Chris Gorog

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search

William Christopher “Chris” Gorog is an entertainment and technology executive that has served in senior leadership positions in Hollywood and Silicon Valley,[1] including as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Napster,[2] a top digital music brand,[3] and Roxio.

Gorog played a central role in efforts to monetize digital music downloads and streams. He oversaw Roxio's conversion to a digital music subscription and download service through the acquisitions of Pressplay and Napster. Gorog was a key ally of the record labels in the digital music market but was also a vocal critic of the licensing terms and DRM restrictions that labels imposed on digital music services.[4]

Gorog began his entertainment career as a business affairs executive at The Walt Disney Company,[5] continued his work in film and television as CEO of ITC Entertainment,[6] moved to Universal Studios as Executive Vice President of Group Operations for the Recreation Group,[7] and then on to CEO positions with Roxio[8] and Napster[9] as the entertainment business converged with new technologies.

Gorog was born in Fontainebleau France, raised in Dayton Ohio and graduated from San Diego State University with a B.A.S. in Tele-Communications and Film.[10] Gorog comes from an entrepreneurial family.[11] His father, William F. Gorog, was co-founder and Chief Executive of Data Corp, which created LexisNexis.[12]

After ten years of developing Napster, Chris Gorog stepped down[13] in January 2010 and started gorog.net to serve as a foundation to explore new opportunities in entertainment, media and technology.

Napster

Gorog led the acquisition of Napster, the peer-to-peer network that made music downloading a phenomenon,[14] in 2002. He re-launched the pioneer digital music brand as a legal music provider in 2003,[15] which became a public company in 2004. Under Mr. Gorog’s leadership as Chairman and CEO of Napster,[16] the company assembled one of the largest digital music catalogs in the world[17] and expanded its global presence by offering its service in the U.K,[18] Germany[19] and Japan.[20] Napster created a number of digital music product innovations under Mr. Gorog’s management, including the introduction of portable subscriptions,[21] a free advertising supported version of Napster,[22] as well as a variety of mobile music offerings.[23]

Gorog also oversaw the development of a number of advertising campaigns for the company,[24] including “Its Coming Back,” Napster’s re-launch campaign featuring a series of original animations[25][26] that received both the Cannes Lion Award[27] and the Silver Effie.[28] Napster was also awarded Billboard magazine’s “Best Digital Music Community”[29] award for its U.S. music service.

Best Buy acquired Napster in 2008, and Gorog served as Napster’s Chief Executive Officer until January 6, 2010.[30]

Roxio

As Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Roxio,[31] Gorog led the company’s successful spin-off from Adaptec, took the company public in May 2001 and drove the creation of the Roxio consumer brand.[14] Roxio became the leader in CD burning software, with 70% market share led by its brands Easy CD Creator and Toast.[1] In January 2002, Gorog led Roxio’s acquisition of MGI Software that expanded the company’s portfolio to include photo and video editing software, as well as the top-selling system-recovery software for crash and virus recovery.[32]

In December 2002, Gorog led Roxio’s acquisition of Napster[14] – and followed with an acquisition of Universal Music’s and Sony’s Pressplay in May 2003,[33] which served as the new technology platform for the company’s release of Napster 2.0, the revitalized legal version of the original Napster.[15] In August 2004, Roxio sold the software business in order to focus entirely on developing the Napster digital music business.[34] The company officially changed its corporate name from Roxio (NASDAQ: ROXI) to Napster (NASDAQ: NAPS) in January 2005.[35]

Entertainment

Prior to Gorog’s technology positions, he served in a variety of senior capacities in the entertainment business including Executive Vice President of Universal Studios Recreation Group where he helped manage Universal Studios Hollywood, Universal Studios Florida and Universal’s multi-billion dollar theme park expansion in Florida and Japan.[36] Gorog later served as President of New Business Development for Universal Studios Recreation Group. Prior to Universal, Gorog served as President and CEO of ITC Entertainment[5] and as Vice President Business Affairs Motion Pictures and Television for The Walt Disney Company.[5]

Board Positions

Gorog has served as a director on a variety of entertainment and technology boards, including House of Blues,[5] Guitar Center[37] and Critical Path,[38] in addition to serving on the boards of Roxio and Napster as its Chairman.[39] He also has served on the board of directors of NARM, the National Association of Recording Merchandisers.

Keynotes

• May 1, 2007 – Digital NARM – Chicago, IL: “Bridging the Gap between Physical and Digital”[40]
• May 1, 2006 – MuseExpo – Hollywood, CA: “Unlimited access – Anytime, Anywhere”[41]
• April 5, 2005 – Leadership Music Digital Summit – Nashville, TN: “Digital Subscriptions: The Future of The Music Industry”[42]
• July 26, 2004 – Jupiter Plug-In – New York, NY: “The State of the Digital Music Industry”[43]
• May 3, 2004 – Financial Times – London, England: “The Best Defense if a Good Offense, The Rise of Legitimate On-Line Music Services”
• April 20, 2004 – Music Board of Ireland and the European Union – Dublin, Ireland: “The Internet & the Democratization of Music”[44]
• December 8, 2003 – iHollywood Forum – Universal City, CA: "Music 2.0"[45]
• July 28, 2003 – Jupiter Plug-In – New York, NY: "The Return of Napster"[46]
• March 3, 2003 – Digital Music Forum – New York, NY: "The Impact of Technology on Music Business Today"[47]
• January 24, 2003 – MidemNet – Cannes, France: "Music and Technology Back on Track"[48]

External links

Affiliations

Gorog is a member of the Young Presidents' Organization and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.[5]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Napster CEO Stepping Down[dead link]
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Napster says’Konichiwa’ to Japan[dead link]
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Napster offers free music[dead link]
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ [1][dead link]
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  36. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  37. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  38. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  39. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  40. ↑ Digital NARM[dead link]
  41. ↑ MuseExpo[dead link]
  42. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  43. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  44. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  45. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  46. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  47. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  48. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Retrieved from "https://infogalactic.com/w/index.php?title=Chris_Gorog&oldid=4572173"