How To Get To Sesame Street From Bermuda

He can not only tell you how to get to Sesame Street from Bermuda, he has taken up residence there.

Bermudian H. Melvin Ming,  the newly appointed CEO of the Sesame Workshop [formerly the Children’s Television Workshop] talked to National Public Radio this week about his role at the celebrated American educational organisation, leaving Bermuda for America, a stint in in the US military and his early career in public broadcasting.

Mr. Ming replaces NPR’s newly hired boss and former Sesame Workshop CEO Gary Knell.

Mr. Ming tells NPR that five years from now, he hopes to bring Sesame Workshop programming — especially its flagship programme “Sesame_Street” – to 50 percent of the world’s children.

“We try to see our work as meeting the needs of children and looking at the world through their eyes,” he told NPR. “The workshop is a place where people come to work, but they really come to live — it’s an extension of their lives. And my rule is that if it’s good enough for my grandchildren, it’s good enough for any child on the planet.

“We only have issues when what we think are wholesome values — honesty, respect, caring for your environment, caring for your neighbor — when their list deviates from ours, we have to try to move people towards more where we’d like them to be. We don’t see Sesame Workshop as a coloniser, we see Sesame Street Workshop as a teacher, an enabler. We have to be prepared to let others determine to go a path that’s different than ours. Rarely, if ever, has there been a desire to teach children things we don’t support.

“Five years from now, we will discuss the joys of seeing Sesame reach, instead of 10 percent of the world’s children, 50 percent of the world’s children. There are places where the lives of children are being dampened, or they’re not being able to reach their great potential because they aren’t being exposed to images that can teach, images that inspire them to greatness, images that can show them how to live a fulfilled life. We want to reach more children.”

For the full NPR interview with Mr. Ming click here.

Prior to his recent appointment, Mr. Ming was Sesame Workshop’s Chief Operating Officer. In that position he was responsible for the content, product licensing, research, and communications and business strategies of the Workshop which  produces  TV programming for both the US and global broadcasting markets.

Before joining the Workshop’s management team in 1999 as executive vice president and Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Ming was the Chief Financial Officer of the Museum of Television and Radio in New York from 1997 to 1999, Chief Operating Officer at WQED Pittsburgh from 1994 to 1996, and from 1984 to 1994, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Administrative Officer at PBS’ Channel Thirteen/WNET New York.

From 1983 to 1984, Mr. Ming served as vice-president with responsibility for finance and administration at National Public Radio in Washington, DC.

Mr. Ming became a director of Westwood, Inc., the largest independent producer and distributor of programming for commercial radio in the US, in 2006.

Mr. Ming, a CPA, spent his early business career with Coopers and Lybrand in Philadelphia and Washington DC, after graduating from Philadelphia’s Temple University.

The corporate media executive is one of three sons of Hester and Calvin Ming and although he has lived in the US for many years Mr. Ming still cites cassava pie as his favourite food.

In recent years Sesame Workshop has worked with the National Council on US-Arab Relations to promote awareness, knowledge, and understanding of the Arab countries and the Islamic world.

Melvin Ming Discusses “Muppet Diplomacy” At A Washington Symposium

Referring to its work as “Muppet Diplomacy,” Mr. Ming has been instrumental in coordinating youth programming which has reached across cultural divides that have existed for more than 40 years.

More than 30 countries, including Egypt, the Palestinian Territories and Jordan, have developed local co-productions of “Sesame Street.”

With the help of furry and fuzzy Muppets, these programmes reach children by focussing on the unique educational needs of each country — interspersing lessons on basic reading and math with lessons in cooperation, mutual respect, and understanding.

Mr. Ming serves on a number of boards including the Regional Conferences Retirement Board, where he serves as one of three outside directors overseeing the $94 million retirement fund; First Children Finance, a charitable organisation created to meet the growing demand for quality early care and education, especially in low-income US communities; and Atlantic Union College, a liberal arts college of 600 students located in South Lancaster, Massachusetts.

Married in 1972, Mr. Ming and has two children and two grandchildren.

Mr. Ming is the second Bermudian associated with the legendary children’s TV show.

In 1971, when Random House began publishing a line of “Sesame Street” books, Michael Frith was named editor and art director of the series. His work so impressed Muppets’ creator Jim Henson, he was invited to join the creative team as art director in 1975. He was named vice-president of Henson Associates in 1978, and executive vice president and director of creative services in 1985.

Mr. Frith went on to co-create “Fraggle Rock” for Henson Associates, a programme in part inspired by his Bermuda childhood.

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