Michael Ovitz

Michael Ovitz General Information

Description

Mr. Michael Ovitz is a Co-Founder & Owner at Broad Beach Ventures. He co-founded the Creative Artists Agency (CAA) in 1975 and served as its chairman until 1995, served as President of the Walt Disney Company, from 1995 to 1997, and co-founded VC fund Broad Beach Ventures in 2010. In 1974 he co-founded Creative Artists Agency (CAA) with several agents from William Morris. He served as its Chairman until 1995, growing the agency from a start-up organization to the world's leading talent agency, representing the top actors, directors, musicians, screenwriters and other personalities in the entertainment industry. He shifted negotiating leverage from studio to the agency by assembling package deals, wherein CAA would provide directors, actors, and screenwriters as a package - forever changing the power dynamics in the industry. He also expanded the role of the agency from talent management into corporate consulting, investment banking and advertising. He helped negotiate Matsushita's acquisition of MCA/Universal, the financial rescue of MGM/United Artists, and Sony's acquisition of Columbia Pictures. He shook up the advertising industry by winning Coca-Cola's global advertising account in 1991 from traditional. He also served as President of the Walt Disney Company, from October 1995 to January 1997. In 2010 he launched Venture Capital fund Broad Beach Ventures where he is among a select group of angels. Investments thus far have included Medium, Palantir, Klout, Blend Labs, HipSwap, Factual, and more. He is also Advisor to a number of Silicon Valley VC firms, including Andreessen Horowitz, Thrive Capital, and Formation 8. He has served as a member of the Board of Directors for J. Crew Group Inc., Gulfstream Aviation and Opsware. He served as Chairman of the Executive Board of the UCLA Hospital and Medical Center and headed up the Capital Campaign to raise money for their new hospital, designed by I.M. Pei. He also served on the Executive Advisory Board of the Pediatric AIDS Foundation, the Board of Directors of D.A.R.E. America, and the National Board of Advisors for the Children's Scholarship Fund. He currently sits on the Board of Directors of the Museum of Modern Art. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is on the Board of Advisors of Andreessen Horowitz. He also Co-Founded CheckOut Entertainment Network. He also serves as Advisor at Work Life Ventures.