Media executive to deliver Harder lecture

Spencer Baim, chief strategic officer of Vice Media, will deliver the 34th annual F. William Harder Lecture in Business Administration at Skidmore on March 26. The lecture, titled "Branding in the Bardo: What it means to be a brand today," will begin at 5:30 p.m. in Gannett Auditorium of Palamountain Hall. The event is free and open to the public. A reception will follow.

Called a "veteran creative strategist" by Adweek, Baim has worked with advertising agencies Fallon and Mad Dogs and Englishmen. He was named one of AdAge's "Media Mavens" of 2014, sat on the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on the Future of Consumer Industries and is the president of this year's Epica Awards.

"Spencer Baim is one of the sharpest minds at work in the world of brands and media today. He and the team at Vice are producing innovative work on behalf of many top brands, perhaps most impressively, the Vice brand itself, " said Guy Mastrion, professor of management and business and the F. William Harder Chair of Business Administration.

Vice Media, located in Brooklyn, was originally launched in 1994 in Montreal as a "punk zine" and has since expanded into a global youth media company with bureaus in more than 30 countries. Vice operates an international network of digital channels, a television production studio, a magazine, a record label, a creative services agency called Virtue (founded by Baim), and a book-publishing division. Vice's digital channels include Creators, dedicated to the arts and creativity, Motherboard, covering cultural happenings in technology, and Noisey, a music discovery channel.

According to Mastrion, Baim's lecture will provide insight into how the media world and the world of brands is changing to meet the expectations of new generations of people.

Skidmore's annual F. William Harder Lecture in Business Administration was inaugurated in 1985 through the generosity of F. William Harder, a Skidmore parent who served as trustee from 1968 to 1980. The lecture brings together students and faculty with industry leaders to explore the current business environment and upcoming challenges in the rapidly changing business world.