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POWER IN ENTERTAINMENT / PRODUCTION: David Geffen
Film and Music Mogul/ Founder of Geffen Records and DreamWorks SKG
By: Mimi Makabi

David Geffen has shaped popular culture for more than 30 years by launching the careers of many of the greatest performers of our time. A seminal figure in the entertainment industry, it is almost impossible to overstate Geffen's contribution to pop music. His life epitomizes the classic rags-to-riches story. He used his brilliant drive to rise from humble beginnings, vowing to make it at all costs. Throughout his childhood, Geffen worked with his mother in the family business and credits her for forging his work ethic: "My mother taught me to love my work. I learned everything about business from her. I watched her work. She enabled me to work."

Listed by Forbes Magazine as one of the world’s wealthiest individuals, Geffen’s success in the entertainment business stems from his exceptional ability to spot and develop creative talent. “I'm good at deciding what people like. I'm gifted at knowing what will be a success before it is a success,” states Geffen. The self-styled "boy from Brooklyn" who became a millionaire by the age of 25, began his career working in the mailroom at the William Morris Agency, from which he rose rapidly to become an agent. Geffen states, “I never went to business school. I was just bumbling through a lot of my life. I was like the guy behind the curtain in The Wizard of Oz.”  

From WMA, Geffen went on to work as a manager for a number of musicians, including Laura Nyro and the group Crosby, Stills, and Nash. He brokered their deal to appear at Woodstock. By 1971, Geffen co-founded Asylum Records with Elliot Roberts, a friend from his days at William Morris. It was at Asylum Records that Geffen cultivated his knack for spotting new talent and trends in the entertainment industry. Often on the basis of a single demo tape, Geffen signed up some of the hottest rock and roll acts of the early 1970s, including Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne, and The Eagles. He produced albums for stars including Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, whose song “Free Man in Paris” is a tribute to Geffen.

After a four-year semi-retirement precipitated by a mistaken diagnosis of terminal cancer, Geffen returned to his first love, the music business, in 1980. He founded Geffen Records, producing John Lennon’s last album and fostering the careers of such artists as Cher, Aerosmith, Guns N’ Roses and Nirvana. During the same period, he founded the Geffen Film Company, producing films such as “Beetlejuice,” and “Risky Business,” the film that launched Tom Cruise’s career. He also became a backer of the musical “Cats,” which has become the longest running show on Broadway.

By the 1990’s, the ambitious, energetic music and movie executive had firmly established a vast Hollywood-based empire as he continued to shape the world entertainment landscape into the next century. Geffen had reputedly become “one of the most

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