Overview

Gender

male

Investor Type

Angel

Investor Stage

Seed

Michael Lynton is CEO of Sony Entertainment, where he oversees 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 (SPE), managing 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.

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.

Sony Pictures' Motion Picture Group has enjoyed a remarkable run in the past several years, releasing such hits as Best Picture Oscar® nominees American Hustle, Captain Phillips, and The Social Network, as well as blockbuster franchises like The Amazing Spider-Man, Grown-Ups, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, and The Smurfs.

Between movies and TV, SPE received 26 nominations for the 2014 Golden Globes® and won seven awards, more than any other studio.

Sony Pictures Television (SPT) is one of the television industry's leading content providers. It produces and distributes programming in every genre, around the world and for a multitude of platforms. In addition to one of the industry's largest libraries of award-winning feature films, television shows and formats, SPT boasts a current program slate that includes top-rated daytime dramas and game shows, landmark off-network series, original animated series and critically acclaimed primetime dramas, comedies and telefilms. In addition to its U.S. production business, SPT has 19 wholly-owned or joint venture production companies in 13 countries.

SPT's worldwide media networks include 150 channel feeds available in 178 countries, reaching more than 1.3 billion cumulative households worldwide. Popular channel brands include AXN, Animax, and SET (Sony Entertainment Television), as well as the studio's ad-supported VOD service, Crackle.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment distributes Sony Pictures produced and third-party acquired theatrical and non-theatrical product on Blu-ray Disc, DVD and other digital media globally. Among the more than 3,500 titles in SPHE's catalog are the Spider-Man and Men In Black franchises, the Seinfeld TV series, and film classics on such as Lawrence of Arabia, Taxi Driver and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Sony Pictures is also home to Imageworks, the only major studio Academy Award®-winning in-house visual effects unit.

Under Lynton, Sony Pictures has been an industry leader in the migration to digital entertainment, from production and distribution to the introduction of new formats. The studio championed the industry's UltraViolet digital entertainment format, helped re-introduce 3D to the entertainment industry and is deeply engaged in the rapidly expanding 4K marketplace.

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.

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.

Lynton joined The Walt Disney Company in 1987 and started Disney Publishing, serving as its President. From 1992 to1996, he served as President of Disney's Hollywood Pictures.

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

Lynton is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the boards of the American Film Institute, the Smithsonian Board of Regents, the Harvard Board of Overseers, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, J. Paul Getty Trust, USC School of Cinematic Arts and the RAND Corporation.

In addition, he sits on the board of directors of Snapchat and Ares Management, L.P.

Lynton resides in Los Angeles with his wife, Elizabeth Jamie Alter Lynton, and their three daughters, Eloise Lynton, Maisie Lynton and Lucinda Lynton.