Darryl Taja is a C-suite executive with more than 29 years of broad business experience, who has executed hundreds of millions of dollars in transactional deals for his clients. Darryl studied finance and law at Howard University where he received a four-year, full, soccer scholarship. Darryl started his early career working for Lehman Brothers on Wall Street in their M & A division, then transitioned to business and legal affairs at BMG/RCA Records. He has had stints as an account executive and brand manager for NFL players while at Global Sports and Entertainment, as well as Disney Consumer Products in their Merchandising and Licensing Division, monetizing the Disney global brand worldwide. As the current CEO of Epidemic Management, he has represented many A-list show runners, writers, and directors, including Mark Brown (“creator of the Barbershop franchise”), who is also the Co-founder of the tech-enabled platform, Snap Nurse, once valued at over a billion dollars on Wall Street. Previously, Darryl was EVP of Catch 23 Entertainment, where he oversaw a $200 million dollar media fund and the production of the film, “One Hour Photo”, which starred the late, great, Robin Williams, and earned over $100 million dollars in gross revenues. Darryl left Catch 23 to become a principal in Revolution Media Television Studios, where he oversaw a budget of $200 million dollars, and managed acquisitions of several companies for the fund. Darryl has run multiple multimillion dollar hedge-fund-backed media companies, and has negotiated and executed hundreds of transactional deals in the media sector, which have earned well over a billion dollars in revenue for clients. Darryl has a substantial legal background and has negotiated bilateral education and trade agreements for the US Government in the State of Qatar, which he considers one of the highlights of his career. Additionally, Darryl is also a frequent guest lecturer at the business and film schools of several colleges and universities, such as Georgetown, UCLA, Northwestern, NYU, and Columbia, to name a few. Darryl is a board member and partner in the Blackwave Polymers Group, which acquires portfolio companies that specialize in automating and integrating resin systems for sustainable polymers. The company’s product suite is valued at over $100 million.