Ronnie Planalp '86

Ronnie Planalp’s career has spanned senior roles in investment banking, publishing, the internet, recorded music, and film, with a significant focus on the international markets. She worked in investment banking at Goldman Sachs following her graduation from Columbia Business School. While living overseas in Hong Kong, Ronnie began her international media career and spent the next ten years there and in the UK in various business development and strategy roles for companies including Time Warner, Excite Europe, and EMI Recorded Music. Her most recent corporate role was as the director of film for the Producer’s Alliance for Cinema and Television based in London.

Ronnie is a founder and producer at Clear Eye Productions, a film production company focused on documentaries. She has produced two award winning films: They Came to Play and Shakespeare High. As a theater producer on Broadway and London’s West End, Ronnie’s credits as producer and investor include the Tony Award winner Exit the King, Elling, The Misanthrope, Legally Blond, Mountaintop, The Heidi Chronicles, The Glass Menagerie, If/Then, and Here Lies Love. Her recent film credits as executive producer include House of Z and Split. Ronnie is part of the investment team for Tina, A Musical based on the life and career of Tina Turner, which opened in the West End in 2018 and on Broadway in 2019. She is currently an advisor to a business to business technology platform that ignites impactful consumer engagement for businesses of all sizes called SparkRise.com.

Ronnie has been actively involved in democratic politics for the last decade. She served as co-chair of the Committee to Elect Kirsten Gillibrand to New York's 20th District from 2006 to 2008. Kirsten became New York’s junior senator and ran as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States.  Ronnie was appointed by President Obama in March 2014 to serve on the Presidential Advisory Committee on the Arts for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In 2016, she was asked to join the advisory council for TEDx, the grassroots initiative born out of the umbrella organization TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) known by the mission statement “Ideas Worth Spreading”.

Ronnie is a vice president of the board of film at Lincoln Center where she chairs the governance committee and serves on the executive committee. During her tenure, she has also contributed new programming initiatives around environmental, cultural, and social issues by bringing MountainFilm Festival based in Telluride, Colorado to Lincoln Center’s campus in 2010. Ronnie is also a member of the board of directors for Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. She has also been an advisory board member for the Tamer Institute for Social Enterprise and Climate Change at Columbia Business School since 2006.

Ronnie holds a BS in communications from Boston University and an MBA in finance and marketing from Columbia Business School. She was ranked in the top 10 in the United States in the Women’s A Division of squash racquets between 1990 and 1995, and in the top three in New York City in 1993 and 1994, during which time she won the Metropolitan Championship in New York City twice. Ronnie lives in New York City and Martha’s Vineyard with her two children.