• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, September 12, 2012

Horizon Media CEO Bill Koenigsberg told the audience attending today’s TVB Forward Conference that he has TV and ad industry veteran Ave Butensky  (still consulting in the Los Angeles area) to thank for making him the successful media agency entrepreneur that he is today.  

Not that Butensky was a great mentor or anything. No, in fact the way Koenigsberg tells it he worked for Butensky years ago at media buying firm Ed Libov & Associates. After a few years of successfully working his way up the ladder Koenigsberg earned the perk of a company car.

Or at least that’s what Butensky told him, Koenigsberg recounted. There was just one problem, the board of directors wouldn’t sign off on the car (a rather pricey BMW) and Butensky had to renege on the promise.

Koenigsberg was so “pissed” as he put it, that he resigned a few weeks later to join Media General which eventually sold to Koenigsberg the media unit that would become Horizon Media. “What seem like the worse things in life are maybe the best things to happen to you,” Koenigsberg said, noting that he likely would have stayed at Libov, but for the lack of the car perk, and missed the opportunity at Media General.

While he wasn’t in attendance at the conference Koenigsberg gave Butensky a heart-felt “thank you” for stiffing him on the car.