Scott Neeson
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Scott Neeson is an Scottish Australian film executive and philanthropist.
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[edit] Early Life & career
Scott Neeson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. At age 5, he emigrated with his family to Australia.
He grew up in Adelaide, South Australia and started what was to be a long, successful career in the film business when he joined a company that operated local and rural drive-in theaters. He moved to Sydney to further his film career, joining the Greater Union Organization, a national cinema chain, in 1983. In a short time, he moved to head the film programming and buying of Hoyts Theater’s, then General Manager of a joint venture incorporating the release of films from 20th Century Fox, Columbia and TriStar and Hoyt’s local film productions.
[edit] 20th Century Fox
In 1993 he moved to Los Angeles, joining 20th Century Fox as head of international marketing. Neeson became President of International Theatrical in 2000, overseeing the releases of such film’s as Titanic, Star Wars, Braveheart, Independence Day, X-Men and over 100 other films.
[edit] Cambodian Children's Fund
He left Fox in 2003 to head Sony Pictures international marketing operation. In the 5 weeks between jobs, he took a mini-sabbatical through Asia, with a plan to travel from Bangkok through to India. A two day stop-over in Phnom Penh, Cambodia experiencing first-hand the plight of the city’s children, became a 4 week mission that started him on the path to found the Cambodian Children’s Fund.
Several early attempts at assisting the most impoverished children failed. Parents, lacking in any secure notions of the future, would remove their children from schools, preferring their children to be earning money on the streets of Phnom Penh. Likewise, the purchase of clothing, shoes and books became futile as parents quickly sold these items within days. These lessons eventually led Neeson to set up the Cambodian Children’s Fund facility, a center dedicated to providing for the most neglected and impoverished children.
Neeson left Cambodia in September of 2003, to start his new role at Sony Pictures but the impact of the charitable work and the potential to help so many gnawed at him. During the following 12 months, while running Sony’s marketing operations, he made monthly trips to Cambodia to progress the work of the CCF. It became apparent that incorporating a senior film industry position with the charitable work in Cambodia was not an option. The decision to leave a flourishing film career and the many trappings it provided, was a decision of the heart. Neeson started the process of the long term move to Cambodia, selling his home, car, boat and other assets.
All initial costs for the establishment and operation of the CCF facility were covered by Scott Neeson, who now acts as full-time Executive Director of the organization. The hardest part he says is learning to say no to cases of real hardship, due to the limitations of space and money. Neeson’s longer term plan, once funding is in place for the current center, is to establish satellite facilities of the Phnom Penh operations in the key regions of Cambodia.
