Stephen Claar Swid (October 26, 1940 – October 6, 2019) was an American businessman and investor. He served as the chairman and chief executive officer of SESAC, Inc., one of the three performing rights organizations in the US. Swid was also noted for founding SBK Entertainment and was also previously the co-owner of General Felt Industries, Sheller-Globe Corporation, Knoll International and the

21 Club The 21 Club, often simply 21, was a traditional American cuisine restaurant and former prohibition-era speakeasy, located at 21 West 52nd Street in New York City. Prior to its closure in 2020, the club had been active for 90 years, and it had ...

, along with partner

Marshall Cogan Marshall S. Cogan (born 1937) is an American investor and entrepreneur and former financier and trader. Cogan was the founder of United Automotive Group, which he built into one of the largest retailers of cars and trucks in the U.S. As a private ...

Biography

Born into a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family, Swid was a graduate of

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

. He went on to become founder and senior partner of Swid Investors, an investment limited partnership, as well as a general partner of the private management company City Associates, a senior investment officer at Oppenheimer Funds, and a securities analyst of the

Dreyfus Fund Dreyfus is an American investment management company that deals with investment products and strategies. It was established in 1951 and is currently headquartered in New York City. Dreyfus currently is a subsidiary of BNY Investments. Hist ...

. Swid's first deal was the takeover of General Felt Industries (GFI) in 1974, which he completed with fellow investment banker

. The duo would then merge GFI with Knoll International and use Knoll as a

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...

to acquire a series of businesses.Knoll Sells General Felt
New York Times, September 10, 1988 For twelve years, until July 1986, Swid was co-chairman and co-CEO of Knoll. Among Swid and Cogan's most notable acquisitions were the takeover of the Sheller-Globe Corporation and, later, the purchase of the

. Cogan was unsuccessful in his high-profile bids to acquire the

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. Founded in as one of the Ameri ...

Sotheby's Sotheby's ( ) is a British-founded multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine art, fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

and L.F. Rothschild in the buyout boom of the 1980s. In 1986, Swid purchased CBS Songs, the music publishing unit of

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

, which would later become the beginning of

SBK Entertainment World SBK Records was a record label, owned by Universal Music Group, that is currently part of the Capitol Music Group, where it is in hibernation. The label was founded in 1988 and during its time in activity existed as part of the EMI Group. Hist ...

, a leading music publisher and worldwide entertainment services company. From November, 1986, until May, 1989, Swid was chairman and chief executive officer of

. From February 1990 until January 1995, Swid was chairman and chief executive officer of

Westview Press Westview Press was an American publishing company headquartered in Boulder, Colorado founded in 1975. Field of work Westview primarily publishes textbooks. History Westview Press was founded by Frederick A. Praeger in 1975. Praeger sold ...

, an academic publishing company based in

Boulder, Colorado Boulder is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule city in Boulder County, Colorado, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the most ...

, and from 1989 until 1997 the chairman and chief executive officer of ''Spin'', a music and

youth culture Youth culture refers to the societal norms of children, adolescents, and young adults. Specifically, it comprises the processes and symbolic systems that are shared by the youth and are distinct from those of adults in the community. An emphasis ...

magazine.

Other affiliations

Due to his interest in foreign relations and international diplomacy, Swid was a member of the

Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank focused on Foreign policy of the United States, U.S. foreign policy and international relations. Founded in 1921, it is an independent and nonpartisan 501(c)(3) nonprofit organi ...

and past director of the East West Institute. Swid was an active supporter of the arts and education and served as a director of The

Municipal Art Society The Municipal Art Society of New York (MAS) is a non-profit membership organization for preservation in New York City, which aims to encourage thoughtful planning and urban design and inclusive neighborhoods across the city. The organization was ...

of New York. He was a trustee and chairman of the Executive & Finance Committee of The

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue between 88th and 89th Street (Manhattan), 89th Streets on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It hosts a permanent coll ...

and was a member of the Visiting Committee on 20th Century Art for the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

. He and his wife, artist Nan G. Swid, were financial supporters of the

Jewish Theological Seminary of America The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) is a Conservative Jewish education organization in New York City, New York. It is one of the academic and spiritual centers of Conservative Judaism as well as a hub for academic scholarship in Jewish studies ...

. He also served as a trustee of the

Horace Mann School Horace Mann School (also known as Horace Mann or HM) is an American private, independent college-preparatory school in the Bronx, founded in 1887. Horace Mann is a member of the Ivy Preparatory School League, educating students from the New Yo ...

and as executive vice president of the board of the Lenox School, both located in New York City.

Personal life

He was married to artist Nan Swid. They had three children together – Jill, Robin and Scott.New York Daily News: "The Urge to Merge" by Michael Gross
April 13, 2003

References

Tower of Ambition
The New York Observer, February 4, 2001

External links

SESAC, Inc. website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swid, Stephen Swid, Stephen 20th-century American Jews 1940 births 2019 deaths Businesspeople from Manhattan School board members in New York (state) 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American Jews