John Pleasants is a high-tech internet executive that has consistently led public and private companies to $ billions in market capitalization gains over the past 15 years. As a CEO and President, Pleasants has built and run start-ups as well as divisions of worldwide media and Internet conglomerates. In these consumer-facing businesses, some with significant enterprise customers and strategies, he has scaled business models in ecommerce transactions, subscriptions, advertising, content / service purchases and in-app transactions. Pleasants has overseen the acquisitions, mergers and integrations of 34 companies totaling ~$1.5 billion across all forms of gaming, global live event ticketing, online dating, local services and consumer-driven healthcare.
EVP, Media Solutions @ The Media Solutions Team leads and / or contributes to wide range of emerging businesses, platforms and services including North American media partner and developer relations, convergence platforms, customer support and loyalty platforms, streaming music services, Samsung Kids, virtual reality platform and content, mobile payment and iOT services, Chef Collection media, etc. Group comprised primarily of general managers, product leads, engineers, designers, operations managers and business development and strategy execs. Businesses built in support of North American P&L first with global adoption and expansion following. From May 2014 to Present (1 year 8 months) Co-President, Disney Interactive Media Group @ • Managed Disney Games and mobile services businesses, achieving first ever divisional multi-quarter profitability (>$70M in reported operating income in 2H 2013) and strong trajectory (i.e., $116M profit for FY '14) from perennial $100'sM of losses previously.
• Oversaw team development and launch of Disney Infinity: A Disney first-ever multi-franchise, cross-platform, vertically integrated toy and gaming ecosystem that quickly achieved top 10 in the Industry (NPD sales), material consumer and critical acclaim. Infinity is designed for many years of extendability & continued Industry dominance.
• Drove Disney mobile gaming: Led Disney Interactive teams to be #2 global mobile games publisher on iOS (in Industry reported downloads) as of October 2013. Seven #1 hits and 32 Top 25 hits. Migrated majority of Disney games to mobile platforms and assisted team in securing major distribution partnerships with platform leaders such as Apple, Google Play, Amazon and Microsoft. Led the building of the Disney Mobile Network ground up, serving nearly100M monthly avg. users.
• Oversaw team creation and execution of two top performing, award winning franchises on Facebook: Disney’s Gardens of Time and Marvel’s Avengers Alliance. Oversaw team re-architecting of Club Penguin (~6-7M monthly average users) to go mobile.
• Worked with Japan Interactive teams to extend Disney mobile services on Docomo and game development partnerships with leaders such as DeNA (e.g., Marvel War of Heroes - Top 10 grossing iOS game) and Gree.
• Created Asia-focused games business unit - acquired Studio EX in Seoul and partnered with leading Korean and Chinese developers and publishers. Launch first western game IP on Kakao Talk (i.e., Marvel Run, Jump Smash).
• Licensing / OEM: Helped drive significant long term partnerships with leading developers and platform operators.
• Created central operating teams in Publishing, Technology & Product, and Operations to scale across all Disney Interactive From August 2010 to December 2013 (3 years 5 months) CEO @ Social Gaming company: Grew from MySpace centric application company to a leading flash based, Facebook platform gaming company: tripled revenues, raised $80MM in venture capital, acquired and integrated 7 gaming companies, built out common game systems, business intelligence and live service operations capabilities across 12 studios, won 2010 social game of the year award for Social City.
Playdom acquired by The Walt Disney Company in September 2010. From July 2009 to August 2010 (1 year 2 months) President of Global Publishing, Chief Operating Officer @ • Oversaw global gaming operations of leading, $4B games Publisher. Managed teams running sales, marketing and distribution services across all platforms and titles.
• Managed teams driving global mobile business and helped drive the migration to, and scaling of, EA’s smartphone business to top global publisher status (reported revenues of ~$190M for FY09).
• Managed POGO, the largest adult (female-oriented), subscription based casual gaming portal. Helped teams drive re-tooling of service for stronger social networking features.
• Managed central technology teams, websites and games service platforms for user identification, service delivery and business intelligence. Spearheaded programming to drive downloadable content and games as a service via connected console, mobile and the web to increase user lifetime value.
• Oversaw EA Cop Dev and led push into social / mobile gaming. Helped drive digital and live service Asia gaming efforts as top priorities for core relevant franchises. From March 2008 to July 2009 (1 year 5 months) CEO @ • Launched three core businesses in January 2007: a) a one-stop-shop health portal b) a premium membership for personalized assistance c) a coverage marketplace via acquisition Extend Benefits for individual insurance policies.
• Built D.C. based team from ground up to 280 in less than one year, executed 50 partner deals.
• Helped raise major capital round from Industry leaders: including United Health Group (NYSE: UNH).
• Company merged with Everyday Health in 2008. From 2005 to 2007 (2 years) CEO @ NASDAQ: TMCS.
Ticketmaster, Match.com, Evite, Reserve America, Cityseach, Entertainment Publishing, Active.com (BoD), other
• Led Ticketmaster, the world’s largest ticketing company, with 2005 gross transactions of ~$6B, net revenues of ~$1B, EBITA of >$225M. Company had >2,000 full-time and 2,000 part-time employees operating on 4 continents.
• Grew ticketing revenue at 13% CAGR and EBITA at 25% over five years as CEO.
• Led Ticketmaster as a public parent company (NASDAQ: TMCS) from 2001 through 2003, with operating units Ticketmaster, Match.com, Citysearch, Evite, Reserve America and Entertainment Publishing, Inc. During tenure as CEO, exceeded Wall Street expectations in all 14 quarters - market capitalization of company climbed from under $1.8B to over $4.0B during this time.
• Helped teams increase Internet channel from From 1999 to 2005 (6 years) President, Information and Serives @ Ticketmaster, Citysearch, Match.com, Evite, Reserve America, Active.com (BoD), other
(See above) From 2002 to 2003 (1 year) General Manager / Executive Vice President @ From 1996 to 1999 (3 years) Brand manager @ Doritos, Cheetos, New Products From 1993 to 1996 (3 years)
MBA @ Harvard Business School From 1991 to 1993 Bachelor of Arts (BA) @ Yale University From 1983 to 1987 St. Paul's School From 1980 to 1983 John Pleasants is skilled in: Leadership, Entertainment, Management, Publishing, Digital Media, Online Advertising, Strategic Partnerships, Start-ups, Product Management, User Experience, E-commerce, Social Media, Digital Strategy, Online Marketing, Digital Marketing