MFM Honors Bender With Chairman’s Award

Ralph Bender, CFO of Manship Media, today received the Chairman’s Award from MFM, the Media Financial Management Association and its BCCA subsidiary, the media industry’s credit association. The award was presented to Bender during the opening general session of Media Finance Focus 2017, the 57the annual MFM-BCCA conference, which is currently underway in Orlando, Fla.

Given in memory of Edward H. Deichman, a former TV station finance executive at Media General and chair of the MFM Board on multiple occasions, the accolade honors individuals who, like Deichman, have played an instrumental role in the association’s efforts to support financial and credit management professional across all aspects of the media industry.

Bender’s service to MFM and BCCA began more than 25 years ago, the first time he served as a member of its board of directors. He rejoined MFM’s board in 2009 in conjunction with the association’s merger with INFE, the Interactive & Newsmedia Financial Executives association, where Bender had served as board president and played an instrumental role on the combination of the two media finance organizations.  He went on to serve as secretary, vice chair and chair of the MFM board and as co-chair and chair of the association’s annual Media Finance Focus conferences as well as a number of MFM committees.

The award was presented to Bender by MFM board member C. Robin Szabo, one of the first people to welcome Bender when he attended the association’s 1983 conference and marking his first contact with the organization. “What I learned from the industry tax and accounting experts I met at the conference that year allowed our company to save millions of dollars; that’s just one example of the ROI (return on investment) that can come from being involved with this organization,” said Bender.

Joining Szabo in presenting the award was current MFM board chair Tim Mulvaney, a former chief accounting officer for Media General who collaborated with Bender several years ago on re-naming the organization’s Chairman’s Award in tribute to Deichman.