Paula Madison for China friendship association dinner

US-based television executive and film-maker Paula Madison returns to Jamaica as guest speaker at the Jamaica-China Friendship Association's annual dinner in recognition of China National Day. The event is set for Sunday, October 25 at the Talk of the Town, Jamaica Pegasus hotel.

She recently attended the Jamaica Film Festival and showcased her documentary, Finding Samuel Lowe: From Harlem to China, a film about her journey to her grandfather's homeland in China and the reconnection of her family with his 300 descendants. It was among 34 films shown during the July festival. In April, Harper Collins published a memoir on the journey, titled Finding Samuel Lowe: China, Jamaica, Harlem.

The 1996 Peabody Award winner for NBC4 New York's investigative piece A License to Kill, also contributed to NBC4 Los Angeles earning numerous Emmy, Golden Mike and Regional Edward R. Murrow awards while she was president and general manager of NBC4 Los Angeles. She also held executive positions at NBCU's Telemundo TV stations and NBC4 New York.

In 2011, she retired as executive vice-president of diversity from NBC Universal, as well as a vice-president of General Electric Company, then the parent company of NBCU, after 22 years.

Motivated by derogatory comments from radio personality Don Imus about the Rutgers University women's basketball team, Madison and her family boldly decided to become franchise owners by acquiring the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks basketball team. Madison sold the team to Magic Johnson in 2014.

She is currently chairman and CEO of Madison Media Management LLC, a Los Angeles-based media consultancy company.

A highly sought after public speaker, Madison was named one of the '75 Most Powerful African Americans in Corporate America' by Black Enterprise magazine in 2005 and included in the Hollywood Reporter's 'Power 100.' Madison this year received the Los Angeles Chinese American Museum Legacy Award.