Haim Saban Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Haim Saban, an entrepreneur and global investor with more than four decades of experience building successful media and telecommunication businesses, is Chairman and CEO of Saban Capital LLC, a private Los Angeles-based global investment firm that spans operations in real estate, venture capital, public equity and private equity.
A native of Alexandria, Egypt, Saban immigrated at the age of 12 to Israel, attending agricultural school and serving in the Israeli Defense Forces. In Israel, Saban built the country’s premier tour promotion business. After the Yom Kippur War, Saban relocated in 1975 to France, where he started a successful independent record company that sold more than 18-million records in eight years.
In 1983, Saban moved to Los Angeles where he built a chain of recording studios that rapidly became the top supplier of music for television programs. By 1988, Saban ventured into television production, forming Saban Entertainment, an international production, distribution and merchandising company that produced X-Men™ and additional shows and products based on Marvel Comics characters. Saban created and produced the “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” ™ that he introduced to the U.S.in 1993 , which remains a pop culture phenomenon to this day 30 years later.
In partnership with the News Corp. and Rupert Murdoch, Saban co-founded Fox Family Worldwide in 1995, creating a global television, broadcasting, production, distribution and merchandising company in the kids and family spaces. In 2001, Walt Disney Co. acquired Fox Family for an enterprise value of $5.2 billion.
In 2001, Saban founded Saban Capital Group (SCG) and led an investor group in 2003 to buy a controlling stake in ProSiebenSat.1 Media, Germany’s largest television broadcaster. He served as Chairman of its Supervisory Board and in 2007 led the sale of the controlling stake to private equity firms, KKR and Permira at a $7.5 billion valuation.
In 2005, SCG and Apax Partners acquired, from the Israeli government, a controlling stake in Bezeq, Israel’s largest telecom company, which they sold to a local group five years later.
Mr. Saban was chairman of Univision Communications, the leading US Spanish-language media company in the U.S between 2005-2020. Saban has also served on the Boards of DirectTV and TF1 (France’s leading television broadcaster). Saban currently serves as a Board member of Universal Music Group, the world’s leading music company listed on the Amsterdam stock exchange.
Expanding outside of media in 2009, SCG launched Saban Real Estate, acquiring commercial US real estate assets in a variety of verticals.
Saban Brands was launched in 2010 to purchase and manage media consumer brands. Commencing in 2018, SCG sold the portfolio of brands to Hasbro and other buyers.
SCG continues to make minority and controlling investments in early stage and later stage private and public companies. Among SCG portfolio companies is Saban Films, a leading independent acquiror and global distributor of feature films.
Saban also has a global venture capital arm, Saban Ventures, formed in 2015 dedicated to investing in early stage and growth equity opportunities.
Over the years, SCG has worked in partnership with leading private equity and strategic companies across a wide range of transactions in excess of $20B of enterprise values.
Saban and his wife Cheryl started the Saban Family Foundation in 1999, which supports medical, children’s and education programs across the U.S. and Israel. The Saban family has been featured on BusinessWeek’s list of the 50 most generous U.S. philanthropists and were recognized as Philanthropists of the Year by The Hollywood Reporter.