Background and career
Howard Peter Guber (born March 1, 1942) is an American film producer, business executive, entrepreneur, educator, and author. He is chairman and CEO of Mandalay Entertainment. By 2001, Guber's films had grossed over $3 billion worldwide and received 50 Academy Award nominations. Guber holds minority ownership in five professional sports teams: the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association, the Golden State Valkyries of the Women's National Basketball Association, the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball, Los Angeles Football Club of Major League Soccer, and the professional eSports organization aXiomatic Gaming, with a controlling interest in one of the world's premier eSports franchises, Team Liquid. He is also co-executive chairman of the Golden State Warriors. Guber formerly served as chairman of Dick Clark Productions, which produces the American Music Awards, the Golden Globe Awards, and other shows. He was also chairman of the Strategic Board; was an investor in NextVR, which was sold to Apple in 2020; and is chairman of Mandalay Sports Media. He is co-executive chairman of aXiomatic, a broad-based esports and gaming company. He is a Regent of the University of California and a professor at the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television and the UCLA Anderson School of Management. For ten years, Guber was an entertainment and media analyst for Fox Business. Guber's most recent business book, Tell to Win: Connect, Persuade, and Triumph with the Hidden Power of Story, became a No. 1 New York Times bestseller. Guber is also noted for other books that include Inside the Deep and Shootout: Surviving Fame and (Mis)Fortune in Hollywood, which became a television series on AMC called Shootout. Guber hosted the show from 2003 to 2008 with Peter Bart, editor of Variety. Guber wrote a cover article for the Harvard Business Review, titled "The Four Truths of the Storyteller".
Guber was born into a Jewish family in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Ruth (née Anshen) and Sam Guber (married in 1929). His father owned a junk business in Somerville, Massachusetts. He attended John Ward Elementary School and Newton North High School. Following high school graduation, Guber enrolled in the pre-law curriculum at Syracuse University. He played intramural football and rushed the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity. Guber spent his junior year abroad at Syracuse's Florence, Italy, campus. At Syracuse, he met his future wife, Tara Lynda Francine Gellis, whom he married in 1964. Guber enrolled at New York University, where he earned his J.D. and LL.M. law degrees, studying for his MBA at night. As he neared graduation in 1968, Guber accepted a position with Columbia Pictures as a management trainee.
Guber joined Columbia Pictures in 1968 as an assistant to Jerry Tokofsky, who headed the studio's creative affairs department, which had the tasks of evaluating scripts and overseeing actors, directors, and producers. Tokofsky later spoke warmly of Guber's usefulness to him. A year after arriving at Columbia, Guber, having witnessed a demonstration of an early video cassette machine, published "The New Ballgame/The Cartridge Revolution", an analysis of the changes to be wrought by home video technology, in the journal Cinema. Guber was transferred to the business affairs division. Guber paid to fly himself to Columbia's New York City office and successfully argued for his promotion to vice president of creative affairs. Shortly thereafter, Guber was named head of American production. In August 1973, he was promoted to vice-president of worldwide production. Steven Spielberg noted that he "used to go to (Guber's) office at Columbia when he was just starting. (Guber) had an enormous chart on his wall with what every director in the world was planning that listed their pictures in development and planned for production." It made a lasting impression on Spielberg. During his time at Columbia, the studio released, among other films, Shampoo, Taxi Driver, Tommy, and The Way We Were. Upon leaving Columbia in 1975, Guber was given a three-year production deal with the studio.
Guber launched his career as an independent film producer with The Deep (1977), which became one of the highest-grossing films of the year. Guber also bought the rights and served as executive producer for Midnight Express (1978). Produced by Alan Marshall and David Puttnam, the film earned seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. The National Association of Theatre Owners named Guber Producer of the Year.
In 1976, Guber merged his company Filmworks with Casablanca Records, headed by Neil Bogart, to form Casablanca Record and Filmworks, Inc. Guber became chairman while Bogart remained president of the combined company. Their record operation included artists such as Kiss, Donna Summer, Captain and Tennille, The Village People, and George Clinton's Parliament-Funkadelic. It also released soundtracks such as Midnight Express, Endless Love, and Flashdance. During this period, Guber also produced several television shows and series, including Television and the Presidency (1984) with Theodore H. White, the 1985 documentary series Oceanquest for NBC, and the 1980 special Mysteries of the Sea for ABC.
In 1980, Guber rechristened the film division of Casablanca Filmworks as PolyGram Pictures, PolyGram's motion picture and television division, where he was Chairman of the Board and CEO. He, Neil Bogart, and Jon Peters were planning to be partners of Boardwalk Records, but Guber instead joined PolyGram Pictures at the last minute. He sold his interest in PolyGram in 1982 and then formed and served as co-owner of the Guber-Peters Company (GPC) along with producer Jon Peters. Films on which Guber served as producer or executive producer have earned more than $3 billion in worldwide revenue and more than 50 Academy Award nominations, including four Best Picture nominations. Guber's producing credits during this period include Rain Man, Batman, Gorillas in the Mist, The Color Purple, Innerspace, The Witches of Eastwick, Flashdance, Missing, Tango & Cash, and An American Werewolf in London.
