Gregory Edmund Fischbach (born April 29, 1942) is an American Internet entrepreneur, attorney, business executive, co-founder of video communication and content sharing company Rabbit and video game publisher

Acclaim Entertainment Acclaim Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game publisher based in Glen Cove, New York. Originally formed by Greg Fischbach, Robert Holmes and Jim Scoroposki out of an Oyster Bay storefront in 1987, the company established a worldwide ...

(1987), he had managed the company for 16 years as the CEO. Fischbach addressed the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

regarding

Internet privacy Internet privacy involves the right or mandate of personal privacy concerning the storing, re-purposing, provision to third parties, and displaying of information pertaining to oneself via Internet. Internet privacy is a subset of data privacy. Pr ...

and

ESRB The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is a self-regulatory organization that assigns age and content ratings to consumer video games in the United States and Canada. The ESRB was established in 1994 by the Entertainment Software Asso ...

ratings.

Education

In 1963, Fischbach received his B.S. degree in economics from SF State University. He earned his J.D. from the

University of California, Hastings College of the Law The University of California, Hastings College of the Law (UC Hastings) is a public law school in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1878 by Serranus Clinton Hastings, UC Hastings was the first law school of the University of California as ...

in 1966. Following an experience as a

Peace Corps The Peace Corps is an independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to provide international development assistance. It was established in March 1961 by an executive order of President John F ...

volunteer in

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whos ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

, Fischbach started work as a trial attorney with the

Civil Rights Division The U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division is the institution within the federal government responsible for enforcing federal statutes prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, sex, disability, religion, and national origin. T ...

of the

Department of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

and afterwards was an Assistant

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Attorney for the Central District of

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

Career

Fischbach & Fischbach

He commenced private practice with the law firms Orenstein, Arrow, Silverman and Parcher, a firm primarily engaged in representing record companies, music publishers and recording artists. In the mid-1970s, he founded the firm of Fischbach and Fischbach around several key artists including Crosby, Stills and Nash,

Thin Lizzy Thin Lizzy are an Irish hard rock band formed in Dublin in 1969. Their music reflects a wide range of influences, including blues, soul music, psychedelic rock and traditional Irish folk music, but is generally classified as hard rock or som ...

, Emmylou Harris,

Merle Haggard Merle Ronald Haggard (April 6, 1937 – April 6, 2016) was an American country music singer, songwriter, guitarist, and fiddler. Haggard was born in Oildale, California, toward the end of the Great Depression. His childhood was troubled a ...

JJ Cale John Weldon "J. J." Cale (December 5, 1938 – July 26, 2013) was an American guitarist, singer, songwriter and sound engineer. Though he avoided the limelight, his influence as a musical artist has been acknowledged by figures such as Mark Knop ...

, Boz Scaggs, and

Gram Parsons Ingram Cecil Connor III (November 5, 1946 – September 19, 1973) who was known professionally as Gram Parsons, was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and pianist who recorded as a solo artist and with the International Submarine Band, ...

amongst others; record labels (including Richard Branson's

Virgin Group Virgin Group Ltd. is a British multinational venture capital conglomerate founded by Richard Branson and Nik Powell in February 1970. Virgin Group's date of incorporation is listed as 1989 by the Companies House, who class it as a holding co ...

Records, Chrysalis Records and

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it i ...

) and music publishers and, at the same time, managed The

Steve Miller Band The Steve Miller Band is an American rock band formed in 1966 in San Francisco, California. The band is led by Steve Miller on guitar and lead vocals. The group had a string of mid- to late-1970s hit singles that are staples of classic rock, as ...

RCA Records and Activision International

He served as President of

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 ...

International between 1986 and 1987, President of

Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one ...

International and a member of its Management Committee from 1983 to 1986.

Acclaim Entertainment

In 1987, Greg Fischbach co-founded

Inc., a NASDAQ-listed company engaged in the video game business between 1987 and 2004. He was its Co-Chairman and CEO. Fischbach was the CEO of Acclaim Entertainment until 2003. After Fischbach's resignation Rod Cousens became his successor and steered to 2004. For 10 years of Acclaim's work (1990-2000), the video game company released variety of well-known titles such as the Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam series, before Acclaim folded in 2004.

ESA and ESRB

Fischbach was one of the co-Founders of the ESA (

Entertainment Software Association The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) is the trade association of the video game industry in the United States. It was formed in April 1994 as the Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA) and renamed on July 21, 2003. It is based in ...

) and ESRB ( Entertainment Software Rating Board) in the mid-1990s, and served as its Chairman for two years. The former is the videogame industry association which acts in part as a lobbying group; the later is the industry rating board, which is a non-profit, self-regulatory body that independently assigns content ratings, and enforces advertising guidelines for the videogame industry. Fischbach served on the boards of these organizations from 1994 to 2004.

Hampton Farms Ventures

Fischbach is a Founder and Managing Partner of Hampton Farms Ventures, formed in the Fall of 2004. Hampton Farms advises, invests and consults with companies in technology, media, games and entertainment. He is Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Yoostar Entertainment and a member of its executive committee.

Personal life

Gregory Fischbach is married to Linda Fischbach. Together they have a son Benjamin David Fischbach, who graduated from the

University of Vermont The University of Vermont (UVM), officially the University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, is a public land-grant research university in Burlington, Vermont. It was founded in 1791 and is among the oldest universities in the United ...

. He worked as a

brand manager A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...

. Fischbach's wife Linda is a sales associate for

Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

International Real Estate. The family lives in New York.

References

External links

''Privacy In the Digital Age: Discussion of Issues Surrounding the Internet'' (Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, April 21, 1999)

''Testimony of Gregory Fischbach, Founder/Co-Chairman/CEO Acclaim Entertainment, Inc., Before the Senate Committee On Commerce, September 13, 2000'' (PDF)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fischbach, Greg San Francisco State University alumni University of California, Hastings College of the Law alumni Living people 1942 births