Gerry Byrne
Vice Chairman, PMC (Penske Media Corporation)
Mr. Byrne served as a Marine Officer in Vietnam in 1968/69 and was awarded the Navy Achievement Medal with Combat V.
Penske Media owns leading digital media brands that include Deadline Hollywood, Hollywood Life, MovieLine, TVLine and India.com (partnered with Zee TV). Additionally, Byrne’s media and entertainment consultancy, Fidelis Global, launched in January, 2010, has partnerships, clients and board seats that include: Black Ocean Investments, a privately held media and technology company that invests in, incubates and operates next generation digital platforms; film financing newco Magic Storm Entertainment (with China based Ricco Capital and Stan Lee’s POW! Entertainment); 212 Media; David Clark Cause; Recognition Media (parent of the Webby Awards); and, Washington Life Magazine where he serves as Executive Chairman. Byrne’s decades of accomplishments as a media executive, entrepreneur and community leader are highlighted by a long time run as publisher of Variety where he dramatically transformed that business into a powerful, diversified, global media brand. The start-up publisher of both Electronic Media and Crin’s New York Business, Byrne also successfully created The Quill Awards for NBC before he led a division of Nielsen that included The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard.
A staunch believer in “participation”, Mr. Byrne is on the boards of numerous not-for-profits including The Fisher House Foundation, The Intrepid Museum Foundation, VeteransAdvantage, The Veteran’s Healing Initiative, RE-Mind (The Bob Woodruff Foundation), The Fisher Center for Alzheimer’s Research Foundation, The Creative Coalition, The Hamptons International Film Festival, The Reisenbach Foundation (Chairman), The Armory Foundation and The New York City Police Museum. Mr. Byrne was awarded the “Salah M. Hassanein Humanitarian Award” at ShowEast ’96, New York’s Elaine Kaufman Cultural Center’s 2002 Distinguished Service Award and the NYPD Marine Corps Association 2002 “Semper Fi” Award for his work in the community. And in June 2009, NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg presented Mr. Byrne the “Made in New York” Award for his support of the Gotham’s entertainment and media industries. Mr. Byrne is a member of The British Academy of Film & Television Arts, The New York Athletic Club, and The Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick.
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