V I D E O • A G E AP R I L 2 0 1 1 40 (Continued on Page 42) (Continued from Page 38) Father & Daughter Teams dubbing into Spanish, Portuguese and English. Today, Centauro also produces feature films and TV programs. In 1988 he opened a studio for dubbing in Miami, Florida (which became the Group’s headquarters) and, in 2001, another one in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Earlier, in 1991 Gustavo’s two daughters moved to Florida, and seven years later his oldest daughter, Francoise, then 27, went to work with him in his Miami facility. Previously, she attended Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. Besides being a successful documentary producer, she now heads the Translations Division and also focuses on Public Relations and Sales. Gustavo’s youngest daughter, Andrea, joined the Group in 2004, when she was 30. She attended Florida International University. Today she’s managing director of the Dubbing Operation, based in Miami. Andrea’s seven-month-old daughter, Mia, is also “being prepped to eventually join the family business” and she already has a NATPE and this MIP on her resume. RUPERT ANDELISABETH (LIZ) MURDOCH Rupert and Elisabeth (Liz) Murdoch The 80-year-old Melbourne, Australia-born Rupert Murdoch is the founder and chairman of News Corp. Elisabeth (Liz), born in 1968 in Sydney, Australia, is his second oldest offspring, out of six children (from three wives). Rupert Murdoch moved to New York in 1974 and became a U.S. citizen in 1985. By 2010 he controlled 750 businesses in 50 countries and amassed a personal fortune estimated at $6.3 billion. Liz attended Brearley School in New York City and, after graduating from Vassar College in 1992, she became manager of Program Acquisitions at her father’s FX Network in Los Angeles. The Murdoch family left New York for Beverly Hills, CA in 1991. In 1995 Liz moved with her first husband to London, U.K., as managing director of BSkyB. She’s now a citizen of both the U.S. and Britain. In the year 2000, after disagreements with BSkyB’s CEO Sam Chisholm, Liz left the satellite platform and founded Shine in 2001, now holding 53 percent ownership. Other major investors were BSkyB, which held 13 percent and Sony Pictures, with 20 percent (the rest is owned by the company’s management). In 2008 Shine acquired Hollywood’s Reveille (the U.S. producer of The Office and Ugly Betty) for $156 million. By 2010 Shine’s revenues reached more than U.K. £300 million (U.S.$483 million) with earnings of over £28 million (U.S.$45 million). The U.K. daily, the Guardian, however, estimated that “real pre-tax profits [were] just £2 million ($3.2 million). In addition, the company had debts estimated at $88 million, while an additional $72 million was tapped from shareholders in 2008 and 2009.” The Guardian reported that Liz and her two brothers received $100 million each when they agreed to allow Rupert and Wendi Deng’s (Rupert’s third wife) two young children into the family trust that controls News Corp. Last January, Liz hired JPMorgan to advise on “growth opportunities,” which resulted in a sale to her father’s News Corp. for $673 million, including debt. Liz will also take a seat on News Corp.’s board. In 2009 she declined a seat on the board of her father’s company because joining News Corp., which owns 39.1 percent of BSkyB, would have meant Shine would no longer qualify as an independent producer, and would therefore be ineligible to produce for groups such as the BBC and Channel 4. The sale of Shine to News Corp. could indicate that she is a possible successor to Rupert. Liz is also known for her endurance, as she’s willing to seclude herself in screening rooms for hours scrutinizing every show she produced or acquired. If personalitywise father and daughter are said to be of similar temperament, they are on the opposite spectrum as far as politics are concerned, with Rupert on the extreme right and Liz on the far left. SUMNER AND SHARI REDSTONE Sumner Redstone, 87, is a majority owner and chairman of the board of the National Amusements theater chain, which is the parent company of Viacom and CBS Corporation, among others. His father Michael founded Northeast Theater Corporation, the forerunner of National Amusements, which currently runs more than 950 movie screens in the U.S., the U.K. and Latin America. Sumner joined his father’s theater chain in 1954, and in 1967, at 44, he became president and CEO of National Amusements. Through National Amusements, he invested in Columbia Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Orion Pictures and Paramount Pictures. In 1987, Sumner won voting control of Viacom, and in 1993, Viacom bought Paramount Pictures. He has two children by his first wife of 55 years: Brent and Shari Redstone. He has no children with his second wife, from whom he is divorced. Shari, now 57, is the youngest of Sumner’s children. She graduated from Tufts University in 1975, and later received two law degrees at the Boston University School of Law in 1978 and 1980. She worked as a criminal defense lawyer and a corporate attorney until she and her husband divorced in 1994. At that time, when she was 40 years old, she accepted her father’s offer to work at National Amusements. By 2000, Shari became president of National Amusements. According to Boston Magazine, Sumner’s trustsmake clear that Shari will succeedher father upon his death, provided that she is still on the boards of ViacomandCBS, and Sumner has announced publicly that his stock has been placed in irrevocable trusts for his five grandchildren (Shari has three children of her own). Shari is currently president of National Amusements, nonexecutive vice-chairman of Viacom and vice-chairman of CBS Corporation. However, Shari and Sumner have publicly feuded over the future of the business, and Sumner has reportedly been reconsidering Shari’s role inViacomand CBS. According toBoston Magazine, in a 2007 letter toForbes magazine, Sumner stated that shareholders should select the future head of Viacom and CBS Corporation. (Sara Alessi in New York) RICK ANDDEANNA RAY In 1979, 30-year-old Rick Ray (then a TV station programmanager) and his wife Dee, founded Raycom Sports, a collegiate sports production and distribution company in Charlotte, North Carolina. In 1996, Raycom Sports merged with Ellis Communications, becoming the basis for Raycom Media, now the 12th largest media company in the U.S., operating 45 TV stations in 36 U.S. markets. After leaving Raycom in 1998, Rick pursued a number of investments including Action Performance, which controls 80 percent of all merchandising for NASCAR-related products. In addition, he’s involved in producing long-form cable television programs and has acquired feature film assets. In 2010 Rick joined Miami, Floridabased NewsProNet’s advisory board, although he lives in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. NewsProNet (NPN) is a digital shortformproductionanddistributioncompany founded in 1997 by Susan Krivelow and Kent Krizik and today owned by its acting chairman, Bob Rodriguez. Rick’s 23-year-old daughter, Deanna (the third oldest of four children), is the only one joining her father in the media industry when, in 2010, she became an account executive for the domestic division at NewsProNet. She graduated from the University of Miami with a B.S. in Communications. Rick has acquired distribution rights for various projects that Deanna now reps and distributes at NPN (in addition to other programs NPN has rights to). RICHARD (DICK) AND ALEXANDRA (ALEX) LIPPIN Richard (Dick) and Alexandra (Alex) Lippin A former Wall Street-er who also ran political campaigns in Washington, D.C., Dick Lippin is now a Hollywood insider, a power player in the international entertainment arena and a power broker in the U.S. Lippin operates from The Lippin Group (TLG), a PR agency that he founded in 1986 at age 36 in Hollywood, after a stint at a PR agency that he co-owned in New York City. His only child, Alexandra, joined the Group in 2006, when she was 25, after graduating from Brandeis University in Boston. Previously, she worked in Hollywood at MTV and Telepictures. Alex is now TLG’s senior VP and heads up the Brand to Hollywood division, one of TLG’s eight operating areas employing 40 full-time communications executives in the Los Angeles headquarters and offices in New York City and London. CARLOS, MARIA AND CAROLINE BARBA If Cuban-born Carlos had a TV set as a toy in the crib, his daughter Caroline was literally born in a TV studio. That was in 1972, when her 37-year-old father was in New Jersey running WNJU-TV for Columbia Pictures, which later became the flagship TV station of the Spanishlanguage network, Telemundo. At that time, Carlos’ seven-year-old Maria was already sitting in her father’s office making commercials for the station. Later on, after graduating from American University in Washington D.C. in 1997, Maria went to work for her father, then at Univision. She followed Carlos in 1991 when he became president of Venevision International, inMiami as head of Marketing and Public Relations. When, in 1999 Carlos founded UnoDosTres, one of the first Internet TV companies, Maria joined her father as promotion manager. Caroline, on the other hand, was more interested in working as an artist
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