Michael E. Kassan (born December 11, 1950) is a digital media expert, entrepreneur, commentator, and adviser to media companies. Kassan is the founder and CEO o
MediaLink

Biography

After receiving his BA from UCLA, JD from

Southwestern Law School Southwestern Law School is a private law school in Mid-Wilshire, Los Angeles. It is accredited by the American Bar Association and enrolls nearly 1,000 students. Its campus includes the Bullocks Wilshire building, an art deco National Register ...

and LLM-Taxation from

NYU New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-United States Secretary of the Treasu ...

, Kassan began his career as a tax lawyer in the entertainment industry where he practiced for over 10 years. Kassan is married to Ronnie and has three children, Alex, Brett and Adam.

Business career

After several entrepreneurial ventures, Kassan become the largest franchisee of

El Pollo Loco El Pollo Loco (Spanish for "The Crazy Chicken") is the name of two independent restaurant chains that specialize in Mexican-style grilled chicken. Both were founded by Juan Francisco Ochoa. He established the first El Pollo Loco restaurant in G ...

and Rally’s Hamburgers in Southern California, Northern California, and

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

. In 1986, Kassan entered the entertainment business as the President and COO of

International Video Entertainment Artisan Entertainment (formerly known as U.S.A. Home Video, International Video Entertainment (IVE) and LIVE Entertainment) was an American film studio and home video company. It was considered one of the largest mini-major film studios until ...

, a home video company which now comprises a large portion of

Lionsgate Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment company. It was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is currently headquartered ...

. In 1994, Kassan joined Initiative Media Worldwide as President/COO and Vice-Chairman. In that role, Kassan emphasized strategic management of diversified portfolios and helped grow media billings from $1.5 billion to over $10 billion. In 1997, he was named one of the top media executives in America by '' Advertising Age Magazine''. In 2019, Kassan was inducted into the American Advertising Federation’s Hall of Fame, which is considered the highest honor in advertising. In 2018 was honored on Adweek’s “Power 100” list and on Variety’s index of the 500 most influential business leaders shaping the global entertainment industry. Michael has also been named to The Hollywood Reporter’s “Silicon Beach 25” 2list of the most powerful digital players in L.A.

MediaLink

Kassan founded MediaLink in 2003 as advertising, marketing, content, sales, service and commerce become more closely linked through technology. In 2017, Ascential plc acquired MediaLink in a deal valued at up to $207 million, expanding the company’s purview to a global stage. It has over 125 operators working out of offices in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and London. The company now offers agency reviews, executive search, talent advisory, data and technology solutions, corporate and brand transformation, trade marketing and financial due diligence. In 2021, MediaLink was acquired by

United Talent Agency United Talent Agency (UTA) is a global talent agency based in Beverly Hills, California. Established in 1991, it represents artists and other professionals across the entertainment industry. , the company has more than 1,400 global employees. U ...

, bringing together MediaLink’s strategic advisory services with one of the world’s largest talent agencies. Since 2010, MediaLink has become a leader in steering large advertisers through ad agency review processes.

Media career

Michael hosts the podcast, “Good Company with Michael Kassan.” That show is produced by Kassan and the iHeartRadio Podcast Networks, and is distributed via the iHeartRadio App, Apple’s podcasts app and multiple other outlets. Kassan is a keynote speaker, moderator and blogger. His blog post highlighting measurement in media mix modeling prompted the radio industry to take out a full-page advert in the ''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

''. Kassan has appeared as an industry expert in

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

, ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'',

Ad Week ''Adweek'' is a weekly American advertising trade publication that was first published in 1979. ''Adweek'' covers creativity, client–agency relationships, global advertising, accounts in review, and new campaigns. During this time, it has cover ...

Ad Age ''Ad Age'' (known as ''Advertising Age'' until 2017) is a global media brand that publishes news, analysis, and data on marketing and media. Its namesake magazine was started as a broadsheet newspaper in Chicago in 1930. ''Ad Age'' appears in mul ...

, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', and the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

''. He served as a Special Adviser to Buddy Media through its ultimate acquisition by

Salesforce.com Salesforce, Inc. is an American cloud-based software company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It provides customer relationship management (CRM) software and applications focused on sales, customer service, marketing automation, an ...

. In addition he has served as a special advisor and/or investor for a long list of media and technology startups, including Vidmob, Boostr, Mass Appeal, Wonderly and Encatos

Community involvement

Kassan serves as Chair of the UJA-New York Marketing Communications Committee, Co-Chair of the Advertising Hall of Achievement, on the Board of the National Association of Television Program Executives, the Global Advisory Board of the Wharton Future of Advertising Program, and a Director on the Board of the

Ad Council The Advertising Council, commonly known as the Ad Council, is an American nonprofit organization that produces, distributes, and promotes public service announcements on behalf of various sponsors, including nonprofit organizations, non-governme ...

. Kassan sits on the board of the

San Diego Zoo The San Diego Zoo is a zoo in Balboa Park, San Diego, California, housing 4000 animals of more than 650 species and subspecies on of Balboa Park leased from the City of San Diego. Its parent organization, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, is a p ...

and previously served as Chairman of the California State Senate Select Committee on the Entertainment Industry. He has been actively involved with the H.E.L.P. Group, a non-profit organization serving children with special needs, and the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program of Los Angeles.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kassan, Michael American businesspeople Living people 1950 births