Philippe Pierre Dauman (born March 1, 1954) is an American businessman who was president, CEO and chairman of Viacom from September 2006 until May 20, 2016. Dauman was a longtime associate of the company's chairman Sumner Redstone. From 1994 to 2000, he was a member of Viacom's executive committee and executive vice president in charge of strategic transactions, legal and government affairs, human resources and administration, supervising

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...

Entertainment, Showtime Networks and

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster LLC (, ) is an American publishing house owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts since 2023. It was founded in New York City in 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group US ...

. Dauman was also a director at Redstone-owned

CBS Corporation CBS Corporation was an American multinational media company with interests primarily in commercial broadcasting, publishing and television production. It was split from Viacom on December 31, 2005, alongside an entirely new Viacom; both ...

until September 2006. In February 2016, Viacom's board elected Dauman as Redstone's replacement as chairman.

Early life and education

Dauman was born and raised in New York City. He is the son of ''Life'' magazine photographer Henri Dauman, a

Holocaust survivor Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, its collaborators before and during World War II ...

who emigrated from France to the United States in the 1950s. At 13, he got a perfect score on the

SAT The SAT ( ) is a standardized test widely used for college admissions in the United States. Since its debut in 1926, its name and Test score, scoring have changed several times. For much of its history, it was called the Scholastic Aptitude Test ...

. At

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

he fell in love with his roommate's sister, who would become his wife.Brigid McMenamin, The Trophy Lawyers, Forbes, November 6, 1995, 132. Dauman married Deborah Ross in September 1977. Dauman graduated from Columbia University School of Law in 1978.

Career

After graduating from Columbia, Dauman went to work for the law firm of Shearman & Sterling. After two years in the firm's Paris office, he returned to New York to work in the corporate group under partner Stephen Volk. Handling a routine Securities and Exchange Commission form 13D filing for Volk client Sumner Redstone, in 1986 led to an advisory role in Redstone's 1987

hostile takeover In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (law), company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are publicly listed, in contrast t ...

of Viacom, a close personal relationship with Redstone, and a seat on Viacom's

board of directors A board of directors is a governing body that supervises the activities of a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government agency. The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulatio ...

. Six years later, Dauman accepted an offer to join Viacom as senior vice president and

general counsel A general counsel, also known as chief counsel or chief legal officer (CLO), is the chief in-house lawyer for a company or a governmental department. In a company, the person holding the position typically reports directly to the CEO, and their ...

, in exchange for $553,000 in salary with a $900,000 bonus. In 1994, he earned $2.3 million, plus options worth millions more. He was Viacom's general counsel from 1993 to 1998. In 2009, Dauman and Viacom launched the Get Schooled education initiative with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, an effort to have American public school students not drop out of school. He also hosted the Get Schooled education conference on September 8, 2009. Dauman is a member 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 ...

and is president and treasurer of The Philippe and Deborah Dauman Family Foundation, which focuses on education and health. He formerly was a director of Lafarge, and on the board of directors of the KIPP Foundation, a national network of free, open-enrollment, college-preparatory public schools in underserved communities. He was a member of the Business Roundtable and was on the executive committee of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, the board of trustees for The Paley Center for Media, the board of trustees of Northwell Health, the executive committee of the

Lenox Hill Hospital Lenox Hill Hospital (LHH) is a nationally ranked 450 bed non-profit, Tertiary care, tertiary, research and academic medical center located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, servicing the tri-state area. LHH is one of the reg ...

and the board of trustees and dean's council of Columbia University School of Law. Dauman took a tough stance on the reproduction of Viacom's content when Viacom sued

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

co-founder Chad Hurley and was interested in working out a deal. Dauman and Chad could not agree over advertising terms, however.

Legal issues

On May 20, 2016, Dauman and George S. Abrams were removed from the trust that will control Redstone's media empire. Dauman said in a statement: "These steps are invalid and illegal. As court proceedings and other facts have demonstrated, Sumner Redstone now lacks the capacity to have taken these steps. Sumner Redstone would never have summarily dismissed Philippe Dauman and George Abrams, his trusted friends and advisers for decades". The statement also said that Dauman and Abrams' removal is "...a shameful effort by Shari Redstone to seize control by unlawfully using her ailing father Sumner Redstone’s name and signature." Dauman filed suit against Shari Redstone in an effort to keep his position on the Trust. The suit was settled and Dauman stepped down in August, 2016.

Personal life

In 1977, Dauman married Deborah Ross, in an Episcopalian church. They have two children, Philippe, Jr., and Alexandre.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dauman, Philippe Living people American chief executives in the mass media industry Yale University alumni Columbia Law School alumni 1954 births 21st-century American businesspeople American people of French-Jewish descent People associated with Shearman & Sterling Paramount Global people American chief executives of Fortune 500 companies