Dr. Jonathan Taplin

Biography

Jonathan Taplin specializes in international communication management and digital media entertainment. He began his career in entertainment in 1969 as a tour manager for the Bob Dylan Band and, in 1973, produced the feature film 'Mean Streets,' which was selected for the Cannes Film Festival. Between 1974 and 1996, he produced 26 hours of television documentaries, including 'Cadillac Desert' for PBS, and 12 feature films, including 'Waltz' and 'End of the World.' His films have been nominated for Oscar and Golden Globe awards and have been showcased at the Cannes Film Festival. In 1984, he served as an investment advisor to Bass Brothers during their successful attempt to save Walt Disney Studios from a corporate raid. His experience led him to Merrill Lynch, where he was vice president of media mergers and acquisitions, helping to reshape the media landscape through leveraged buyout transactions involving Viacom. Taplin is the founder of Intertainer, a pioneering video-on-demand company in cable and broadband Internet markets, and holds patents in video-on-demand technologies. He was appointed by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in December 2006 to the California Broadband Taskforce. A graduate of Princeton University, he is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and sits on the advisory board of the Democracy Collaborative at the University of Maryland.

Research Interests