Esquire magazine names NBR owner as “reengineer”

Mykalai Kontilai, who purchased Nightly Business Report in August 2010, is cited in the latest Esquire magazine as a “reengineer.” More than 20 persons were identified as “men and women who have rebuilt, rethought, or happily dismantled their industries, their influences, and themselves.” Kontilai, a former mixed-martial arts agent and educational video distributor, was noted for “snatching up the rights” to NBR and “pledging to reinvent the sleepy half-hour public news into the impossible and improbable – a must-see business report that will be syndicated in two hundred countries.” Others on the list include President Obama, actor Alec Baldwin and NFL quarterback Michael Vick. Kontilai’s acquisition of the show was big news in the pubcasting system, as reported by both Current and, subsequently, the New York Times.