Jeffrey Bewkes Biography

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Jeffrey Lawrence Bewkes (born 25 May 1952) is an American media executive. He has served as CEO of Time Warner since January 1, 2008 and as President since December 2005. On January 1, 2009 he became Chairman of the Board in addition to his other duties.

Early life and education

Bewkes was born in Paterson, New Jersey, to an affluent Lutheran family, the middle son of Marjorie Louise (née Klenk) and Eugene Garrett Bewkes, Jr., an executive at Norton Simon. He is of Dutch and German ancestry, was raised in Darien, Connecticut, and is a graduate of Deerfield Academy. In 1974, he graduated from Yale and later graduated with an MBA from Stanford. He sits on both his alma maters' respective advisory boards. After school, he worked at a Sonoma Vineyard winery and then took a job in New York City as a commercial banker with Citibank in their shipping lending unit.

Career

Leaving Citibank, he took a job at HBO then a small unit of Time Inc where he was tasked with convincing hotels to subscribe to HBO and then sales director responsible for the launch of Cinemax. He rose to become CFO of HBO (1986"1991); President and COO of HBO (1991"1995); CEO of HBO (1995"2002); and then chairman of Time Warner's entertainment and networks group (2002"2005). From December 2005 to December 2007, he served as the top subordinate to Time Warner (the by-product of the 1990 merger between Time Inc and Warner Communications Inc) Chairman & CEO Dick Parsons. In 2008, Bewkes was selected as Parsons' successor as CEO of Time Warner, although Parsons remained Chairman of the Board until 2009.

As CEO of Time-Warner, Bewkes oversees Time Inc., HBO, Turner Broadcasting (CNN, TNT, TBS, Cartoon Network), Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema.

In January 2006, Bewkes and CBS Corporation head Les Moonves helped broker the deal that joined the CBS-owned UPN with The WB to form the CW Network.

On behalf of NYC Mayor Michael 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.

Personal life

Bewkes has been married twice. His first marriage to Susan Frank Kelley, a successful law firm partner specializing in trusts and estates, ended in divorce. He is currently married to former real estate agent and aide to Roone Arledge, Margaret Lowry Brim. He has a son from each marriage and a step-child from Brim's first marriage to Peter McCabe. Bewkes lives with his wife in Manhattan and Greenwich, Connecticut.