William Samuel Kramer II is the Chief Executive Officer of the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., with the stated goal of adva ...

Early life and education

Kramer grew up in

Towson, Maryland Towson () is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. The population was 59,533 in the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Baltimore County and the second-most populous unincorpo ...

. He attended the University of Texas at Austin where he received a Bachelor of Business Administration and he later continued his education at New York University for his Master of Urban Planning and Public Administration.

Career

Kramer worked at the

Academy Museum of Motion Pictures The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is a film museum opened in 2021 located in Los Angeles, California. The first large-scale museum of its kind in the United States, it houses more than 13 million objects, and is dedicated to the history, sc ...

as the managing director of development and external relations in 2012 where he raised $250 million in funds. Kramer then left the Academy Museum in 2016 to serve as the vice-president of development at the

Brooklyn Academy of Music The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) is a multi-arts center in Brooklyn, New York City. It hosts progressive and avant-garde performances, with theater, dance, music, opera, film programming across multiple nearby venues. BAM was chartered in 18 ...

. Earlier in his career, Kramer was responsible for several senior fundraising roles at

Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase th ...

California Institute of the Arts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a Private university, private art school in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for ...

Southern California Institute of Architecture Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) is a private architecture school in Los Angeles, California. SCI-Arc was founded in 1972 when it was initially regarded as both institutionally and artistically avant-garde. It consists o ...

, the

Columbia University School of the Arts The Columbia University School of the Arts (also known as School of the Arts or SoA) is the fine arts graduate school of Columbia University in Morningside Heights, New York (state), New York. It offers Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degrees in Film, ...

, and the

Sundance Institute Sundance Institute is a non-profit organization founded by actor 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 compo ...

. He then returned to the Academy Museum in October 2019 as Director and President. In 2022, Kramer was named the CEO of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, succeeding

Dawn Hudson Dawn Hudson (born January 4, 1956) is an American film industry executive. She notably served as chief executive officer (CEO) of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 2011 to 2022. Earlier in her career, she was executive director ...

Personal life

Kramer is married to Peter Cipkowski, former Town Supervisor of

Hillsdale, New York Hillsdale is a town in eastern Columbia County, New York, Columbia County, New York (state), New York, near the New York - Massachusetts border and Great Barrington, Massachusetts. New York state routes New York State Route 22, 22 and New York St ...

, an educational technology consultant and lecturer at UCLA.

References

{{reflist Businesspeople from Maryland University of Texas at Austin alumni