Clive Ian Calder (born 13 December 1946) is a South African-born British

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American busin ...

record executive and businessman primarily known for co-founding the

Zomba Group Zomba may refer to: Places Hungary * Zomba, Hungary, village Malawi *Zomba, Malawi, city * Zomba District * Zomba Massif, mountain *Roman Catholic Diocese of Zomba * Zomba (meteorite), see Meteorite fall Other * 1468 Zomba, an asteroid *Zomb ...

with

Ralph Simon Ralph Simon, FRSA, is a business executive, first in the music industry, and now in the mobile entertainment industry. Early life He was raised in Johannesburg, South Africa where he went to the University of the Witwatersrand, and left South Afri ...

, and its subsidiary

Jive Records Jive Records was an American independent record label founded by Clive Calder in 1981 as a subsidiary to the Zomba Group. In the US, the label had offices in New York City and Chicago. Jive was best known for its successes with hip hop, R&B, an ...

. As of October 2021, Calder has an estimated net worth of US$5.5 billion.

Early life

Calder was born in and grew up in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

, South Africa.

Career

Calder started his first record company in 1971 in South Africa with

. By 1975, Calder and Simon had relocated to London and established Zomba as an artist and producer management company. By 1978, Zomba had expanded to include music publishing and opened offices in New York City. In 1981 Calder and Simon formed their first record label Jive, and Calder began to create a name for Jive as an important outlet for hip hop and rap music with the help of new hire

Barry Weiss Barry Weiss (born February 11, 1959) is an American music executive and producer who is currently an executive with RECORDS, a label he co-founded. He got his start at Clive Calder's Jive Records before working his way up to the head of the ...

. Jive's success was followed by Silvertone Records in 1988 and countless others throughout the nineties. After an unspecified "ethical disagreement," Calder bought Simon's stake in Zomba and became the sole owner in 1990. In the late nineties, Jive expanded its success to include teen pop phenomenons such as the

Backstreet Boys Backstreet Boys (often abbreviated as BSB) are an American vocal group consisting of Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, AJ McLean, and cousins Brian Littrell and Kevin Richardson. Lou Pearlman formed the group in 1993 in Orlando, Florida. The gr ...

, *NSYNC and

Britney Spears Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American singer. Often referred to as the " Princess of Pop", she is credited with influencing the revival of teen pop during the late 1990s and early 2000s. After appearing in stage productio ...

, all of which topped the charts. In 2002 he sold Zomba for US$2.74 billion to the German-based media group

Bertelsmann Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA () is a German private multinational conglomerate corporation based in Gütersloh, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is one of the world's largest media conglomerates, and is also active in the service sector and ...

. Though Calder was offered a position within the newly restructured

Zomba Label Group RCA/Jive Label Group was a short-lived American record label group, owned by Sony Music Entertainment and representing the merger of the RCA Music Group and Jive Label Group. The umbrella group was formed in 2007 under the name BMG Label Group, ...

, he instead chose to stay on temporarily as an advisor during the integration period, and eventually left the music business in 2003. The Zomba Label Group, which had been founded by BMG as parent for all Zomba labels in 2004, was integrated with all its labels into

BMG Label Group RCA/Jive Label Group was a short-lived American record label group, owned by Sony Music Entertainment and representing the merger of the RCA Music Group and Jive Label Group. The umbrella group was formed in 2007 under the name BMG Label Group, ...

in 2007, while at the same time the Zomba brand ceased to exist. In 2009 the group was renamed as

RCA/Jive Label Group RCA/Jive Label Group was a short-lived American record label group, owned by Sony Music Entertainment and representing the merger of the RCA Music Group and Jive Label Group. The umbrella group was formed in 2007 under the name BMG Label Group, w ...

under

Sony Music Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainment ...

, and in October 2011,

, as well as the whole Jive brand, was discontinued, with their most successful artists being moved to

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also A ...

and partly to

Epic Records Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America Sony Corporation of America (SONAM, also known as SCA), is the American arm of the Japanese conglomerate Sony Group ...

. In 2018, Calder and his son Keith invested $46 million into

Cloud Imperium Games file:Cloud Imperium Games logo.svg, Logo Cloud Imperium Games ''Star Citizen'' is an in-development multiplayer, space trading and combat simulation game. The game is being developed and published by Cloud Imperium Games for Microsoft Windows. An ...

, taking a 10% stake in the studio behind the ''Star Citizen'' game.

Personal life

Calder is married to Patricia Calder, with whom he has two children. They live in the

Cayman Islands The Cayman Islands () is a self-governing British Overseas Territory—the largest by population in the western Caribbean Sea. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, which are located to the ...

. In May 2020, the ELMA Group of Foundations, which was founded by Calder and supports children's health and education initiatives around the world, pledged $107 million to fight

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

in Africa. Around $26 million of this was allocated to fight the pandemic in South Africa, his birth country.

References

External links

Music Industry OnlineBBC Online
{{DEFAULTSORT:Calder, Clive Ian 1946 births Living people British businesspeople British billionaires British music industry executives People from Johannesburg Zomba Group of Companies