Bio

President, Mercury Capital Partners. Between his two years at Harvard Business School, Mr. Banta worked for Time, Inc. developing a cable TV strategy for the company. Time Warner became one of the largest cable TV companies in the U.S. In 1974 he co-founded Community Pacific Broadcasting which was based in Monterey, CA and which owned radio stations in Alaska, Washington State, Oregon and California. In 1989 Mr. Banta ran Rich Communications based in Buffalo, NY. In 1990 he became Group Head of Greater Media's radio division, the 10th largest radio group in the U.S. at the time, overseeing stations in Los Angeles, Detroit, Philadelphia, New Jersey, Long Island, Washington D.C. and Boston. In 1994 Mr. Banta founded Mercury Capital Partners I, acquired major market radio stations via Mercury Radio Communications, and exited successfully at peak valuation multiples in 2000. Subsequently Mercury Capital Partners has made a variety of traditional and non-traditional/digital media investments in five other funds). Over his career Mr. Banta has owned and operated 56 radio stations in 20 markets in 10 states. Mr. Banta received his BA from Yale University (Magna Cum Laude) in 1970 and his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1972. In the media business since 1971.