Steven Haft is an American media executive, attorney, and film producer.

Biography

Haft was born in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

and raised in Flushing, Queens, the son of Helen (née Urdang) and Nathan "Nuddy" Haft. He is a graduate of

Hofstra University School of Law The Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University (commonly known as Hofstra Law) is a law school located in Hempstead, New York on Long Island, affiliated with Hofstra University. Founded in 1970 and accredited by the ABA in 1971, th ...

and is a member of The Bar of the U. S. Supreme Court. After school, Haft produced films for over twenty years including ''

Jakob the Liar ''Jakob the Liar'' is a 1999 American war comedy-drama film directed by Peter Kassovitz, produced by Steven Haft, Marsha Garces Williams and written by Kassovitz and Didier Decoin. The film is based on the book of the same name by Jurek Becker ...

'' and ''

Dead Poets Society ''Dead Poets Society'' is a 1989 American drama film directed by Peter Weir, written by Tom Schulman, and starring Robin Williams. Set in 1959 at the fictional elite conservative boarding school Welton Academy, it tells the story of an English ...

.'' In 2000, he accepted a position with AOL where he served as Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer for their $1.2 billion in sales Interactive Marketing Group. He left AOL to found the media consultancy company Indyworks, which focuses on the impact of emerging technologies on media. His clients included

Comcast Cable Comcast Cable Communications, LLC, doing business as Xfinity, is an American telecommunications company and division of Comcast Corporation used to market consumer cable television, internet, telephone, and wireless services provided by the com ...

, the

Corporation for Public Broadcasting The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is an American publicly funded non-profit corporation, created in 1967 to promote and help support public broadcasting. The corporation's mission is to ensure universal access to non-commercial, ...

, the College Television Network, AirMedia,

Edelman Edelman is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Abram Wolf Edelman (a.k.a. Abraham Edelman; 1832–1907), Polish-born American rabbi; the first rabbi in Los Angeles, California * Adam Edelman (born 1991), American-born four-time Is ...

, and Burson-Marstellar. He presently serves as Senior Vice President of Innovation for magazine publisher

Time Inc. Time Inc. was an American worldwide mass media corporation founded on November 28, 1922, by Henry Luce and Briton Hadden and based in New York City. It owned and published over 100 magazine brands, including its namesake ''Time'', ''Sports Illu ...

Philanthropy and civic service

Haft has been involved in environmental issues, human rights and arts in education since the 1970s. He served on the Board of United States variant of

the TerraMar Project The TerraMar Project was self-described as an environmental nonprofit organization. It was founded in 2012 in the United States by Ghislaine Maxwell. A sister organisation in the United Kingdom was incorporated in 2013. TerraMar (U.S.) announced ...

, which was a

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

that promoted the Clean Oceans provision of the Sustainable Development Goals program. Haft served on the board until TerraMar (US) announced that it had ended operations on July 12, 2019 after the sex trafficking charges against

Jeffrey Epstein Jeffrey Edward Epstein ( ; January 20, 1953August 10, 2019) was an American sex offender and financier. Epstein, who was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York City, began his professional life by teaching at the Dalton School in Manhattan, des ...

, associate of

Ghislaine Maxwell Ghislaine Noelle Marion Maxwell ( ; born 25 December 1961) is a British convicted sex offender and former socialite. In 2021, she was found guilty of child sex trafficking and other offences in connection with the financier and convicted sex o ...

, became public. He is an Advisory Board Member of the Global Partnerships Forum, which serves as an intermediary linking business entities, government agencies, and the United Nations to develop shared goals and efforts. Haft is an elected Member of the Motion Picture Academy and Trustee Emeritus of Robert Redford's

Sundance Institute Sundance Institute is a non-profit organization founded by Robert Redford committed to the growth of independent artists. The institute is driven by its programs that discover and support independent filmmakers, theatre artists and composers fr ...

; and was appointed by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to the Board of the

Brooklyn Navy Yard The Brooklyn Navy Yard (originally known as the New York Navy Yard) is a shipyard and industrial complex located in northwest Brooklyn in New York City, New York. The Navy Yard is located on the East River in Wallabout Bay, a semicircular bend ...

Corporation. He serves as Vice Chair of the Presidential Scholars Foundation, is a STEM Advisor to the Center for the Study of The Presidency & Congress, and has done work for the John D. Rockefeller IIIrd Fund, the

John Hay Whitney John Hay Whitney (August 17, 1904 – February 8, 1982) was U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, publisher of the '' New York Herald Tribune'', and president of the Museum of Modern Art. He was a member of the Whitney family. Early life Whi ...

Foundation, the

United Automobile Workers The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, better known as the United Auto Workers (UAW), is an American labor union that represents workers in the United States (including Puerto Rico) ...

, and the ACLU. He was a co-founder of the original Earth Day in 1970.

Personal life

He is divorced from author

Lisa Birnbach Lisa R. Birnbach is an author best known for co-authoring '' The Official Preppy Handbook'', which spent 38 weeks at number one on the ''New York Times'' bestseller list in 1980. Early life and education Birnbach was born to a Jewish family on ...

; they have three children. He attended the

Modern Orthodox Jewish Modern may refer to: History * Modern history ** Early Modern period ** Late Modern period *** 18th century *** 19th century *** 20th century ** Contemporary history * Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century Phil ...

synagogue Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun in Manhattan.

Filmography

He was a producer in all films unless otherwise noted.

Film

;As writer

Television

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Haft, Steven 1949 births Living people 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesspeople American film producers American mass media company founders 20th-century American Jews AOL people Maurice A. Deane School of Law alumni Filmmakers who won the Best Film BAFTA Award Film producers from New York (state) People from Manhattan 21st-century American Jews Jewish American film producers