Kansas Steel Baron Paul Mai Backs New Global Health & Wellness Media Venture

Salina, KS, June 16, 2015 (Newswire.com) - ​​​​​​​​​​​​Elation Media chairman Gerald Levin announced that Kansas business leader Paul Mai has taken an equity stake in the company, helping to close out the media start-up’s $150,000 seed funding round for an undisclosed amount.

Gerald Levin is the former Chairman/CEO of Time Warner.  He is also part of the team that founded HBO and served as its CEO.  “Paul’s investment now enables Elation Media to move on to its Series A round of funding,” said Levin. 

"Start-ups with Schnitzer's and Levin's vision and experience are hard to find, and are often snatched up by (investment) bankers in Silicon Valley or Wall Street before Main Street investors even know about the opportunity."

Paul Mai, Former CEO PKM Steel

Paul Mai is the founder and former CEO of Salina-based PKM Steel Service, Inc.  A native of Schonungen, Germany, Mai began PKM in 1962.  Today, the firm employs over 350 men and women in the Kansas heartland.   Mai’s daughter Frieda Mai-Weis became CEO when he retired in 2010.

According to Mai, “I’m attracted to new ventures based mainly on one thing -- its leadership.  I’ve known Robert (Elation Founder/CEO Robert Schnitzer) for many years, and when he told me Jerry Levin had come aboard as chairman, I knew it was time to jump in.”

Robert Schnitzer has been a media executive in New York City and Los Angeles for over thirty years and produced several successful independent motion pictures and television programs. 

“Start-ups with Schnitzer’s and Levin’s vision and experience are hard to find, and are often snatched up by (investment) bankers in Silicon Valley or Wall Street before Main Street investors even know about the opportunity,” said Mai.

Elation Media is a new global media venture developing 24x7 live and on demand television and internet channels serving the worldwide holistic consumer market.  Programming topics include alternative medicine, world peace, visionary art, personal growth and the environment.

“Even in little Salina, Kansas I can see this all this holistic business is one of today’s fastest growing lifestyle markets,” said Mai, referring to the exploding popularity of natural foods, yoga and environmental sustainability.  

Elation Media will launch OTV Live and OTV On Demand in the fourth quarter of 2015.  Based in Jackson, Mississippi, the company also maintains a sales office Los Angeles, California.

Now kicking off its Series A funding round, Levin and Schnitzer plan to continue offering investment opportunities in the company to small but accredited investors and forgo typical venture capital participation.

“Now that the SEC has issued its guidelines for the Crowdfunding Act, small investors can get in on the ground floor like the big boys, and cash out like the big boys did with Facebook, Google and Apple,” said Schnitzer. “As of today, our raise-up is offered on crowdfunding platform EquityNet.com and the response has been steadily building.  We expect to close well within the 90-day offering period.”

About Elation Media

Elation Media, Inc. is a vertically integrated content provider connecting advertisers and brands with highly engaged holistic consumers worldwide. The company delivers exclusive body-mind news, cutting edge information and enlightened entertainment to English language markets worldwide.  It’s two consumer media brands are OTV Live and OTV On Demand.  Website: http://www.ElationMedia.com.

About Paul Mai

Paul Mai immigrated to Topeka, Kansas from Germany in 1958 with $89 and dreams of a better life. After odd jobs throughout the Midwest, he arrived in Salina in 1962. Shortly thereafter, he founded the eponymous PKM Steel Service.  Over the next four decades, Mai grew the company into what is today one of America’s leading producers of heavy and intermediate structural steel for all types of industrial and commercial buildings worldwide.

About Gerald Levin, Chairman

Gerald Levin is the former Chairman/CEO of Time Warner Inc. He was the prime mover in the merger of Time Inc. and Warner Communications in 1990, Time Warner’s merger with Turner Broadcasting and CNN in 1996, and with AOL in 2001. Before assuming leadership of Time Warner, he was CEO of HBO and was responsible for the startup of the network which he launched on cable and satellite. In addition, Levin has served as a Director of both the New York Stock Exchange and the New York Federal Reserve Bank. Earlier in his career, Levin was an attorney with Simpson Thacher and Bartlett. Levin graduated from Haverford College, and received a legal degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California and Rockport, Maine.

About Robert Schnitzer, CEO

Robert Schnitzer is a media executive operating in both the creative and financial aspects of the global media business.  In 1996, he founded holistic production company Oasis TV, Inc. and in 1997, its successor-in-interest OTV Media Group, Inc. Schnitzer came to prominence as a producer, director and screenwriter of several independent motion pictures and dozens of TV programs.  In addition, Schnitzer has sold and arranged funding for various media ventures and is often called upon to speak at conferences and other industry events. A native of New York City, Schnitzer currently resides in Jackson, MS and maintains an office in Los Angeles, California.

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