Michael Lynton Biography and Net Worth

Michael Lynton is the chairman of the board for Snap, Inc., the parent company of Snapchat.

Lynton began serving on Snap’s board of directors in 2013, becoming chairman in 2016. 

He was previously the CEO of Sony Entertainment, Inc. and Sony Corporation of America from 2012 to 2017 where he led the company's global entertainment business including Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, and Sony Music Entertainment. Lynton also held the roles of chairman and CEO for Sony Pictures Entertainment starting in 2004. 

The executive has directed Sony Pictures Entertainment’s motion picture, television, and digital content production and distribution with a focus on worldwide growth, financial discipline, and cutting edge innovation and technological change. Under Lynton’s leadership, Sony Pictures has remained one of the motion picture and television industries’ most successful studios both financially and critically. 

With Lynton at the helm, the studio has released blockbuster motion picture franchises such as “James Bond,” “The Amazing Spider-Man,” “The Smurfs,” “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” and “Grown-Ups,” as well as Best Picture nominees: “Moneyball,” “American Hustle,” “Zero Dark Thirty,” “The Social Network,” and “Captain Phillips.”

Sony Pictures Television creates top-rated and critically acclaimed programs in nearly every television category including scripted series: “Breaking Bad,” “The Blacklist,” and “Justified;” reality series: “The Sing-Off,” “Re-Modeled,” and “Shark Tank;” game shows: “Jeopardy!” and “Wheel of Fortune;” daytime dramas: “The Young and the Restless” and “Days of Our Lives;” and one of the most popular syndicated programs in America, “The Dr. Oz Show.” 

Lynton also led Sony’s global music efforts, including the second-largest recorded music company in the world, Sony Music Entertainment, and the largest global music publishing company, Sony/ATV Music Publishing. Sony’s 21 record labels (including RCA, Epic Records and Columbia Records) boast over 1,500 artists such as Michael Jackson, Beyoncé, Paul Simon, and Justin Timberlake. 

Beginning in 2000, Lynton served as CEO of Time Warner’s AOL Europe, president of Time Warner International, and president of AOL International. From 1996 to 2000, he served as chairman and CEO for Pearson, helping the Penguin brand expand into music and the internet, as well as acquire Putnam, Inc. In 1987, Lynton started Disney Publishing with The Walt Disney Company, where he later served as president of Disney’s Hollywood Pictures. Lynton began his career at Credit Suisse First Boston in 1982.

In addition to Snap, the entertainment executive has served on the boards of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Rand Corporation, the Tate, Warner Music Group Corp., The Boston Beer Company, Pandora Media, Inc., the USC School of Cinematic Arts, the American Film Institute, IEX, Ares Management, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Pearson, and Schrodinger, LLC. Lynton is also a member of the Harvard Board of Overseers, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the UK’s Film Policy Review group. 

Lynton holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.A. in history and literature from Harvard University. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Elizabeth, and their three daughters.