Aryeh Bourkoff

Aryeh B. Bourkoff (born December 17, 1972) is an American business person, adviser and philanthropist, based in New York. He is currently UBS’s Vice Chairman and Head of Investment Banking, and has been with UBS since 1999. In this role, Bourkoff oversees investment banking for all industry sectors in the Americas for one of the largest banks in the world.

Bourkoff continues to head UBS’s global telecom, media, and technology investment banking practice. His clients include corporations as well as private equity, hedge fund, and institutional investors. He has strong relations with on-air talent, as well as management, studio executives, talent agents, financial executives, and entrepreneurs.^[1]

Business career

Bourkoff led UBS’s role in some of their media deals including Comcast’s $37.5 billion purchase of NBCUniversal, the $21 billion workout of Charter Communications, Access Industries $3.3 billion acquisition of Warner Music Group Corp., the $3 billion sale of Insight Communications to Time Warner Cable, Electronic Arts acquisition of PopCap Games valued at a total of $1.3 billion, the $5.3 billion sale of Germany’s Unity Media to Liberty Global and the $1.4 billion sale of Bresnan Communications to Cablevision Systems.

Other notable deals include Liberty Media Corp.’s $530 million, 40% acquisition of Sirius XM Satellite Radio and the $500 million deal in which NBCUniversal, CBS Corp. and Robert Redford sold the Sundance Channel to Cablevision Systems. In November 2011, Bourkoff advised Sony Corp. of America in its role as EMI’s music publishing division was sold for $2.2 billion to a consortium of investors led by Sony.^[2]

In March 2011, according to an article in the New York Post, the NFL Players Association, led by executive director DeMaurice Smith utilized Bourkoff to examine its existing business models and to explore opportunities in emerging areas, including social media, such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Bourkoff runs the annual UBS Global Media and Communications Conference, now in its 39th year.^[3][4][5] It attracts companies such as Time Warner, Comcast, News Corp., Yahoo, Bloomberg, WPP, Sony, Thomson Reuters, CBS, and DirecTV. Each year, major media executives are interviewed, including Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman,^[6] Time Warner Chairman and CEO Jeff Bewkes^[7] and Comcast Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts.^[8]

Achievements

In 2010, Bourkoff was named to Fortune Magazine's "40 under 40"^[9] list of global business leaders. In 2007, Multichannel News placed Bourkoff on its “40 Under 40”^[10] list of media executives. At 26 years old, he was named by Institutional Investor as the best media research analyst in the nation, a distinction he kept for seven consecutive years.

He was awarded “Best on the Street” among stock pickers in the Broadcasting and Entertainment category by The Wall Street Journal in 2006.

The Deal magazine described Bourkoff in a June 10, 2011 profile as an individual who “has already made a name for himself with his great deal-making abilities (who has) shown a penchant for poaching top talent to the technology and media group.”

Bourkoff is a frequent guest on CNBC and has discussed topics including technology and the media, companies best poised to capitalize on the uptick in advertising, equity v. debt, Netflix, Facebook, and consolidation between technology and content companies.^[11][12][13]

Background

Now a member of the UBS Investment Banking Executive Committee,^[14] Bourkoff began his career as an equity and credit analyst and moved from UBS’s research department to its investment banking department in 2007. He was named joint global head of media and communications banking two years later.

The Deal^[15] described how Bourkoff used “potentially devastating departure of 50 bankers to his advantage. He felt UBS was in need of change in any event, and so capitalized on the situation by both recruiting high-level bankers and reshaping the culture of UBS through demonstrating loyalty to existing UBS employees. He states that ‘[p]reviously, you could say that we were a bank of talented bankers, but out for ourselves, not each other.’

Prior to joining UBS in 1999, Bourkoff was the senior cable and telecommunications high yield research analyst at CIBC World Markets Corp.

Formerly, he was also a member of the High Yield Research group at Smith Barney. He attended the University of California, San Diego based in La Jolla, Calif. for his undergraduate education.

Philanthropy

Bourkoff serves as co-chair of the media and entertainment division of the UJA Federation of New York and sits on the board of the American division of Hebrew University among others. He was honored in January 2011 by the Foundation for Fighting Blindness and now serves as one of its Trustees.

Documentary Film Career

Bourkoff also produced the documentary film “The Last Jews of Libya,” directed by his mother Vivienne Roumani-Denn, which details the final decades of Libya’s ancient Sephardic Jewish community through the story of the Roumani family. Narrated by Isabella Rossellini, the 50-minute film was screened at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival and also aired on the Sundance Channel.

Personal life

Bourkoff was born in Palo Alto, Calif., grew up in Baltimore, MD., and currently lives in New York City with his wife and four children.

References

1. ^ [1], The New York Times.
2. ^ [2], The New York Post.
3. ^ [3], The Hollywood Reporter.
4. ^ [4], The Hollywood Reporter.
5. ^ [5], The Hollywood Reporter.
6. ^ [6], The Hollywood Reporter.
7. ^ [7], The Hollywood Reporter.
8. ^ [8], The Hollywood Reporter.
9. ^ [9], Fortune Magazine 40 Under 40: Aryeh Bourkoff.
10. ^ [10], Multichannel News 40 Under 40.
11. ^ [11], CNBC: Private Equity Payoff. Retrieved July 11, 2011.
12. ^ [12], CNBC: Content or Distribution? Retrieved July 11, 2011.
13. ^ [13], CNBC: Can Corporate Mergers Help Save the Weak US Economy? Retrieved July 12, 2011.
14. ^ [14], Reuters: DEALTALK-UBS' Bourkoff tasked with reversing talent bleed. Retrieved May 6, 2011.
15. ^ [15], The Deal: Rebuild and Reboot. Retrieved June 10, 2011.

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Name	Bourkoff, Aryeh
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Date of birth	December 17, 1972
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