Mel Harris is a forty-year veteran of the broadcasting and entertainment industries. Starting as a radio announcer, he worked in various management roles prior to his military service in Vietnam in the U.S. Army Signal Corps. He then switched to television station management and ran Kaiser Broadcasting stations in Cleveland and Philadelphia. After two years with Metromedia in New York, he moved to Paramount Pictures in Hollywood in 1977.

Throughout the next 20 years he impacted almost every facet of the television and video businesses, rising to the Presidency of the worldwide television and video enterprises of two major studios, Paramount and Sony. In 1999, he was named co-president and chief operating officer of Sony Pictures Entertainment, presiding over the rise of the studio to the number one box office position in 2002.

An advocate of new technologies, he helped found the home video industry, launched cable networks around the world, exploited satellite communications to usher in the modern era of first run syndication, and served on various industry and governmental groups fashioning the future.

Harris was awarded Ohio University's Medal of Merit in 1989 and the College of Communication Distinguished Alumni Award in 1993. He has returned to campus to take part in Communication Week several times. Harris is married and has a son.