2025 Hall of Fame Inductee
STEVEN EKSTRACT, CEO & Chief Content Officer, entertainmentxtracks
Steven Ekstract is the Founder and Managing Director of Global Licensing Advisors, a boutique consultancy that advises and connects brands seeking to grow through licensing and strategic collaborations. In 2022, he launched X Tracks Licensing Summits, a series of executive-level conferences exploring the future of licensing and key areas of industry growth.
Prior to founding Global Licensing Advisors and X Tracks, Ekstract was the founding publisher of License Global magazine, the leading trade publication for the licensing industry, and oversaw a portfolio of media properties dedicated to brand licensing. He also served as Brand Director for the Global Licensing Group at Informa Markets, where he provided strategic oversight and editorial direction for the company’s flagship Licensing Expos in the U.S., Europe, Japan, and China.
An internationally recognized voice in the licensing industry, Ekstract is a frequent speaker at global conferences and events. He is the co-author, with Stu Seltzer, of Brand Licensing For Dummies (Wiley), a practical guide offering a clear and accessible introduction to the licensing business. He also serves on the Trend Committee for Spielwarenmesse in Nuremberg, the world’s largest toy fair.
Ekstract began his career as a documentary video producer at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., before transitioning into media and journalism. He held executive roles at Video Pro and Premiere magazines, and later ran the New York office of The Hollywood Reporter before founding License Global in 1998.
He is an alumnus of the United Nations International School in New York, American University in Washington, D.C., and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Presented By:
AMBASSADOR A. SHABAZZ, Diplomat, Lecturer, Professor and Strategic Advisor for Corporations, Academia, Foundations and Global Forums
A producer, writer and diplomat, she has spent over 4 decades offering keynote addresses, while developing curriculums and programs for educational institutions, executive forums, diplomatic networks, penal systems, conferences and human service organizations globally– with the purpose to motivate and encourage the young and mature alike to recognize the value in and appreciation of — diverse cultural engagement, traditional rights of passage and perspectives, thus a genuine respect for oneself and others. She is recognized as a masterful creator and an astute businesswoman. Fondly termed by her colleagues as an “ideas architect”, she is a strategist and technician quick to discern the integrity, theme and ultimate goals of each endeavor, while realizing a vision of execution and successful outcome.
In 1996, she established the Pilgrimage Foundation in honor of her Father’s spiritual journey to the Holy land. “It offered him the ‘Light of Understanding’ and confirmed his vision for our Oneness” she states. In tribute to her mother’s lifelong legacy of service as an educator, as well as the leadership of both sets of Grandparents and their parents before them, –thus uniting 5 languages, interfaith theologies, social histories and traditions, she has remained steadfast on her of guiding experiences that expand one’s own personal prism and regard for others. Her lifetime commitment is to establish fellowships from the most fortunate to the disenfranchised, bridging the gaps with the sustenance that assures that “we step into the world– both mindful and equipped to fulfill our bounty – then share it with another”.
The Pilgrimage Foundation has touched hundreds of thousands of lives around the world reaching the under-served and well as the privileged. From shelters, correctional facilities, villages, metropolises, State Houses and Royal compounds. “We are fundamentally the same— balancing our highs and lows all day long”. Upon years of personal service, the former Prime Minister of Belize, recognized her as a key advisor on International Cultural Affairs & Project Development. In 2002, he appointed her as the Ambassador-at-Large representing the country of Belize internationally and in perpetuity. Following, the Ministries of Human Development, Culture, Education and Youth & Sports also incorporated her insights and guidance to their Cabinets as well. Since then, she has been invited to participate in the US State Department’s Diplomatic Briefing Forums and The United Nations Association. Much of her expertise fosters diplomatic relations between cultures along with discerning traditional and contemporary practices, capacity building, human resource training economic development.
In addition to The Pilgrimage Foundation, she and Yolanda King (the oldest daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King) — founded Nucleus, Inc in 1977, which traveled nationally to 100 cities per year until 1994 reaching high schools and universities in 44 States, thus acquainting her with the roadmap of national systems, networks and teeter-tottering scales of advancement per region. Since 2020 Ambassador Shabazz formalized her relationship with Newark Public Schools in a way that brings her great honor, as the Honorary Provost for both the Malcolm X Shabazz H.S. Stem Academy and the brand-new Newark School for Global Studies. Ambassador Shabazz is the founder of Legacy Inc., “Everybody Has One”, in addition to the Pilgrimage Foundation, Inc., The Humanity Passport Project, the Malcolm X Shabazz Birthplace & Foundation, The O.U.R.S. Project and more. She has offered her dedicated participation as a member of the Switzerland-based World Economic Forum’s Task Force on the Digital Divide, serves on several international, humanitarian Boards, councils and committees, while offering private consultations to many executive and diplomatic leaders. She has been appointed as Provost at Newark Public Schools, a D.E.I. advisor at universities and corporations, and as Secretary General of RASIT’s (The Royal Academy of Science International Trust) World Youth League. Because of her signatured pedagogy, her newest invitations are to the London based, Executive Board of Beyond Sport and the Rhythm of Change (ROC) Belize, amongst countless more.
She has written op-ed commentaries and articles for newspapers and periodicals such as the New York and Los Angeles TIMES, Essence Magazine, EL MUNDO’s Spain Edition and others. In 1999, she had the distinction of adding to the list of her published writings; the new foreword to her father’s classic; The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and is completing her memoirs, and a series of published works.
