Michael Lynton Biography

Michael Lynton is CEO of Sony Corporation of America and Sony Entertainment, Inc., overseeing Sony's global entertainment businesses, including Sony Music Entertainment, Sony/ATV Music Publishing and Sony Pictures Entertainment. Lynton is also Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment and manages the studio's overall global operations, which include motion picture, television and digital content production and distribution, home entertainment acquisition and distribution, operation of studio facilities, and the development of new entertainment products, services and technologies. He also serves as Chairman of the Board for Sony of Canada Ltd.

At Sony Pictures Entertainment, Lynton has focused on digital transformation, worldwide growth, content diversity and financial discipline, leading the studio through an era of innovation and success, putting Sony Pictures on the cutting edge of an industry experiencing rapid technological and global change.

Under the leadership of Lynton and Co-Chairman Amy Pascal, Sony Pictures' Motion Pictures Group has enjoyed a remarkable run in the past several years, releasing such hits as The Social Network, The Karate Kid, Salt, Grown-Ups, Hancock, Quantum of Solace, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Julie & Julia, District 9, Michael Jackson's This Is It and 2012. In 2011, the studio's major releases included The Smurfs®, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Moneyball, The Ides of March, Friends With Benefits and Midnight in Paris, among others. Sony Pictures is one of only two studios to generate more than $1 billion in domestic box office sales for each of the past ten years. Last year, the studio's successful slate of films generated more than $3 billion in worldwide box office revenues. Sony Pictures became the second Hollywood studio of 2012 to hit $1 billion in domestic box office receipts due to the success of Men in Black™ 3, The Amazing Spider-Man, 21 Jump Street, The Vow, Think Like A Man and Underworld: Awakening. The studio is currently poised to release the highly-anticipated latest James Bond adventure Skyfall.

Sony Pictures Television (SPT) produces television programming for multiple platforms in the U.S. and around the world. Among the unit's popular and award-winning programs in the U.S. are Breaking Bad, Justified, Happy Endings and The Big C, reality series like The Shark Tank, The Sing-Off and Re-Modeled, as well as top-ranked game shows and daytime dramas, including Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy!, The Young and the Restless and Days of our Lives. Launched with Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Productions, The Dr. Oz Show is one of the most popular syndicated programs in America. The Dr. Oz format has also been exported to Russia, Saudi Arabia, Armenia, Colombia, Chile, Brazil and China (where for the first time a Hollywood studio is producing a talk show for Chinese television). Internationally, the studio's television channel network includes 120 channel feeds in more than 159 countries reaching approximately 543 million households worldwide. SPT is a leader in local language production around the world, producing shows in approximately 70 countries. SPT also operates Crackle, which is one of the top online video networks in the U.S. and expanding internationally.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment continues to be one of the leaders in DVD and Blu-ray Disc distribution in the world, and is rapidly expanding its digital distribution business.

Sony Pictures Digital Productions is home to Imageworks, the only major studio Academy Award-winning in-house visual effects unit, and Sony Pictures Animation, which produced the 3D hit, Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs.

Sony Pictures has also been an industry leader in the migration to digital entertainment, from production and distribution to the introduction of new formats. The studio is a champion of the industry's UltraViolet™ format, which allows consumers to more easily collect entertainment content digitally. The studio helped re-introduce 3D to the entertainment industry with the creation of the Sony 3D Technology Center on the lot in Culver City, which has trained more than 3,000 professionals in the making of quality 3D content.

Under Lynton, Sony Pictures is now deeply engaged in the rapidly expanding 4K marketplace, including both the creation and distribution of many titles in 4K, the opening of a 4K-capable digital intermediate and post production facility, and the restoration of classic titles like Lawrence of Arabia in 4K. Sony Pictures has also worked closely with Sony Electronics to establish The Digital Motion Picture Center, Sony's 4K training facility on the Sony Pictures lot.

Lynton and Pascal have also put an emphasis on environmental sustainability at Sony Pictures. The studio is the first and only one certified to the ISO 14001 Environmental Management System (EMS). Sony Pictures has received numerous honors from the Environmental Media Association for sustainable filmmaking as well as community recognition from TreePeople and Habitat for Humanity for its green practices and volunteerism.

Prior to joining Sony Pictures, Lynton worked for Time Warner and served as CEO of AOL Europe, President of AOL International and President of Time Warner International. During his tenure, AOL expanded into Asia and Latin America and became the world's largest online Internet service, operating in 17 countries and eight languages.

From 1996 to 2000, Lynton served as Chairman and CEO of Pearson plc's Penguin Group, where he oversaw the acquisition of Putnam, Inc. and extended the Penguin brand to music and the Internet. He helped lead the Penguin Group to new records in bestsellers, revenues and profits.

Lynton joined The Walt Disney Company in 1987 and started Disney Publishing, serving as its President. While there, he launched Disney Adventures magazine. From 1992 to 1996, he served as President of Disney's Hollywood Pictures, where he helped bring such films as The Horse Whisperer, The Santa Clause, Crimson Tide and Mr. Holland's Opus to the big screen.

Lynton holds a Bachelor of Arts in history and literature from Harvard College and a Masters of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.

In his spare time, Lynton works with Gary Ginsberg and Jay Sanderson to compile an annual list of the "50 Most Influential Rabbis in America," which has been published in Newsweek since 2007.

Lynton's involvement in charitable and civic activities includes membership on the Council on Foreign Relations and service on the boards of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Rand Corporation and the Modern Times Group.

In May of 2012, the Harvard Alumni Association elected Lynton to the Harvard Board of Overseers. He was appointed by President Barack Obama to the Broadcasting Board of Governors, to which he was recently named as the interim presiding governor.

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