth Century Fox bought Magnetic Video, and Blay became president and CEO of Twentieth Century Home Video. Blay then became chairman and CEO of the newly formed Embassy Home Entertainment until 1986, when he formed Palisades Entertainment Group. While at Embassy, Blay green-lighted the films Hope and Glory and Sid and Nancy, helped raise funds for The Princess Bride and The Emerald Forest, and served as executive producer for Prince of Darkness, The Blob, and Homeboy.

He is a member of the LaBelle Entrepreneurial Center Advisory Board and is a former College of Business Administration Dow Corning Executive in Residence.

Andre Blay

Andre Blay, Honorary Alumni Award recipient, shares a
lesson with a CBA class during his tenure as the
college’s Executive in Residence.