Jeffrey Katzenberg, founder and Chairman of the Board of Quibi and co-founder and Managing Partner of WndrCo, will be presented with the Cannes Lions Media Person of the Year Award on Wednesday 19 June 2019 at the International Festival of Creativity Cannes Lions 2019. The Festival takes place this year from 17 – 21 June 2019.
Quibi, a mobile-first media platform incubated at WndrCo and WndrCo is a holding company that invests in, acquires, develops and operates consumer technology businesses.
Katzenberg commented on the award: “Over my career I have had the honor of working in many different forms of
storytelling, from film to television to the Broadway stage, but the journey we are on today with Quibi is the most exciting one yet, as we embark on a new form of storytelling. By bringing together the very best of Hollywood and Silicon Valley, we hope to usher in the era of mobile-first entertainment. On behalf of everyone at Quibi, we’re very thankful to Cannes Lions for this honor.”
Philip Thomas, Chairman, Cannes Lions, said: “Jeffrey Katzenberg encapsulates everything the Media Person of the Year award represents. His unbounding creative leadership and vision has led to the transformation and ground-breaking success of high-profile businesses across the entertainment, media and technology landscape. Katzenberg is a great friend of the Festival, who has brought his insight and inspiration to our stages so successfully in recent years. It’s a huge honour to present him with this prestigious award.”
Katzenberg’s esteemed career spans over 40 years. After serving as President of Production at Paramount Studios, he became Chairman of the Walt Disney Studios, overseeing a renaissance of animation and helping to usher the studio’s transition to digital production, releasing top-grossing animated classics such as “The Little Mermaid” and “The Lion King”. In 1994, he co-founded DreamWorks SKG. A decade later, DreamWorks Animation became a publicly-traded company, with Katzenberg serving as CEO.
Under Katzenberg’s leadership, DreamWorks Animation moved into all-CG production, becoming the largest animation studio in the world, releasing 32 animated feature films and 24 television series, including: “Kung Fu Panda” and “Madagascar”. In 2013, DreamWorks made a major expansion into online media with its acquisition of AwesomenessTV. Some yhree years later, in 2016, DreamWorks Animation was acquired by Comcast Corporation.
The Media Person of the Year Award is presented each year to a prominent personality who is considered an
influential figure in the development of today’s media landscape, ultimately playing an integral part in shaping the future of the creative communications industry.
The roster of previous recipients of this recognition includes: Salar Kamangar, CEO of YouTube; Jack Dorsey, Creator, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Twitter; Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google; Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO of Facebook; Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft Corporation; Tsuneo Watanabe, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of The Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings; Sumner Redstone, Chairman and CEO of Viacom; Richard Pepler, CEO HBO; Sy Lau, Senior Executive Vice President of Tencent and President of its Online Media Group (OMG); Founder and CEO of VICE, Shane Smith; UMG Chairman & CEO, Sir Lucian Grainge.
In 2018 there was no Media Person of the Year, but Media Brand of the Year as Daniel Ek Spotify Co-Founder & CEO, accepted this honour on behalf of Spotify’s more than 3,000 employees around the world.
Image over the headline.- Jeffrey Katzenberg. Image, by courtesy of Cannes Lions.
Related Eastwind Marketing links:
There will be a Media Brand of The Year not a Media Person of the Year at Cannes Lions 2018
Cannes Lions 2017.- UMG Chairman & CEO, first ever music executive named Media Person of the Year
Richard Pepler, Media Person of the Year at Cannes Lions 2014
YouTube CEO, Salar Kamangar, Media Person of the Year at Cannes Lions 2013
Creator of Twitter, Media Person of the Year at Cannes Lions 2012
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