RICH BATTISTA
Through his long and accomplished career in the entertainment, media and sports industries, Rich Battista has distinguished himself as a proven, 5x CEO and a trusted Board Chairman/Director with significant experience and success operating, building, and revitalizing large-scale multi-platform companies, often within the nexus of content and technology. As a CEO, Rich transformed and sold two multi-billion dollar publicly traded companies including Time Inc., the world’s largest publishing company at the time with over 20 iconic brands such as TIME, PEOPLE, Sports Illustrated and Fortune.
Earlier in his career, Rich conceived of, built, and operated several highly valuable cable network businesses during his 18-year career within various Fox entertainment and sports divisions, ultimately serving as President of Fox’s portfolio of national sports and entertainment cable networks that included FX, National Geographic Channel, SPEED Channel, Fox Soccer Channel, Fox Deportes and Fox Sports Latin America.
Rich currently serves as Executive Chairman of Wave Sports & Entertainment, a leading next-generation digital content/podcast company and as Executive Chairman of ADWEEK, the leading multi-media platform covering the advertising and marketing industry. He also serves on the Boards of RB Media, the world’s largest audiobook publisher and The Teaching Company, owner of the video lifelong learning brand, The Great Courses. He is a co-founder and advisor to Swerve TV, a leading portfolio of sports FAST channels and serves as an advisor to The GIST, a leading sports media company that covers women’s and men’s sports equally.
Rich resides in Connecticut and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and an undergraduate degree from Georgetown University. In 2015, he was a recipient of Georgetown’s John Carroll Award, the University’s highest alumni honor.