Ross Levinsohn

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

Ross Levinsohn
Ross Levinsohn.jpg
Ross Levinsohn (2011)
Born 1964
New York, N.Y.
Alma mater American University
Occupation Executive, Investor, Board Director

Ross Levinsohn (born c. 1964)[1] is a technology and media executive, and currently board member and investor. He served as CEO at Yahoo[2] in 2012 and prior to that role was Executive Vice President, Americas and Head of Global Media. For six years, he was president of Fox Interactive. He serves on several media and technology boards, including the "multi-channel, male-focused media network" Scout.[3] Levinsohn is a board member at Tribune Media, mobile advertising company Millennial Media, Zefr, which licenses movie clips and places them on YouTube,[4] the National Association of Television Program Executives and the Neil Bogart Pediatric Cancer Research Program. He is also a Trustee at his alma mater, American University.

Education and Sports

Levinsohn grew up in New York City and Tenafly, New Jersey and graduated from Tenafly High School in 1981, where he lettered in Football, Soccer and Baseball for the Varsity Teams.[5] Levinsohn graduated from American University with a bachelor's degree in broadcast communications.[6] He joined its board of trustees in 2015.

Work

Early career

Levinsohn began his career at Saatchi & Saatchi on advertising accounts for daytime dramas including As The World Turns and Guiding Light. In 1986, he worked in sports marketing and promotion at ProServ. Levinsohn developed marketing and promotional campaigns for athletes, TV and events.

Marketing and Promotions

From 1989-1996, Levinsohn worked at HBO in marketing and promotions for Time Warner Sports. Levinsohn then was led a production and enterprises group to expand and monetize the HBO brand across new media. In 1994, he helped develop content for CompuServe, Prodigy and America Online.

Internet

Levinsohn joined an online startup Sportsline in 1996 overseeing production. He produced a syndicated television show starring NFL Coaches Marv Levy and Sam Wyche, and host Scott Kaplan. He helped bring CBS Sports in as an equity partner in 1997, enabling the company to IPO.

Levinsohn started a portal division for online search company Alta Vista in 1999.

News Corporation

In 1999, Levinsohn joined the internet division of News Corporation. From 2001 to 2005, he was SVP and General Manager at Fox Sports Interactive Media where he led the interactive sports business for Fox, including the FoxSports.com site, which grew from a few hundred thousand users to more than 35 million monthly users and competed as the most popular sports site in the United States. Afer developed the business plan in 2005, he was named President of Fox Interactive Media. A direct report to Rupert Murdoch and Peter Chernin, Levinsohn helped the News Corporation acquire MySpace, IGN, Askmen.com, Scout.com, Newroo and KSolo.[7] In less than a year, Fox's internet properties generated more page views than any other sites in the United States, in large part due to the growth of MySpace. In 2006, Levinsohn signed a search and advertising deal in which Google paid Fox for exclusive rights to search and some display inventory. Fox Interactive Media's properties grew to a top five internet group during Levinsohn's tenure and maintained its growth for more than a year after his departure.

Yahoo

In October 2010, Levinsohn was recruited by Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz to lead the company's largest division, Yahoo Americas, where he assumed responsibility for its massive media and advertising businesses. After leadership changes at the top of the company, new CEO Scott Thompson named Levinsohn Head of Global Media for a brief period of time, before Thompson's exit.

He was Interim Yahoo CEO in 2012 after Carol Bartz left Yahoo.[8] Nine weeks later, the Board surprised many inside and outside the company by naming Google executive Marissa Mayer to lead Yahoo. Shortly after the Mayer appointment, Levinsohn left the company in August.[9]

Guggenheim

Following his exit at Yahoo, Levinsohn joined investment manager Guggenheim Securities, where he assumed a new role as CEO of Guggenheim Digital Media. In this role, he was tasked with investing and acquiring media assets, and actively pursued both Hulu and Vevo as potential acquisitions. He also oversaw a portfolio of assets already under management by Guggenheim including The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, Adweek and the Clio Awards.

Los Angeles Times

On August 21, 2017, Levinsohn was named the publisher and CEO of the LA Times by Tronc, replacing Davan Maharaj.[10]

Personal life

As of May, 2013, Levinsohn was married.

On January 18, 2018, NPR reported that Levinsohn had been sued twice at two different corporations for sexual harassment.[11][12]

References

  1. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=23106219&ticker=YHOO
  3. http://variety.com/2014/digital/news/scout-media-names-ross-levinsohn-executive-chairman-announces-full-exec-team-1201273115/
  4. http://techcrunch.com/tag/zefr/
  5. Newman, Richard; Yellin, Deena; and Superville, Denisa R. "Tenafly grad takes helm at Yahoo", The Record (Bergen County), 15 May 2012. Accessed 17 May 2012. "In choosing former Tenafly resident Ross Levinsohn as its interim CEO on Monday, embattled Yahoo! Inc. picked a man who is focused, driven and confident.... Levinsohn graduated in 1981 from Tenafly High School, where he was a goalkeeper on the soccer team before switching to football "
  6. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Business positions
Preceded by Chief Executive Officer of Yahoo!
Acting

2012
Succeeded by
Marissa Mayer