Serge Semenenko (1903 – April 24, 1980) was a

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

-born Hollywood banker in the 1950s and 1960s, representing the

First National Bank of Boston BankBoston was a bank based in Boston, Massachusetts, which was created by the 1996 merger of Bank of Boston and BayBank. One of its predecessor banks started in 1784, but the merged BankBoston was short-lived, being acquired by Fleet Bank in 199 ...

. He came to

Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

from

Odesa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrati ...

at the age of 18, studied at Robert College and graduated with a GPA of 8.5 out of 10. He then moved to the United States to continue his studies at Harvard Business School. In 1956 he was part of a group of investors who bought out the shares in

Warner Bros. Pictures Warner Bros. Pictures is an American film production and distribution company of the Warner Bros. Pictures Group division of Warner Bros. Entertainment (both ultimately owned by Warner Bros. Discovery). The studio is the flagship producer of ...

that were sold by

Harry Warner Harry Morris Warner (born Hirsz Mojżesz Wonsal; December 12, 1881 – July 25, 1958) was an American studio executive, one of the founders of Warner Bros., and a major contributor to the development of the film industry. Along with his three ...

and Albert Warner. The Warners bought the Brunswick label in 1930, but the collapse of the record market during the Great Depression cost the studio heavily and the label was sold to the

American Record Company The American Record Company was an American record label that was in business from 1904 to 1906. History The American Record Company (commonly abbreviated as "ARCo") was founded by Ellsworth A. Hawthorne and Horace Sheble, formerly designers of ...

at the end of 1931 for a fraction of its former value. As a result, Warner Bros. had shied away from any involvement in the record business for the next 25 years. According to music historian Fred Goodman, Semenenko had a strong interest in the entertainment business. After joining the Warner Bros. board he pushed studio boss Jack L. Warner to establish a recorded music division, which was eventually incorporated in 1958 as

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...

. Semenko put together a syndicate of six banks in 1963 to help a troubled Curtis Publishing. In 1967, he resigned as vice-chairman and a director of First Boston after his activities were dissected in a first article in ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

''.McClintick, David. ''Indecent Exposure: A True Story of Hollywood and Wall Street'' (Collins Business Essentials)

Notes

1903 births 1980 deaths American bankers American investors Businesspeople from Odesa 20th-century American businesspeople Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States Robert College alumni Harvard Business School alumni {{US-business-bio-1900s-stub