Jerry Calabrese

Media & Entertainment

Jerry Calabrese was CEO of Lionel Electric Trains from 2004 until 2014, and is widely credited with returning the storied brand to mainstream popular culture. He also worked for Marvel Entertainment in the early stages of its transition from an almost forgotten publisher of comic books to the global media and entertainment colossus it is today. Jerry served as head of Marvel’s consumer products division, foreign publishing and licensing division, and, eventually, as President of Marvel Comics Group. During his tenure at Marvel, he oversaw the exploitation of a half dozen popular network and syndicated kids television shows, including the #1 rated X-Men and Spider-Man, which became the top promotional and licensing properties of their time, solidifying Marvel’s position as one of the world’s premier kids marketing companies.

He began his career as a newspaper journalist, and in the early 1980’s transitioned to consumer magazines, where he eventually became an owner and publisher of Games, an iconic specialty interest magazine that was eventually bought by Playboy, where he served as an executive vice president. In the late 1990’s, Jerry became involved with NASCAR’s highly successful 50th Anniversary program, which led the way to its transformation from a regional racing series to a national media powerhouse. That association also resulted in NASCAR’s first media initiative for kids, NASCAR Racers, a Saturday morning, animated show on Fox Kids Network. Most recently, Calabrese engineered Lionel’s takeover of NASCAR’s iconic replica race car business, and the formation of its race team licensing trust.

In 2002 and 2003, Calabrese partnered with NBC Sports and boxing promoter, Main Events, in bringing professional boxing back to network television for the first time in more than 20 years. That project created the first crossover programming between an English language network and a Spanish language network, NBC owned Telemundo.
Calabrese holds a BA in Journalism from the University of South Carolina. .