David Maisel is an American film and Broadway producer, entertainment businessman and the architect of the self-financed and self-producing

Marvel Studios Marvel Studios, LLC (originally known as Marvel Films from 1993 to 1996) is an American film and television production company that is a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, a division of the Walt Disney Company. Marvel Studios produces the Mar ...

. He is the

executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the making of a commercial entertainment product. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights o ...

of ''Iron Man'', ''

The Incredible Hulk The Hulk is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in the debut issue of '' The Incredible Hulk'' (May 1962). In his comic book a ...

'', ''

Iron Man 2 ''Iron Man 2'' is a 2010 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Iron Man. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures, it is the sequel to ''Iron Man (2008 film), Iron Man'' (2008) and List of Marve ...

'', ''

Thor Thor (; from non, Þórr ) is a prominent god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred groves and trees, strength, the protection of humankind, hallowing, an ...

'', '' Captain America: The First Avenger'', and ''

The Angry Birds Movie ''The Angry Birds Movie'' (also known simply as ''Angry Birds'') is a 2016 computer-animated comedy film based on Rovio Entertainment's video game series of the same name, produced by Columbia Pictures and Rovio Animation, and distributed by S ...

''. At the helm of

Livent The Live Entertainment Corporation of Canada, better known as Livent, was a theatre production company based in Toronto, Ontario. Founded in 1989 by former Cineplex Odeon executives Garth Drabinsky and Myron Gottlieb, the company initially found ...

, Maisel won the

Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual cer ...

for Best Musical for the Broadway production, Fosse.

Early life

David Maisel was raised in

Saratoga Springs, New York Saratoga Springs is a city in Saratoga County, New York, United States. The population was 28,491 at the 2020 census. The name reflects the presence of mineral springs in the area, which has made Saratoga a popular resort destination for over 2 ...

. He graduated from

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

and then earned an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. His first job was with

Boston Consulting Group Boston Consulting Group, Inc. (BCG) is an American global management consulting firm founded in 1963 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the Big Three (or MBB, the world’s three largest management consulting firms by rev ...

where he advised entertainment companies.

Career

Maisel joined

Creative Artists Agency Creative Artists Agency LLC (CAA) is an American talent and sports agency based in Los Angeles, California. It is regarded as an influential company in the talent agency business and manages numerous clients. In March 2016, CAA had 1,800 emplo ...

in 1994 as a corporate advisory agent working with Michael Ovitz, the agency's founder and CEO. Maisel assisted in Matsushita’s sale of entertainment conglomerate MCA/

Universal Universal is the adjective for universe. Universal may also refer to: Companies * NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company ** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of NBCUniversal ** Universal TV, a ...

Seagram The Seagram Company Ltd. (which traded as Seagram's) was a Canadian multinational conglomerate formerly headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. Originally a distiller of Canadian whisky based in Waterloo, Ontario, it was once (in the 1990s) the lar ...

in 1995. When Ovitz joined Walt Disney Company as president in 1995, the company also added Maisel as its Director of Corporate Development and Strategic Planning. When Ovitz left Disney he invited Maisel to plan his next venture. Ovitz acquired a minority stake in the largest publicly traded live-theater company,

, and named Maisel President. While at Livent, Maisel produced the Broadway show, Fosse, which won a Tony Award for Best Musical in 1999. Maisel restructured the company and then engineered the sale of Livent to SFX in 1999 for $100 to $110 million. From 1999 to 2001, Maisel was Managing Director of chello, Europe’s largest broadband-service provider. In 2001, Maisel joined

Endeavor Talent Agency The Endeavor Talent Agency was a Beverly Hills-based talent agency founded by Ari Emanuel, Rick Rosen, Tom Strickler, and David Greenblatt. It was launched in March 1995 and went on to represent a wide variety of acclaimed film and television sta ...

to lead its corporate strategy and business development efforts.

Marvel Studios

In 2003, Maisel pitched Marvel Studios’ CEO and Chairman, Avi Arad and then pitched CEO,

Isaac Perlmutter Isaac "Ike" Perlmutter ( he, יצחק "אייק" פרלמוטר; born December 1, 1942) is an Israeli-American billionairehttps://www.forbes.com/profile/isaac-perlmutter businessman and financier. He is the chairman and former CEO of Marvel Enter ...

, on his idea of Marvel financing and producing its own movies in a connected cinematic universe. Perlmutter hired Maisel as Marvel Studios’ President. To execute his plan, Maisel engineered a slate-structure financing to total $525 million. In 2005, Maisel was promoted to Vice Chairman of Marvel Studios and, in 2006, Maisel was also elevated to the Office of the CEO of Marvel Entertainment. Maisel was promoted to Marvel Studios’ Chairman in 2007 and oversaw the launch of the first Iron Man franchise film in 2008. In 2009, Maisel arranged the sale of Marvel to Disney for $4 billion. In 2015, Marvel and Disney recognized and thanked Maisel as the Founding Chairman of Marvel Studios in the credits of '' Avengers: Age of Ultron''.

Post-Marvel

In July 2011, Maisel was hired by

Rovio Entertainment Rovio Entertainment Oyj (formerly Relude Oy and Rovio Mobile Oy and doing business internationally as the Rovio Entertainment Corporation) is a Finnish video game developer based in Espoo. Founded in 2003 by Helsinki University of Technology s ...

to lead its efforts to make an ''

Angry Birds ''Angry Birds'' is a Finnish action-based media franchise created by Rovio Entertainment. The game series focuses on the eponymous flock of angry birds who try to save their eggs from green-colored pigs. Inspired by the game ''Crush the Castl ...

'' movie as Special Advisor and Executive Producer of ''

''. The film hit #1 for its opening weekend in May 2016 and grossed $350 million in worldwide box office receipts. In 2018, ''

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 ...

'' reported that Maisel partnered with

Scooter Braun Scott Samuel "Scooter" Braun (born June 18, 1981) is an American entrepreneur, investor, and entertainment executive. Known as the manager for artists such as Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, J Balvin, Demi Lovato, The Kid Laroi and other artists ...

to launch Mythos Studios, which acquired half of

Aspen Comics Aspen Comics (Aspen MLT Inc.) is a California entertainment company founded in 2003 by artist Michael Turner. It has locations in Santa Monica and Marina Del Rey. The company is best known for producing comic books and figurines. History The co ...

. Along with its stake, Mythos holds the entertainment rights to Aspen's properties including the Fathom and Soulfire comic book series, both of which are in development at Mythos. In June 2018, Mythos announced an additional animated film about mythological god, Cupid, starring

Justin Bieber Justin Drew Bieber ( ; born March 1, 1994) is a Canadian singer. Bieber is recognized for his genre-melding musicianship and has played an influential role in modern-day popular music. He was discovered by American record executive Scooter ...

voice talent Voice acting is the art of performing voice-overs to present a character or provide information to an audience. Performers are called voice actors/actresses, voice artists, dubbing artists, voice talent, voice-over artists, or voice-over talent ...

. Cupid is one film in a cinematic universe, termed Mythos Studios' "MythoVerse".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Maisel, David American chief executives American chief operating officers American film producers American film studio executives American theatre managers and producers Duke University alumni Film producers from California Harvard Business School alumni Living people Marvel Studios people Year of birth missing (living people)