Jeff Bewkes | |
|---|---|
 Bewkes at the Time 100 gala, April 24, 2012 | |
| Born | Jeffrey Lawrence Bewkes (1952-05-25)May 25, 1952 (age 72) Paterson, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Education | Deerfield Academy |
| Alma mater | Yale University(BA) Stanford University(MBA) |
| Occupation | Chairman of Time Warner (2009–2018)CEO of Time Warner (2008–2018) |
| Years active | 1982–2018 |
| Employer(s) | HBO (1982–2002) Time Warner (2002–2018) |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 2 |
Jeffrey Lawrence Bewkes (born May 25, 1952) is a retired American media executive.[1] He wasCEO ofTime Warner from January 1, 2008 to June 14, 2018,President from December 2005 to June 2018, andChairman of the Board from January 1, 2009 to 2018.
Bewkes was born inPaterson, New Jersey,[2] the middle son of Marjorie Louise (née Klenk) and Eugene Garrett Bewkes Jr.,[3] an executive atNorton Simon.[4][5][6] He is ofDutch andGerman ancestry, was raised inDarien,Connecticut,[7] and is a graduate ofDeerfield Academy.[4]
In 1974, he graduated fromYale University with a bachelor's degree inphilosophy. According to college friendGary Lucas, a guitarist who went on to collaborate with avant-garde acts likeCaptain Beefheart, at Yale in the early 1970s he fell in with "lunatic fringe types and free thinkers". Bill Moseley, another college friend who went on to a career in horror movies likeTexas Chainsaw Massacre 2, stated, "I think of him as an artist first and foremost".[8]
Upon graduation, he "tried his hand atdocumentary work forNBC News" before going toStanford University to earn hisMBA.[4] He sits on both hisalma maters' respective advisory boards.[9] After school, he worked at aSonoma vineyardwinery and then took a job in New York City as a commercial banker inCitibank's shipping lending unit.[4][7]
Leaving Citibank, he took a job atHBO then a small unit ofTime Inc.,[4] where he was tasked with convincing hotels to subscribe to HBO and then sales director responsible for the launch ofCinemax.[7] He rose to becomeCFO in 1986 and President andCOO in 1991. In 1995 he became CEO of HBO, in which capacity he tripled company profits and "oversaw a fundamental shift in its content, away from just movies and fights and toward original shows likeThe Sopranos".[8]
In 2002, he became chairman of Time Warner's entertainment and networks group. From 2005 to December 2007, he served as the top subordinate to Time Warner Chairman and CEODick Parsons. In 2008, Bewkes was selected as Parsons' successor, becoming CEO ofTime Warner, and then Board Chair in 2009.[10]
As CEO of Time Warner, Bewkes oversaw HBO,Turner Broadcasting System,Warner Bros. andNew Line Cinema, while he oversaw the company's divestment fromAOL, Time Inc. andTime Warner Cable. In January 2006, Bewkes andCBS Corporation headLes Moonves helped broker the deal that joined the CBS-ownedUPN withThe WB to formThe CW Network.
On behalf ofNYC MayorMichael R. Bloomberg, Bewkes was one of the chairs of Media.NYC.2020, which reviewed the future of the global media industry, the implications for NYC, and suggested actionable next steps for the NYC government.[11]
In October 2016, it was announced thatAT&T would acquire Time Warner in a deal worth $84.5 billion.[12] In July 2017, Bewkes announced he would leave Time Warner on completion of that merger.[13] In November 2017, the U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit to block the acquisition, leaving Bewkes' future with the company unknown, but the merger closed in 2018 after the company won in court and the acquired company now assume theWarnerMedia name.[14][15]
In December 2020,The Spectator magazine reflected on Bewkes being asked back in 2010 whetherNetflix had any chance of taking over Hollywood. "His sarcastic answer deserves to go down as one of the all-time dumb predictions, 'Is the Albanian army going to take over the world?'". Within a decade Bewkes'modus operandi "has been torched and replaced by Netflix’s subscription-based streaming model", costing Time Warner shareholders billions of dollars in the process.[16]
Bewkes, who lives inGreenwich,Connecticut, has been married three times. His first wife was Susan Frank Kelley, alaw firm managing partner specializing in trusts and estates; they had one son.[citation needed] His second wife was Margaret Lowry Brim, a former real estate broker with William B. May Company,[17] who was once atelevision producer and an aide to ABC presidentRoone Arledge;[7][18] they had one son.[citation needed]
In 2017, he married his third wife Lisa Carco, Principal of Square One Communications + Design, Inc., a boutique marketing communications and digital design agency serving clients in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries.
| Business positions | ||
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| Preceded by | Time Warner CEO 2008–2018 | Succeeded by |