Edgar Bronfman Jr. Biography

Edgar Miles Bronfman, Jr. (born May 16, 1955) has been the CEO of Warner Music since 2004. He was formerly the CEO of Seagram and the vice-chairman of Vivendi Universal. He is the son of Edgar Miles Bronfman and the grandson of Samuel Bronfman, a member of one of Canada's wealthiest and most powerful Jewish families. Edgar Jr. is the second of five children, and his grandpa identified him as a potential heir to the Seagram Company in 1971. Bronfman's passion for the arts was evident from an early age. His parents encouraged his passion for school drama by funding the construction of The Ann and Edgar Bronfman Theatre during a 1967 expansion. The Collegiate Film Festival was founded when Edgar Jr. and his students made a documentary film on the school, which received favorable publicity in The Los Angeles Times and The Village Voice. Bronfman went on to have a brief career as a film and Broadway producer in the 1970s. In the summer before his senior year of high school, in 1972, he worked on the film The Blockhouse as a credited producer. Despite his lack of expertise, Bronfman's participation was allowed due to his connections and financial resources. In exchange, he observed his more experienced peers and acquired many of the trade's secrets. Bronfman began creating songs under the pseudonyms Junior Miles and Sam Roman in 1973. On tracks like Whisper in the Dark, which he gave to Dionne Warwick to record as a thank you for introducing him to his first wife, Sherry, he frequently teamed with Bruce Roberts. Universal Studios signed his Efer Productions firm to a three-year movie production deal in 1977. He produced the Jack Nicholson-starred The Border, which was a box office flop. Bronfman returned to the Seagram Company in 1982, where he spent three months learning the ropes before traveling to London to take over as managing director of Seagram Europe. Bronfman returned to New York in 1984 as President of the House of Seagram, the company's marketing division in the United States. By 1994, he had risen to the position of Chief Executive Officer, and he began to shift the company's focus away from conventional booze and toward entertainment. The selling of Seagram's share in DuPont, which was highly condemned, was the first step in this diversification. Edgar Bronfman, Sr. had sold Seagram's share in Conoco to DuPont in 1981 in exchange for about 25% of the chemical behemoth. By 1995, Seagram's investment in DuPont accounted for almost 70% of the company's overall earnings. Nonetheless, Bronfman, Jr., in his capacity as Seagram's CEO, approached DuPont about purchasing the company's stock. Bronfman, Jr. used the $9 billion sale profits to expand into the entertainment sector, acquiring Polygram in music and MCA and Universal Pictures in cinema. The new entertainment corporation he founded, on the other hand, only lasted a few years until it needed a strategic partner. In 2000, Bronfman, Jr. led Seagram into a catastrophic all-stock takeover by Vivendi, a French corporation. Bronfman, Jr. was named CEO of the new firm, Vivendi Universal, although Seagram essentially lost control of its entertainment operations. Meanwhile, Pernod Ricard and Diageo bought Seagram's beverage segment, which was the company's primary operation. For all intents and purposes, Seagram's ceased to exist. Bronfman announced his departure from Vivendi Universal as an executive in December 2001, but he remained as vice-chair of the board. Bronfman completed the acquisition of Warner Music on February 27, 2004, and has been Chairman and CEO of the firm since then. In recent years, he has continued to dabble in music, penning such hits as Celine Dion's To Love You More and Barbra Streisand's If I Didn't Love You. Bronfman Jr. is a well-known philanthropist as well. He now heads the Endeavor (nonprofit) Board of Directors, which seeks for and promotes high-impact entrepreneurs.

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