Philippe Pierre Dauman (born March 1, 1954) is an American businessman who served as President, CEO and Chairman of Viacom from September 2006 until May 20, 2016. Dauman was a longtime associate of the company's chairman

Sumner Redstone Sumner Murray Redstone ( Rothstein; May 27, 1923 – August 11, 2020) was an American billionaire businessman and media magnate. He was the founder and chairman of the second incarnation of Viacom which was dissolved in 2019 (a year before Redst ...

. Dauman served from 1994 to 2000 as a member of Viacom's executive committee and as executive vice president in charge of strategic transactions, legal and government affairs, human resources and administration, supervising

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

Entertainment,

Showtime Networks Showtime Networks Inc. is an American entertainment company that oversees the company's premium cable television channels, including its flagship service Showtime. It is a subsidiary of media conglomerate Paramount Global under its networks uni ...

and

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publi ...

. Dauman was also a director at Redstone-owned

CBS Corporation The second incarnation of CBS Corporation (the first being a short-lived rename of the Westinghouse Electric Corporation) was an American multinational media conglomerate with interests primarily in commercial broadcasting, publishing, an ...

until September 2006. In February 2016, Viacom's board elected Dauman as Redstone's replacement as chairman.

Early life and education

Dauman was born and raised in New York City. He is the son of ''Life'' magazine photographer Henri Dauman, a

Holocaust survivor Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and its allies before and during World War II in Europe and North Africa. There is no universally accep ...

who emigrated from France to the United States in the 1950s. At 13, he got a perfect score on the SAT. At

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...

he fell in love with his roommate's sister, who would become his wife.Brigid McMenamin, The Trophy Lawyers, Forbes, November 6, 1995, 132. Dauman married Deborah Ross in September 1977. Dauman graduated from

Columbia University School of Law Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...

in 1978.

Career

After graduating from Columbia, Dauman went to work for the law firm of

Shearman & Sterling Shearman & Sterling LLP is a multinational law firm headquartered in New York City, United States. The firm's lawyers come from some 80 countries, speak more than 60 languages and practice US, English, EU, French, Spanish, German, Hong Kong, OH ...

. After two years in the firm's Paris office, he returned to New York to work in the corporate group under partner Stephen Volk. Handling a routine

Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...

form 13D filing for Volk client

, in 1986 led to an advisory role in Redstone's 1987

hostile takeover In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are listed on a stock exchange, in contrast to t ...

of Viacom, a close personal relationship with Redstone, and a seat on Viacom's

board of directors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit orga ...

. Six years later, Dauman accepted an offer to join Viacom as senior vice president and

general counsel A general counsel, also known as chief counsel or chief legal officer (CLO), is the chief in-house lawyer for a company or a governmental department. In a company, the person holding the position typically reports directly to the CEO, and their ...

, in exchange for $553,000 in salary with a $900,000 bonus. In 1994, he earned $2.3 million, plus options worth millions more. He was Viacom's general counsel from 1993 to 1998. In 2009, Dauman and Viacom launched the Get Schooled education initiative with the

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), a merging of the William H. Gates Foundation and the Gates Learning Foundation, is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was ...

, an effort to have American public school students not drop out of school. He also hosted the Get Schooled education conference on September 8, 2009. Dauman is a member of the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motion ...

and is President and Treasurer of The Philippe and Deborah Dauman Family Foundation, which focuses on education and health. He formerly was a director of Lafarge, and on the Board of Directors of the

KIPP Foundation The Knowledge is Power Program, commonly known as KIPP, is a network of free open-enrollment college-preparatory schools in low income communities throughout the United States. KIPP is America's largest network of charter schools. The head of ...

, a national network of free, open-enrollment, college-preparatory public schools in underserved communities. He was also a member of the

Business Roundtable The Business Roundtable (BRT) is a nonprofit lobbyist association based in Washington, D.C. whose members are chief executive officers of major United States companies. Unlike the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, whose members are entire businesses, B ...

and served on the Executive Committee of the

National Cable & Telecommunications Association NCTA – The Internet & Television Association (formerly the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, and commonly known as the NCTA) is the principal trade association for the U.S. broadband and pay television industries. It represents ...

, the Board of Trustees for The

Paley Center for Media The Paley Center for Media, formerly the Museum of Television & Radio (MT&R) and the Museum of Broadcasting, founded in 1975 by William S. Paley, is an American cultural institution in New York with a branch office in Los Angeles, dedicated to ...

, the Board of Trustees of

Northwell Health Northwell Health is a nonprofit integrated healthcare network that is New York State's largest healthcare provider and private employer, with more than 81,000 employees. The flagship hospitals of Northwell are North Shore University Hosp ...

, the Executive Committee of the

Lenox Hill Hospital Lenox Hill Hospital (LHH) is a nationally ranked 450-bed non-profit, tertiary, research and academic medical center located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, servicing the tri-state area. LHH is one of the region's many unive ...

and the Board of Trustees and Dean's Council of

. Dauman took a tough stance on the reproduction of Viacom's content when Viacom sued

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

co-founder Chad Hurley and was interested in working out a deal. Dauman and Chad could not agree over advertising terms however.

Legal issues

On May 20, 2016, Dauman and George S. Abrams were removed from the trust that will control Redstone's media empire. Dauman said in a statement: "These steps are invalid and illegal. As court proceedings and other facts have demonstrated, Sumner Redstone now lacks the capacity to have taken these steps. Sumner Redstone would never have summarily dismissed Philippe Dauman and George Abrams, his trusted friends and advisers for decades". The statement also said that Dauman and Abrams' removal is "...a shameful effort by

Shari Redstone Shari Ellin Redstone (born April 14, 1954) is an American media executive with a background in numerous aspects of the entertainment industry and related ventures. She currently serves as the non-executive chairwoman of Paramount Global (formerly ...

to seize control by unlawfully using her ailing father Sumner Redstone’s name and signature." Dauman filed suit against Shari Redstone in an effort to keep his position on the Trust. The suit was settled and Dauman stepped down in August, 2016.

Personal life

In 1977, Dauman married Deborah Ross, in an Episcopalian church. They have two children, Philippe, Jr., and Alexandre.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dauman, Philippe Living people American chief executives in the media industry Yale University alumni Columbia Law School alumni 1954 births 21st-century American businesspeople American people of French-Jewish descent People associated with Shearman & Sterling Paramount Global people American chief executives of Fortune 500 companies