We are very sad to report the death last month of our friend and BPG member Juliana Koranteng after a short illness. Juliana regularly attended our lunches and breakfasts – most recently, the Kevin Lygo lunch in December 2022 – and lit them up with her shining presence and well-informed questions.
The BPG chair Grant Tucker said: “We had a lovely catch up at the Christmas lunch in December. She was always such a bright personality at every BPG event I attended. She will be much missed.” Colin Mann said: “Sadly, we never got to have that drink and catch-up we promised to have in the New Year as we were leaving the Kevin Lygo lunch.”
We republish, with thanks, this tribute from Facebook by her friend Marlene Edmunds.
REMEMBERING JULIANA KORANTENG
She was a bright and shining person, a unique soul who was beautiful, kind, courageous, funny, and unsparingly honest. That is pretty much the feeling of many of the people I talked with around the world about friend and colleague JULIANA KORANTENG, who passed away suddenly after a short illness.
Juliana’s international background, her immense curiosity, her kindness, humour, love of music, tennis, guitar, and photography, her devotion to charities, including her mother’s women’s health clinic in Ghana and the Sue Ryder Clinic in the UK, were as much a part of her life as her immense and extensive media background and the thousands of interviews she did with some of the biggest names in the film, television, music and entertainment world.
She was born in Ghana shortly after the country gained its independence. The US became the first country to recognise Ghana as an independent nation and Juliana spent part of her childhood there, her father being part of the Ghana diplomatic service to the US. As a child she met many of the leaders of the African independence movement, as well as civil rights leaders in the US.
Juliana’s media background is as extensive as it is impossible to do justice to in a brief recounting, but that is what I will give you.
She interviewed thousands over the course of her career, including director Spike Lee, Daniel Craig, Sir Martin Sorrel, astronaut Chris Hadfield, Pharrell Williams, Usher, Lena Waithe, Robbie Williams, Tim Berners-Lee, Yves Behar, Rupert Murdoch, Sir Terence Conran, Sir Derek Jacobi, Indian cuisine queen Madhur Jaffrey, Bernie Ecclestone, the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, and TV impresario Simon Cowell.
She was the founder and editor of the UK-based JayKay Media Consultancy, editor and chief creative director of MediaTainment Finance and TechMutiny, publications which covered the international creative industries and emerging media technologies. She was also the founder of JayKay Media Inc, a contributing editor and reporter for MIDEM, MIPTV, MIPCOM and Lions Daily News, all published by Boutique Editions. She was an editorial consultant for RX France’s Esports Conex, Mip Market events, the Swiss-based World Academy of Sport and an advisor to European Independent music organisation IMPALA, and a host and curator for IMPALA’S regular podcast series 20MinutesWith.
During her lifetime she was a Financial Times-published author on subjects such as Women & Sport and the Business of Sports TV as well as an editor/correspondent for TIME magazine, Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter and Advertising Age. She was also a speaker, host and competition judge at various international events in Asia, the Middle East, New Zealand and across Europe.
We are the sum of our passions, everything and everyone we love, and not just just our profession, work, families, friends or the activities in which we engage.
Juliana Koranteng engaged the world, and was much loved and respected. We will miss her very much.