Roland DeSilva

Managing Partner

Roland is a managing partner at Oaklins DeSilva+Phillips in New York, which he co-founded in 1996. Roland has completed more than 170 transactions in the media sector, notably MJH Life Sciences’ acquisition of the healthcare properties from Informa; Vestar’s acquisition of MediMedia from Cinven, The Carlyle Group and Apax Partners; Randall Publishing’s sale to Wachovia Capital Partners; and deals for companies such as Primedia, Petersen Publishing, Scholastic, CurtCo Freedom Group, Freedom Magazines, MultiMedia HealthCare, Media/Communications Partners, International Thomson Business Press, Hanley Wood and VNU. Roland serves on the Authors Guild Foundation Board and is a board member emeritus of the Smithsonian Libraries Advisory Board. He is also a vice chairman of World Information Transfer (WIT), a not-for-profit, non-governmental organization in General Consultative Status with the United Nations, dedicated to health and the environment.

Prior to his investment banking career, Roland served as chief executive officer, chief operating officer, international director and publisher with Thomson Corp., McGraw-Hill and Capital Cities/ABC, Inc. (Chilton Company). He was also the founder of U.S. Business Press, a nine-magazine business-to-business publishing company. He is a former member of the board of the trustees of Long Island University.