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BEST PRACTICES FOR SUCCESS


The Next Level continued


Prior to January 2011 Fountain, a Delaware native, had been the TBS vice president of Traffic and Media Operations. His area was the primary de- liverer of media content, commercial programming and everything that airs on the national broadcasts for Turner Broadcast Entertainment Networks. It provided 24-hour technical and operational support for networks, including TNT, TBS, Turner Classic Movies, as well as NBA-TV, video on demand of- ferings and mobile and broadband products. Fountain, 48, experienced his proudest professional moment in that job. Over an 18-month period, he oversaw the implemen- tation of a traffic system, rolled out in New York, Chicago, De- troit and Los Angeles. It had been in development for three years and provides ad sales continuity in those cities for the Turner Entertainment and News networks. Fountain says, “Turner had spent almost 15 years trying to establish a system like this. It was rewarding to be the leader of that team.” It was also some distance from growing up as one of three children of a single mother, in an area close to the Blue Hen state’s poultry industry. Fountain’s mom, and her father, who worked 30 years at a chicken plant (eventually rising to a supervisor position), taught the siblings to pursue education, and balance work and family.


Gaining a Strategic Mentor The strategy worked. Fountain’s brother joined the Air Force, and worked on ships in Newport News, Virginia, and their sister is a computer engineer. Hayes followed his brother to the Tidewater basin and matriculated at Hampton University. For tuition, he joined the school’s Navy Reserve Officer


Training Corps, and transformed his life when he met now Rear Admiral Anthony Watson. He was the commander of the USS Jacksonville, and the second African American to control a nuclear-powered submersible boat. After hearing Watson give a presentation, Fountain ap- proached him and declared that he wanted to attend the Navy Nuclear Power School. “I felt that the submarine officer corps was the brightest and the elite of the service,” says Fountain. After graduating from Hampton with a Bachelor of Sci- ence degree in mathematics and a minor in physics, in 1989, the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity member hit the books again. He spent six months at the Navy power school, in Orlando, Florida, and became the first HBCU alumnus to graduate the course. He then spent six months working on a land-based submarine pro- totype, and three months at a submarine officer training facility. To repay the nation for training him to be a nuclear engineering submarine officer, Fountain had five-year naval commitment. Ultimately, he spent 11 years in the service. Along the way, he


72 USBE&IT I WINTER 2011


...Fountain has the ability to shift and adapt ambition, intellect and experience to exploit opportunities.


says, “Admiral Watson has provided mentorship and guidance to me at every point or promotion in my career.” Another member of the black naval nuclear power school fraternity brought Fountain into his first civilian job. By 2000, Fountain had earned an M.B.A. from Troy State University, and was ready when Byron Marchant, then chief administrative officer and general counsel at Viacom’s Black Entertainment Television network, vouched for his leadership qualities and tech savvy. BET hired Fountain. Within 18 months, he was a vice president responsible for implementation of standard operating procedures, digital transmission of all BET commercial inventory, and select budget and project delivery. He stayed there until 2004, when he joined TBS. Marchant is now the incoming president and CEO of the U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association & Foundation.


From Teen Necessity to an Adult Hobby Even before he arrived at Hampton, Fountain displayed engineering skill. As a teen, in the early 1980s, when manual transmissions—not circuit boards—still controlled automobiles, to save money he learned how to repair and tune up cars. As an adult, often with the assistance of his son (who has handled a wrench since he was four years old), Fountain has rebuilt, refurbished, detailed and then sold several cars. These include 1965 and 1967 Ford Mustangs, two Volkswagen Beetles, and a Corvette Sting Ray. He also has a restored candy apple red 1965 Corvette Sting Ray that Fountain says his son, a college senior, will inherit someday. Fountain doesn’t have a car under reconstruction in his


suburban Atlanta two-car garage currently. But he keeps busy by helping a neighbor restore a 1957 Chevrolet.


How does he balance auto restoration and a high-pressure vocation? He says, “ I work on the cars when I can. It’s not an every day or every week thing. The fun is that you do some- thing, and if you did it right it’s almost working instantly.” Fountain’s ability to complete a task correctly is being


tested anew, but if past is prologue he is ready to transform the hiring of technologists at TBS. 


www.blackengineer.com


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