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Executive Profiles


Mike Bernardo
Consultant for Bernardo/Gladden Associates

 

A pioneer with over 40 years experience in the music industry, Mike Bernardo is a true legend. Currently, serving as a consultant for Bernardo/Gladden Associates (a promotion, marketing and consulting firm), Mike is like the Energizer Bunny… she just keeps going and going!

 

During her tenure at CBS Records, Mike Bernardo had the pleasure of working and developing such artists as Teddy Pendergrass, Johnnie Taylor, Patti LaBelle, Herbie Hancock, Wynton and Branford Marsalis, LL Cool J, George Michael, Regina Belle, The Manhattans, Public Enemy, Gladys Knight, Lou Rawls, The Jackson 5, The O'Jays, The Isley Brothers, and the list goes continues! Most recently, Mike was at the helm as Vice president of Promotions at Mercury Records where she was responsible for marketing the talents of Brian McKnight, Lionel Richie, Will Downing and others.

 

If one takes a look back over Mike Bernardo's career, they would find humble beginnings from a woman with eager determination who honestly worked her way to the top. From a warehouse clerk at Merrick Distributors in Long Island, NY in the late 50s, to filling record store orders at Adam Records, then being promoted to the A&R Division of Roulette Records where she "shaped" and developed infant acts into would be stars. Artists like Dinah Washington, Ray Charles and James Brown would all benefit from her expertise. She later joined Kama Sutra Records where she put the finishing touches on Pop sensation, The Lovin' Spoonful. During that time Mike was also producing jingles and took up stint at Starday King Records and Director of Promotions.

 

In 1975 Mike Bernardo was recruited by CBS Records, the #1 label and distribution company of that time (now Sony Music Entertainment). Using street-smart guerilla promotion tactics, in less than three years Mike went from Local Promotion Manager to Northeast Regional to National Director of Promotions. In that capacity she set standards and practices for promotions and marketing for all Black music product on Columbia, Epic and Associated labels within her territory. As the First Black Woman at CBS to become a Regional Promotions Marketing Manger, she is considered to be an industry pioneer for all women.

 

June 1979 marked another first for Black women in the industry, as Director of National Promotion/Jazz Progressive Music, her responsibilities included directing and coordinating national promotion activities, devising strategies and directing the field staff on all assigned Jazz Progressive product for Columbia, Epic and Associated labels.

 

Weathering the industry's chaotic changes, in 1991 Mike Bernardo found herself heading up the promotions department at for one of the new, young and cutting edge companies, Uptown Records. Uptown Records, under the leadership of Andre Harell, needed the structure and professionalism that Mike Bernardo was well known for. In addition to grooming the young staff at Uptown, Mike was directly responsible for the Platinum successes of Jodeci, Father MC, Heavy D and Mary J. Blige.

 

Aside from her continuing career, Mike Bernardo holds down Board of Director seats for Impact, Living Legends and the NBPC. Mike maintains her "girlish" figure by continuing her martial arts studies and walking 3 miles a day. She also wages a diligent fight for the advancement of Black Women in the industry in terms of economic and business achievement. An equal opportunity fighter, she also supports causes that educate and establish dignity and pride in young Black men.

 

Currently, the cause dearest to Mike's heart is the 331 Foundation, founded by herself and Charles Gladden. The organization was inspired by an article in the Washington Post: "Children Left Motherless and Alone" The article mentioned 331 children whose parents were killed due to the high crime rate and drug activity in the Washington DC area.

 

With her positive and wonderfully joyous spirit, through the lives she touches and has touched, no one can deny that MIKE BERNARDO IS A TRUE LEGEND.

 



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