Sean Strub, founder of POZ Magazine, well known HIV/AIDS activist, writer and entrepreneur has been named President & CEO of Cable Positive, the cable and telecommunications industry’s AIDS action organization. Strub was introduced by MSNBC host Rachel Maddow at the National Cable Television Association’s show in Washington, DC, on April 2.

“Good luck to Sean with this big new adventure, a man who has had very many adventures in his life, every one of which I know about has turn out to be remarkably successful,” said Rachel Maddow, host of MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show. “It reflects well on Cable Positive to have chosen Sean.”

Strub has 30 years experience in corporate social responsibility and social change activism as well as private enterprise. His AIDS activism began in 1981 when he started collecting information about the emerging epidemic and shared it with friends. In the late 1980s he launched a treatment newsletter and, in 1994, he founded the groundbreaking POZ Magazine an award-winning publication and website (poz.com) for people affected by HIV.

“I am honored to join the incredible team at Cable Positive. Steve Villano has led a great staff and they have produced incredible work, most recently the inspiring Youth AIDS Media Institute,” said Strub. “Cable Positive has been a shining example of the cable and telecommunications industries commitment to the communities they serve. Corporate social responsibility is often used as an empty phrase, but in the cable industry it truly has meaning as evidenced by its 17 year support of Cable Positive.”

“As an activist and media entrepreneur, I have admired Cable Positive’s ability to effectively leverage a relatively small budget into an enormous impact. As a person with HIV, I have appreciated the role Cable Positive has played in raising awareness, educating the community and encouraging quality HIV-related programming through their POP Awards.”

Strub’s AIDS activism has also included theatrical and event production (Strub produced The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me, an Obie-award winning Off-Broadway hit and numerous large-scale AIDS benefit events), serving as fundraising co-chair for ACT UP/NY and running for public office, in 1990 when he ran for the US Congress from New York’s 22nd Congressional District. Strub was the first openly HIV-positive person to run for federal office.

In addition to his work in the epidemic, Strub has also written extensively on corporate social responsibility and other issues. He co-authored, with Steve Lydenberg and Alice Tepper Marlin, the seminal guide to corporate social responsibility, Rating America’s Corporate Conscience, (Addison-Wesley, 1987). He also was the co-author of Cracking The Corporate Closet, (Harper Business, 1995), with Daniel Baker and Bill Henning.

Early in his career, Strub worked in Democratic Party politics, serving as executive director of the Kentucky and then the Pennsylvania Democratic State Committees. In recent years, Strub has focused on a multi-faceted private/public revitalization effort in Milford, a small town in Northeast Pennsylvania. In Milford he renovated more than a dozen properties, including, with a partner, the restoration and reopening of the historic Hotel Fauchere (hotelfauchere.com), now a Relais & Chateaux property.

Strub has received numerous awards and honors from AIDS organizations, community and professional groups, including the 1995 AIDS Action Foundation’s National Leadership Award, the 1996 Cielo Latino Companero award from the Latino Commission on AIDS and the Being Alive Spirit of Hope award in 1997. A native Iowan, Strub attended Georgetown and Columbia. He resides in Milford, Pennsylvania and New York City.

About Cable Positive:

Founded in 1992, Cable Positive is a non-profit organization dedicated to unifying the talents, resources, access and influence of the communications industry to raise AIDS awareness; to fund AIDS education, research and care; and to promote a more compassionate climate for people whose lives have been affected by HIV and AIDS.