Tom Ryan (business executive)

Last updated
Tom Ryan
Tom Ryan at NATPE Streaming+.jpg
Tom Ryan at NATPE Streaming+
Born
Thomas V. Ryan

(1969-03-18) March 18, 1969 (age 55)
EducationAB from Dartmouth College MBS from INSEAD in France
Occupation(s)CEO and President
Employer Paramount Streaming

Tom Ryan is the co-founder of Pluto TV and CEO and President of Streaming at Paramount Global. [1] [2] He oversees the company's global direct-to-consumer division, [3] which includes paid and free streaming through businesses such as Paramount+ and Pluto TV. [4]

Contents

Education

Ryan has an AB from Dartmouth College and an MBA from INSEAD in France. [5] [6] [7]

Career

Early years

Tom Ryan's entrepreneurial career began in 1996 when he co-founded Cductive, an early digital music retail company that Ryan later sold to EMusic in 1999, [8] [9] that same year he became an advisor for EMusic. Following this, in 2002, he was a Mobile Music Consultant with Virgin Mobile USA. [10] [11] From 2004-2007, Ryan was the Senior Vice President of Digital Strategy at EMI Music. [12] [13] [14] In 2007 he held the position of "Entrepreneur-in-Residence" of Bessemer Venture Partners until 2008. From 2008-2012, Ryan was CEO of the crowdsourced design community and e-commerce company, Threadless. [15] [16]

Pluto TV

In 2013, Ryan co-founded Pluto TV, [17] [18] making him one of the first to bring Free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) services to the market. [19] [20] It was launched in 2014. In 2019, he sold the company to Paramount (at the time ViacomCBS) for $340 million, [21] [22] and stayed as CEO. [23] By 2021, Pluto TV had over $1 billion in annual revenue. [24]

Paramount Global Streaming

In October 2020, Tom Ryan was named President and CEO of Streaming at Paramount Global (formerly known as ViacomCBS Streaming). [25] In 2024, under his leadership, the direct-to-consumer segment had its first profitable quarter since the launch of Paramount+ in March 2021. [26] [27]

Board roles

Ryan is the current chairman of the board of Struck Studio. [28] He has been a founding board member of Smule, a social music site, since 2008. Ryan has been a Venture Advisor on the board of Felix Capital since 2015 [29] and Fund Advisor of SignalFire since 2017. He was previously on the board of Society6, which was acquired by Leaf Group in 2013 [30] from 2010-2013 and Trunk Club [31] from 2011-2014. He was an angel investor in both Smule and Trunk Club. [32]

Recognition

In 2021, he was recognized as the Fastest Growing Brand in America for Paramount. [33] In 2022, Ryan received the NATPE's inaugural "Award for Executive Leadership in Global Streaming". [34] [35] And was also a Variety500 Honoree from Variety. [36] In 2023, Stream TV awarded Ryan "CEO of the Year" and that same year awarded Pluto TV "Streaming Platform of the Year". [37] [38] In 2024, the NATAS revealed that Pluto TV would receive the Technology and Engineering Emmy Awards for Pioneering Development of Manifest-based Playout for FAST. [39] That same year he was named on both the LA500 [40] and FAST30 [41] lists.

Patent

Issued on February 9, 2016 on Methods and Systems for Generating and Providing Program Guides and Content. [42]

Personal life

Ryan lives in Los Angeles, California with his wife and three children. [43]

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