Steve Ross (Time Warner CEO)

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Steve Ross (September 17, 1927 - December 20, 1992) was responsible for the 1990 merger of Warner Communications and Time Inc. into the world's largest media and entertainment conglomerate, Time Warner.

Ross was born Steven Jay Rechnitz in Brooklyn, New York to Jewish immigrant parents.[1] The family name was changed by Ross's father in 1932.[2] Ross enlisted in the U.S. Navy in June 1945 and was discharged in 1946.[2] Ross later claimed that he suffered a hearing loss due to his combat service but he never served in combat and spent only seven days at sea, mostly taking the USS Hopping to Florida for decommissioning.[2] Ross followed his World War II-era naval service with studies at Paul Smith's College (located in Paul Smiths, New York).

Kinney Parking Company was originally a funeral home company which had expanded with the acquisition of New York parking lots, office cleaning firms and construction companies. Joining Kinney when he married the owner's daughter, Carol Rosenthal (in 1954), Ross succeeded in expanding his father-in-law's funeral company.

In 1958, he began arranging an alliance between the Manhattan-based funeral business and New Jersey's Kinney System. The companies merged in 1962. After Kinney National Service moved from downtown Newark to 10 Rockefeller Plaza in November, 1962, Ross became the company president. Ross was the co-CEO of Kinney National Company from 1969 to 1972. He became the sole CEO, president and chairman of Warner Communications in 1972.

In 1982, Ross was accused by federal prosecutor Nathaniel H. Akerman of having Warner assistant treasurer Solomon Weiss, who had followed Ross from Kinney, act as the "banker or overseer of a secret cash fund" of $170,000 in bribes.[3] The accusation came at Weiss' trial for mail fraud, racketeering, perjury and tax violations stemming from Warner Communications investments in the Westchester Premier Theater, a joint venture of the Colombo, Gambino, and Genovese crime syndicates.[3][4] Weiss, and two other Warner executives—Jay Emmett and Leonard Horwitz—were all convicted of crimes related to the affair.[5] Although Emmett implicated Ross, he was never indicted and the federal investigation of him was closed in 1985 due to "insufficient evidence" to obtain a conviction.[4][5]

The merger of Time Inc. and Warner Communications, Inc., which began in 1989, was finalized on January 10, 1990. In 1990, Ross took home a record $78.2 million in total pay.

When Ross died from prostate cancer at the age of 65 in the last weeks of 1992, Gerald Levin stepped in January 21, 1993, as Time Warner's sole CEO.

He is inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2003, as one of the founders of the New York Cosmos.

His second wife was the socialite and urban planner Amanda Burden.

Director Steven Spielberg gave actor Liam Neeson (who, at 6'4", was the same height as Ross) tapes of Steve Ross to use as research for his role as Oskar Schindler in the film Schindler's List.

He is buried in Green River Cemetery in East Hampton (town), New York.

Donations from his estate were to establish school the The Ross School, located in East Hampton, New York and The Ross Global Academy in New York City.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Anonymous (1993). Steven J. Ross (HTML). Newsmakers 1993, Issue 4. Gale Research. Retrieved on 2007-03-23.
  2. ^ a b c Anonymous (2001). Steven J. Ross (HTML). The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives, Volume 3: 1991-1993.. Charles Scribner's Sons. Retrieved on 2007-03-23.
  3. ^ a b Lubasch, Arnold H. (1982-11-04), “Prosecutor Links Chief At Warner to Bribe Plan”, New York Times: D1 
  4. ^ a b Poundstone, William (2005). Fortune's Formula. New York: Hill and Wang, 250-252. 0-8090-4637-7. 
  5. ^ a b Lubasch, Arnold H. (1982-11-28), “Warner Executive Convicted of Fraud in Purchase of Theater Stock”, New York Times: 42 

[edit] See also

  • Master of the Game: Steve Ross and the Creation of Time Warner by Connie Bruck (Simon & Schuster, 1994)