Council Biography

Mandalay Entertainment Group
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Peter Guber is a thirty-year veteran of the entertainment industry. After receiving his Bachelor of Arts, Master of Law and Juris doctorate degrees and admission to the New York and California Bars, he was recruited by Columbia Pictures in 1968 in the midst of pursuing an MBA degree at New York University's Graduate School of Business. Within two years he became Studio Chief, and during his tenure at the creative helm, Columbia surged to record-breaking profits on the strength of such critically acclaimed box office hits as Shampoo, The Last Detail, Tommy, The Way We Were, Taxi Driver and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

In 1976, Guber resigned from Columbia and founded Casablanca Record and Filmworks with Neil Bogart. Their record operation included such superstars as Kiss, Donna Summer, Captain and Tenille, The Village People and Parliament with George Clinton. It also included some of the most successful soundtracks of all time, including the Academy Award winning Midnight Express, Lionel Ritchie and Diana Ross' Endless Love; and Flashdance, which sold more than 14 million albums. During this period Guber produced numerous television shows including the Teddy White's Emmy nominated Selling of the Presidency, Ocean Quest series for NBC and Mysteries of the Sea, a two-hour special for ABC.

Guber launched his career as an independent film producer with The Deep, which became one of Columbia's Top 10 box office successes of all time. His next film, Midnight Express, earned seven Academy award nominations for Columbia including Best Picture, a Golden Globe for Best Picture and a place in film history with the National Association of Theater Owners naming Guber Producer of the Year.

In 1979, Guber formed Polygram Filmed Entertainment where he was Chairman of the Board and Co-owner. He sold Polygram in 1983 and formed and served as Co-owner of the Guber-Peters Entertainment Company (GPEC), which established a major presence in motion pictures, television and music.

Combining tremendous commercial success and critical acclaim, the films directly produced and executive produced by Guber have earned more than $3 billion in worldwide revenue and more than 50 Academy Award nominations, including four for Best Picture. Rain Man, when released, was the highest grossing Best Picture Academy Award winner ever, and Batman established new standards for success, becoming one of the highest-grossing films from all sources in movie history.

Guber's other box office and critical hits include Michael Apted's Gorillas in the Mist, Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple and Innerspace, George Miller's The Witches of Eastwick. Flashdance, Costa Garvas' Missing, Tango and Cash and John Landis' American Werewolf in London.

In 1988 GPEC became a public company with the acquisition of Barris Industries and in 1989 was sold to Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) where Guber became Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer. During Guber's tenure at SPE, the company extended its leadership in production and distribution of prime time, half-hour comedy television series to include such hit shows as Married with Children, Designing Women, Seinfeld, Mad About You, and The Nanny; revitalized the two largest and most successful game shows in the world - Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy - nearly doubling their revenue; continued to own daytime television with the resurgence and continued success of such soap operas as The Young and the Restless and Days of Our Lives. A large array of international arrangements was also undertaken at this time with the television operation utilizing its vast library to gain equity positions in the international marketplace.

Under Guber's leadership, the company re-framed its entire exhibition circuit, becoming the premiere North American theatrical exhibition enterprise; introduced Sony's state-of-the-art SDDS sound system; and introduced the concept of IMAX theater and films integrated into multiplex theaters in the building, design and execution of Sony's 67th Street Theater and IMAX complexes in New York City and San Francisco. It became the largest grossing theater in the United States and the first general commercial success for an IMAX multiplex venue.

During Guber's tenure as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, SPE's Motion Picture Group achieved, over four years, an industry-best domestic box office market share averaging 17 percent. During the same period, Sony Pictures led all competitors with a remarkable total of 120 Academy Award nominations, the highest four-year total ever for a single company.

SPE's motion picture business was propelled by an enormous string of successes, which included Awakenings, Misery, Postcards from the Edge, Flatliners, Look Who's Talking, Terminator 2, Boyz 'N The Hood, The Prince of Tides, Bugsy, City Slickers, The Fisher King, Basic Instinct, A League of Their Own, Mo' Money, Single White Female, A River Runs Through It, Honeymoon in Vegas, A Few Good Men, Dracula, Sleepless in Seattle, In the Line of Fire, Groundhog Day, Cliffhanger and Philadelphia.

Also, while at the company, Guber assembled a strong management team; conceived and planned the development of SPE's new world headquarters at the state-of-the-art Sony Pictures Studios; spearheaded SPE's recapture of its own home video business; and innovated a corporate name change to strengthen the unique identities of the company's individual businesses. In addition, Guber launched the prestigious Sony Pictures Classics, which in each of its first three years won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film.

After leaving Sony in 1995, Guber formed Mandalay as a multimedia entertainment vehicle in motion pictures, television, sports entertainment and new media. Each of these enterprises has grown in effective portals in their various arena with top-flight management infrastructures and assets.

Mandalay Pictures is a motion picture company which finances, produces and distributes motion pictures for the global marketplace. With its strong financial base, the company is known for its ability to assemble premiere talent and develop properties that appeal to a global audience.

Mandalay Pictures has a long-term, multi-picture distribution agreement with Paramount Pictures. The agreement calls for Paramount Pictures to distribute in the U.S. approximately 20 films over five years. Mandalay Pictures' films will be financed through advances pursuant to its agreement with Paramount, with its own equity financing and through distribution agreements with its international distribution partners, including Constantine/Kirsch for Germany, Tri-Pictures for Spain, Medusa for Italy, Village Roadshow for Australia and Greece, Pathé/Canal Plus for the United Kingdom and France and Nippon Herald for Japan.

Mandalay Pictures has become one of the pre-eminent independent producers and financiers of major motion pictures for the global market. Successes for the management team include the box office smash I Know What You Did Last Summer, which to date has grossed over 100 million worldwide; the critically and commercially successful Donnie Brasco, starring Al Pacino and Johnny Depp and directed by Mike Newell, which has grossed 100 million worldwide at the box office alone; the smashing international success Seven Years in Tibet starring Brad Pitt and directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud which has grossed over 150 million worldwide; the commercially successful Wild Things, starring Matt Dillon, Kevin Bacon, Neve Campbell and Bill Murray and Les Miserables, starring Liam Neeson, Geoffrey Rush, Uma Thurman and Claire Danes. Recent releases include I Still Know, the sequel to I Know What You Did Last Summer and The Deep End of the Ocean, starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Whoopi Goldberg.

Mandalay Pictures rolled out its first film for Paramount Pictures Domestic Distribution, Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow, starring Johnny Depp, directed by Burton and produced by Scott Rudin, which grossed worldwide more than 200 million dollars at the box office alone. Future films include the Jean-Jacques Annaud directed Enemy at the Gates, starring Joe Fiennes, Jude Law, Rachel Wise and Ed Harris; The Score, starring Marlon Brando, Robert DeNiro and Edward Norton; and Beyond Borders starring Kevin Costner and Angelina Jolie.

Mandalay Series Television, founded in 1977, has a financing and distribution alliance with Columbia Tri Star. The company, utilizing a network television strategy that was talent driven, struck a chord with the U.S. networks and series ordered include Cupid, an hour-long romantic comedy on ABC, Rude Awakening for Showtime, Oh Baby, an original half-hour comedy for Lifetime Television and Young Americans for the WB.

Mandalay Television Pictures produced numerous movies-of-the-week and miniseries amongst which were Dean Koontz's number-one bestseller Intensity, a four-hour miniseries for Fox, top-rated Get to the Heart (The Barbara Mandrell Story) for ABC, the four-hour miniseries Final Descent for CBS and for ABC Medusa's Child, Bad As I Wanna Be and Ali, King of the World. This year's efforts include Bullet Train for CBS; for FOX, a four-hour miniseries based on the number-one bestseller Sole Survivor by Dean Koontz; First Daughter for Turner and Linda McCartney for CBS.

In just six months, Mandalay Media Arts, the third leg of Mandalay's Television activities, has established itself as a unique chronicler of natural history. Currently in release is Sahara for PBS, a two-hour High Definition television event. Also, the Smithsonian and IMAX 3D have both joined Mandalay in financing Galapagos, A Close Encounter, photographed in IMAX 3D underwater in the Galapagos Islands.

Guber is a full professor at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television and has been a member of the faculty for over 30 years. He is also a member of the UCLA Foundation Board of Trustees, as well as the winner of UCLA's prestigious Service Award for his accomplishments and association with the school. He received his honorary doctorate in Fine Arts from the University of Connecticut; was named Albert Gallatin Fellow at New York University; is a recipient of Syracuse University's Arent's Award, the highest honor that can be given an alumnus, for his distinguished work in film; and is also the recipient of USC's Dean's Award for National Business Leadership. Peter Guber is a sought-after speaker at numerous global events.