Deborah A. Forte

Deborah A. Forte is an Executive Vice President of Scholastic Inc. and Division Head of Scholastic Entertainment Inc. (SEI). Deborah Forte has full responsibility for Scholastic’s worldwide media, feature film, television and consumer products businesses. She is leading Scholastic’s efforts in the broadband arena and is Chairperson of the corporation’s branding initiative.

Ms. Forte is responsible for creating and managing Scholastic Entertainment, the company’s global media and consumer branding businesses. Ms. Forte serves as SEI’s lead creative and business executive.

Scholastic Entertainment was established in 1997 and is comprised of Scholastic Productions, Scholastic Brand Management and Scholastic Consumer Products. It is the only full-scale, global media, branding and merchandising division in the children’s publishing industry to successfully create, develop, produce, and market media brands for the global marketplace.

Ms. Forte is an award-winning marketer of children’s brands and a leading producer of award-winning children’s media including television programming, CD-ROMs and Internet sites. She has executive produced over 220 productions, including: the award-winning top rated; Clifford, the Big Red Dog on PBS; Dear America, the critically-acclaimed series on HBO; Scholastic’s The Magic School Bus, the Emmy Award-winning series on Fox Kids; Goosebumps, on Fox Family; and the Disney Channel series, The Baby-sitters Club. She is co-executive producer of the feature films, The Baby-sitters Club and The Mighty. Her television shows have won over 100 awards, and the CD-ROMs and Web sites under her direction have won dozens of awards, including the Parent’s Choice and the Webby for best kid’s site.

Prior to coming to Scholastic, Ms. Forte created and headed the specialty sales and marketing group of The Viking Press and Penguin Books. Ms. Forte serves on the boards of the American Center for Children and Media and the Children’s Museum of Manhattan and is a member of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Ms. Forte is a frequent speaker regarding the creation and development of children’s brands and the production of children’s media. She was a moderator at The Second World Summit on Television and Media for Children. Ms Forte, a Boston native, is a graduate of Hamilton College and lives in New York with her husband, Dr. Peter Stone, and their two sons.