Steven J. Ross

Beginning as a young trainee at a funeral home, Steven J. Ross (1927-1992) effected an ingenious series of deals and mergers, building a publicly traded company that expanded into publishing and entertainment, acquiring businesses including DC Comics and Mad magazine, before taking over the ailing Warner-Seven Arts motion picture studio in 1969. Under Ross's leadership, the studio became Warner Communication Inc., a leader not only in motion pictures, but in the recording industry and cable television, creating a host of profitable subsidiaries, including MTV, Showtime and the Movie Channel. In this 1988 address to the Academy of Achievement, Ross describes the first steps in his extraordinary career. Only months after addressing the Academy, he engineered the most daring coup of all, merging Warner Communication with Time Inc. to create the largest media conglomerate in the world.