Robert Friedman ’80
Robert Friedman is CEO of Bungalow Media + Entertainment, a private equity backed integrated entertainment and media holding company he recently founded to develop, produce and distribute traditional unscripted, scripted and branded content across all platforms.
From 2006 to 2013, Robert was President of Entertainment and Media @radical.media-FremantleMedia Company. Mr. Friedman executive produced many of the company’s feature film assets including the recent Award winning Paul Simon’s Under African Skies and Bon Jovi: When We were Beautiful, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and on Showtime. Numerous TV credits include the Emmy-winning History Channel’s 10 Days that Unexpectedly Changed America, Grey Goose’s Iconoclasts, the pilot episode of AMC’s Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning series Mad Men, Nike’s Battlegrounds, Britney: For the Record for MTV, and Oprah Winfrey Presents Masterclass for the new OWN channel, among others. In addition, @radical.media developed "driverTV," a first-of-its kind, high-definition video-on-demand channel and multi-platform media destination built to transform the way consumers shop for cars, and THNKR, one of the recent original YouTube premium channels. Friedman was part of a team that sold a majority of stake in the company to Fremantle in 2012.
From 2003 to 2006, Friedman was President and a Managing Partner of Classic Media: Harvey & Golden Books Entertainment, the New-York-based family entertainment company now owned by DreamWorks Animation. From 1991 to 2003 he held a variety of key executive positions at AOL Time Warner. He spent a decade at New Line Cinema where he held the dual roles of Co-Chairman in charge of Worldwide Theatrical Marketing, Licensing and Merchandising and President of New Line Television, which he launched in 1991. He also served as Chief Marketing Officer for Time Warner and President of AOL, Interactive Marketing, TV, & Ad Sales.
Mr. Friedman was a member of the original development team at MTV Networks, where for 8 years (1981–1989) he worked on MTV, VH-1, Nickelodeon, and on the development of the pay TV subscription service, The Movie Channel. He began his career in advertising where he was an Account Manager on P&G at Grey Advertising.
His industry honors include being named “Media Man of the Year” by ADWEEK, and named one of the top 100 marketers in the country by AdAge. Friedman serves on the Board of The International Academy of TV Arts and Sciences and the TV industry’s NATPE association. He has been a member of Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO/WPO) for over two decades.
Friedman served on the Morgans Hotel Group Board, a global public company that includes the Delano, Royalton, Hard Rock, Sanderson and Hudson hotels and he received the Lodging Leadership Award for the “Best Governed Company” in the hospitality space.
Mr. Friedman received a BA in psychology from Vassar College in 1978. He earned his MBA from Columbia Business School 1980. He serves on the Board of Trustees of Vassar College, The Mount Sinai Medical Center, and the Big Apple Circus. He is married to Dr. Elissa Gretz, who also attended Vassar College. They have two daughters.