Robert Bakish

Robert Marc Bakish ( ; born December 14, 1963 ) is an American business executive. He was most recently the president and CEO of Paramount Global upon its formation on December 4, 2019 until his resignation on April 29, 2024 amid poor stock market performances and a possible Paramount major merger.

Early life and education A native of New Jersey, Bakish attended Dwight-Englewood School in Englewood, New Jersey, graduating in 1981.

He received a Bachelor of Science in operations research in 1985 from Columbia University's School of Engineering and Applied Science. He earned an MBA from Columbia Business School in 1989.

Career at Paramount Early positions In February 1997, Bakish joined Viacom. Initially as vice president of planning and development, he became senior vice president of planning, development and technology in January the following year.

In October 1999, he became the executive vice president of planning and business development of Viacom's subsidiary MTV Networks. From 2001 to 2004, he was executive vice president and chief operating officer of advertising sales at MTV Networks.

In 2004, he was appointed executive vice president of operations of Viacom, Inc., and in 2006, he was also appointed executive vice president of Viacom Enterprises. In these two positions, he was responsible for Viacom's strategic planning and business development and the oversight of a range of business units including Famous Music, Famous Players, Viacom Plus sales and information services and technology, as well as heading Viacom's cross-divisional marketing council. responsible for financial and management, overseeing MTV Networks operations outside the U.S. He launched the Colors franchise of networks through the Viacom18 joint venture in India. This promotion included responsibility for all Viacom media networks and operations internationally, including MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, BET, VH1, VIVA, TMF, Game One and MTV Tres;

CEO In October 2016, Viacom named Bakish as acting president and CEO of Viacom effective November 15, to replace interim CEO Tom Dooley. He was also appointed president and CEO of the newly created Viacom Global Entertainment Group, which combined Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) with Viacom's Music and Entertainment group, which includes MTV, Comedy Central, VH1, Spike TV and Logo TV; two additional networks, TV Land and CMT, also joined the Global Entertainment Group.

In early 2017, Bakish revealed a five-point plan to return Viacom to producing a steady profit. This consisted of focusing on Viacom's six flagship brands: BET, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr. and Paramount; revitalizing content and talent; deepening distributor and advertiser partnerships to drive traditional revenue; increasing digital offerings, consumer products and live experiences; and optimizing and energizing the organization. The strategy also included having Paramount Pictures develop films and franchises connected to Viacom television content; additionally, Spike TV would be rebranded as and converted to a broad-based general entertainment channel, the Paramount Network, in early 2018.

By the fall of 2017 Bakish had restructured Viacom, replacing executives at nearly every company, including hiring Jim Gianopulos, formerly chairman and CEO of 20th Century Fox, as the new chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures.

In 2018, Bakish's implementation of his five-point comprehensive strategy was credited with Viacom's much improved finances and improved company morale and focus. In 2018, under Bakish's direction and in accordance with his plan to capture younger and digital markets, Viacom acquired digital platform WhoSay, and online television network AwesomenessTV. In early 2018, Bakish also announced plans to launch an official Viacom streaming service, which would support ads and include series and content from Viacom that had not been available on other streaming services. In April 2018, Viacom launched Viacom Digital Studios, which would create new original content hosted on sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat. In addition, later that June, Bakish announced that Viacom would produce some new series exclusively for Netflix, beginning with Nickelodeon-related content.

In September 2018, due largely to his turnaround of Viacom, The Hollywood Reporter listed Bakish as number 20 in its The Hollywood Reporter 100: The Most Powerful People in Entertainment 2018.

Bakish retained the role of CEO when CBS Corporation and Viacom reunited under a single company to form ViacomCBS (later Paramount Global), which closed on December 4, 2019.

In 2023, Bakish's total compensation from Paramount Global was $31.1 million, representing a CEO-to-median worker pay ratio of 274-to-1.

In December 2023, Bakish and David Zaslav discussed the possibility of Paramount Global merging with Warner Bros. Discovery. TD Cowen analyst, Doug Creutz, stated that they were having "a very hard time believing the current FTC/DOJ, which has been very aggressive in combating industry consolidation", could help the two companies' merger go through. However, in February 2024, the discussion was abandoned.

On April 28, 2024, it was reported that Bakish would resign from his position as a CEO of Paramount due to the pressure from ongoing merger talks between Skydance Media and Paramount. Skydance CEO David Ellison would become CEO of Paramount once the merger closes, replacing Bakish; three interim co-CEOs were appointed following Bakish's resignation, including Brian Robbins and Chris McCarthy.

Board memberships Bakish has been on the board of directors of Paramount since its merger, and previously at Viacom from December 12, 2016, up until the merger. He is also on the board of directors at Avid Technology, Inc. He is also on the Board of Visitors at Columbia University's School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Bakish was previously chairman of the board of Viacom 18 Media from 2007 until February 28, 2018. He was also Chairman of the Cable Television Advertising Bureau from 2003 to 2005.

Personal life Bakish and his wife Dee live in New York and have two daughters.