Tom Ryan (business executive)

Last updated
Tom Ryan
Tom Ryan - Paramount (2024) (cropped).jpg
Tom Ryan in 2024
Born
Thomas V. Ryan

(1969-03-18) March 18, 1969 (age 56)
EducationDartmouth College 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 Skydance Corporation. [1] [2] He oversees the company's global direct-to-consumer division, [2] which includes paid and free streaming through businesses such as Paramount+ and Pluto TV. [2]

Contents

Education

Ryan has an AB from Dartmouth College and an MBA from INSEAD in France. [3] [4] [5]

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, [3] [4] that same year he became an advisor for EMusic. Following this, in 2002, he was a Mobile Music Consultant with Virgin Mobile USA. [6] [5] From 2004-2007, Ryan was the Senior vice-president of Digital Strategy at EMI Music. [4] [7] [3] 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. [3] [8]

Pluto TV

In 2013, Ryan co-founded Pluto TV, [9] [6] making him one of the first to bring Free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) services to the market. [2] [1] It was launched in 2014. In 2019, he sold the company to Paramount (at the time ViacomCBS) for $340 million, [1] [2] and stayed on as CEO. [10] By 2021, Pluto TV had over $1 billion in annual revenue. [11]

Paramount Global Streaming

In October 2020, Tom Ryan was named President and CEO of Streaming at Paramount Global (formerly known as ViacomCBS Streaming). [12] In 2024, under his leadership, the direct-to-consumer segment had its first profitable quarter since the launch of Paramount+ in March 2021. [13] [14]

Board roles

Ryan is the current Chairman of the board of Struck Studio. [15] 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 [16] and Fund Advisor of SignalFire since 2017. He was previously on the board of Society6, which was acquired by Leaf Group in 2013 [17] from 2010-2013 and Trunk Club [5] from 2011-2014. He was an angel investor in both Smule and Trunk Club. [9]

Recognition

In 2021, he was recognized as the Fastest Growing Brand in America for Paramount. [18] In 2022, Ryan received the NATPE's inaugural "Award for Executive Leadership in Global Streaming". [19] [20] And was also a Variety500 Honoree from Variety. [21] In 2023, Stream TV awarded Ryan "CEO of the Year" & awarded Pluto TV "Streaming Platform of the Year"; [22] [23] that same year Pluto TV received a Webby Award for the "People's Voice Winner" for Best Streaming Service. [24] 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. [25] That same year he was named on both the LA500 [2] and FAST30 [26] lists.

Patent

Issued on February 9, 2016 on Methods and Systems for Generating and Providing Program Guides and Content. [27]

Personal life

Ryan lives in Los Angeles, California with his wife and three children. [4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Blancaflor, Saleah (April 21, 2024). "Paramount Streaming's CEO launched Pluto TV 10 years ago. Here's what he thinks about the future of free streaming". Fast Company. Retrieved July 11, 2024.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 LABJ (2024-06-03). "LA500 2024: Tom Ryan". Los Angeles Business Journal. Retrieved 2024-07-11.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "A Great Example of Innovation From Tom Ryan, CEO Threadless | Built in Chicago". Built In. Retrieved 2024-07-11.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Tom Ryan | Irish America". 2016-12-02. Retrieved 2024-07-11.
  5. 1 2 3 "Tom Ryan". Los Angeles Business Journal. 19 May 2019.
  6. 1 2 Spangler, Todd (2014-03-31). "Pluto.TV Launches 'Live' Web-Video Service with Backing from UTA's Jeremy Zimmer, Terry Semel". Variety. Retrieved 2024-07-11.
  7. Robinson, Keela (2021-05-19). "Variety's Inaugural Silicon Valleywood Impact Report". Variety. Retrieved 2024-07-12.
  8. Jarvey, Natalie (2021-03-08). "Viacom CBS Streaming Exec on How to Navigate Massive Paramount+ Content Library". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2024-07-12.
  9. 1 2 Rodriguez, Ashley (2019-09-25). "The 16 power players leading the rise of free ad-supported streaming services in 2019". Business Insider. Retrieved 2024-07-12.
  10. Spangler, Todd (2024-04-01). "Paramount Streaming CEO Tom Ryan on Pluto TV Turning 10, What's Next for Paramount+ and More: Streaming Biz Is 'Underestimated by the Market'". Variety. Retrieved 2024-07-12.
  11. Ifeanyi, KC. "How Paramount+ became a top contender in the streaming wars". Fast Company. Retrieved 12 August 2024.
  12. Spangler, Todd (2020-10-20). "ViacomCBS Streaming Shake-Up: Pluto TV's Tom Ryan to Head New Global Division, Marc DeBevoise Steps Down". Variety. Retrieved 2024-07-12.
  13. Alexander, Julia (2021-02-24). "Everything to know about Paramount Plus, ViacomCBS's new version of CBS All Access". The Verge. Retrieved 2024-07-12.
  14. "Paramount reports first quarter of streaming profits, plans 15% layoff and takes $6 billion charge on cable business". Yahoo Finance. 2024-08-09. Retrieved 2024-08-26.
  15. "Team". Struck Capital. Retrieved 2024-07-25.
  16. Lunden, Ingrid (2015-06-03). "New London VC Firm Felix Capital Launches With $120M Fund And Team Of Elite Advisors". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2024-09-28.
  17. Peter Caranicas, Todd Longwell, Robert Marich (May 19, 2021). "Variety's Inaugural Silicon Valleywood Impact Report". Variety. Retrieved July 15, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  18. "Ranking: Fastest Growing Brands 2021". Morning Consult. Retrieved 2024-10-04.
  19. Gruenwedel, Erik (2022-10-04). "Paramount Global's Tom Ryan Given Inaugural NATPE Award for Leadership in Global Streaming". Media Play News. Retrieved 2024-08-15.
  20. Burton, Carson (2022-08-11). "Paramount's Tom Ryan to Receive NATPE's Inaugural Leadership in Global Streaming Award". Variety. Retrieved 2024-08-15.
  21. Eriksen, Kaare (2017-04-06). "Tom Ryan". Variety. Retrieved 2024-09-23.
  22. "Winners | StreamTV Show". www.streamtvshow.com. Retrieved 2024-08-26.
  23. LLC, Questex (2023-06-13). "Questex Announces the 2023 StreamTV Awards Winners". GlobeNewswire News Room (Press release). Retrieved 2024-08-26.
  24. "NEW Webby Gallery + Index". NEW Webby Gallery + Index. Retrieved 2024-10-22.
  25. Team, The Deadline (2024-02-21). "NATAS Reveals Technology & Engineering Emmy Award Recipients". Deadline. Retrieved 2024-09-13.
  26. "FAST30 2024: The Movers and Shakers in the Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV Arena". Media Play News. May 27, 2024. Retrieved September 13, 2024.
  27. "Unified Patents - Analytics Portal". portal.unifiedpatents.com. Retrieved 2024-09-13.