Chuck Davis (born 1960) is an Internet entrepreneur, and chairman and CEO of
Prodege, LLC, an
El Segundo, California-based online marketing and consumer research company.
His career includes having been CEO of movie ticket site
Fandango
Fandango is a lively partner dance originating in Portugal and Spain, usually in triple metre, triple meter, traditionally accompanied by guitars, castanets, tambourine or hand-clapping. Fandango can both be sung and danced. Sung fandango is u ...
, and
Shopzilla
Connexity Inc. is a privately held Los Angeles operator of shopping web sites, including Shopzilla.com. Originally started as comparison shopping website Bizrate.com, the company changed its name to Shopzilla in 2004, and changed again to Conn ...
, also known as Bizrate.com.
Early life and education
Davis was born in 1960 to Joel and Carol Davis. His father was the president of Davis Publications and
Sylvia Porter
Sylvia Field Porter (June 18, 1913 – June 5, 1991) was an American economist, journalist and author. At the height of her career, her readership was greater than 40 million people.
Early life
Porter was born in Patchogue, New York, on Long I ...
's Personal Finance Magazine Company, and his mother was an interior designer. His grandfather was
Bernard G. Davis, co-founder of the
Ziff-Davis
Ziff Davis, Inc. is an American digital media and internet company. Founded in 1927 by William Bernard Ziff Sr. and Bernard George Davis, the company primarily owns technology- and health-oriented media websites, online shopping-related servic ...
Publishing Company.
Davis earned a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University (1982) and his Master in Business Administration from Harvard University (1986).
During two of his college years, Davis interned for NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle having developed a relationship from his middle school first entrepreneurial media venture, Pro Grid Weekly.
[
]
Career
Davis started his professional career in marketing, circulation, and financial roles at Time Inc.’s Sports Illustrated
''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...
, Life, and Time magazines.[
Davis was senior vice president of marketing and circulation for ]TV Guide
TV Guide is an American digital media
In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, vi ...
(Radnor, Pennsylvania) from 1992-95.[
In 1996, Davis left TV Guide to join his first digital venture at The Walt Disney Company’s Internet Group in Los Angeles where he became its first President, eCommerce. During his tenure through 1999, Davis launched many merchant and travel businesses including Disneystore.com, Disneyvacations.com, and ESPNstore.com in addition to supervising advertising sales, marketing, and online subscription initiatives.][
In 1999 Davis became President and CEO of Shopzilla, Inc., also known as BizRate.com. Shopzilla was acquired by the E.W. Scripps Company for $569 million in 2005.
In 2004, Davis won the 2004 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Greater Los Angeles Award.
From 2006–2011, Davis led Fandango as its Chairman and CEO. Comcast Corporation acquired Fandango in April 2007.][ MyPoints, ShopAtHome, and InboxDollars.
Davis is a venture partner for ]Technology Crossover Ventures
TCMI, Inc. better known by the name TCV (Technology Crossover Ventures) is an American investment firm based in Menlo Park, California. The firm mainly invests in public and private growth-stage companies in the technology industry.
Background ...
(TCV) in Palo Alto, California. In May 2014, concurrently with Davis’ appointment as Prodege's CEO, TCV invested $60 million in Prodege, in the company's only external investment round.[
]
Other activities
Davis is a digital industry board director and adviser to several companies. He is executive chairman of The Teaching Company
The Teaching Company, doing business as The Great Courses, formerly Wondrium, is a Media (communication), media production company which produces Education, educational, video, and audio content in the form of courses, documentaries, and series ...
, a director for the publicly traded wireless company Boingo Wireless, Inc. and Cyndx Partners, a boutique investment bank.[
Davis is an entrepreneur-in-residence at Harvard Business School.][ He is a director for the Brown University Sports Foundation. He wassan alumni elected member of the Brown University's Corporation from 2007 to 2013.][
He was voted into the Los Angeles Venture Association (LAVA) Hall of Fame in 2015.]Young Presidents' Organization
YPO (formerly Young Presidents' Organization) is a US-based organization of chief executives with more than 36,000 members in more than 142 countries.
History
YPO was founded in 1950 in Rochester, New York, by manufacturer Ray Hickok, who was ...
,[ where he was on its international board for five years. Additionally, he was elected six times to ecommerce industry trade association Shop.org's board of directors, for 11 years.
Davis was a judge for competitions such as Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year Award,]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Chuck
1960 births
American chief executives
Brown University alumni
Harvard Business School alumni
Living people