Tony Colao

Tony Colao, President of the MasterMedia Speakers Bureau, is a lecture agent with thirty-five years' experience in the industry and a client roster of approximately 80 persons, most of whom are exclusive. He has a long history of working with public persons beginning in the 1970s, during which he arranged speeches for Bernadette Devlin, Germaine Greer, Paul Ehrlich, Dick Gregory, Julian Bond, Ralph Nader, David Frost, Vincent Bugliosi, Pete Bucher, Ronald Reagan, Sir Harold Wilson, Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein, John Dean, James McCord, Seymour Hersh, Jeb Stuart Magruder and other Watergate figures, as well as the 1980s when he worked with William F. Buckley, Alex Haley, John Naisbitt, Alvin Toffler, Lester Thurow and Robert Reich, among others.

In the past few years, he has continued to represent some of the finest "talent" in the country, including Marcy Syms, Pete Slosberg, Linda Chavez and John Gray.

Tony first became intrigued with the lecture industry as a student at St. Lawrence University (NY) during the turbulent 1960s. While there, he found time to work in radio (Program Director at KSLU-AM and Announcer at WSLU-FM), play on the Division III baseball team for three years and become Concert Chairman, working with musical attractions of the day such as Chuck Berry, Jethro Tull and Boz Scaggs. But it was the speeches he attended, delivered by the major personalities of the time (i.e. Ralph Nader, Dick Gregory, Senator Albert Gore Sr., Jerry Rubin) which would influence him to chart a course in the lecture field.

Tony began his career in the lecture business in August, 1972 and was an integral part of the American Program Bureau (MA) through 1983. During that time he held the positions (in order) of Program Coordinator, College Sales Manager, National Sales Manager and Director of Sales Administration. Under his leadership the company remained #1 in "college" speaker sales, utilizing personalities from the Watergate affair, the civil rights and feminist movements as well as film and sports to maintain its huge share of that market.

However, it was the development of the "corporate" division in the early 1980's which helped keep the company competitive and for which Tony is the most proud. By emulating the successful strategies used in the academic speaker field, the non-college bookings by APB increased to more than 50% of the company's net by 1981.

Sensing that this was a permanent industry trend, Tony joined The Leigh Bureau (NJ), the nation's oldest lecture agency, in January, 1984. During the next 4 2/3 years he concentrated on booking business-oriented lecturers to both corporate and college sponsors throughout the country.

In September, 1988, he accepted a new challenge when he became Director of the Speakers Bureau of MasterMedia Limited. The corporation had a strategy which was unique among lecture companies in that it published the books written by some of its speakers. In its eight years, MasterMedia made 125 such titles available to the public.

Alas, the publishing side ceased to exist in 1996 but Tony has continued to manage the booking of speeches for his clients. MasterMedia Speakers Bureau is not limited by any exclusory philosophy or restricted game plan and is competitive in all areas of today's marketplace: Corporations, Trade Associations, Colleges and Community Groups.