Darren Throop is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

businessman who is the founder and CEO of Entertainment One (eOne). Through corporate acquisitions and partnerships, Throop has expanded Entertainment One’s global footprint and network which includes film and television studio

The Mark Gordon Company The Mark Gordon Company (formerly The Meledandri/Gordon Company) is an American production company owned by Mark Gordon. It is notable for their output, including feature films, like ''Speed'', many of Roland Emmerich's films Gordon produced lik ...

; content creation venture Amblin Partners with Steven Spielberg,

DreamWorks Pictures DreamWorks Pictures (also known as DreamWorks SKG and formerly DreamWorks Studios, commonly referred to as DreamWorks) is an American film company and distribution label of Amblin Partners. It was originally founded on October 12, 1994 as a liv ...

, Participant Media, and

Reliance Entertainment Reliance Entertainment Pvt Ltd is an Indian media and entertainment company. It is a division of Reliance Group, handling its media and entertainment business, across content and distribution platforms. The company was founded on 15 February 20 ...

; leading feature film production and global sales company Sierra Pictures; unscripted television production companies Renegade 83, Paperny Entertainment and Force Four Entertainment; world-class music labels Dualtone Music Group and

Last Gang Records Last Gang Records is a record label formed by Canadian music industry lawyer Chris Taylor (businessman), Chris Taylor and concert promoter Donald K. Tarlton in the Fall of 2003 at the Pop Montreal Music Festival. Last Gang was nominated as Indepe ...

; and award-winning digital agency Secret Location. Prior to Entertainment One he was the CEO of ROW Entertainment Income Fund. Throop sits on the

IMAX Corporation IMAX Corporation is a Canadian theatre company which designs and manufactures IMAX cameras and projection systems as well as performing film development, production, post-production and distribution to IMAX-affiliated theatres worldwide. Founde ...

Board of Directors. He was recently inducted into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame, and recognized as Entrepreneur of the Year at the Grant Thornton Quoted Company Awards.

Career

His career in the entertainment industry began in 1991 when he founded Urban Sound Exchange, an independent chain of retail music stores. Building and acquiring several music distribution ventures over ten years, including CDPlus.com and Records on Wheels, Throop became CEO of ROW Entertainment (ROW) in 2001. Throop diversified its operations through a series of acquisitions, including overseeing the purchase of Video One Canada, Canada’s largest home entertainment company. As CEO of ROW, Throop took the company public in 2003 and then orchestrated the acquisition of Koch Records, North America’s largest independent music label and subsequently changed the company name to Entertainment One. With the company’s comprehensive U.S. Canadian distribution network, Throop began aggressively acquiring the rights for specialty content. In 2007, to fund expansion into independent feature film distribution and rights ownership, Throop orchestrated the movement of Entertainment One to London’s Alternative Investment Market in a $200 million IPO. Shortly after the listing, Throop began acquiring leading content producers and distributors around the globe. Stepping up to the main market of the London Stock Exchange in 2010, Entertainment One was confirmed as a FTSE 250 entrant in the FTSE UK Index Series in 2013. In 2019, he sold the company to American toy manufacturer

Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational conglomerate holding company incorporated and headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Hasbro owns the trademarks and products of K ...

for nearly $4 billion and he remains the CEO to date. On August 22, 2022, it was announced that Throop would be stepping down as CEO at the end of the year.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Throop, Darren 1964 births Living people Canadian entertainment industry businesspeople Members of the Order of Canada