Alumni Board of Directors

Eric Cornell is a two-time Tony Award-winning producer who works in theatre, digital media, and broadcast TV. Eric has worked in various producing, presenting, development, and management roles on Broadway, Off-Broadway, national touring, regional, and international productions for more than 20 years and across three continents. As Management: The Sound of Music Global Tour, The Producers, Hairspray, Wicked, Next to Normal, Sister Act. As Executive Producer: Anastasia, Rocky. As Producer/Co-Producer: The Outsiders (Tony Award), To Kill a Mockingbird, Oklahoma! (Tony Award), What the Constitution Means to Me (Tony nomination), Head Over Heels, Big Fish, A Christmas Carol, and more.

Eric was a Company Manager at 321 Theatrical Management for six years and then served as Vice President of Production and Executive Producer for Stage Entertainment USA for four years before starting his own companies: Eric Cornell Productions, an entertainment consulting and services company, and Cornice Productions, an investment, management, and production company for live entertainment. He has been expanding into the TV, Digital, and Recording industries since 2014 and is passionate about the expansion of live entertainment across multiple distribution channels. Recent credits for TV: "Spongebob Squarepants Live!” (Associate Producer, Nickelodeon); for Albums: Anastasia Original Broadway Cast (Co-Producer and Executive Manager), Rocky the Musical OBC (Executive Producer), Broadway Lullabies (Producer); for Digital: Project Sing Out! (Producer / Webby Award Honoree, Telly Award winner), Ctrl Alt Delete (Executive Producer, Season 2), One Night, Many Candles (Producer).

Eric is a member of The Broadway League and the Recording Academy. He is an Associate Professor of Theatre at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, where he developed and teaches The Business of Theatre, a junior and senior level course to prepare students further as working professionals. He regularly speaks across the country (and on Zoom!) on the importance of supporting arts education, creativity in the workplace, and the business of entertainment. He has guest lectured at the American Theatre Wing, Broadway Teachers Workshop, NYU, Berklee NYC, New York Technical Institute, Union High School, Fordham College, Michigan State University, and University of Connecticut, as well as Emerson College, where he earned his BA in Theatre, and Harvard University, where he received his MLA in Management with concentration certificates in Strategic Management and Innovation and Entrepreneurship. 
 

John Porio is the senior vice president of distribution and business development at Main Street Sports Group, which owns and operates 16 regional sports networks throughout the country. He was previously president of a media consultancy which advised multi-channel video operators and networks. Before that he was vice president, affiliate sales, for Disney and ESPN Media Networks, responsible for negotiations and relationships with multichannel video providers, such as Comcast and Charter, representing all linear networks (ESPN, Disney Channel, ABC Family, ABC, etc.) and digital products. He joined ESPN in 1997 as affiliate marketing manager and moved through several positions to vice president in 2004.

Before joining ESPN, Porio was manager of government affairs for Cablevision Systems Corp. He served as legislative assistant for Congressman Christopher Shays, US House of Representatives. He began his career in 1989 in ad sales at WNTR Radio in Washington, DC. He received a bachelor’s degree from Emerson College in 1988. He is married with three children and lives in Westport, Connecticut. His daughter Anabelle is a 2019 Emerson graduate and his son Ryan is a current Emerson student.