Rola Bauer

World Screen Weekly, April 3, 2008

Partner and Managing Director

Tandem Communications

Determination is a quality that has served Rola Bauer well throughout her career. At a job interview, straight out of college, she had a very clear idea of what she wanted. She told her prospective employer, Robert Lantos, who at the time ran Alliance Communications, that she had a different vision of the person he needed to hire. He was looking for a secretary and considered Bauer, who had already worked for the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, to be overqualified. “I totally disagreed with him and asked him why wouldn’t he want to go for someone who could grow into being a real assistant; and ultimately, if things worked out, I could find him a secretary and would manage that person and then he could have two people helping him,” recalls Bauer. “He said that he would keep me in mind and maybe he would have something for me as the company grew.”

Bauer took another job, but soon after met up with Lantos at the Cannes Film Festival. She was on vacation, but ran into a friend who was working at the Alliance booth. “She didn’t speak French and was frantic and asked me if I could lend a hand,” says Bauer. “I was supposed to help only for a couple of hours, but I speak French and I ended up working with them for five days.” Lantos was so impressed with Bauer’s language and organizational skills that he relented. “You are right, I don’t want a secretary, I want a right hand. Do you want the job?” Bauer did, and stayed at Alliance for 11 years, working her way up to being president of Alliance International Television.

She clearly recalls what she learned from Lantos. “Tenacity—if you believe in something, don’t let it go. Have faith in your instincts. Integrity—when you make a deal, respect it. If you don’t, the industry is small and your name will be mud.” She held on to those values and to the skills she acquired in setting up co-productions, crossed the Atlantic, and was hired by the German broadcaster ProSieben to head up its acquisitions and co-production activities. In 1999, Bauer and Tim Halkin formed Tandem Communications, which has carved out a successful niche in international event mini-series, developing and financing such productions as Post Impact and distributing high-end TV product including Ridley Scott’s The Company.

At MIPTV, Tandem will be offering buyers Lost City Raiders, developed with ProSieben and SCI FI Channel in the U.S. Other titles in the slate include The Lifetime Movie Collection and The Starz Fantasy Adventure Collection.

—By Anna Carugati