Photo: Courtesy Warner BrosHOLLYWOOD HONCHO
In March, Kevin Tsujihara, MBA '92, became CEO of Warner Bros., making him the fifth leader in the company's 90-year history and the first Asian-American to run a major Hollywood studio. In announcing who would succeed Barry Meyer, who retired from the post after 14 years, Time Warner chairman and CEO Jeff Bewkes, MBA '77, cited Tsujihara's "perfect combination of strategic thinking, financial discipline, digital vision and management style." As president of Warner Bros. home entertainment division since 2005, Tsujihara oversaw the studio's home video, digital distribution, videogame, antipiracy and emerging technology operations. He first joined the company in 1994 as director of special projects in finance, assisting with the management of the Six Flags theme parks.
Photo: Courtesy of the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority HealthHEALTH FOR ALL
Since 2011, J. Nadine Gracia has served as acting director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Minority Health, and in January they made it official. As deputy assistant secretary for minority health and director of OMH, Gracia, '95, advances the office's mission of eliminating health disparities. Its programs include training college students to become preconception health peer educators, helping HIV-positive parolees reintegrate into their communities, and raising women's awareness of heart disease risk. A pediatrician trained in epidemiology, she was assigned to HHS as a White House Fellow in 2008-9, and became a policy adviser for the First Lady's childhood obesity initiative.
Photos: Bradford Rogne (top); Courtesy Warner BrosSUPAH TV SCRIBE
Nickelodeon's Supah Ninjas, created by Leo Chu, '93, and partner Eric Garcia, won a 2012 Writer's Guild Award for Best Children's Episodic or Special. The action-comedy series follows a high school student who discovers he is descended from ninjas and is drafted, along with his pals, into a secret crime-fighting team. Chu and Garcia previously produced Afro Samurai, an anime series with the voice of Samuel L. Jackson that ran on Spike TV, and wrote/executive produced the TV movie, Afro Samurai: Resurrection, with Lucy Liu, which won a primetime Emmy Award.
"I wouldn't say it's autobiographical, it's personal. To call the organization that I was in a 'band' is already a misnomer. I played on cardboard boxes; I never even bought a drum set."
—Sopranos creator David Chase, MA '71, speaking at the New York Film Festival about his debut feature film, Not Fade Away, an affectionate mixtape to the music of the '60s.
