By Elise Anderson
Charles Burdick (’77) is the first to admit that his career trajectory was not the result of some grand plan: rather, it was more defined by hard work, preparation and learning and understanding his specific “talent,” and then being ready to take advantage of opportunities as they presented themselves, as they ultimately did in a number of different fields and industries.
He shared some of the details that led to his current position as chairman of Virgin Connect Russia, a provider of broadband, telephony and cable TV in Russia, and as advisory board member for the UCLA Anderson Center for Management of Enterprise in Media, Entertainment & Sports.
Burdick began his career in finance as an M&A analyst at Getty Oil before joining Carnation to work in the international division in finance and treasury. When Time Warner’s assistant treasurer of international, whom he knew slightly, mentioned he was retiring, Burdick applied for the job and got it — just a few months before the stock market crash of 1987.
“I was thinking I was fortunate that I had made the job move (to Time Warner) when I did, but the timing, job and industry were really more by accident than design,” he says.
It was at Time Warner that he discovered his passion for the entertainment business, which he found “full of bright, interesting people from all disciplines, whether it was finance, the creative end or branding and marketing.”
On his watch, Burdick witnessed some seismic shifts in the industry in terms of the delivery and consumption of content. He feels lucky to have been at the forefront of the maturation of the cable TV industry and the beginning of the wireless industry. “When I entered the entertainment business,” he says, “it might not have been considered the traditional path for an MBA. It was entrepreneurial and very fragmented, with lots of little companies with different reputations. Cable was moving from just a re-transmission technology to a provider of content with no commercials and, ultimately, as a triple play operator of high-speed internet, multichannel television and IP telephony. You were witnessing first hand the significant technological shifts and their impact on consumer behavior, which have continued today, and continue to change the industry fairly dramatically.
“Being in the middle of those kinds of technological shifts and seeing the opportunities when you are young, aggressive and equipped with an Anderson MBA — whether your focus is finance, marketing or strategy — has made this an exciting career with lots of opportunities.”
And his international experience? More of seeing an opportunity and taking it than by a grand design, according to Burdick. At Carnation, he was transferred to Paris to run the corporation’s small cross-border finance company and then to Switzerland when Nestlé purchased Carnation. “At that point, I got the wanderlust spirit and said to myself if I ever had the chance to spend more than a year in another country, I was going to jump at it. There is great excitement in being in a new culture; living, working and adapting — all very special.”
Soon an offer came from USWest in Denver, one of the Baby Bells diversifying from their formally regulated telephony service. Burdick was made vice president of finance with domestic and international responsibility, overseeing major cable acquisitions and helping expansion efforts internationally, raising funds in places that extended from the UK to Hungary and Indonesia.
When MediaOne spun out from USWest, Burdick was up for the CFO role but he didn’t get the nod. He briefly considered quitting, but was offered a CFO position in London at a young, relatively small cable operator in the UK, partially owned by USWest, where Burdick had previously led the IPO. Telewest Communications became the second largest cable company in the UK and a leading provider of voice, video and internet to the home and business consumer. He joined as CFO and became CEO six years later.
“When the first dot com bust hit in 2002, liquidity evaporated overnight and, as a heavily indebted operator, we were in deep trouble. I was promoted to CEO (of Telewest), as I understood the business and had the finance experience to work through the operational and financial restructuring needed, as well as to lead critical vendor negotiations,” Burdick explains.
Burdick had his share of difficult decisions to keep the company going: reducing the workforce by 30 percent; negotiating consensual agreements with creditors; doing a $5 billion debt-for-equity swap with bond holders; and keeping the workforce aligned and stable. “I isolated 95 percent of the team from the creditor issues we were dealing with so that they could focus on the business. With those combined efforts, we continued to be a ‘broadband leader in our addressable markets,’ which was our strapline, and was a significant accomplishment, given the many issues we were facing.”
He left the business at the end of the restructuring. After a six-month hiatus in the south of France, Burdick accepted an offer from HIT Entertainment, the leading pre-school children’s entertainment company, with well-known brands such as Bob the Builder, Thomas the Tank Engine and Barney, among others. Within a few after Burdick became the company’s CEO, HIT received an unexpected acquisition offer from Apax, the London-based private equity company. HIT accepted their offer in light of the industry’s shift in delivery and consumption of content “and evidenced by the fact that many of our traditional sources of revenues, such as CD sales, were falling off and it wasn’t clear what was going to replace them,” says Burdick.
It became a $1 billion sale that took nine months to negotiate, with much internal debate and evaluation of the risks and strategic opportunities of not selling and moving the company to the next step. “It was a tough decision to sell to Apax,” Burdick admits. “We saw the technology shift and the beginning of its impact on consumer demand. We also knew that digital and the internet would create opportunities, but we didn’t know what that meant in terms of the monetization model. I recommended that we let Apax take the execution risk, and the rest is history.”
Burdick says he was vindicated in his decision when the company was sold to Mattel six years later for about the same price that Apax paid for it.
Burdick pursued the non-executive board route, building a portfolio of board positions in the ICT sector. One of the non-exec roles led to a two-year stint as chairman and CEO of Comverse Technology, a global company serving more than 450 wireless and wire line customers, with major operations in Tel Aviv and the U.S. A leader in voicemail and messaging, the company has market-leading products and positioning in the converged billing market (prepaid and post-paid). Amid technological changes that were impacting the business model of the company, Burdick restructured the operations, leading to a public spinoff of a division and a reverse merger with a publicly held subsidiary.
Since then, Burdick has held a number of non-executive roles with public and private companies, including Bally Fitness, QXL, CTC Media Russia, Transcom SA in Luxembourg, Orion Telecom in Serbia and, most recently, at Virgin Connect Russia, based in a country, Burdick says, “that is experiencing tremendous change in every aspect of the word. It is tough for westerners in Russia these days, but we are surviving and I personally enjoy working with the younger generation of Russians (20s and 30s) who are bright, engaged, educated and hard working.”
After graduating from UCLA Anderson, Burdick had little connection with the school, save for the few friendships he maintained from the MBA program. He credits Dean Judy Olian with providing the impetus needed to spur his interest in reconnecting with alumni and finding a way to give back to the school. Once the Center for MEMES was formed, Burdick was asked to serve on the advisory board and as an executive-in-residence at Anderson.
“What’s great about the MEMES advisory board is that there are a lot of different perspectives in terms of the entertainment business, with members ranging from Peter Guber and Harry Sloan to myself and John Hahn from Providence private equity,” he explains. “I think it’s important for the students to understand that there are a lot of different touch points in this industry. Not everyone is going to be a producer or greenlight production slates but there are great careers outside of the creative part of the business. It is an industry that is influenced by technology and the delivery and consumption of content, and this creates endless opportunities whatever your focus and specific skills.”
To MBAs, Burdick imparts this advice: “Work hard, have fun, think laterally and understand what you are good at, and then be open to opportunities. As Yogi Berra said, ‘When there is a fork in the road, take it.’ I am confident that the future leaders in this industry will include some of the many Anderson students I have had the pleasure to meet. The industry will continue to be as fun and as challenging in the future has it has been in the past.”
nice blog.
Posted by: maryjane | 05/29/2017 at 01:52 AM