KHADIJAH SHARIF-DRINKARD recently joined The Walt Disney Company as  Senior Vice President, Business Affairs, ABC News - where she will lead the department.  In her most recent role, she served as Senior Vice President, Business and Legal Affairs  at ViacomCBS, where she oversaw deal making for unscripted programming, music  programming, tent poles, award shows, specials, and news across BET Networks. She  is a strong business partner with broad expertise in media and entertainment and has  successfully led diverse teams who have structured and negotiated a wide variety of  complex transactions for the development, production, acquisition and distribution of  content across platforms. Her experience as a skilled business executive and deal maker  were paramount in closing deals for a number of high-profile projects, including, The  New Edition mini-series (the highest rated show ever on BET), The Bobby Brown Story  and in bringing the Black Girls Rock! franchise to BET. Prior to working at BET Networks,  Khadijah served as Vice President, Senior Counsel at Nickelodeon where she helped to launch such hits as Dora the Explorer,  Diego and The Backyardigans. Khadijah is a graduate of Class XXII of the Women in Cable Telecommunications’ (WICT) Betsy  Magness Leadership Institute, a premier leadership program for women in the media industry. She is also a 2012 graduate  of the inaugural class of BET’s THR!VE Executive Development Program. Khadijah is a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta  Sorority, Inc. and uses her spare time to work in the fields of philanthropy and human development. She has traveled and  served on delegations to South Africa, Rome, Russia, China and the United Kingdom, and has worked with the United Nations  to help aspiring business women from Iraq.

In addition to her professional responsibilities, Khadijah holds a host of leadership positions. She serves as Chairwoman  of the Board of Directors for the Black Entertainment & Sports Lawyers Association (BESLA), and as President of the Board  for Columbia College Women (CCW). She previously served as Co-Chair of the ViacomCBS Law Department’s Diversity,  Equity & Inclusion Committee, created a Viacom company-wide mentoring program entitled Get Connected (and worked in  partnership with Get Schooled in association with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) where Viacom employees served as  mentors to public school students in New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. Khadijah also helped to launch Viacom’s  Employee Resource Group (ERG) for women entitled HERE: Women @ Viacom where she served as Co-Chair for several years  and held the role of Board Chair for Horizons Newark, a program aimed at closing the achievement and the opportunity gap  for inner-city children.

In 2019, Khadijah received the Ruth Whitehead Whaley Award from Fordham Law School’s Black Law Students Association  (BLSA) for being an outstanding alumna and the New Jersey Muslim Lawyers Association (NJMLA) Medal of Honor for her  exemplary leadership as a Muslim American attorney. In 2018, she was awarded the inaugural Corporate Counsel of the Year  Award from the Muslim Bar Association of New York (MuBANY). Khadijah is a recipient of the National Association of MultiEthnicity in Communications (NAMIC) Luminary Award for her business acumen and her commitment to diversity and inclusion  and she also received a NAACP Image Award for her work on the children’s animated program “Kasha and the Zulu King”