MICHAEL JAY SOLOMON

For forty years, Michael Jay Solomon has been the largest distributor of American television content worldwide, pioneering the international marketplace for the American television industry and running major media companies.

Aged eighteen, he began his career loading films onto trucks for United Artists while attending New York University at night. In 1960, when he was 21, UA sent him to Panama to open the territory for American films in Central America. He next moved to Colombia, thereafter to Peru, as Manager of Peru and Bolivia when he was 24, where he lived for two years.

He was then hired by MCA/Universal, to open their Latin American television division, becoming a Vice President at age thirty. He lived in Mexico City and Brazil. He then moved back to New York, where he was given international responsibilities and traveled the world. He introduced American-produced content to countries such as China, Russia, India, etc. He spent fourteen years with MCA.

In 1978 he founded Telepictures Corporation, and as Chairman and CEO took it public after just fourteen months, raising their shares from $3 to $32 within two years. Starting with the “People’s Court” TV series, they became the biggest U.S. syndicator, and one of the largest international television distribution companies.

Seven years later, when Telepictures merged with Lorimar, forming Lorimar Telepictures Corp., Solomon became President and Member of the Board of Directors. They produced such series as Dallas, Falcon Crest and Knots Landing.

When Lorimar Telepictures was acquired by Warner Bros., he became President of Warner Bros. International Television, heading up the company’s sales and marketing to television, cable and satellite companies internationally, to become the largest distributor of TV programming worldwide.

Following five years at Warner Bros. where he increased international television revenues by more than 400 percent, he launched his own television communications company, Solomon Entertainment Enterprises, while simultaneously creating El Camino Entertainment Group, Inc. (now North American Midway), the largest Midway operating company in North America. Four years later, he sold it to a venture capital firm.

He then founded Truli Media Group in 2010, a digital platform and aggregator of content, focusing on family and faith, and sold it in 2018 to Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment.

At the same time, he created DCI (Digital Content International) to acquire and re-license content to all media outlets worldwide.

He is a Founder and Chairman of INVOLVY, a European-based advisory firm, contributing its professional skills to create international corporate growth and sustainability through innovation and technology. They are currently serving many clients.

Solomon is a Member of the Executive Committee of Working Nation, a U.S. nonprofit media content company, working to close the threat of the growing job skills gap. He also serves on the Boards of the global social impact project GIVE NATION, and THE GENIUS INSTITUTE, a technology platform dedicated to personal and corporate development.

He has joined the Board of Advisors of a new venture, Back To Space. The goal of the company is to inspire and enhance an interest in science, engineering and space, by constructing a high-tech lunar landscape experience facility in Texas. This facility will have the ability to simulate riding in a rocket, landing on the moon and experiencing a walk on the moon’s surface.

Solomon received an Honorary Doctor of Law degree from Emerson College in 1991, and is a member of their Board of Advisors. He has also served on the Board of Overseers at NYU’s Stern School of Business for thirty-three years. He is a member of the international honor society, Beta Gama Sigma.

He co-founded and is Chairman of the Careyes Clinic in Jalisco, Mexico, serving four thousand people annually. In addition, he has for thirty years served on the board of The Jeffrey Modell Foundation.